Reading Room TIME WARP "Survivors"

Even in the future, there's one inviolable rule about volunteering...

...never, ever, do it!

I love switch-endings.

Writer Mike W Barr and illustrator Tom Sutton do a bang-up job worthy of the classic EC comics Weird Science and Weird Fantasy!

The late Tom Sutton was both extremely versatile and extremely under-rated!

He did everything from humor (Not Brand Echh!) to media tie-in sci-fi (Star Trek, Planet of the Apes) to romance (Haunted Love), to horror (Werewolf by Night) and did them all well.

There's a wonderful interview with him HERE that gives real insight into him and why he, sadly, never became a superstar.

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Mystery in Space

Best of DC Science Fiction

Reading Room TIME WARP "Return to the Stars"

As various countries (including us, due to Don da Con) plan to weaponize Outer Space...

...take a look back to when we weren't trying to act like total idiots outside of our planet's atmosphere and threats to peace were only from our own species.

Using both established pros and talented newcomers, this oversized anthology (68 pages for $1 when the standard comic was 36 pages for 40¢) presented all-new material, almost all of which (including this story) has never been reprinted!
While Howard Chaykin certainly is an "established pro", writer Wyatt Gwyon, who might qualify as a newcomer, is a mystery.
With less than two dozen stories to his credit, Gwyon came onto the comics scene in 1977 scripting horror and sci-fi stories for various DC anthology titles until he disappeared in 1983.
There was no sign of him in comics...or anywhere else...until he popped-up again...with a one-page Wolverine story in Marvel's What If...? #34 (1992)!
Was "Wyatt Gwyon" a pseudonym?
Probably, since Wyatt Gwyon was the protagonist of William Gaddis' acclaimed 1950s novel The Recognitions.
He's a frustrated fine artist with a gift for imitating the styles of Old Masters.
Unscrupulous art dealers and critics use him to create phony "undiscovered Old Masters" they sell for huge prices!
Was Wyatt a novelist/poet/movie-TV scripter who decided to try his hand at comics?
Or was he a DC or Marvel staffer who wanted to make some extra cash?
We'll probably never know...
...or will we?
According to Martin O'Hern, comics creator detective, the Who's Who created by mega-fan Jerry Bails (aka the Father of Comic Book Fandom) identifies "Gwyon" as long-time DC scripter Martin Pasko...but with a "?" by his name, probably because it's never been fully-confirmed.

Note that Mike Kaluta, definitive artist for the comic version of The Shadow, provided pulp-style covers for the entire run.

While they had no relation to any of the stories in the book, they were spectacular!

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Mysteries in Space

The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics

Monday Madness TIME WARP "Righteous Ones"

As, thanks to Vlad the Puta, rumbles of nuclear war grow ever louder...

...we thought we'd take a look at a possible result of such a frightening future!

Oops!

Cue Twilight Zone theme...

Written by DC writer/editor George Kashdan (who co-created Tommy Tomorrow) and illustrated by the multi-talented Dick Giordano, this never-reprinted tale from DC's Time Warp #1 (1979) reads like it was scripted a decade earlier in the late 1960s, especially in the teen-agers' dialogue ("Like it was chain-reacted into doomsville!")!

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Mysteries in Space

The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics

Reading Room TIME WARP "Man Who Could See Yesterday!"

You'd think "everybody can see yesterday! It's the guy who can see tomorrow who's unique!"

Not in this tale, dear reader!

This tale from DC's Time Warp #1 (1979) was written by Paul Levitz, illustrated and lettered by Jim Aparo.
Using both established pros and talented newcomers, Time Warp, an oversized anthology (68 pages for $1 when the standard comic was 36 pages for 40¢) presented all-new material, almost all of which (including this story) has never been reprinted!

Mike Kaluta, definitive artist for the comic version of The Shadow, provided pulp-style covers for the entire run.

While they had no relation to any of the stories in the book, they were spectacular!
The series lasted only five issues.

The remaining unused stories appeared in the horror/fantasy anthology The Unexpected with a "Time Warp" logo on the splash page.

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Mysteries in Space

The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics

Reading Room TIME WARP "Switch in Time!"

If you're a sci-fi fan, you know the concept of "change the past and change the future"...

...as presented in Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder"?
Here's a deliberately-created variation of if...

The story's end ignores what the Professor pointed out...that the tech of the time was too primitive to allow Einstein to develop, much less test, his ground-breaking theories!
And Native Americans of the era had little tech of their own!
DC's Time Warp #4 (1980) was edited by Jack C Harris, who apparently allowed writer David Allikas to go for a twist ending over plot logic.

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Steve Ditko Omnibus

Volume 1

TIME WARP WEEK "Union in Steel"

Welcome to the finale of Time Warp Week...

...as we conclude our week-long look at DC's short-lived 1979-1980 sci-fi anthology.

Using both established pros and talented newcomers, this oversized anthology (68 pages for $1 when the standard comic was 36 pages for 40¢) presented all-new material, almost all of which (including this story) has never been reprinted!
The penciler on this tale, Don Newton, was one of the best of the fan-turned-pros of the 70s-80s.
Unfortunately, a heart attack cut his career and his life short and he passed in 1984.
BTW, most people don't realize he didn't break into comics until he was 40!
There's a really kool site dedicated to Don HERE.

Mike Kaluta, definitive artist for the comic version of The Shadow, provided pulp-style covers for the entire run.

While they had no relation to any of the stories in the book, they were spectacular!

TIME WARP WEEK "The Most Special of Effects"

Welcome to Time Warp Week...

...as we take a week-long look at DC's short-lived 1979-1980 sci-fi anthology, one issue per day.

Using both established pros and talented newcomers, this oversized anthology (68 pages for $1 when the standard comic was 36 pages for 40¢) presented all-new material, almost all of which (including this story) has never been reprinted!

Mike Kaluta, definitive artist for the comic version of The Shadow, provided pulp-style covers for the entire run.

While they had no relation to any of the stories in the book, they were spectacular!

Be here tomorrow as we sample #5, the final issue!