Monday Mars Madness ATTACK ON PLANET MARS "Chapter 3: Fugitives from the WarLord"

We Have Already Seen...

Art by Joe Kubert

Wow, that pretty well covers it, so let's dive into the action!

Be Here Next Monday for the Earth...er...Mars-Shaking Finale!

Based on the novel Tarrano the Conqueror by Ray Cummings, this chapter of the 1951 comic adaptation was penciled by Carmine Infantino and inked by Vince Alascia.

The writer of the adaptation is unknown.

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Tarrano the Conquerer

by Ray Cummings

Monday Mars Madness ATTACK ON PLANET MARS "Chapter One: Tarrano Strikes"

In the 1950s Avon did a number of one-shot comic books...

...based on sci-fi novels.

While most were of tales (then) recently-reprinted by their paperback division,  this one was not.

Does a Fate Worse than Death Await Elza?

And...What is Tarrano's Plan?

Be Here Next Monday to Find Out!

Based on the novel Tarrano the Conqueror by Ray Cummings, this chapter of the 1951 comic adaptation was penciled by Carmine Infantino and inked by Joe Kubert, the team who would illustrate the first Silver Age Flash story in DC's Showcase #4 several years later!

The writer of the adaptation is unknown.

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Weird Horrors and Daring Adventures

Joe Kubert Archives

...which reprints only this chapter of the story, since it's the only one in the book that Kubert worked on!

(But there's lots of other kool stuff by the legendary editor/writer/artist in the book, so it's a must-have for any comics fan's library!)

Monday Mars Madness MAN FROM S.R.A.M. "vs the Devil Man from S.U.N.E.V.!"

A couple of weeks ago we presented the Man from S.R.A.M. in his only published adventure!

...but there's one more tale to be told...that wasn't told!

Written by Otto Binder (with re-write by Editor Joe Simon?) and illustrated by George Tuska, this story produced for Harvey's never-published Jigsaw #3 features a different Martian form for the protaganist, as well as a different vehicle from the previous chapter!
At the same time, Tuska also drew all three issues of Harvey's SpyMan, another cross-genre (super hero/spy/sci-fi) series just before moving on to a long run as Marvel's primary Silver Age Iron Man artist after Gene Colan!

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Hero-a-Go-Go

Campy Comic Books, Crimefighters, and Culture of the Swinging Sixties

Monday Mars Madness (JOURNEY INTO) UNKNOWN WORLDS "End of the Earth"

There's a lot of never-reprinted Atlas/Marvel comics out there...

...including almost all of this anthology series!

By not accepting handouts from others, mankind is taught to, once more, be self-sufficient! 

Earth will not be a welfare state!
One other point: though the city containing all surviving humans is in Africa, there aren't any non-white people there!

Illustrated by Vernon Henkel, this never-reprinted cover and feature from Atlas' Unknown Worlds #36 (1950) is typical of sci-fi comics of the 1940s-early 1950s (pre-EC Comics' sci-fi line)

BTW, though the book is #36, it's really the first issue!

The previous issues were titled Teen Comics, before that, All-Teen Comics, and before that, All-Winners Comics!

Also note, I called it "Unknown Worlds", even though the cover says "Journey into Unknown Worlds"!

The indicia (which lists the actual title in official records) leaves out the "Journey into...", so that's what we, and indexers, go by.

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Mars in the Movies

A History

Monday Mars Madness MAN FROM S.R.A.M. "Madhouse in Hollywood!"

In the Silver Age, comics mixed genres with wild abandon...

...as this tale, which combines no less than three of them demonstrates, albeit a bit ham-handedly!

When the protaganist has to spend half the story explaining his name, you know the writer's really desperate.

Which is surprising since the guy who penned this tale is Otto Binder, a prolific sci-fi writer who not only scripted classic Superman and Golden Age Captain Marvel stories (including The Monster Society of Evil serial!), but also wrote the first Marvel Comics novel, The Avengers Versus the Earth-Wrecker!

But this never-reprinted, Carl Pfeufer-illustrated tale from Harvey's Jigsaw #2 (1966) is so incredibly-silly that it's surprising Binder was so over-the-top!

Personally, I suspect editor Joe Simon rewrote the story, inserting the SRAM = MARS explanation on practically every page.

Note: Though identified as "Jigsaw" in the indicia, the book's working title was apparently "Big Hero Adventures", which appears as a sub-title on both issues' covers and title pages as well as on the original art for the first issue.

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Hero-a-Go-Go

Campy Comic Books, Crimefighters, and Culture of the Swinging Sixties

Monday Mars Madness VENUS COMICS "Invasion from Mars!"

Orson Welles wasn't the only one to tell this tale...

...but this never-reprinted story takes a slightly different turn!

While the scripter for this story from Atlas' Venus #13 (1951) is unknown, the artist is Dave Berg, who would make a name for himself as one of the mainstays of MAD Magazine with his Lighter Side of... feature!
Berg started at the beginning of the Golden Age as one of the Eisner/Iger Studio artists providing material in various genres for Quality Comics and Fiction House.

He eventually went solo doing stories and covers for St John, Toby, Ziff-Davis, Dell, Fawcett, Archie, and, as you can see here, Timely/Atlas, before finally landing at EC doing one war story and then switching to MAD as of #34, becoming one of the steadiest of the "Usual Gang of Idiots" (as the contributors referrred to themselves).

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Dave Berg

Five Decades of the Lighter Side

Monday Mars Madness UNUSUAL TALES "Way Out, Man"

You'd think Dr Strange's creator Steve Ditko would be a bit more sympathetic to the counter-culture...

...but when you consider he was already 34 in 1961 when he drew this story from Charlton's Unusual Tales #29, you might wonder which side of the Generation Gap he really was on!

Remember that, when Ditko was doing the Dr Strange series in Strange Tales, he was turning 40!

This article from England's The Telegraph delves into the fascinating dichotomy between the artist and what his work portrayed.

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Art of Ditko

...which reprints this tale and many other Ditko short stories!

Monday Mars Madness AMAZING ADVENTURES "Man Who Killed a World!"

Who would've thought a "War of the Worlds" would be decided by hand-to-hand combat?

This never-reprinted tale from Ziff-Davis' Amazing Adventures #6 (1952) gives the details, along with a trick ending...

So, even though the Earthman was defeated, we won!

Heckuva moral lesson there, guys!

Though the writer is unknown, the art is by Paul Parker, who left the comics field after a decade and over 100 stories to became a news reporter for several radio stations in New York City including the all-news station WINS.

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Mars in the Movies

A History