Showing posts with label golden age. Show all posts
Showing posts with label golden age. Show all posts

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Easter Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Little Bunny"

Walt (Pogo) Kelly went into full-on "cute" mode with his holiday stories...
...including this never-reprinted one from Dell's Four Color ComicsEaster with Mother Goose #185 (1948)!

Besides doing an annual comic of Easter stories featuring fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters celebrating the holiday, Walt also did an even-more popular series of annual Christmas comics utilizing the same concept!

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN KEN BRADY: ROCKET PILOT "Boy Who Wasn't There!"

We met Captain Ken Brady and his co-pilot-sidekick Buzzy HERE...
...in his premiere appearance, conceived and produced by the co-creator of Superman and the definitive Bronze Age artist of Dracula!
This tale from Ziff-Davis' Lars of Mars #11 (1951) was written by Jerry Siegel and illustrated by Gene Colan.
It's both the character's second (and last) appearance and the second (and last issue) of the comic!
While the series isn't anything particularly innovative, it's a classic example of 1950s-style sci-fi.
And Gene, who was doing a little of everything from horror to romance to Westerns, showed his versatility with this too-brief strip's run.

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Secrets in the Shadows
Art and Life of Gene Colan
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Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Kirby Reading Room BLACK MAGIC "Slaughter-House!!"

If Republicans think finding employment is difficult now (hint: it isn't) ...

...imagine what it'd be like when your boss is a tentacled invading alien (which some Repugs believe Democrats actually are)!

This tale of interstellar labor relations from Prize Comics' Black Magic #31 (1954) was illustrated by the legendary duo of Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, though who penciled what and who inked what has been disputed by aficionados.
Personally, I think Kirby penciled and Simon inked.
As to who wrote it, since both Simon & Kirby co-edited the book, it's more than likely they both scripted it.
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Saturday, January 20, 2024

Space Heroine Saturdays GALE ALLEN OF THE WOMEN"S SPACE BATTALION/GIRL'S PATROL/GIRL PATROL

Ever see spaceships with...propellers???

Well, here they are, in the premiere appearance of one of the longest-running Space Heroine strips of the Golden Age!
Gale Allen's introductory tale (by currently-unknown creatives) from Fiction House's Planet Comics #4 (1940) sets the series in an unspecified future where interplanetary travel is accomplished by spaceships with wings and propellers!
My impression is that it was conceived as a "day after tomorrow" war strip, but was re-scripted as a futuristic sci-fi series...without modifying the art to match the script!
Oddly, Fiction House's Planet Comics #5 (1940), with art by Bob Powell, revamps the vehicles to look like spaceships, but turns the strip Earthbound, as an alien invasion force with a foothold in Europe and Africa attempts to conquer the rest of Terra...in the year 1990!
You'll also note an alteration in the second tale of the "balance of power" between the sexes, as a suddenly-competent Jeff Allen rescues Gale!
The next story, in Fiction House's Planet Comics #6 (1940), also illustrated by Bob Powell, ignores the fact the aliens still have the female pilots hostage...
With Blaga Daru (temporarily) imprisoned, the series will take yet another turn, as you'll see in a near-future post!
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Monday, January 15, 2024

Monday Madness DOC SAVAGE COMICS "Polar Treasure"

Our current arctic blast reminded me of the setting of an early Doc Savage novel...
...which was condensed into the shortest comics adaptation of any of the Man of Bronze's "supersagas" (as Phillip  Jose Farmer refers to them) we've ever seen!
Two notes:
1) the flying man on the cover is Ajax the Sun Man, who had his own strip in the book.
(Ajax is not in the Doc Savage tale.)
2) the story may be NSFW due to racial stereotypes common to the 1940s.
The first few issues of the 1940s Doc Savage Comics condensed and adapted Doc pulp novels.
This issue (#3 from 1941) took the 1933 pulp tale "Polar Treasure" and fit it into only eight pages!
Both writer and artist of the adaptation and cover are unknown.
Lester Dent wrote the original novel under the "Kenneth Robeson" house pen-name.
Trivia: both the original and paperback editions of the novel are #4 in their respective series.
Cover by Walter M Baumhaufer
Cover by Lou Feck or James Avati or Frank McCarthy
(After the first novel, "Man of Bronze", Bantam Books reprinted the stories out of original publication order, going with what they felt were the most exciting tales first.)
Bookmark us (if you haven't already) since we have a lot of cool never-reprinted material coming up this year!

Saturday, January 6, 2024

Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "Asteroid Battle!"

You thought we'd heard the last of evil Jagga the Space Raider?

Really?
Not only is he back, but displaying his chameleon-like ability to change color between the cover and the first page of his new battle with Our Hero...the "Monarch of the Airways" himself...Captain Midnight!
BTW, Jagga doesn't have chameleon-like abilities, though they'd probably come in handy.
The comic's editor didn't coordinate between the cover and interior colorists!
Not surprising, since the cover (by Charley Tomsey) and interior (by Leonard Frank) were likely prepped a couple of months apart.
And note that when the story and cover were reprinted in Australia...
...the Aussie editor had Jabba's coloring (somewhat) corrected!
Now, on with today's adventure...
Artist Leonard Frank and a presently-unknown writer continue the battle with Jagga in this tale from Fawcett's Captain Midnight #54 (1947).
And, yes, he'll be back...though what color he'll be, you'll have to wait and see!

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