Lunar Reading Room / Tales Twice Told STRANGE WORLDS "A Nation is Born"

Here's the original Golden Age version of a Bronze Age story...

..we ran on Tuesday!

Illustrated by Golden Age journeyman Rafael Astarita, this tale appeared in Avon's Strange Worlds #4 (1951) and was reprinted in IW's Strange Planets #9 (1959).

It was then re-illustrated, with only minor changes to the script (including a re-titling), in Eerie Publications' Strange Galaxy V1N8 (1971) as we showed on Tuesday.

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Reading Room CONQUEST "Beowolf the Mighty"

How do you liven up those boring, tired old ancient myths?

...why, turn the story's antagonist into a Tyrannosaurus Rex, of course!
Note, the monster is a lot bigger inside the story than portrayed in the symbolic splash panel!

Usually, Grendel is a demonic or ape-like beast.
Certainly, he's never been portrayed as a dinosaur before (or since)!
Conquest, a 1955 one-shot from Eastern Color which featured tales of real-life adventurers...except for Beowolf (which is usually spelled "Beowulf").
We don't know who the writer is so there's no way to tell if it was his/her idea or artist Bill Ely's to make Grendel a dinosaur!
BTW, Ely had a lot of experience rendering dinosaurs in sci-fi tales for almost every comics company of the 1950s and 60s, including a stint as the artist for DC's resident time-traveler, Rip Hunter: Time Master!

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Reading Room WORLD OF SUSPENSE "Brain Trap"

When You Come Up with a Great Idea That Will Change the World....

...if you work for a major corporation, your innovation could produce a tale of brains, business, and betrayal!

And so, the world had to wait, until the mind-reading side-effects were filtered out, for Rogaine...

This never-reprinted story from Atlas' World of Suspense #5 (1956) was illustrated by George Roussos, but the writer is, mercifully, unknown.

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Reading Room BLACK CAT MYSTIC "Great Stone Face!"

Despite the title, Black Cat Mystic was actually a sci-fi anthology...

...featuring the final work of the Simon & Kirby Studio!

NOTE: May be NSFW due to racial stereotypes common to the era.

Penciled, inked, and probably scripted by Jack Kirby, this tale from Harvey's Black Cat Mystic #59 (1957) is Jack's first look at what would become known as the "ancient astronauts" theory in the 1970s due to the interest generated by Erich von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods.
At the same time, Kirby himself would expand the concept into The Eternals, (originally-titled Return of the Gods), which is now one of the lynchpins of the Marvel Universe.

Kirby would present a variation of the theme a couple of years after "Great Stone Face" in Race for the Moon's "Face on Mars" as shown HERE.

Note: Kirby and Stan Lee did a variation of the concept at Marvel in the 1960s with The Inhumans, who were created by Kree scientists visiting Earth in prehistoric times and genetically-manipulating humans to draw out dormant abilities.

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Reading Room EERIE ADVENTURES "Vampires from Venus!"

 It's Freezing, Windy, and Snowy Outside...

...perfect weather for a tale about an invasion by aliens from a hot and steamy planet!

This 1951 tale combining mobila, lethal plants (based on the Triffids from the novel Day of the Triffids which had just been published) and vampires (with their classic weakness, sunlight) from the Ziff-Davis one-shot Eerie Adventures was illustrated by Bob Powell and Howard Nostrand.

The writer is unknown.

Eerie Adventures used leftover material from the recently-cancelled Amazing Adventures with an attempt to market it as horror rather than sci-fi/fantasy.

Only one issue was published as the title was dropped by Ziff-Davis to avoid legal action by Avon who already had an ongoing Eerie comics title.

ZD then did a Weird Adventures one-shot, which sold well, but discovered there was already a title with the same name from PL Publishing which debuted the month before!

So ZD retitled their book Weird Thrillers, before PL could take legal action.

The series ran five more issues before the Dr Wertham-led Seduction of the Innocent witch-hunt forced the cancellation of all horror-related comic books.

(Ironically, the PL series only ran two more issues before the entire company folded.)

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Reading Room CRUSADER FROM MARS COMICS "Escape to Nowhere"

The idea that we should leave Earth before atomic war destroys it is not new...

...nor is the "surprise ending" to this never-reprinted backup tale from Ziff-Davis' Crusader from Mars #1 (1952)

"You blew it up!

Damn you!

Damn you all to hell!"

Almost two decades before Rod Serling had Charlton Heston scream those words to the sky at the conclusion of Planet of the Apes, artist Mike Becker and an unknown writer presented a much more mellow discovery by space travelers returning to Earth centuries in the future!

The script may be by editor Jerry (Superman) Siegel...

Mike Becker illustrated over 100 crime, horror, romance, sci-fi, sports, spy, war and western stories for various publishers including Timely, Ziff-Davis, Hillman, Youthful, and Nedor/Better/Standard from 1948 through 1956.

What happened after that is, regrettably, unknown.

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Reading Room CAPTAIN SCIENCE COMICS "When Time Stood Still"

It's the gift that keeps on giving...

...a trip through time and space on New Year's Eve!

Illustrated by Myron Fass, this never-reprinted tale from Avon's Captain Science Comics #4 (1952) is a classic example of how weird and wild (and totally-illogical) 1950s sci-fi can be!

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