Showing posts with label Murphy Anderson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Murphy Anderson. Show all posts

Saturday, April 4, 2026

Space Hero Saturdays MEN INTO SPACE "Space Probe"

Just as the #Artemis Crew are Currently "Taking the Jalopy Out for a Test Drive"...

...the astronauts who will soon travel to the Moon in this amazingly-realistic TV series from the early days of the Space Race needed to see how their ship will handle in space and "work out the bugs" before heading all the way to a lunar landing!








Adapted by writer Gaylord DuBois and illustrator Murphy Anderson from the episode's screenplay by Arthur Weiss, you may note there are some differences between the comic and the episode as aired, as you'll see when you click HERE to open a new window to see the actual episode!
That's because, with the long lead-time to produce a comic (about 3 months from script and art to production to printing), DuBois and Anderson had to work from an early draft of the script!
Trivia: Angie Dickenson played Col. McCauley's wife Mary in this episode, but Joyce Taylor portrayed Mary in the other eight episodes the semi-regular character appeared in!
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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Thursday, April 2, 2026

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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Saturday, February 14, 2026

Space Hero Saturdays/Valentine's Day AMAZING ADVENTURES "Asteroid Witch"

In Space, No One Can Hear You Smooch!

Art by Clinton Spooner
Comic book romance stories are geared towards tween/teen/young adult womwn which make you wonder what the 'tween/teen/young adult male attitude on romance is.
This never-reprinted story from Ziff-Davis' Amazing Adventures #1 (1950) offers that viewpoint.
And what have we learned today?
Women, alien or not, are scheming little trollops, plotting to control helpless men, usually by tricking them into marriage.
No wonder there's so much misogyny in America...
While the writer for this story is unknown (but believed to be editor Jerry [Superman] Siegel), the art is by Murphy Anderson, who did a lot of work for Ziff-Davis Comics before moving on to illustrate the Buck Rogers newspaper strip!
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Weird Romance
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Thursday, November 20, 2025

Reading Room WEIRD THRILLERS "Cycle of Time!"

 Here's a sci-fi triple-treat: time travel, aliens, and dinosaurs!

This kool tale appeared in the HTF Ziff-Davis' anthology Weird Thrillers #2 (1951)!
Illustrated by Murphy Anderson, who was doing quite a bit of work for Z-D including the second issue of Space Busters and both issues of Lars of Mars as well as various one-shots like this.
We don't know who wrote this tale, but it might be series editor Jerry (Superman) Siegel.
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Vol 3
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Saturday, October 11, 2025

Spooky Space Hero Saturdays WEIRD THRILLERS "SandFlower of Venus"

Alien Worlds May Have Potentially-Lethal Flora and Fauna...
...but every Space Hero knows the most dangerous creature in the Universe is...Man!
I take it back.
The most dangerous creature in the Universe is Woman!
This never-reprinted tale from Ziff-Davis' Weird Thrillers #1 (1951) was probably illustrated by a round-robin of Dan & Sy Barry, Murphy Anderson, and Frank Giacoia.
The writer is unknown.
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Sunday, September 7, 2025

Sunday Sports Special LARS OF MARS "Crucial Game"

Even a Martian pretending to be a TV actor playing a Martian reveres the Great American Pastime...

...and won't allow anybody to sully or demean the sport's image...even if it means cheating to do so!

The ends justify the means even if it involves alien manipulation of peoples' minds, eh?
Great lesson for kids!
Written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, illustrated by noted DC Comics artist Murphy Anderson, this tale appeared in Ziff-Davis' Lars of Mars #11 (1951), the second (and last issue) of the series!
Considering the moral lessons the series apparently taught, perhaps it was for the best...
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Friday, July 11, 2025

Friday Fun SUPERMAN GOES PLOP!

From DC's Plop! #5 (1974)...

Easily one of the funniest gags about Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane ever told!

Though the writer of this short is unknown, the art is by long-time DC artist Murphy Anderson!
Trivia: The piece was actually conceived and illustrated as a one-pager, as shown in the original art below!

Note that the original panel six, showing Clark climbing back through the office window is omitted in the final version!
Blue pencil/marker didn't show up under the cameras that were used to shoot line art as film or photostats, so, while it looks a little tacky, it was common practice to mark corrections/alterations using them directly on original art!
(Nobody in those days was concerned about reselling original art to collectors/fans!)
The feature been reprinted twice since Plop!, but only in digest-sized comics, which muddy a lot of the detailed Sergio Aragones background art!

See Superman the Movie!