Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ROCKET TO THE MOON Part 2

When Last We Left Our Spacegoing Hero...

...well, now you know the source material for the comic!

(And isn't that a kool Frank Frazetta cover?)

Brilliant young scientist Ted Dustin sends an unmanned test rocket to the Moon, and the inhabitants of the satellite, believing it to be an attack, respond with missiles of their own.

Despite being able to make video contact with the Moon people, the language barrier proves insurmountable and the bombardment of Earth continues.

In desperation, Dustin launches himself in an experimental rocket to the Moon...

Note: May be NSFW due to racial stereotypes common to eras of both the original novel and the comic.

What does Ted encounter?
Be here next Wednesday and find out!

This 1951 one-shot comic from Avon Comics was scripted by Walter (The Shadow) Gibson and illustrated by Joe Orlando and Wally Wood.

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ROCKET TO THE MOON Part 1

Here's a comic story adapted from a sci-fi high adventure novel...

...see if you can guess which one?

Hint: the comic's name is not the same as the novel's!

Note: May be NSFW due to racial stereotypes common to eras of both the original novel and the comic.

Be here next Wednesday, when the story truly lives up to its' title!

And, if you haven't figured out what novel this story is adapted from, you'll see the cover of the book!
(We'll give you a clue, the novel was written in the same era as Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter/Barsoom and Carson of Venus stories by an author who also wrote high adventure series set on Mars and Venus!
This 1951 one-shot comic from Avon Comics was scripted by Walter (The Shadow) Gibson and illustrated by Joe Orlando and Wally Wood, who shared penciling and inking duties! 

Reading Room JIM SOLAR: SPACE SHERIFF "Defeats the Moon Missile Men" Conclusion

When Last We Left the Space Sheriff...

To stop a group of outlaws hitting frontier settlements, a disguised Sheriff Solar joins a supply caravan and is captured by the criminals...

Buy, if there was ever proof that "space opera" was just "horse opera" with ray guns instead of six-shooters, this was it!

Veteran pulp and comics writer Walter Gibson (The Shadow) also wrote the space western series Spurs Jackson and His Space Vigilantes.

Artist E.C. Stoner (Blue Beetle) had a long career in both pulps and comics from the 1930s to the early 1960s.

Though he had illustrated both Doc Savage and Ajax the Sun Man for Street & Smith (which also published The Shadow), he didn't work with Walter Gibson until they teamed up on Blackstone the Magician for Vital Publications.

(Gibson was a close friend of Harry Blackstone, as well as being a a tlented amateur magician, and wrote all the comic stories based on the celebrity magician at the various publishers who licensed his character as well as scripts for the radio show and "how to do magic" books under Blackstone's name.)

Even after Blackstone moved to Atlas (later Marvel) Comics, and other artists took over, Gibson and  Stoner worked on other projects including these promo booklets for Vital.

Reading Room JIM SOLAR: SPACE SHERIFF "Defeats the Moon Missile Men" Part 1

From the 1950s comes this weirdly-formatted, never-reprinted strip...

...that was available only as a giveaway inside various products!

Be here tomorrow for the thrillling conclusion!

Created by writer Walter (The Shadow) Gibson and artist E.C. Stoner (Blue Beetle), this 7" x 3.5" comic was part of the Vital Publications line of promotional giveaways distributed by a variety of merchants inside their products' packaging.

This particular one was included in packages of Rodeo All-Meat Wieners...

Back cover

There were apparently eight other Jim Solar comics, but they're very HTF since they were "self-covered (fragile newsprint covers, like the inside pages, instead of the heavy slick magazine paper most comics use for covers) and included with food products, whose juices would damage the paper!

POW! THWOK! BIFF! Holy Heroes! It's The Shadow in the Swinging '60s!

With the revival of interest in The Shadow at Dynamite Entertainment (as well as the reprints of the pulps from Nostalgia Ventures), we'd like to remind you about a little project of ours now running at our brother RetroBlog™, Hero Histories™, are the never-reprinted Silver Age stories of The Shadow.
Believe me, the cover of the first issue, shown above, doesn't do it justice.  ;-)
It's based on a series of new novels from Belmont Books that ran from 1964-67.
The first was by the pulp Shadow's creator, Walter Gibson. The rest were by Dennis Lynds.
None of these books have ever been reprinted, either!
Here's the covers for the complete run of the paperbacks, in chronological order...

The ONLY time Gibson DOESN'T use the MAXWELL GRANT pen-name!

Check out the Adventures of the Silver Age Shadow!

(It ain't what you think!)

Cover Preview: THE SHADOW #17

Some covers need no captions or explanation...

...like this beautiful work by Francesco Francavilla for the alternate cover for #17 of Dynamite's Shadow comic book!

BTW, if you want more The Shadow stuff, have a look at...

The never-reprinted 1994 Alec Baldwin movie adaptation HERE!
1994?
Has it been 19 years already?
Wow!
(PLUS, a never-reprinted Gene Colan-illustrated spoof of The Shadow radio show called "The Shadower", and a comic adaptation of an actual radio show episode HERE!)

The Shadow's never-reprinted Bronze Age adventures with The Batman and The Avenger as well as never-reprinted Frank Robbins-illustrated stories (as well as the first part of the Shadow radio show adaptation) HERE!

Finally, The Shadow's never-reprinted, campy costumed Silver Age adventures HERE!

THE SHADOW Cover Previews!

Who Knows What Evil...?

The amazing Francesco Francavilla does, as this alternate cover for #15 of Dynamite's Shadow comic book demonstrates!

If that doesn't convince you, maybe the alt cover for #16 will do the trick...

BTW, if you want more The Shadow stuff, have a look at...

The never-reprinted 1994 Alec Baldwin movie adaptation HERE!
(PLUS, a never-reprinted Gene Colan-illustrated spoof of The Shadow radio show called "The Shadower", and a comic adaptation of an actual radio show episode HERE!)

The Shadow's never-reprinted Bronze Age adventures with The Batman and The Avenger as well as never-reprinted Frank Robbins-illustrated stories (as well as the first part of the Shadow radio show adaptation) HERE!

Finally, The Shadow's never-reprinted, campy costumed Silver Age adventures HERE!