Lunar Reading Room: RACE FOR THE MOON "Thing on Sputnik 4"

Now That Aretmis II has Safely Returned...

...let's look at a tale created during early days of space travel, before Man had made it beyond the stratosphere, when we had NO idea of what awaited us "out there", but it was so kool to speculate...

From Harvey's Race for the Moon #2 (1958).
Beautifully-rendered by Jack Kirby and Marvin Stein.
It's both amazing and depressing to see what we hoped to achieve in the (then) near-future

Then to see what we actually did...

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Lunar Reading Room MEN INTO SPACE "Perils of Outer Space" and "What Is on the Moon?"

Before We Actually Launched People into Space...

...the newly-formed NASA was incredibly-concerned about "real-world" problems most sci-fi stories never addressed!

Both pages above written by Gaylord DuBois, illustrated by Murphy Anderson

When you look back on it, it's astonishing how much info we did have when the only tools we were utilizing were ground-based visual telescopes and spectrometers!

The only satellites we (or the Russkies) had at that point were just metal-hulled shells with radio transmitters and radiation detectors (like geiger counters)!

One thing the scientists were adamant about, even then, was first taking the vehicle that would orbit and land on the lunar surface and "field-test" the ship as much as possible before actually landing!

In fact, the surprisingly scientifically-accurate 1959 TV series Men into Space did exactly that in the series' premiere episode, "Space Probe", which was adapted into comic form...

We're running that tale in Space Hero Saturdays this coming Saturday!

Don't Miss It!

Note: We already re-presented the comic adaptation of the show's second episode, "Moon Landing" HERE and HERE at our brother RetroBlog Secret Sanctum of Captain Video, our usual locale for comic book/graphic novel adapatations of movies/TV shows/radio shows!

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Lunar Reading Room CONTACT COMICS "Moon Express"

Before We Actually Put Anybody into Space...
...we had to figure out how we would get them out there!

The hopeful author of this feature from Aviation Press' Contact Comics #12 (1946) believed we'd have a rocket reaching the Moon by 1950!
(In fact, the first rocket, the Russian 'Luna 2', didn't reach the Moon until 1959.)

The writer also believed legendary science fiction writer/editor John W Campbell to be a "uranium expert"!
(Campbell did have a BA in Physics, and, as an editor, pushed his writers to be as scientifically-accurate as possible.)
This 80 year-old never-reprinted story should give you an idea of how the concept of reaching somewhere outside of our atmosphere has captivated humans for centuries, and returning there a half-century later can still grab our attention!

Lunar Reading Room FOUR COLOR COMICS "Maybes About the Moon"

As the Artemis II Moon Shot is Postponed Until April...

...we're presenting a never-reprinted feature from the days before we had even landed on the moon the first time!

This never-reprinted short from Dell's Four Color Comics #1253 (aka Space Man #1) appeared in 1962, just as our Mercury space program was getting under way, so it's a lot of speculation.

Illustrated by Jack Sparling, but the writer is unknown.

BTW, even though it appeared in Four Color Comics, it's in black and white because it appeared on the inside back cover.

The inside covers of comics used to be printed with only one color, black, instead of the four colors CYAN, YELLOW, MAGENTA, and BLACK (CYMK), that make up all the colors in standard comic printing, as a cost-saving measure!

Lunar Reading Room PLANET COMICS "Life on Other Worlds: A Trip to the Moon"

 Pre-Sputnik/Space Race Comics About the Moon were Really Wild...

...and boy, could they be talky!

(I wonder if the letterer could've charge by the word!)

This chapter of Fiction House's Planet Comics' ongoing feature "Life on Other Worlds" appeared in #59 (1949) and, unlike other entries, was never-reprinted later in the comic's run!
The writer is unknown and the artist (who signed "Bay" on the art) also did so on two other Fiction House assignments, but appears nowhere else in published comics.

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Lunar Reading Room RACE FOR THE MOON "First Man on the Moon"

This Comic Was Published in 1958...

...but the date established for the events of this tale (which obviously shows technology beyond what was available at the time) is also 1958!

Was this Bob Powell-illustrated story part of the unpublished inventory for Harvey's cancelled early 1950s horror comics line?

