Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "Beyond the Sun"

If a Hero is Judged by the Quality of His Arch-Enemies...

...Captain Midnight has just made a quantum leap from "space pirate" to "ruler of an entire planet"!

Scientific note: though it was known to the scientific community since the 1930s that Saturn, like Jupiter was a gas giant, science fiction/fantasy stories continued to show them as large planets similar to Earth, but with heavy cloud cover that prevented observation of the surface!
Illustrated by Leonard Frank, Fawcett's Captain Midnight #64 (1948) introduces Cap's second (and final) alien arch-enemy, Xog: Ruler of Saturn!
You'll see more of him next month!

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Captain Midnight Saves the World!

(Which includes this story)

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Friday Fun P.S. "Guys in the Trick Suits"

During the Era of Batmania (In the 1960s)...

...mass market magazines oriented towards the over-30 crowd (who apparently had forgotten their childhoods only a decade or two earlier), sought an explanation as to the appeal of comic books to the under-30 crowd.

P.S., a short-lived magazine (only three issues) dedicated to nostalgia, brought in William F Nolan, a noted science fiction writer with numerous teleplays and short stories to his credit.

You've read his piece, written and published just after the Batman TV series debuted in January, 1966.

What do you think of his look back at his childhood during the Golden Age?
Note: A year after this, Nolan, in collaboration with George Clayton Johnson, wrote the novel Logan's Run.

Remember INAPAK, the Amazing Chocolate Drink?

Bosco?

Bah!

Quik?

Crap!

Ovaltine?

Ewww!

You want serious chocolate flavor in your milk?

Here it is...

It must be true!

Major Inapak says so!

And Major Inapak wouldn't lie!

In fact, he uses science to prove his point...

Major Inapak returns to tell the Youth of America what to do...

You'll pardon me while I scamper out to the supermarket to get a box!

Be back Thursday for more on...Inapak!

Friday Fun BABE "Dora Dumm"

Yes, It's "Politically-Incorrect"...

...but this never-reprinted short is not as bad as you might think!

Illustrated and likely written by Dick Briefer, who was in the middle of his humorous revival of the Frankenstein Monster for Prize Comics!

This sole appearance of Dora Dumm appeared in tbe back of the premiere issue of Boody Rogers' female version of Li'l Abner, Prize Comics' Babe #1 (1948).

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The Mad Science of Dick Briefer

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Space Hero Saturdays SPACE ACE "Nothing Weapon!"

Buckle Up for EXCITEMENT in the Far-Flung Reaches of Space...

...as Magazine Enterprise's Space Ace 2.5 makes his initial appearance, and he's looking good!

Al Williamson does the penciling, showing off his superb design and anatomy skills.
The inking is by Williamson plus the legendary Fleagle Gang (Frank Frazetta, Angelo Torres, Roy Krenkel, George Woodbridge).
If that weren't enough, the script is by Gardner Fox, taking the somewhat more juvenile concepts of "Space Ace 2.0" (as seen HERE and HERE) and making them a superb example of classic, epic space opera.

BONUS #1: the original art for page one...

Is that magnificent, or what? ;-)

Bonus #2

This story in 3-D

Get your Red/Blue glasses out...

From 3-D Zone #10 (1988)
"ZoneVision" conversion by Ray Zone.

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Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "Flying Saucers of Death!"

Though He Doesn't Go into Outer Space in This Post...

...the "Sentinel of the Spaceways" does take on flying saucers like The Shadow, Buck Rogers. and Spurs Jackson before him!

Trivia: The insignia shown in the final panel are from the US Army Air Corps, the predecessor to the US Air Force....which was formed in September, 1947.

But, though the cover date is 1948, the story was written and illustrated around summer 1947...before the official creation of the Air Force!

Dr Osmosis had appeared once before, in Fawcett's Captain Midnight #52 (1947).
Intended to be an ongoing genius criminal arch-enemy to Cap, his career was derailed by the introduction of colorful alien enemies to battle Midnight.
Dr Osmosis would appear twice more, then disappear into the ether!

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Captain Midnight Saves the World!

(Which includes this story)

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Reading Room CAPTAIN 3-D "Man From the World of 'D'" IN COLOR!

You won't need a pair of red/blue 3-D glasses to read this version of...

...as presented in the hardcover anthology Simon & Kirby SuperHeroes from Titan Books, restored from scans of both the original art and first-generation photostats used in the original book's production in 1953.

...and here's the original text intro to the character...

(For this you will need 3-D glasses.)

BTW, if you want to see the original 3-D version of this tale, click HERE!

Script by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Art by Jack Kirby (pencils) and Joe Simon, Mort Meskin and Steve Ditko (inks).
Taking comic book line art and modifying it to produce a 3-D effect with red and blue colored art was technically simple, so almost every company attempted at least one 3-D book between 1952-55.
Most were 3-D versions of existing comics including Superman, Batman, Tales from the Crypt, even Katy Keene.
However, Captain 3-D was the Simon & Kirby team's attempt to jump on the 3-D bandwagon with NEW material.
As you've just read, Captain 3-D had both a cool premise and nice set-up, playing up the use of glasses to both empower the hero and perceive villains. (The John Carpenter movie They Live! used a similar gimmick)
Unfortunately, a legal battle involving the 3-D process all but killed the financial viability of producing 3-D books, and, though material was already finished, there was never a second issue of Captain 3-D!

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