Red China has Landed a Robot Craft on the Far Side of the Moon!

Pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Marvin Stein

We thought we'd be dealing with the Russkies on the lunar surface, but at this point, Putin has to buy rockets from North Korea!

Space Hero Saturdays BLACKHAWK "Battle on the Moon"

Since today is Veterans Day, let's look at the post-war adventures of a team of WWII vets...

...as these Commie-crushing Russkie-Smashers fight for freedom everywhere on Earth...and beyond!

BTW, note the Blackhawks don't walk around the airless vacuum on the Moon's surface in the story itself wearing just their leather uniforms with helmets!
(Nor does the leggy Russkie woman wear just her shorts!)

Though the writer of this never-reprinted tale from Quality's Modern Comics #99 (1950) is unknown, it's illustrated by penciller John Forte and inker Chuck Cuidera.
The "Dark Knights", as they're often referred to, went whole-heartedly after Russkie and Chinese Communists during the post-World War II days of their Quality Comics run.
But, when the characters continued at DC after Quality closed up shop, other opponents like mad scientists, aliens, and the occasional ex-Nazi, took center stage, along with newly-created super villains until the middle-aged aviators became superheroes/spies in the Swinging '60s as shown

 HERE!

(You truly have to see it to believe it!)

Trivia: John Forte is better-known to present-day comics readers as the primary artist on the first few years of The Legion of Super-Heroes' run in Adventure Comics, while Blackhawk co-creator Chuck Cuidera remained on the strip after DC took it over, almost to the very end of the Silver Age run!
Plus, Cuidera inked Dick Dillin (who penciled almost all the DC Blackhawk stories) on Dillin's Hawkman run after Blackhawk was cancelled!
And, in an ironic turn, that the Blackhawks adopted uniforms surprisingly-similar to the Russkies' outfits in this story when they entered a "scientific adventurer" phase in the early 1960s...

..yet nobody noticed!
(Of course it was over a decade later...)

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Design of the Week Redux RETRO SPACEMAN

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another...unless it sells really well, then we run it for a second week!

This Week:  We continue to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the ACTUAL landing on the Moon with this classic 1950s comic book cover art...

...featuring a kitchy, retro-style spaceman (complete with ray gun), a leering monster, and a helpless woman ready to be rescued!

Available on a plethora of products HERE!

Happy 50th Anniversary, Apollo 11!

In the 1940s (and before), we dreamed of meeting (and battling) aliens on the Moon...

...In the 1950s, we feared meeting (and battling) Commies on the Moon...

...when we actually got to the Moon in 1969, thankfully, there was nothing to fear (or fight)!

Happy 50th Anniversary!

Design of the Week RETRO SPACEMAN

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!

This Week:  Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the ACTUAL landing on the Moon with this classic 1950s comic book cover art...

...featuring a kitchy, retro-style spaceman (complete with ray gun), a leering monster, and a helpless woman ready to be rescued!

Available on a plethora of products HERE!

Reading Room FOUR COLOR "Maybes About the Moon"

Since many of you are taking a "snow day" from school...

...we feel you should still have a little (somewhat) educational info input when you come in from making snow forts and having snowball fights!

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 were 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!

Happy 45th Anniversary, Apollo 11!

In the 1940s (and before), we dreamed of meeting (and battling) aliens...

...In the 1950s, we feared meeting (and battling) Commies...

...when we actually got to the Moon in 1969, thankfully, there was nothing to fear (or fight)!
Happy 45th Anniversary!

YouTube Wednesday: Nazis on the Moon in IRON SKY!

Continuing our weekly feature "YouTube Wednesday"...

Regular readers are well aware of my love for retro-style visuals in movies, particularly flicks like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow or the recent Robert Downey, Jr. Sherlock Holmes.

Iron Sky is a dark cross-genre action-comedy set in the year 2018, when Nazis, who fled to the dark side of the Moon in 1945, return to claim the Earth for the Fourth Reich!
It's is a Finnish-German-Australian co-production with a budget of 6.8 million euros, and very heavy on CGI.
Here's the first teaser...

And here's the second one...

The cast includes Götz Otto (Tomorrow Never Dies, Schindler’s List, Downfall), Christopher Kirby (Matrix Reloaded & Matrix Revolutions, DayBreakers, Space: Above and Beyond), Udo Kier (Blood for Dracula, GrindHouse), Tilo Prückner (The Neverending Story, Die Fälscher), and German actress Julia Dietze, a future Fantastic Femme if ever there was one!
Screenplay's by Johanna Sinisalo ( a 2009 Nebula Award nominee) and Michael Kalesniko (Private Parts).
The film just wrapped primary photography and fx will be completed in December.

What makes Iron Sky unique is the extent of the collaboration with movie fans and sci-fi community; "crowdsourcing" ideas and content for the movie in a collaborative movie making platform called WreckaMovie, giving the film publicity by sharing information online, even partially-funding the movie by designing and buying collectible merchandise and other means.  One million euros of the budget comes from fans. Pretty impressive!
Check out their About the Film