Wednesday Worlds of Wonder MAN-GODS FROM BEYOND THE STARS Part 1

 Chariots of the Gods? was the primary inspiration for Jack Kirby's Eternals...

...now part of both the Marvel Multiverse and the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
So let's look at a strip from the same era, the mid-1970s, also inspired by Erich Von Daniken's concepts!

The Story Continues..Next Wednesday!

Written by Doug Moench, illustrated by Alex Nino.

Though largely discredited today, Von Daniken's books about "ancient astronauts" influenced pop culture from the 1970s to the present, including tv (BattleStar Galactica), movies (Prometheus and Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull), and comics (Tragg and the Sky Gods)

The Eternals was originally called Return of the Gods and, like Mister Machine/Machine Man was intentionally not intended to be part of the Marvel Universe!
We'll go more into that next week...

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Chariots of the Gods

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Monday Mecha Madness (Continued) BATTLESTAR GALACTICA "Saga of a Star World" Conclusion

Art by Bob Larkin

There are those who believe...that life here began out there, far across the Universe...with tribes of humans...who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians...or the Toltecs...or the Mayans...that they may have been the architects of the Great Pyramids...or the lost civilizations of Lemuria...or Atlantis.
Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man...who even now fight to survive--far, far away amongst the stars...

When Last We Left the Human Race...

Betrayed by one of their own to the robotic alien Cylons*, the Twelve Colonies of Man are wiped out in a sneak attack.

The survivors hastily assemble a fleet of ships under the protection of the only remaining Battlestar, and head away from their now-devastated worlds....

This second half of the movie version of Battlestar Galactica was presented by writer Roger McKenzie and artist/colorist/painter Ernie Colon.
Because it was based on an early draft of the script, names (Serina is called Lyra) are different, and some characters who live in both the movie and tv series (including Cassiopeia) die!
(Baltar dies in the feature film, but survives in the TV series.)

This first version of Marvel Super Special #8 (1978) was a full-process color, slick-stock magazine.

However, because the editor didn't get approval from Universal Studios on the final art before it went to press, the vast majority of the copies were ordered pulped!
(This story has been confirmed by both then-Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter and the book's artist Ernie Colon.)
Changes in both script and art were made, and the book was reissued as a tabloid-sized Treasury edition, with standard comic book "flat" coloring and a new pen-and-ink cover by Rick Bryant based on the Bob Larkin cover painting!

The story was modified again when it was expanded to fill the first three issues of the ongoing Battlestar Galactica comic book...including keeping both Baltar and Cassiopeia alive!
(Cassie would later die in the comic adaptation of the two-part episode "Lost Planet of the Gods", where she's killed by Cylons.)

*Though the Cylons' Imperious Leader appears reptilian, it is as much a robot as the others, though based on the image of the humanoid lizards who created the robots!

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Battlestar Galactica: the Definitive Collection
The Original Series
Galactica: 1980
Original Feature Film
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Monday Mecha Madness BATTLESTAR GALACTICA "Saga of a Star World" Part 1

Besides Robots and Androids Created by Humans...

...we also present ones created by aliens, such as the Cylons...as seen in the extremely-limited/never-reprinted version of the feature film-length pilot, from the magazine-sized Marvel Super-Special #8 (1978).

...and thus we pause to catch our breath...until tomorrow...and the cataclysmic conclusion.

The Cylons were conceived and built by a long-dead alien race..also called Cylons.
It's unknown whether the robots killed their masters or the aliens went extinct due to a plague or other natural disaster.
The Imperious Leader, a robot itself, was built in the image of those reptilian aliens.
It's implied that Count Iblis and some of his near-godlike fellow aliens manipulated the Cylons and human Colonials into the Thousand-Year War.
(Actor Patrick Macnee played Iblis and provided the voice of the Imperious Leader robot, leading human traitor Baltar, the only human who ever met the Imperious Leader and lived, to piece the puzzle together!)
Note: the juvenile spin-off series Galactica: 1980, introduced Cylons indistinguishable from human beings in the episode "Night the Cylons Landed".

This first half of the movie version of Battlestar Galactica was presented by writer Roger McKenzie and artist/colorist/painter Ernie Colon.

We'll have the story behind the change from magazine to tabloid format next time...

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Battlestar Galactica: the Definitive Collection
The Original Series
Galactica: 1980
Original Feature Film
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Friday Fun THE SEQUEL TO THE ALMOST 40 YEAR-OLD FILM STARRING THE 99 YEAR-OLD GUY...

...as Our World Collapses...

...let's have a good laugh!

God knows we need it!

Tomorrow On Space Hero Saturdays:

You Thought Disney Went Nuts on Star Wars Spinoffs?

SpaceBalls Beat Them to It!

Errol Flynn's Captain Blood...by the creator of Flash Gordon!

How many of you have seen this classic movie poster...

...and knew it was the work of Alex Raymond, of Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, and Secret Agent X-9 fame?

Yep!

Since Captain Blood and Arabella Bishop do not look like Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, it's a reasonable bet that this was done as an advance promo piece before casting, but it was so good, the studio still used it as their half-sheet poster for both the initial release and re-releases!

If you look at the original Flash Gordon strip, you'll see Raymond incorporated a lot of pirate/swashbuckler costume, weapon, and design motifs into Flash's adventures on other worlds!