Space Hero Saturdays SPACEHAWK "Scraches of Doom" & "Moon Justice"

Our final Spacehawk post for the foreseeable future involves two text stories written and illustrated by Basil Wolverton!

You may remember there was a previous two-parter that he neither scripted nor rendered!
Whether he was unhappy with the result, or was simply irritated that the publisher let someone else handle the character, he produced these two rarely-seen tales...

...from Target Comics #10 (above) and Target Comics #15 (below)

And so ends SpaceHawk's adventures as a Saturday Space Hero!
Be here next Saturday as another character gets his (or her) chance to be a Space Hero!

Space Hero Saturdays SPACEHAWK "and the Uncanny Underwater Tank!"

As we saw last time, SpaceHawk was reassigned by Uncle Sam himself to protect Earth......specifically, the United States of America, from harm...as you can tell from the strip's new sub-head!

Here's where the problem begins!

It's clear the underwater tank's crew are unfamiliar with rocket ships!

But the SpaceHawk strip was set in the future, where the entire solar system (including Earth) utilized advanced technology!
The previous story offered no indication that SpaceHawk was in the 1940s instead of his own time, but this tale from Novelty's Target Comics V2N3 (1941), showing an American fleet of battleships with smoke-spewing engines, and crewmen of an underwater tank who don't know about rockets, is a pretty clear indication our Space Hero is now in the "present day" (1940)!
BTW, the fact the underwater tank exists isn't proof the series is still in the future!
Pop culture (including comics, pulps, movies, and radio shows) showed both the Allies and Axis using advanced weaponry during WWII (as shown HERE and HERE)! 
In review the remaining SpaceHawk tales, we see our hero remains Earthbound for the remainder of the run, thus, he's no longer a "Space Hero"!.
So it is with a heavy heart that we'll be discontinuing his adventures after one final appearance two weeks from now!

But why are we waiting?

Be here in two weeks to see!

X

Space Hero Saturdays TARGET COMICS "SpaceHawk Answers Uncle Sam's Call!"

Pretty appropriate for the 4th of July weekend, eh?
...as the realities of pre-Pearl Harbor America interrupt Spacehawk's fictional far-future exploits!
The story's about to take a sharp turn for SpaceHawk as things get multiversal, kiddies!
Oddly, the 1861 image, showing the Civil War, doesn't show a cavalryman wearing either Union blue or Confederate gray...but green, which wasn't an official uniform color during that period in American history!

In 1940, with World War II underway, most Americans accepted it was only a matter of time until we were drawn into the war.

As the government began to scale up military preparations, the entertainment media started turning their characters towards dealing with the potential threats from across both oceans!
Comic book and pulp heroes began encountering thinly-disguised surrogates for German, Japanese, and Italian spies and soldiers.
In perhaps the best-known of these stories, Superman invaded Germany and Russia, grabbing Hitler and Stalin, and brought them to trial!
(And this was in 1940!)
As for this tale from Novelty Press' Target Comics V2N1 [13] (1941), though the writer is unknown, it may be editor David Adams.
Illustrator Ben Thompson likely was assigned the cover and short feature because he wasn't the artist on any of the series, but made an effort to deliberately match the various styles of the other artists on their respective characters.
SpaceHawk didn't begin his assignment immediately, as he was finishing up a two-part story on Neptune, as we showed HERE!
With the next issue, though, he jumped into the fray!
But, due to racial stereotypes common to World War II entertainment media, we can't show it to you on this blog!
You'll have to go HERE to see it!

 

Space Hero Saturdays SPACEHAWK "Passion of Haba"

We Have Already Seen...
...smitten with SpaceHawk (who rescued her in the previous tale), Queen Haba of Noom (a country on Neptune) allows her desires to control her actions!

Sadly, the couple were never reunited!

You may have noted the references to a "war-torn Earth" "Uncle Sam" and "America" in this story from Novelty's Target Comics V2N1 (1941).

The series is about to make a serious change in concept...as you'll see in two weeks!
Hint, though this comic was published in 1941, it was before December 7th, 1941!

BTW, I usually take the day off to celebrate...

...but I felt this SpaceHawk tale's conclusion shouldn't wait another week...

Space Hero Saturdays SPACEHAWK "Treachery of Smebar"

We present SpaceHawk's first two-part tale...
...involving the rechristened "Lone Wolf of the Void" in interstellar treachery!








Since this tale from Novelty's Target Comics #12 (1941) is continued next issue, well present the sequel story next week instead of the usual alternating with a different Space Hero, who will appear in two weeks!

Space Hero Saturdays SPACEHAWK "My Friend, My Foe"

He's the mysterious "Superhuman Enemy of Crime" in space...

...but he has friends he's known for years...and the only way they refer to him is as "SpaceHawk"?

This action-packed tale from Novelty's Target Comics #11 (1940) was written, illustrated, and lettered by the one-and-only Basil Wolverton.

The sheer unfettered imagination of the man was astounding, creating vistas and aliens far beyond anything the technology of moviemaking at the time (except for animation) could match.

With the current fascination for high adventure and fantasy and the incredible level of realism CGI can provide, SpaceHawk would be an ideal project for either theatrical or direct-to-home video, and I'm surprised no one is doing it!

Space Hero Saturdays SPACEHAWK "Pirates of Uranus"

This tale from Novelty's Target Comics #10 (1940)...

...is the most reprinted and reformatted of all the stories about Basil Wolverton's "Superhuman Enemy of Crime!"!

Besides the usual reprintings in both color and b/w, the tale was hand-colored and edited down by two pages in Marvel's Epic Illustrated #12 (1984)...

...and even converted into blue/red 3-D in 3-D Zone #18 (1989)

Wouldn't you just love to see this stuff animated?
Lord knows I would...

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