Lunar Reading Room: RACE FOR THE MOON "Thing on Sputnik 4"

Now That Aretmis II has Safely Returned...

...let's look at a tale created during early days of space travel, before Man had made it beyond the stratosphere, when we had NO idea of what awaited us "out there", but it was so kool to speculate...

From Harvey's Race for the Moon #2 (1958).
Beautifully-rendered by Jack Kirby and Marvin Stein.
It's both amazing and depressing to see what we hoped to achieve in the (then) near-future

Then to see what we actually did...

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Simon & Kirby Library

Science Fiction

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Space Hero Saturdays MEN INTO SPACE "Space Probe"

Just as the #Artemis Crew are Currently "Taking the Jalopy Out for a Test Drive"...

...the astronauts who will soon travel to the Moon in this amazingly-realistic TV series from the early days of the Space Race needed to see how their ship will handle in space and "work out the bugs" before heading all the way to a lunar landing!

Adapted by writer Gaylord DuBois and illustrator Murphy Anderson from the episode's screenplay by Arthur Weiss, you may note there are some differences between the comic and the episode as aired, as you'll see when you click HERE to open a new window to see the actual episode!
That's because, with the long lead-time to produce a comic (about 3 months from script and art to production to printing), DuBois and Anderson had to work from an early draft of the script!
Trivia: Angie Dickenson played Col. McCauley's wife Mary in this episode, but Joyce Taylor portrayed Mary in the other eight episodes the semi-regular character appeared in!

Note: We already re-presented the comic adaptation of the show's second episode, "Moon Landing" HERE and HERE at our brother RetroBlog Secret Sanctum of Captain Video, our usual locale for comic book/graphic novel adapatations of movies/TV shows/radio shows!

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Men Into Space

The Making of the TV Series

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Lunar Reading Room MEN INTO SPACE "Perils of Outer Space" and "What Is on the Moon?"

Before We Actually Launched People into Space...

...the newly-formed NASA was incredibly-concerned about "real-world" problems most sci-fi stories never addressed!

Both pages above written by Gaylord DuBois, illustrated by Murphy Anderson

When you look back on it, it's astonishing how much info we did have when the only tools we were utilizing were ground-based visual telescopes and spectrometers!

The only satellites we (or the Russkies) had at that point were just metal-hulled shells with radio transmitters and radiation detectors (like geiger counters)!

One thing the scientists were adamant about, even then, was first taking the vehicle that would orbit and land on the lunar surface and "field-test" the ship as much as possible before actually landing!

In fact, the surprisingly scientifically-accurate 1959 TV series Men into Space did exactly that in the series' premiere episode, "Space Probe", which was adapted into comic form...

We're running that tale in Space Hero Saturdays this coming Saturday!

Don't Miss It!

Note: We already re-presented the comic adaptation of the show's second episode, "Moon Landing" HERE and HERE at our brother RetroBlog Secret Sanctum of Captain Video, our usual locale for comic book/graphic novel adapatations of movies/TV shows/radio shows!

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Men Into Space

The Making of the TV Series

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Lunar Reading Room CONTACT COMICS "Moon Express"

Before We Actually Put Anybody into Space...
...we had to figure out how we would get them out there!

The hopeful author of this feature from Aviation Press' Contact Comics #12 (1946) believed we'd have a rocket reaching the Moon by 1950!
(In fact, the first rocket, the Russian 'Luna 2', didn't reach the Moon until 1959.)

The writer also believed legendary science fiction writer/editor John W Campbell to be a "uranium expert"!
(Campbell did have a BA in Physics, and, as an editor, pushed his writers to be as scientifically-accurate as possible.)
This 80 year-old never-reprinted story should give you an idea of how the concept of reaching somewhere outside of our atmosphere has captivated humans for centuries, and returning there a half-century later can still grab our attention!

Lunar Reading Room FOUR COLOR COMICS "Maybes About the Moon"

As the Artemis II Moon Shot is Postponed Until April...

