Prepare for the RetroBlog Thanksgiving Turkey!

Due to time constraints...

...this year's Thanksgiving Turkey is going to be a little smaller, but no less tasty!

And this year, it'll be served at

Pop Art Martial Arts!
Behold!
The Coming of...

Proof positive that even the greatest comic creators can have an "off" day!

Reading Room VANGUARD ILLUSTRATED "...friend in need..."

In Space, No One Can Hear You...

...Dream (bet you thought I was going to say "Scream" didn't you?), as this story from over 30 years ago proves!

This tale from Pacific's Vanguard Illustrated #5(1984) had appeared a decade earlier in a somewhat different form!

You'll see that version...Thursday!

Writer-artist Ron Harris is best-known as the artist for the Dallas and Star Trek newspaper strips in the late 1970s-early 1980s.

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Star Trek: the Newspaper Strip

Volume One

Reading Room VANGUARD ILLUSTRATED "Tangled Web"

One of the joys of doing a blog like this is discovering people who, all too briefly, worked in comics...

...then moved on, sometimes without a trace!

This never-reprinted tale from Pacific's Vanguard Illustrated #4 (1984) is written and illustrated by Ruth Raymond.

It's her only comics credit, and, sadly, I can't find a single reference to her outside of the Grand Comics Database!

Was "Ruth Raymond" a pseudonym?

Both the scripting and art, though a tad awkward, show enormous potential.

It's sad to think this talented creative wasn't given a chance to grow.

If anybody has any info, please leave a link in the comments section!

Reading Room VANGUARD ILLUSTRATED "Guest"

I love alien invasion stories...

...but, no matter how well humans prepare or how lucky we Earthlings are, not all of them have a happy ending.

E.T. the Extraterrestrial had come out over a year earlier, creating a new genre of "cute/cuddly/harmless alien visitors" that made unwary humans complacent.

Writer/artist Darren Auck's never-reprinted cautionary tale from Pacific's Vanguard Illustrated #2 (1984) was one of several rather...visceral...responses to it.

Enjoy.

BTW, Darren Auck is best known as a humor artist, writing and illustrating a number of tales for Marvel's What the--? (a humorous version of What if...?) and Ren & Stimpy!

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Vanguard Illustrated #1-6 Set

There's only one set available...and it's at a bargain price!

Friday Fun ALIEN WORLDS "Small Change"

Summer's starting to wind down...

...so let's say "goodbye" with a never-reprinted, "fun" tale from Pacific's Alien Worlds #7 (1984)!

BTW, writer Bruce Jones and artist Brent Anderson also teamed up for an amazing run on Marvel's Ka-Zar the Savage in the '80s.

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Ka-Zar: SavageDawn

by Bruce Jones and Brent Anderson

(collecting 1-5 of Ka-Zar the Savage)

Perez Reading Room VANGUARD ILLUSTRATED "The Trains Belong to Us"

It's said that a good graphic story can be told without captions or dialogue!

This never-reprinted, cover-featured tale from Pacific's Vanguard Illustrated #6 (1984) is a damn (in more ways than one) good graphic story!

And you thought those who complained graffiti made cities look like hell were exaggerating...

Though both Cavaleri and Perez worked for DC for years before doing this short, this was their first (and, I believe, only) collaboration!

Thursday:

One of George's first published stories

Reading Room LAND OF THE FHRE aka SAVAGE WORLD 2.0

If you enjoyed Tuesday's short story "Savage World"...

...you'll find this version, using the same art...but a different script...a most fascinating read!

Noted Bronze Age writer/artist Bruce Jones was heavily-influenced by the Fleagle Gang and the EC Comics line in general.

Since the previously-published version of this tale in Witzend #1 (1966) was a rewrite of an unknown writer's script by Wally Wood, Bruce was given the opportunity to do a similar re-write, also without altering the art, for this publication in Pacific Comics' Alien Worlds #4 (1983).

Jones' version places the tale further into the future and makes the second half a dream sequence

The story also appeared in color for the first time, using the blueline/greyline method of hand-colored artwork with a black-line overlay, trying to simulate the traditional flat-color separations.

That's why the black linework isn't as crisp and sharp as in the b/w version.

The coloring was done by fantasy painter Joe Chiodo, another illustrator inspired by the work of 1950s comic artists.

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Al Williamson Adventures

Reading Room SKATEMAN COMICS "FutureWorld"

Here's a "lost" tale by a talented artist nobody remembers...

...from a 1980s comic most people would rather forget!

With story and layouts by Jack Arata, inks by Andy Kubert, this never-reprinted tale from Pacific's SkateMan #1 (1983) is one of three sci-fi stories from Arata's brief comics career that spanned less than two dozen tales from 1982 to 1986.

A graduate of the Kubert School, he worked mostly for DC before returning to his farming roots in California, where he passed away in 2013.

As to why SkateMan the comic is so...to be blunt...reviled...this synopsis may explain it to those who didn't, like myself, live through it.

Oddly, despite its' reputation, the book is now extremely Hard to Find...and pricey!

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SkateMan

#1 (and only)

Reading Room ALIEN WORLDS "Few and the Far"

In space, things aren't always as they seem to appear...

...as this never-reprinted tale from Pacific's Alien Worlds #1 (1982) demonstrates not once, but twice...

Admit it.

Writer Bruce Jones and artist Al Williamson fooled you!

Reading Room IMAGINATION and RAVENS AND RAINBOWS "Explored"

"What are Saturn's rings made of?"

Writer/artist Jeffrey Jones had a better question...What if it wasn't what we thought it was?

Jones' short tale in David Jablan Publishing's one-shot fanzine Imagination (1971) offered a cool explanation.

Remember, the first probe to pass near Saturn, Pioneer 11, didn't do so until 1979!

While it was theorized that ice and rocks made up the rings, there was no way to verify it!

So the tale, though improbable, was not unreasonable!

By the time Pacific Comics reprinted the story in their anthology Jeffrey Jones: Ravens and Rainbows (1983), several probes (including two Voyagers) had done flybys and analysis.

Sadly, they didn't find a Sargasso Sea of Space...

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Jeffrey Jones

A Life in Art