Showing posts with label jerry siegel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jerry siegel. Show all posts

Saturday, September 27, 2025

Space Hero Saturdays CRUSADER FROM MARS "Mission Through Space"

Lars of Mars wasn't the only Martian Sent to Fight Evil on Earth by Jerry (Superman) Siegel!
This guy, along with a female "friend and companion" was sent to Earth to do similar work...but for a very different reason!
If I follow the "logic" of this concept correctly, the Martians send a proven murderer (along with someone who may be either an accessory to murder or an innocent who had nothing to do with the crime except having a murderer obsessed with her) to fight evil on Earth.
Send a convicted killer with emotional control issues (and advanced weaponry) to a primitive planet and tell him to clean it up?
And then, when he screws up. send a fleet of flying saucers in to straighten out the mess.
(Martians apparently don't have a non-interference Prime Directive.)
Also note that the American military seems to be made up of idiot bureaucrats!
The writer for this premiere tale from Crusader from Mars #1 (1952) is unknown, but probably is the book's editor, Jerry (Superman) Siegel, who co-created another short-lived Martian crime-fighter, Lars of Mars, the year before.
The artist is believed to be Marvin Stein, but the layouts have a strong Jack Kirby feel to them.
Considering Stein was doing a lot of work for the Simon/Kirby studio at the time, and Jack was reputed to be very generous in terms of helping his friends, it seems likely he provided roughs for Stein to render full pencils and inks over.
BTW, you may note that Tarka wears a very Superman-style costume in this tale, but on the cover, and in the next (and last) issue, the colors are reversed.
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Sunday, September 7, 2025

Sunday Sports Special LARS OF MARS "Crucial Game"

Even a Martian pretending to be a TV actor playing a Martian reveres the Great American Pastime...

...and won't allow anybody to sully or demean the sport's image...even if it means cheating to do so!

The ends justify the means even if it involves alien manipulation of peoples' minds, eh?
Great lesson for kids!
Written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, illustrated by noted DC Comics artist Murphy Anderson, this tale appeared in Ziff-Davis' Lars of Mars #11 (1951), the second (and last issue) of the series!
Considering the moral lessons the series apparently taught, perhaps it was for the best...
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Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder WEIRD THRILLERS "Cycle of Time"

With the revived popularity of dinosaurs due to the new movie Jurassic World: Rebirth...
...we're re-presenting one of our favorite stories; a sci-fi triple-treat: time travel, aliens, and dinosaurs!
Illustrated by Murphy Anderson, who was doing quite a bit of work for ZD including the second issue of Space Busters and both issues of Lars of Mars as well as various one-shots like this one from the HTF Ziff-Davis' anthology Weird Thrillers #2 (1951)!.
We don't know who wrote this tale, but it might be series editor Jerry (Superman) Siegel.

Friday, May 2, 2025

Friday Fun FAIRY TALES "Belling the Cat" "Boy Who Cried Wolf!" "Lion and the Mouse"

Here's trio of never-reprinted one-pagers from Ziff-Davis' short-lived Fairy Tales!
A short based on the classic folktale rendered in a very Walt Kelly-esque style from Ziff-Davis' Fairy Tales #11 (1951)!
Short but effective, this re-telling of the parable/fable, also from Fairy Tales #11, was the inside back cover feature, which is why it's b/w instead of four-color!
The inside front cover of Fairy Tales #10 (which is actually the first issue) presents an adaption of one of Aesop's Fables, not a "fairy tale", per se!
We don't know who the creatives are, but we're willing to bet the writer/adapter is the comic's editor, Jerry (Superman) Siegel!
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Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Reading Room MYSTERY IN SPACE "Space Baby"

No, it's not a story about Don (da Con) Trump and his "Space Force"...
...but a never-reprinted Silver Age tale by Jerry (Superman) Siegel and Gil (Green Lantern) Kane!
Notice how, on the cover of DC's Mystery In Space #101 (1965), astronaut Ron "Babyface"Trent looks like a young adult rather than (like he does inside) a kid?
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Saturday, March 16, 2024

Space Hero Saturdays LARS OF MARS "Secret Origin"

What if 1950s sci-fi shows like Captain Video or Space Patrol were real?
 Or if the aliens shown on the screen were real aliens?
And what if the alien was the Space Hero???
As you've just read, that was the premise of the short-lived (two issues) Ziff-Davis series Lars of Mars!
Created by Jerry (Superman) Siegel and Murphy (Buck Rogers) Anderson, this premiere story from the first issue of his own title (which, oddly enough,  was #10!) established the somewhat-silly premise.
During his run, Lars battled Commies, crooks, and other interplanetary aliens while protecting his "secret identity" from his nosy producer (who bore a disturbing resemblance to Lois Lane).
You'll be seeing all of Lars' stories here (including his final tale from the 1980s (in 3-D, no less) in the future.
Watch for them!
Trivia:
The cover paintings for both issues of Lars of Mars were painted by Allen Anderson...who was not related to interior artist Murphy Anderson!
Here's a "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon"-style factoid (done in only four degrees)...
  • 1) Ziff-Davis also published a short-lived adaptation of an actual 1950s sci-fi tv series, Space Patrol, illustrated by Bernie Krigstein.
  • 2) Krigstein illustrated the first issue of another Ziff-Davis sci-fi series: Space Busters!
  • 3) Bernie was replaced on interior art for the second (and final) issue of Space Busters by...Murphy Anderson!
  • 4) Allen Anderson did the painted cover for the Space Busters issue (#2) illustrated by Murphy! (Norm Saunders had painted #1's cover!)
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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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