Reading Room VANGUARD ILLUSTRATED "...friend in need..."

In Space, No One Can Hear You...

...Dream (bet you thought I was going to say "Scream" didn't you?), as this story from over 30 years ago proves!

This tale from Pacific's Vanguard Illustrated #5(1984) had appeared a decade earlier in a somewhat different form!

You'll see that version...Thursday!

Writer-artist Ron Harris is best-known as the artist for the Dallas and Star Trek newspaper strips in the late 1970s-early 1980s.

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Star Trek: the Newspaper Strip

Volume One

Reading Room VANGUARD ILLUSTRATED "Tangled Web"

One of the joys of doing a blog like this is discovering people who, all too briefly, worked in comics...

...then moved on, sometimes without a trace!

This never-reprinted tale from Pacific's Vanguard Illustrated #4 (1984) is written and illustrated by Ruth Raymond.

It's her only comics credit, and, sadly, I can't find a single reference to her outside of the Grand Comics Database!

Was "Ruth Raymond" a pseudonym?

Both the scripting and art, though a tad awkward, show enormous potential.

It's sad to think this talented creative wasn't given a chance to grow.

If anybody has any info, please leave a link in the comments section!

Reading Room VANGUARD ILLUSTRATED "Guest"

I love alien invasion stories...

...but, no matter how well humans prepare or how lucky we Earthlings are, not all of them have a happy ending.

E.T. the Extraterrestrial had come out over a year earlier, creating a new genre of "cute/cuddly/harmless alien visitors" that made unwary humans complacent.

Writer/artist Darren Auck's never-reprinted cautionary tale from Pacific's Vanguard Illustrated #2 (1984) was one of several rather...visceral...responses to it.

Enjoy.

BTW, Darren Auck is best known as a humor artist, writing and illustrating a number of tales for Marvel's What the--? (a humorous version of What if...?) and Ren & Stimpy!

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Vanguard Illustrated #1-6 Set

There's only one set available...and it's at a bargain price!

Perez Reading Room VANGUARD ILLUSTRATED "The Trains Belong to Us"

It's said that a good graphic story can be told without captions or dialogue!

This never-reprinted, cover-featured tale from Pacific's Vanguard Illustrated #6 (1984) is a damn (in more ways than one) good graphic story!

And you thought those who complained graffiti made cities look like hell were exaggerating...

Though both Cavaleri and Perez worked for DC for years before doing this short, this was their first (and, I believe, only) collaboration!

Thursday:

One of George's first published stories

Monday Mars Madness VANGUARD ILLUSTRATED "Be It What It Will, I'll Go To It Laughing"

A story's title based on a lesser-known line from Moby-Dick becomes appropriate...

...when you reach the last page of the story!

If you don't get the reference, Ray Bradbury penned the screenplay for the 1956 Moby Dick movie.
Written by David Campiti and illustrated by Tom Yeates, this never-reprinted story from Pacific Comics' Vanguard Illustrated #3 (1984) is a sincere tribute to Bradbury and other SF creators, though overwritten and a bit too "self-fanservice" for my taste.
The underappreciated Tom Yeates' superb artwork compensates for that, and makes reading it worthwhile.

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Green Shadows, White Whale

A Novel of Ray Bradbury's Adventures making Moby Dick with John Huston in Ireland