That would explain the 1958 dateline, which would've been five years or more in the future!

In fact, the only material in the entire book that had been done specifically for Harvey's Race for the Moon #1 (1958) was the cover by editor Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, and Marvin Stein...

...which showed spacecraft then in development, and the intro page, also illustrated by Powell, which showed the Russkie Sputnik satellite, which had only recently been launched!

The rest of the issue consists of reprints from Harvey's early 1950s horror comics, re-edited to conform to the Comics Code Authority and one other previously-unpublished story, clearly set in the future, and also illustrated by Powell as seen HERE!
The two later Race for the Moon issues featured all-new material, mostly set in the near-future like the tale shown HERE.

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Lunar Reading Room RACE FOR THE MOON "Saucer Man"

From the era when actual space travel was brand new...

 ...and flying saucers were probably real, here's a tale from Harvey's Race for the Moon #3 (1958).

Pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Al Williamson, an absolutely magnificent combo, rivaling Kirby's pairings with Wally Wood and Joe Sinnott!

Science fiction was in a state of flux as real-world science began catching up with our imaginations.

Instead of far-future sagas with warp-drive ships, tales of "the day after tomorrow", when we would make our first landings on the Moon and Mars came into vogue.

That didn't mean that visitors from beyond our Solar System were left out, but the technology we used to respond to them (friendly or not) was much closer to "present-day" (1950s) tech than ray-guns and photon drives.

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Lunar Reading Room / Tales Twice Told STRANGE GALAXY "Moon is Red"

In the late 1960s-early 1970s, numerous b/w comic magazines popped up...

...to publish risque older material the Comics Code Authority banned from color comic books from the mid-1950s onward!

Despite being drawn in 1970, this tale from Eerie Publications' Strange Galaxy #V1N8 (1971) has the feel of a 1950s tale, which isn't surprising since Eerie both reprinted stories from defunct publishers when they could find photostats/printing film or re-illustrated stories using old scripts nearly verbatim when they couldn't.
In fact, this story's script is adapted from a tale in Avon's Strange Worlds #4 (1951) called "A Nation is Born", which we'll re-present Thursday so you can compare them!
BTW, this issue, despite being #8, was actually the first issue under that title.
What it was before then is unknown, since the publisher did numerous titles in various categories including astrology, romance, crime, etc.

"Oswal" was the pen-name of Osvaldo Walter Viola, an Argentinean writer/artist who began his career in the early 1960s creating Argentine's first super-hero, Sónoman.

His only American comics work was for Eerie Publications' titles.

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Lunar Reading Room ADVENTURES INTO MYSTERY "Dark Side of the Moon!"

The Upcoming Artemis Moon Flight is Restoring a Long-Lost Excitement and "Sense of Wonder"...

...exemplified by this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Adventures into Mystery #1 (1956)!

Remember, this was even before Sputnik was launched, so we truly had no idea of what was out there beyond what Earth-based telescopes had revealed!

Bob Powell turns in his usual superbly-rendered artwork with distinctive individualistic characters and detailed settings and textures.

The writer is unknown.

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Lunar Reading Room WEIRD MEN'S ADVENTURES "I Walked on the Moon"

 In the early 1950s, EC Comics set the pace for other companies...

...as this hybrid sci-fi/horror tale from Atlas' Men's Adventures #26 (1954) clearly demonstrates!

You'll note the post's header reads Weird Men's Adventures, but I mentioned earlier the book was  just Men's Adventures.

It's not a typo.

The indicia title was Men's Adventures, and from 1-20 it featured war and high adventure tales.

But, with #21, it became a horror title and "Weird" was added in a graphic burst to the logo (but not the indicia).

Six issues later, the brief revival of the Golden Age Human Torch and Toro took over the book for two issues before it was cancelled.

Though the writer for this tale from is unknown, the artist (doing a credible Wally Wood imitation) is Gene Colan!

Trivia: When the story was reprinted in Marvel's Weird Wonder Tales #17 (1976), it was retitled and the splash panel was rewritten (including removing the "Weird Men's Adventure" blurb)...

Considering that, in 1976, it was over five years since the first Moon landing, I'm not certain why the editor made the change...

BTW, note the "originally-presented" caption references the wrong issue!
It's #26 not #24!

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