Space Force Saturdays SPEED CARTER: SPACEMAN "Slaughter on a Star!"

The 1950s, when heroic astronauts fought for Truth, Justice, and the American Way...

...in outer space, as seen in the second (of three) tales from Speed Carter: SpaceMan #1 (1953)!

Y'know, this series has "video game franchise" written all over it!

Written by Hank Chapman, illustrated by Joe Maneely, who managed to jam what, today, would be a multi-issue 100-page-plus series into only five pages...and make it work!

Support Small Business!

Visit

The Future WAS Fantastic!

Comics Collectibles Store!

Space Force Saturdays SPEED CARTER: SPACEMAN "and the Pirate Planet!"

 The 1950s, when heroic astronauts fought for Truth, Justice, and the American Way in outer space...

...as seen in this premiere tale from Speed Carter: SpaceMan #1 (1953), the series' premiere issue!

Written by Hank Chapman, illustrated by Joe Maneely.
Maneely was Stan Lee's go-to artist during the early 1950s with the ability to handle any and every genre with equal speed and versatility.
Unfortunately, he was killed in a commuter train accident in mid-1958 at the age of 32.
Had he lived, Joe would probably have been one of the creative mainstays, along with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Don Heck in Marvel Comics' ascendancy in the Silver Age.
Speed Carter: Spaceman was Atlas Comics' second try at an ongoing space opera series when a short-lived Space Squadron comic bit the dust after six issues!

You'll see that series' premiere here next week!

Speed fared no better, logging a half-dozen editions before disappearing into the infinite, but we'll be presenting his never-reprinted tales right here!

Support Small Business!

Visit

The Future WAS Fantastic!

Comics Collectibles Store!

Reading Room VENUS COMICS "Last Rocket"

We ran a similarly-named (but totally-different) tale HERE...

...but this is no "Adam & Eve on Future/Past Earth" story like that other one, though it does involve a man and a woman...

BTW, the ships are heading for Saturn, not Jupiter!
(Jupiter's rings weren't discovered until 1979, 30 years after this story was published!)

The Imperial Fleet's recruiters apparently will take anyone (as George Bush's army recruiters did with Bowe Bergdahl after the Coast Guard rejected him), since an entire flight of ships turns traitor at the first word from their commander!
It's also too bad we don't actually get to see the conflict, since artist Joe Maneely was superb at doing sci-fi comics as shown HERE!
The writer for this story from Atlas' Venus Comics #10 (1950) is unknown
BTW, the Next Issue promo was only half-right.
While the main Venus story in #11 was "End of the World", "Slaves of the Sultan" was never published.

Reading Room MENACE "Your Name is Frankenstein"

Besides the new movie I, Frankenstein, there have been numerous updatings of the tale...

...in fact, even the co-creator of the Marvel Universe, Stan Lee, took a shot at the character!

With a script by Lee and moody art by Joe Maneely, this tale from Atlas' Menace #7 (1953) isn't as graphically-grotesque as most of the horror comics of the era, but it was not reprinted until 2005, when the Comics Code Authority was in its' death throes.