Reading Room WEIRD TALES OF THE FUTURE "Survival of the Fittest"

Fiction or prophecy?

This is only 8 years away!

Consider recent developments in Artificial Intelligence and prepare for the possible (if not probable) mechanical Armageddon!

The penciler of this never-reprinted story from Key's Weird Tales of the Future #1 (1952) was a young Ross Andru, but the mediocre inking is clearly not his soon-to-be-partner Mike Esposito!
The identity of the embellisher, as well as the scripter remain a mystery to this day...

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Ten-Cent Plague

Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America

Reading Room LOST WORLDS "Visitors from Space" and "Space Platforms--Way Stations of the Future!"

Besides comic stories, comic books often ran one-page features like these...

Standard's Lost Worlds #5 Art by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito

...based on historical or scientific information available at the time...

Standards' Lost Worlds #6 Art by Rocco Mastroserio

...or speculation about future developments, again, based on then-current knowledge!

(I love that third panel, showing spacesuit-garbed scientists on a balcony on the satellite!)

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

Reading Room WEIRD TALES OF THE FUTURE "Ten Thousand Years Old!"

Here's the "pilot episode" for an ongoing comic series that never came about...

...but did see publication in Key's Weird Tales of the Future #1 (1952)!

It's an interesting premise, and the publishers even gave the story the coveted cover slot...

Art by Ross Andru and ?

...yet next issue, Jerry and Jill were nowhere to be found!

So, what happened?

With a cool (if somewhat implausible) story by an uncredited scripter and pencils (and possible inks) by Ross Andru, it seemed like the sort of ongoing feature that could anchor a title.

Was a second story commissioned?

We'll never know...

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The Future WAS Fantastic!

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Friday Fun GET LOST! "How It All Began..." & "How to Make Your Own Comic Book!!"

In the mid-1950s, the young, multi-talented, creative team of Ross Andru and Mike Esposito...

...took a big risk and started their own comics company, MikeRoss Publishing!
They told a fascinating tale of how it came about...

...which didn't have a bit of truth to it!

Then, they decided to "teach" others the "secrets" of how to emulate their success...

As you can see, Ross and Mike were having fun and producing some great material.

Ironically, and through no fault of their own, it would all come crashing down a few months later!

And though their product consisted of a only two non-horror series (humor and romance) and a couple of 3-D one-shots, they were caught in the paranoid backlash against four-color fun that less than a fifth of existing comics publishers survived!

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Andru and Esposito
Partners for Life

Space Hero Saturdays GET LOST! "Ace of Space: Four-Flush Gordon"

If you're a poker player, you'll get the reference in the name of the title character...

...if not, we'll explain it at the end of this classic comedy tale!

A four flush (also flush draw) is a poker hand that is one card short of being a full flush.

"Four flushing" refers to empty boasting or unsuccessful bluffing.

Written and illustrated by the team of Ross Andru and Mike Esposito for first issue of their short-lived 1954 humor title Get Lost, for their own short-lived publishing house, MikeRoss Publishing,  this was their almost-mandatory Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers spoof all humor publishers in the 1950s did!

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Sincerest Form of Parody

Reading Room WORLDS UNKNOWN "Farewell to the Master" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...
Reporter Cliff Sutherland and photographer Ann O'Hara may be on to the scoop of the century.

An alien robot, which went inert after Klaatu (the alien humanoid it accompanied) was shot and killed (without provocation) when he tried to initiate contact with people of Earth isn't as unmoving as the government believes!
The duo conceal themselves nearby, hoping to catch the automaton in motion...which they do!
They witness the robot enter the alien vessel...which sealed up and apparently deactivated after Klaatu was killed.
And now things get really weird...

Cue the Twilight Zone theme...

The original story by Harry Bates appeared in Street and Smith's Astounding Science Fiction V26N2 (1940) with the following illustrations by Frank Kramer...all of which feature Gnut!

"Farewell to the Master" has been reprinted numerous times, usually in anthologies about Astounding Science-Fiction magazine, or compilations of stories which were adapted into films or TV shows.

But the graphic adaptation from Marvel's Worlds Unknown #3 (1973) has never been reprinted, and no other comic book/comic strip version has ever been done!
However, there was another prose adaptation of the short story...

This book, written by Arthur Tofte, published by Scholastic Books in 1976, combined "Farewell to the Master" with the screenplay for the 1951 movie into a new novel which presents Klaatu and a rather verbose Gnut (not "Gort") as a pair of equal partners, representing their respective civilizations within a galactic organization calling themselves "The Watchers"!
Finally, Lux Radio Theatre produced a one-hour radio adaptation in 1954, narrated by Paul Frees and starring Michael Rennie as Klaatu!
Regrettably, it doesn't use Bernard Herrmann's magnificent soundtrack but it's still worth listening to.
You can link to it HERE!

Reading Room WORLDS UNKNOWN "Farewell to the Master" Part 1

You know the story...sorta.
You've seen (and/or heard) the story adapted...sorta.
Now read the most faithful adaptation of the tale...short of the original novelette!








And before you go any further, "Gnut" is pronounced "Nut".

That's one of the reasons it was changed when the story by Harry Bates was adapted in 1951 into a movie...

Aw, you guessed!

As you've surmised, there were quite a few changes made when the silver screen version was created and produced!

And, when writer Roy Thomas, penciler Ross Andru and inker Wayne Howard went back to the source material for the never-reprinted Marvel's Worlds Unknown #3 (1973)...well, let's let Rascally Roy himself tell you about that...

Be Here on Thursday for the ASTOUNDING conclusion...plus some kool extras (which will explain why I capitalized "astounding"!)