Space...Hero?...Saturdays STRANGE JOURNEY "Captain Kiddeo Space Bum"

Is it humor?

Is it serious?

I can't decide...

...read the tale and judge for yourself!

The title is a variation of "Captain Video", a tv show which had been cancelled three years earlier when this never-reprinted tale appeared in Ajax-Farrell's Strange Journey #3 (1958).

Yet the story itself has nothing to do with Captain Video, not even as a spoof of it, like MAD's superb Captain Tvideo which you can read HERE!

The attempts at humor and wit are lacking in both, and the illustrations have none of the wonderful background detail (Called "chicken fat" by artist Will Elder) MAD's artists were famous for!

Plus, the art is so jammed-up, I have the impression the original (perhaps unpublished) story was longer, and re-edited to fit into the 5 page slot in an otherwise average sci-fi anthology.

We do know it's a product of the S M Iger Studio which packaged Ajax-Farrell's books, but not who the particular creatives were...

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Tales Twice Told STRANGE JOURNEY "Hole in the Sky!"

At first glance, this looks like a typical 1950s sci-fi comics tale...

...flying saucers, aliens, and a misunderstanding between humans and "invaders".

A rather typical 1950s tale of a "misunderstood mellow alien".

Note: the cover features a uniformed policeman, rather than the plainclothes detective, confronting the alien!
This was the Comics Code-approved version.
For the original, uncensored, horror comics-era story, you'll have to come back on Thursday!

Art for both the story and cover for this tale from Ajax/Farrell's Strange Journey #2 (1957) by Ken Battefield and the Iger Studios staff.
The scripter is unknown.

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Reading Room STRANGE JOURNEY "Space is a Secret"

Before you read this tale, go HERE...

..because this is the second version of this story!

Like almost all other comics publishers, Ajax/Farrell was hit hard by the Seduction of the Innocent witch-hunt of the 1950s.

They survived where many others didn't by kow-towing to the sometimes inane restrictions placed on them by the censor agency created by the industry itself...the Comics Code Authority!

This story, from Ajax/Farrell's Strange Journey #2 (1957) is a classic example of how extreme the Code took matters.

Every page has alterations, including changing the ending (in the original version, the Earthmen never escape)!

The final version, taken back to it's original level of horror...and beyond...can be found on our "brother" RetroBlog, Seduction of the Innocent!

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Four Color Fear

Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s