Reading Room NORGE BENSON "Ghoulish Gooleys"

Norge Benson was "meta" long before the phrase was even coined!

Note the references to Planet Comics or the fact they're in a comic on the second page!

More Norge Benson nuttiness TOMORROW!

Yeah, Norge definitely wasn't the typical square-jawed, all-American space hero, as this tale from Fiction House's Planet Stories #17 (1942) proves!

Artist Al Walker was one of the few creatives to spend his entire comic book career at only one company, Fiction House!

We'll go into his other artistic endeavors tomorrow!

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Planet Comics
Volume 4

The Return of Norge Benson and the Penguins of Pluto!

Yep, you read that right...

Pluto's inhabited by intelligent, talking penguins.

Lots of them!

Some are "hoodlums" who wear sweatshirts and newsboy caps and talk with thick Brooklyn accents, and some are "pirates" with eyepatches and peg-legs!

Didn't know that, did you?

The Cosmo Corrigan strip proved to be less than a smash hit, so the editors retooled the concept, adding even more juvenile humor (plus a talking polar bear and penguins), dropping the sexual innuendo and frat-boy antics, while renaming the lead "Norge Benson" and having him crash-land on Pluto, rather than simply being assigned there to get him out of his superiors' hair!

The new character was still what we politely call a "doofus", but Norge proved to be far more popular than Cosmo, lasting for almost two dozen appearances!

We've already run five of his never-reprinted tales HERE, and, inspired by the cold wave currently sweeping the US, we'll be presenting two more tomorrow and Thursday...as well as a couple more next week!

Reading Room NORGE BENSON "Frozen Famine"

Let's visit Pluto, world of talking penguins...

...as stranded spaceman Norge Benson's existence may come to an end since the food supply on the frozen world seems to be running out!

As you can see, life on Pluto had its' charms back in 1942, as this never-reprinted tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #16 proves!

Artist Al Walker and whoever was scripting under the name "Olaf Bjorn" did a heck of a job with this whimsical tale, providing comedy relief amidst all the deadly-series tales of space emperors and alien invasions.

Reading Room NORGE BENSON "Invasion of the Snowmads"

If you're staying in during this cold wave, get some hot cocoa (with marshmallows) and read...

...in this never-reprinted tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #15 (1941).

Interesting how the "Snomads" are similar to the much-later Marvin the Martian...

Illustrated by Al Walker, who spent his entire comics career at Fiction House, this tale introduces more protagonists for Norge Benson and his crew to deal with besides evil penguins.

Reading Room NORGE BENSON "Happy Boithday to Frosting"

As cold creeps once more over North America...

...let's be glad it's not as cold as Pluto, where stranded Earthman Norge Benson lives near turtlenecked penguins who sound and act like the Bowery Boys...

Illustrated by Al Walker, who spent his entire comics career at Fiction House, this tale from Planet Comics #14 (1941) takes the idea of "silly" up a notch as it presents a somewhat less snarky (though no less humorous) version of the "Earthman on Pluto" concept shown in the earlier Cosmo Corrigan strip, mixing alien versions of both Arctic and Antarctic animals with total disregard to anything even remotely resembling exobiology!

But it is fun, and that's all that matters!

Reading Room NORGE BENSON "Gang of Hoodlum Penguins"

Let's return to frigid Pluto for another interplanetary adventure with...

..as we discover that, some penguins on Pluto speak perfect English, and others talk with Brooklyn accents...just like on Earth!

Think I'm joking?

Read on...

So, what'd youse tink?

Or for dose, I mean "those", who don't speak Brooklynese..."What did you think?"

I'll warn you now, future installments only get loonier!

Illustrated by Al Walker, who spent his entire comics career at Fiction House, this second appearance in Planet Comics #13 (1941) presents a somewhat less snarky (though no less humorous) version of the "Earthman on Pluto" concept shown in the earlier Cosmo Corrigan strip, mixing alien versions of both Arctic and Antarctic animals with total disregard to anything even remotely resembling exobiology!

But it is fun, and that's all that matters!