Showing posts with label Space Patrol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Space Patrol. Show all posts

Saturday, October 30, 2021

Space Force Saturdays SPACE PATROL "Stranded on the Sands of Mars"

Since it's Halloween Eve we're offering a preview of our next Saturday feature...
...this strip, which was the first of numerous unrelated series in various media to use the title "Space Patrol", including three different TV series!
Nobody could combine horror and sci-fi like Wolverton...as we showed HERE!
The multi-talented Basil wrote, illustrated, lettered, and probably colored, this wild tale from Amazing Mystery Funnies #23 (1940).
I'd love to see someone animate these classics of surreal storytelling.
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Life and Comics of Basil Wolverton

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Reading Room LARS OF MARS 3-D "When Terrorists Die..."

Get out the 3-D glasses, kiddies...
...as we present the final, never-reprinted Lars of Mars tale...from 1987???
Eclipse Comics and 3-D expert Ray Zone were using a number of old comic strips as the basis for a series of 3-D comics.
But this was an entirely-new tale created specifically for Eclipse's Lars of Mars 3-D #1 (1987), as detailed below...
The rest of the book were reprints of "EarthShaker" and "Terror Weapon" modified to 3-D.
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featuring the covers of both issues of Lars of Mars!

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Reading Room LARS OF MARS "EarthShaker!"

It's time for another adventure with the Martian posing as an actor playing a Martian on TV...
...in a story of world-shaking (literally) menace!
Lars was co-created by writer Jerry Siegel and illustrator Murphy Anderson, as shown HERE.
This terrifying tale of tectonic turnabout from Ziff-Davis' Lars of Mars #11 (1951) was, sadly, the character's final published appearance.
But, there's still a tale hidden away for decades, so be here next Thursday as we unearth it...and don't forget your 3-D glasses!
You'll need them!
featuring the covers of both issues of Lars of Mars!

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Reading Room LARS OF MARS "Terror Weapon" Conclusion

Art by Allen Anderson
...he was heading for Manchuria to stop a mad Soviet scientist from unleashing a super-weapon that could freeze anything!
After facing several deadly devices, Lars uses his ability to travel at light-speed...
Written by Jerry Siegel, illustrated by Murphy Anderson, this was the cover-featured tale from Ziff-Davis' Lars of Mars #11 (1951), the second (and last issue) of the series!
BTW, the cover artist is Allen Anderson (no relation to Murphy)
And, Allen also did the cover to the second (and last) issue of Ziff-Davis' Space Busters...which was illustrated by Murphy!
Weird, huh? 
featuring the covers of both issues of Lars of Mars!

 

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Reading Room LARS OF MARS "Terror Weapon" Part 1

...they just return in the next issue, as the guy who doesn't just play a Martian on TV, but is a Martian playing an actor playing a Martian on TV while fighting crime in real life (got that?) discovers...
What Next?
Will Lars Stop Raskov?
Will Raskov Stop (and/or Kill) Lars?
You'll note the Communist Chinese were illustrated in a non-cartoony manner, unlike the Japanese in most World War II comics and animated cartoons!
(The unfortunate lemon-yellow skin-tone wasn't artist Murphy Anderson's choice, I'm sure.)
Written by Jerry Siegel, illustrated by Murphy Anderson, this was the cover-featured tale from Ziff-Davis' Lars of Mars #11 (1951), the second (and last issue) of the series!
featuring the covers of both issues of Lars of Mars!

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Reading Room LARS OF MARS "Terror from the Sky"

Commies and atomic weapons!
As the song says, "They go together like Love and Marriage..."
Could this be an attempt to set up an ongoing Lex Luthor-esque arch-enemy (but with lots of hair) for our hero in this final story from Ziff-Davis' Lars of Mars #10 (1951)?
Consider the fact that this Lars tale was produced by the duo who created the short-lived character, writer Jerry (Superman) Siegel and and artist Murphy (Buck Rogers) Anderson (who also did a lot of work on Superman during the Silver and Bronze Ages) and you'll see a lot of Man of Steel-style elements.
And, yes, Raskov returned the next issue with new super-scientific weapons...
Trivia:
The cover paintings for both issues of Lars of Mars were painted by Allen Anderson, who was not related to interior artist Murphy Anderson!
Here's a "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon"-style fact (done in four degrees)...
1) Ziff-Davis also published a short-lived adaptation of an actual sci-fi tv series, Space Patrol, illustrated by Bernie Krigstein.
2) Krigstein illustrated the first issue of another Ziff-Davis sci-fi series: Space Busters!
3) Bernie was replaced on interior art for the second (and final) issue of Space Busters by...Murphy Anderson!
4) Allen Anderson did the painted cover for the Space Busters issue illustrated by Murphy! (Norm Saunders had painted the first issue's cover!)
featuring the covers of both issues of Lars of Mars!