Space Force Saturdays ROCKY JONES: SPACE RANGER "Space Infantry"

With the school year over and kids off to summer vacation...

...lets look at the never-revealed school days of the newest space hero in our line up, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger!

Sneaky little SoB, ain't he?

Wonder if he had a classmate named James Tiberius Kirk?
BTW, the character's Space Academy days were never shown on TV.
The series, set in 2054, started with him already an officer!

Scripter of this never-reprinted, totally-original tale from Charlton's Space Adventures #15 (1955) is unknown, but the art is by Ted Galindo, a journeyman artist who did work for Charlton, Prize, and Gold Key from the mid-1950s to mid-1960s.

Oddly, Charlton didn't give Rocky Jones his own title, as most publishers did with licensed characters, but inserted him into the already-established Space Adventures comic for four issues (and gave him the cover each issue).

The tv series itself was a weekly filmed series, not a live videotaped daily series like Captain Video or Tom Corbett: Space Cadet, giving it a slightly "slicker" look (and better special effects) than most of the competitors.

It was syndicated, and ran for 39 episodes over two seasons.

All of the eps are three-part stories and were re-edited into feature-length films which were released to syndication in the 1960s, after the series had ended its' run.

Almost all are available on DVD and two of them, Crash of the Moons and Manhunt in Space, were roasted on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Rocky Jones will return in the near future...

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Rocky Jones: Space Ranger Collection

Featuring Six Three-Episode Compilation Movies

(That's almost half the TV series in one set!)

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Friday Fun FROM HERE TO INSANITY "Build It Yourself"

In the pre-Ikea era, assembling/building your own furniture successfully was a rarity...

...as writer/artist Jack Kirby points out!

This never-reprinted tale from Charlton's From Here to Insanity V1N11 (1955) spoofs the do-it-yourself mania that spread across post-war America thanks to magazines like Popular Mechanics and Mechanix Illustrated.

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Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Last Ship from Earth"

Ever hear the phrase "Damned if you do, damned if you don't"?

Well, Commander MacKenzie Smith is about to live it!

This never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Space Adventures V2N32 (1960) asks the questions: "What happens if the cure is worse than the disease?" and "Do you blame the person who found/brought you the cure?"

Sadly, even the Grand Comics Database isn't sure who created this story, though they propose two prolific Charlton contributors, writer Joe Gill and artist Bill Montes as the creatives.

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Monday Madness GHOSTLY TALES "Anywhere Machine!"

This starts out as a hard sci-fi adventure...

...but it ends as an entirely different genre!

The title of the comic should tip you off as to what genre!

At this point, Charlton had cancelled their sci-fi anthologies, so this story by writer Nick Cuti, layout artist Wally Wood, and penciler-inker Tom Sutton ended up in Ghostly Tales #107 (1973)!
You'll note the addition of the book's host, Mr L Dead, to the splash and a couple of captions.

When the tale was reprinted in Charlton's revived Space War #30 (1978)...

...Deth was gone!

Note: the cover by Wayne Howard, who started his career working for Wally Wood, has never been reprinted!

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Reading Room SPACE WAR "Comeback"

What's cooler than re-presenting an over six decade-old never-reprinted Steve Ditko story?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

I love what I do!

And, as they say, if you love what you do, it ain't work!

Written by Joe Gill and illustrated by Steve Ditko, this story from Charlton's Space War #10 (1961) has some weird "echoes" of the origin of Captain Atom II in Charlton's Space Adventures #33 (1960)...by the same creatives!

(We showed it HERE!)

Could this story have been created before "Introducing Captain Atom" and held in inventory until a slot opened up?
We'll never know...

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What Do Trumpettes Talk About When They Wait in Line to Get Into a Rally?

Likely something like this...

...and this!

Both these two-page spreads are from Charlton's Hee Haw comics derived from the syndicated TV series.

These examples of the show's humor were written and illustrated by Frank Roberge and based on an ongoing skit featuring the entire cast (plus guest stars) in a cornfield popping up and doing jokes and one-liners!

The TV show ran a surprising twenty-six seasons from 1969 to 1995, though the comic only lasted for seven (never-reprinted) issues!

Monday Madness CRAZY, MAN, CRAZY "Pocket Book Covers"

How do we get today's would-be readers to actually read the "classics"?

Do what artist Vince Fodera and an unknown writer suggest in this never-reprinted two-page spread from Charlton's MAD Magazine clone Crazy Man Crazy V2N2 (1956)...

BTW, "pocket books" were how what we now call mass-market paperbacks were referred to until the 1960s!

In fact, the first American mass-market publisher to use the format (in 1939) was named "Pocket Books"...a name they utilize to this day!

Who says comics ain't educational???

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Friday Fun THIS MAGAZINE IS CRAZY "Fact Realism vs TV is 'em Real"

Old West humor, illustrated by the legendary Jack Davis...

...but NOT from MAD!

It's from Charlton's This Magazine is CRAZY! V4N8, a MAD imitator which lasted only seven issues!

Both as a color comic and a b/w magazine, MAD inspired many imitators.

Some, like Cracked, are going even today (albeit on-line, not in print).
Others, like This Magazine is CRAZY, were short-lived, but able, from time to time, to get work from MAD's regular contributors, almost all of whom were freelancers.
This particular piece from 1959 apparently was a satirical response to TV's sanitizing the images of both cowboys and Indians in ongoing series.
Westerns were the most popular scripted genre at the time, dominating almost half of both the prime time and syndicated schedules.
The writer is, regrettably, unknown but it could be Davis himself, who utilized this format in both issues of his own short-lived color comic humor anthology Yak Yak, as seen HERE and HERE!

The writer is, regrettably, unknown.

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Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "Conquered Earth"

Ever wonder if Steve Ditko could do Jack Kirby-style epic star-spanning storytelling?

Well, wonder no more, True Believer!

Illustrated by Ditko, written, most likely, by Joe Gill, this tale was tucked in the back of Charlton's Out of This World #4 (1957), which featured three Ditko-rendered stories out of four tales!

Ah, those were the days...

When the story was reprinted in Charlton's Space War #31 (1978), it was finally cover-featured, with the cover for a different (and still never-reprinted) Ditko-illustrated tale...

...which we re-presented a couple of days ago, as shown HERE!

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Unexplored Worlds

Steve Ditko Archives, Vol 2