It's Palm Sunday! Did You Know the Very First Captain of the USS Enterprise...

...was Jesus Christ?

Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus Christ in King of Kings (1961)

 Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike with Leonard Nimoy as Mr Spock in Star Trek "The Cage" (1964)

Here's"six degrees of separation" trivia in only five degrees:

• John Huston, who later did a prequel movie, The Bible: In the Beginning, directed Moby Dick, using a screenplay adapted by Ray Bradbury from the Herman Melville novel.
• Ray Bradbury wrote the voiceovers in King of Kings spoken by Orson Welles.
• Welles' The Shadow and Mercury Theatre radio series co-star Agnes Moorehead served as dialogue coach to  Jeffrey Hunter (Jesus Christ) in King of Kings.
• Jeffrey Hunter later played Christopher Pike, the first captain of the Starship Enterprise in the pilot episode of Star Trek, "The Cage".
• Star Trek did an episode, "Bread and Circuses", about a planet where parallel evolution produced a society that resembled a 20th Century version of the Roman Empire, complete with it's own "Christians" and Jesus Christ (who doesn't appear on-camera, but is mentioned in dialogue)!

Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN VIDEO "Dark Side of the Moon" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

Aliens operating on the Dark Side of the Moon plan to attack Earth, and only Captain Video (with the Video Ranger) can stop them...

You may ask, "What's so special about this? It's typical sci-fi."
And you'd be right.
Except, due to their extremely low-budget nature, the Captain Video TV show and movie serial showed aliens who looked like this...

The "alien invasion force" from Captain Video; the Serial.
Note Captain Video (Judd Holdren) and the Ranger on the left in "clever" disguises.

Only in the comic, unencumbered by financial or special effect restrictions, was the full, unfettered potential of the concept realized.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Captain Video

Complete Comic Book Series

Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN VIDEO "Dark Side of the Moon" Part 1

Captain Aero and Captain Midnight were not the only "captains" to journey into outer space!

Ed Norton's idol, TV's first Space Hero, takes on evil wherever it threatens Mankind, even the Moon!

From Fawcett's Captain Video #5 (1951)...

To Be Concluded...
NEXT SATURDAY!
Pencils by George Evans, inks by Martin Thall!

Sadly, the writer is unknown!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Buy...

Captain Video

Complete Comic Book Series

Good Friday Fun: Did You Know the First Captain of the USS Enterprise...

...was Jesus Christ?

Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus Christ in King of Kings (1961)

 Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike with Leonard Nimoy as Mr Spock in Star Trek "The Cage" (1964)

Here's"six degrees of separation" trivia...
...in only five degrees:

• John Huston, who later did a prequel movie, The Bible: In the Beginning, directed Moby Dick, using a screenplay adapted by Ray (Martian Chronicles) Bradbury from the Herman Melville novel.
• Ray Bradbury wrote the voiceovers in King of Kings spoken by Orson Welles.
• Orson Welles' The Shadow and Mercury Theatre co-star Agnes Moorehead served as dialogue coach to  Jeffrey Hunter (Jesus Christ) in King of Kings.
• Jeffrey Hunter later played Christopher Pike, the first captain of the Starship Enterprise in the pilot episode of Star Trek, "The Cage".
• Star Trek did an episode, "Bread and Circuses", about a planet where parallel evolution produced a society that resembled a 20th Century version of the Roman Empire, complete with it's own "Christians" and Jesus Christ (who doesn't appear on-camera, but is mentioned in dialogue)!

Reading Room GREEN PLANET Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

Art by Dick Giordano

Exiled by the repressive government of Earth, Jason Tolliver and other dissenters are shipped to the planet Klorath in a far distant solar system where a colony of rebels led by Tolliver's father had been established.

Upon arrival at the so-called "Green Planet", they discover a partially-completed colony encampment, totally-deserted.

The new arrivals cautiously move into the camp, and utilize the supplies to finish the camp and grow food.

Within a couple of weeks, the camp is completed and the first crop ready to harvest, but an attack by a giant pterodactyl-like creature on the farmers provides a possible answer to the fate of the previous Earthmen.

Following the creature to its' nest on a nearby cliff, Jason encounters another human...but not one of the Earthmen!