...we're presenting a never-reprinted feature from the days before we had even landed on the moon the first time!

This never-reprinted short from Dell's Four Color Comics #1253 (aka Space Man #1) appeared in 1962, just as our Mercury space program was getting under way, so it's a lot of speculation.

Illustrated by Jack Sparling, but the writer is unknown.

BTW, even though it appeared in Four Color Comics, it's in black and white because it appeared on the inside back cover.

The inside covers of comics used to be printed with only one color, black, instead of the four colors CYAN, YELLOW, MAGENTA, and BLACK (CYMK), that make up all the colors in standard comic printing, as a cost-saving measure!

Lunar Reading Room PLANET COMICS "Life on Other Worlds: A Trip to the Moon"

 Pre-Sputnik/Space Race Comics About the Moon were Really Wild...

...and boy, could they be talky!

(I wonder if the letterer could've charge by the word!)

This chapter of Fiction House's Planet Comics' ongoing feature "Life on Other Worlds" appeared in #59 (1949) and, unlike other entries, was never-reprinted later in the comic's run!
The writer is unknown and the artist (who signed "Bay" on the art) also did so on two other Fiction House assignments, but appears nowhere else in published comics.

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Planet Comics

Volume 12

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Lunar Reading Room RACE FOR THE MOON "First Man on the Moon"

This Comic Was Published in 1958...

...but the date established for the events of this tale (which obviously shows technology beyond what was available at the time) is also 1958!

Was this Bob Powell-illustrated story part of the unpublished inventory for Harvey's cancelled early 1950s horror comics line?

That would explain the 1958 dateline, which would've been five years or more in the future!

In fact, the only material in the entire book that had been done specifically for Harvey's Race for the Moon #1 (1958) was the cover by editor Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, and Marvin Stein...

...which showed spacecraft then in development, and the intro page, also illustrated by Powell, which showed the Russkie Sputnik satellite, which had only recently been launched!

The rest of the issue consists of reprints from Harvey's early 1950s horror comics, re-edited to conform to the Comics Code Authority and one other previously-unpublished story, clearly set in the future, and also illustrated by Powell as seen HERE!
The two later Race for the Moon issues featured all-new material, mostly set in the near-future like the tale shown HERE.

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Simon & Kirby Library

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Friday Fun ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH IN "Five Year Plan for the Moon" & "...as Used by Our Astronaughts in Space!"

Though largely-forgotten today...

Wraparound cover of #12

Artist Unknown

...this 1960s comedy-variety TV series was ground-breaking in a number of ways.

Besides the show's anti-Establishment content, which was always a source of contention with NBC network censors, it had an amazing amount of tie-in merchandise...including a MAD-style magazine!
In 1969, with the first Moon landing about to occur, the mag took a couple of looks at the space program...

...and...

By the time these features appeared in the final issue of Laufer Publishing's Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (#12 in 1969), the use of images of the actual performers from the show had been reduced to the cover and a couple of one-pagers based on long-running gags like the "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award".
Laufer Publishing was best-known for the legendary 1960s-70s teen magazine Tiger Beat!

Here's a Kool video about the magazine, which Baby Boomers remember fondly!

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MEOW!

My Groovy Life with Tiger Beat's Teen Idols!
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Lunar Reading Room ADVENTURES INTO MYSTERY "Dark Side of the Moon!"

The Upcoming Artemis Moon Flight is Restoring a Long-Lost Excitement and "Sense of Wonder"...

...exemplified by this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Adventures into Mystery #1 (1956)!

Remember, this was even before Sputnik was launched, so we truly had no idea of what was out there beyond what Earth-based telescopes had revealed!

Bob Powell turns in his usual superbly-rendered artwork with distinctive individualistic characters and detailed settings and textures.

The writer is unknown.

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Marvel Masterworks

Atlas-Era Journey into Mystery

Volume 1
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