Friday Fun REX DEXTER OF MARS "Junk Room of Doom"

It's taking a helluva long time for Rex Dexter to reach the second-closest planet to Earth...

...and going through the Junk Room of Doom is not going to speed things up!

This tale from Fox's Mystery Men Comics #12 (1940), was reprinted in Fox's The Eagle #1 (1941), presumably because the strip was being moved over there to give the new title an already-established feature, but the editors changed their minds, and new features like Spider Queen and Joe Spook took over the back pages of The Eagle, instead!

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Monday Madness FANTASTIC COMICS "Space Smith Rescues Doctor Kum of Jupiter"

As Space Smith struggles to find an ongoing artist...

...Earth's criminal element is apparently going through a retro-fashion fad, wearing 1940s suits and fedoras!

Space and Diana save the President of the "Federated States of Earth"!
Does that mean he's the President of the whole Earth, or just a part of it?
The unknown writer and artist of this never-reprinted story from Fox's Fantastic Comics #13 (1940) never make it clear!

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Science Fiction Comics
Taylor History of Comics
Vol 3

Friday Fun REX DEXTER OF MARS "Revolt of the Robot Slaves of the Secret Planet"

Either Rex Dexter is the worst navigator in the history of space flight...

...or somebody (like creator/writer/artist Dick Breifer) is conspiring to keep him from getting home!

Considering Mars is the second-closest planet to Earth (Venus is closer, but it's in the other direction), where the hell is this unnamed world, anyway?
And why hasn't anyone noticed other ships and crews disappearing in this region of space?
This never-reprinted tale from Fox's Mystery Men Comics #11 (1940), offers no answers...

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Monday Madness FANTASTIC COMICS "Space Smith vs the Interplanetary Gold Pirates"

The artist round-robin continues as the Space Smith strip seeks a distinctive identity...

...and a bit of continuity consistency!

But this never-reprinted tale from Fox's Fantastic Comics #12 (1940) can't even keep the spelling of Space's girlfriend/aide Diana consistent, making her "Dianna"!
It's not a bad tale.
It just doesn't offer anything to separate Space from the numerous other space adventurers!

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Science Fiction Comics
Taylor History of Comics
Vol 3

Friday Fun REX DEXTER OF MARS "vs the Flame-Men of Emalf"

Rex Dexter seems to be taking a roundabout way from Earth to Mars...

...and his knack for being at the right place at the right time is unmatched!

"I'll be seeing you next issue to take you to Mars---"

Didn't he say that last issue?

Will Rex ever return to Mars?

Or will he become a Flying Dutchman of space?

Judging from this never-reprinted tale from Fox's Mystery Men Comics #10 (1940), it sure seems that way!

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Monday Madness FANTASTIC COMICS "Space Smith and the Sinister Saturnians"

The round-robin of writers and artists on this series continues...

...with more unknown creatives taking a crack at the interplanetary hero!

This tale from Fox's Fantastic Comics #11 (1940) has never been reprinted.
Pity, because it's a prime example of "compressed storytelling" that, if done today, would be a 20-page book-lengther...if not a two-parter!

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Science Fiction Comics
Taylor History of Comics
Vol 3

Friday Fun REX DEXTER OF MARS "on the Planet of Peace"

Rex Dexter makes the cover of Fox's Mystery Men Comics for the second (and last) time...

with this absolutely spectacular Lou Fine cover featuring aliens who never appear in the series!

BTW, if the first panel above looks familiar, it was used as clip art for the Rex text story as well as this ad!

Rex knows those people are doomed in this story from Fox's Mystery Men Comics #9 (1940), but thinking God might deliver a miracle assuages his conscience.

Dick Briefer's little morality play is pretty dead-on!

We are a savage species, and others would do well to avoid us.

In post-WWII science fiction, a number of tales involve more advanced civilizations wanting to quarantine/isolate us from the rest of the universe until we can prove peaceful intentions.

Not surprisingly, sometimes we fail...

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