Tolliver and the fur-garbed man fight off an attack by one of the pterodactyls, then go their separate ways, having conquered a common foe, but unable to communicate.

Jason returns to the camp, calls a meeting and informs the others that they are not alone on the Green Planet...

For those who say classic sci-fi was just Westerns with spaceships instead of horses, this story, with its' "pioneers and native inhabitants" concept seems to prove them correct, albeit with a much happier ending than most settler-Indian encounters in the real Old West.

Penciled by Charles Nicholas, inked by Vince Alascia using the combined pen-name "Nicholas Alascia".

Based on the 1960 Monarch Books novel by J Hunter Holly (Joan Carol Holly), the writer of the comic adaptation is unknown.
Note: Charlton Comics and Monarch Books were divisions of the same company, much as Archie Comics and Belmont Books were also owned by the same people.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Green Planet

by J Hunter Holly

Reading Room GREEN PLANET Part 1

Based on a then-recent (1960) novel by J Hunter Holly...

...which is mentioned nowhere in the comic itself or on the cover!

Go figure!

But, what is the answer?

Be here Thursday for the startling conclusion!

Penciled by Charles Nicholas, inked by Vince Alascia using the combined pen-name "Nicholas Alascia".

Based on the 1960 Monarch Books novel by J Hunter Holly (Joan Carol Holly), the writer of the comic adaptation is unknown.
Note: Charlton Comics and Monarch Books were divisions of the same company, much as Archie Comics and Belmont Books were also owned by the same people.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Green Planet

by J Hunter Holly

Did You Know the First Captain of the USS Enterprise...

...was Jesus Christ?

Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus Christ in King of Kings (1961)

 Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike with Leonard Nimoy as Mr Spock in Star Trek "The Cage" (1964)
Here's"six degrees of separation" trivia in only five degrees:

• John Huston, who later did a prequel movie, The Bible: In the Beginning, directed Moby Dick, using a screenplay adapted by Ray Bradbury from the Herman Melville novel.
• Ray Bradbury wrote the voiceovers in King of Kings spoken by Orson Welles.
• Welles' The Shadow and Mercury Theatre co-star Agnes Moorehead served as dialogue coach to  Jeffrey Hunter (Jesus Christ) in King of Kings.
• Jeffrey Hunter later played Christopher Pike, the first captain of the Starship Enterprise in the pilot episode of Star Trek, "The Cage".
• Star Trek did an episode, "Bread and Circuses", about a planet where parallel evolution produced a society that resembled a 20th Century version of the Roman Empire, complete with it's own "Christians" and Jesus Christ (who doesn't appear on-camera, but is mentioned in dialogue)!

Happy New Year!

Why not celebrate the New Year with the most famous time-travel story of all?

HG Wells' The Time Machine...

...and Alex Toth's never-reprinted adaptation of the classic George Pal movie at our "brother" blog Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™?

Monday Mars Madness WAR OF THE WORLDS "Part V: End of the Invaders"

When Last We Left Our Alien Overlords...

(This was Dave Cockrum's presentation piece for the Martians and their tripods, looking decidedly-different from the aliens and war machines from the then-recently cancelled Killraven: Warrior of the Worlds series!)

You know the story.

Guy meets alien!

Alien conquers planet!

Alien suddenly ghosts guy...

Overall, not a bad job by the creatives, eh?

The Marvel Classic Comics series ran 36 issues from 1976 to 1978, the first 12 of which were reprints of the b/w Pendulum Press Now Age Books comic adaptations of literary classics which had been sold directly to schools and libraries.

(Note: Classics Illustrated had ended in 1971, leaving a void in the retail comic market that Marvel attempted to fill.

Sadly, sales of the books after the reprints in 1-12 didn't warrant continuing the ambitious project.

The Direct Sales/Comic Book Shop market was just beginning, and if the project had survived another couple of years, it might have found a successful niche, but the timing was off.)

Like Classics Illustrated, the Marvel adaptations included text pieces about the original authors...

...and other goodies like the Dave Cockrum model sheet seen at the beginning of this post!

The adaptations featuring new material (13-36) have never been reprinted in America.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

War of the Worlds

Illustrated by Alex Nino

Pendulum Press/Now Age Books