Showing posts with label King Comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label King Comics. Show all posts

Saturday, November 12, 2022

Space Hero Saturdays BRICK BRADFORD "Action on Pura"

Meet a "space hero" who travels with a companion in a time machine which also moves through space!
No, not that one!
We're talking about the one who did it a generation before that one...
This never-reprinted short story from King's The Phantom #28 (1967) was by Paul Norris, who was also doing the newspaper strip!
Premiering in 1933, Brick Bradford started out as a high-adventure strip starring a daredevil aircraft pilot who encountered lost civilizations, dinosaurs and other fantastical situations.
In 1935, the strip's resident scientist, Professor Southern, created the "Time Top" which could travel through time and through space!
From then on, the strip was more or less a standard space opera with occasional journeys into the past and future.
Though it never achieved the level of popularity of Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers in the US, there were a couple of spin-offs including a series of Big Little Books and a movie serial starring Kane Richmond, who had also played Spy Smasher and The Shadow on the silver screen!
Though it lost American newspapers from the 1950s onward, the strip remained popular in Europe, Asia and Australia, where it continued until the retirement of the strip's current writer-artist, Paul Norris, in 1987...
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Thursday, August 10, 2017

Reading Room FLASH GORDON "and the Space Pirates" Conclusion

...there's more to the plot, but it's easier for you to just read Part 1 & Part 2 than have me explain it.
BTW, Patch has her silver/white hair and original clothes from Part 1 back, while Flash is in a new uniform!
Sadly, we've never seen the follow-up confrontation.
The tale, illustrated by Gil Kane, appeared in the back of The Phantom #20 (1966) and the writer is unknown.
The storyline wasn't concluded in Flash's King Comics title and neither Patch nor Straker have ever appeared anywhere else.

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Reading Room FLASH GORDON "and the Space Pirates" Part 2

...wow, the opening caption covered the plotline perfectly!
You'll note Flash is wearing a more ornate outfit while Patch's clothes are the same, but mis-colored (as is her hair, which was silver/white in the previous chapter)!
Illustrated by Gil Kane, replacing Wally Wood.
The writer is unknown.
Though Flash had his own comic at this time, this three-parter appeared in the back of The Phantom's title from the same publisher, King Comics.
(All the King Comics books did this, presumably to expose their target audience to other titles they might not otherwise read.)
The particular tale appeared in the back of The Phantom #19 (1966).

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Reading Room FLASH GORDON "and the Space Pirates" Part 1

Ya want space opera?
Now here's SPACE OPERA!
...starring the one-and-only Flash Gordon as rendered by EC Comics legend Wally Wood!
Illustrated by Wally Wood and his studio.
Wood (and writer Harvey Kurtzman) had previously-done the hysterical MAD parody "Flesh Garden" (which you can read HERE), but this is his only "official" Flash Gordon work.
The writer is unknown.
Though Flash had his own comic at this time, this three-parter appeared in the back of The Phantom's title from the same publisher, King Comics.
The particular tale appeared in the back of The Phantom #18 (1966), which was actually the first issue of the series from King Comics.
(They just continued the numbering from the previous publisher, Gold Key!)