Space Hero Saturdays PLANET COMICS "Buzz Crandall of the Space Patrol in 'I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!' "

This strip started out as a typical Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers clone...

...but when eccentric (to put it mildly) writer/artist Fletcher Hanks took over as of Buzz's second appearance in Fiction House's Planet Comics #7 (1940)...well, let the apocalyptic craziness begin!

Just another Tuesday for Buzz Crandall, who, despite the "Space Patrol" in the title, seems to run a two-person operation with only his girlfriend to aid him!

Like the tales of Fletcher's other Space Hero, Fantastic Comics' Space Smith, these stories played with the fact that there werem't any "rules" to follow and took the concept of "anything goes" to dizzying levels!

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I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!

by

Fletcher Hanks

Space Hero Saturdays WHACK "Flush Jordan"

Yes, it's a Flash Gordon spoof...

..but it has a cultural reference readers under 50 won't recognize!

Ming the Merciless usually looks like this...

...so who's "Bing", the golf-playing guy in the Hawaiian shirt and porkpie hat?

He's Bing Crosby, singer, comedian, obsessive golfer, and (when this comic was published) a pop culture icon!

With that in mind, please read...

The guy at the end, whining about "Thanks for the Memory" is comedian Bob Hope...

...Bing's co-star/rival in the 1940s-50s "Road to..." movie series as well as a pop culture legend in his own right!

Note: Thanks for the Memory" was Hope's personal theme song, used primarily to close his radio show, live appearances, and TV specials!

This never-reprinted story from #2 of St John's MAD clone WHACK was illustrated by William Overgard for 3-D use, but the collapse of the 3-D comic market forced St John to publish it in regular color comic format!

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Sincerest Form of Parody
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Space...Hero? Saturdays WEIRD TALES OF THE FUTURE "Jumpin' Jupiter and the Strange Case of Gzink Bfnxpp!"

Perhaps the very antithesis of a "Space Hero"...

...Basil Wolverton's Jumpin' Jupiter strip constantly shows us why he shouldn't be among such august company!

This never-reprinted feature from Key's Weird Tales of the Future #3 (1952) is a classic example of Wolverton's...unique...sense of humor and his absolutely-superb design and illustration abilities!

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Creeping Death from Neptune

Life and Comics of Basil Woverton

Volume 1

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Space Hero Saturdays FANTASTIC COMICS "Space Smith and the Floating Island in the Lost Sun"

One of the Truly Difficult Things About This Feature...

...is coming up with titles for Fletcher Hanks' almost-always untitled stories!

How do you convey some of the truly weird goings-on?

This Space Smith tale from Fox Features' Fantastic Comics #5 (1940) could've had several different titles including "The Hopping Men of the Floating Island!" or "The Hopping Men of the Lost Sun!"!

We decided on the title based on the two locations shown in the story!
But, like most of Fletcher Hank's stories, there's so much going on that it's hard to pin down one or two aspects.

Best to just go along for the ride and enjoy!

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I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!

by

Fletcher Hanks

Space...Hero? Saturdays SUPERSONIC SAMMY "...Meets Stalin!"

Does a Martian who comes to Earth qualify as a "Space Hero"?

If it worked for Lars of Mars, it should be equally-valid for this guy, right?

For those not up on their history, the guy with the moustache is Joseph Stalin, the Communist Premier of the USSR (aka the Soviet Union/Russia) from 1924 to 1953.
Who sez comics ain't educational???

Created, written and illustrated by Basil Wolverton who created SpaceHawk, Space Patrol, and Jumpin' Jupiter, Supersonic Sammy is the least-known of his Space Heroes...because he never appeared in a comic book, until the 1980s!
(When he finally did appear in a reprint comic book, he was still in b/w!
So we have no idea what he would've looked like in color!)
He ended up as "filler" in Martin Goodman's "adult" humor magazines like Comedy, Laugh It Off, and Cartoon Parade, which were all b/w periodicals!
(Goodman was also the owner of Timely/Atlas/Marvel Comics until the late 1960s.)
As far as we can tell, there were only three adventures of the somewhat-merry Martian, of which this, which shows his being exiled from Mars, is the first!

You'll be seeing more of him in the future!

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Creeping Death from Neptune

Life and Comics of Basil Woverton

Volume 1

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Space Hero Saturdays BUZZY BEAN AND HIS FLYING SAUCER

The US government finally admits we're using flying saucers...

But sci-fi fans have known the truth about flying saucers for years...nay, decades!

Here's a never-reprinted strip about a boy and his personal flying saucer from the 1950s...

...from a short-lived company that only put out two titles with a combined total of nine issues!

Artist Carl Hubbell (no relation to the Hall of Fame baseball player) illustrated over 300 tales from the late Golden Age through the Silver Age at almost every company in the business.

Sadly, the writer of this premiere installment of the series in Good Comics' Johnny Law: Sky Ranger #1 (1955) is unknown.

BTW, the company name was not a boast, since the publisher was Edmond Good, an artist with both newspaper and comic book credits from the beginning of the Golden Age to the end of the Bronze Age.

Buzzy Bean Will Return...

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3
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Space Hero Saturdays COSMIC CARSON "Iako's Attack!"

This totally-inaccurate cover from Fox's Science Comics #4 (1940) by Joe Simon...

...featuring characters who never appear in the strip (except for the hero) marks Cosmic Carson's only cover appearance ever!

Ah, but it's who's on the inside that counts...and for this issue, it's Jack (King) Kirby, who penciled and inked this story!

("Michel Griffith" was a Fox Comics pen-name that anybody who wrote or drew this strip used!)

Though this Cosmic Carson tale from Fox's Science Comics #4 (1940) ends on a cliffhanger, the story in the next issue neither resolves nor even mentions it, or the current plotline and characters!
Not surprising, since Kirby had been moved to other strips in the next month's production cycle.
Cosmic Carson, in and of itself, was one of the worst, most inconsistent, poorly-plotted and illustrated strips (with this one exception) in the history of comic books.
(And that's saying a lot!)
So enjoy this appearance, since it's the only one Cosmic Carson will make in any RetroBlog!

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Simon & Kirby Library

Science Fiction

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