Best of Reading Room WEIRD WORLDS "Space Vampires"

How did the cover-featured tale from Avon's Strange Worlds #4 (1951)...

...end up being used (almost verbatim) in Eerie Publications' Weird Worlds #V1N10 (1970)?

Eerie Publications had been using photostats and negatives from defunct comics companies as the source material for their b/w magazine line.

About a year in, they started using South American artists eager to break into the comics market and American artists like Dick Ayers and Chic Stone who were losing work as the Silver Age ended and comics companies cut back their lines, to re-do old stories with a more contemporary style.

Some illustrators totally-redid the art, using new "camera angles" and clothing/technology designs reflecting contemporary tastes.

In this particular case, artist Cirilo Munoz just lightboxed and re-inked the existing Wally Wood/Joe Orlando artwork!

Editor Carl (Golden Age Human Torch) Burgos rewrote the opening captions and changed the hero's name, but otherwise left Gardner Fox's original script intact.

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Best of Reading Room KENTON OF THE STAR PATROL "Sirens of Space"

Kenton goes hand-to-hand with space pirates...

...and to think he gets paid to do this sort of stuff!
Where do I sign up for the Star Patrol?

This Kenton story from Avon's Strange Worlds #5 (1951) demonstrates Joe Orlando and Wally Wood's talent for rendering both exotic machinery and beautiful women.
It's also their final Kenton story, but not their final work on the character.
He did the cover for the next issue, which features the final tale in the Kenton series, but illustrated by another artist!
You'll see that one on Monday!

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Best of Reading Room KENTON OF THE STAR PATROL "Alien Raiders"

When interstellar crime occurs, there's only one man to call...

...as this exciting tale from Avon's Strange Planets #3 (1951) demonstrates!

This second Kenton story is Joe Orlando and Wally Wood's first work on the strip (Joe Kubert illustrated the character's first appearance).

Orlando and Wood would subsequently do all but the last Kenton tale, despite a very hectic schedule in 1951, including other Avon Comics work, illustrating the ongoing Captain Science strip plus miscellaneous short stories for Youthful Publishing, and numerous EC Comics assignments in various genres, before going exclusively to EC for a couple of years.

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Reading Room TEEN BEAM "Monkees Family Album"

As we mentioned earlier, the 2nd (and last) issue of DC's Teen Beat/Beam had comics/cartoons...

Here are Joe Orlando's renderings of TV's Monkees...

This wide shot was published sideways on one page.

We've swung it 90 degrees to its' proper orientation.

This is a two-page spread with a very rare (at the time) "gutter bleed"

There are a couple of unrelated single page strips, which you'll see tomorrow!

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My Groovy Life with Tiger Beat's Teen Idols!

Reading Room: CAPTAIN SCIENCE "Science vs Sorcery"

Comic book space adventurers were a dime-a-dozen in the 1950s...

...but none had better art than Captain Science!

Wow, a story where Arabs are actually good guys!

Wally Wood and Joe Orlando did the art for this tale from Youthful's Captain Science #5 (1951), and you can tell they were having the time of their lives, as they cut loose with some of the wildest stuff ever to grace sci-fi comic books.

Unlike the earlier Captain Science stories, which have never been reprinted, these Orlando/Wood stories have been re-published all over the place, but they're still well-worth seeing again!

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Reading Room: SPACE DETECTIVE "Mole-Woman of Jupiter"

When Last We Left Avenger (aka Space Detective) and Teena...

Now, continue with the story...

Nobody's been able to identify the writer or artist(s) of this finale of a kool 3-part tale from Avon's Space Detective #3 (1952).
Personally, I see elements of Wally Wood, Joe Orlando, and Joe Kubert in the art, but nothing definitive.

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Reading Room: SPACE DETECTIVE "Sea Nymphs of Neptune"

When Last We Left Avenger and Teena...

...called in to investigate a series of thefts involving rare space pearls, the Space Detective and his aide board the space liner Star Arrow to protect a shipment of pearls.
They encounter Chameleon, a criminal using a theatrical troupe as cover for his pearl smuggling ring.
Though Avenger and Teena smash the ring, Chameleon escapes with Teena's pearl necklace...

Tomorrow:

Avenger vs Chamelon!

Nobody's been able to identify the writer or artist(s) of this opener of a kool 3-part tale from Avon's Space Detective #3 (1952).
Personally, I see elements of Wally Wood, Joe Orlando, and Joe Kubert in the art, but nothing definitive.

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