Monday Madness DOC SAVAGE COMICS "Polar Treasure"

Our current arctic blast reminded me of the setting of an early Doc Savage novel...

...which was condensed into the shortest comics adaptation of any of the Man of Bronze's "supersagas" (as Phillip  Jose Farmer refers to them) we've ever seen!

Two notes:

1) the flying man on the cover is Ajax the Sun Man, who had his own strip in the book.

(Ajax is not in the Doc Savage tale.)

2) the story may be NSFW due to racial stereotypes common to the 1940s.

The first few issues of the 1940s Doc Savage Comics condensed and adapted Doc pulp novels.

This issue (#3 from 1941) took the 1933 pulp tale "Polar Treasure" and fit it into only eight pages!

Both writer and artist of the adaptation and cover are unknown.

Lester Dent wrote the original novel under the "Kenneth Robeson" house pen-name.

Trivia: both the original and paperback editions of the novel are #4 in their respective series.

Cover by Walter M Baumhaufer

Cover by Lou Feck or James Avati or Frank McCarthy

(After the first novel, "Man of Bronze", Bantam Books reprinted the stories out of original publication order, going with what they felt were the most exciting tales first.)

Bookmark us (if you haven't already) since we have a lot of cool never-reprinted material coming up this year!

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder AN EARTHMAN ON VENUS Part 4

When Last We Left Our Hero...

Inside front cover art by Wally Wood

WOW!

Don't just sit there!

Start reading!

Well, that's it for our presentation of Avon's Earth Man on Venus (1950) one-shot comic adaptation illustrated by Wally Wood with Joe Orlando and Sid Check doing inking and minor redrawing.

(The adaptation's scripter is unknown.)

BTW, both Doggo's and Yuri's "deaths" were exaggerations.
Both survived to return in the sequel novels, Radio Beasts and Radio Planet.
Only the first novel, Radio Man/Earth Man on Venus, has been adapted into comics form.
Too bad, since the later novels are even better.

Next Week

We Return to Earth for another

Wednesday World of Wonder!

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder AN EARTH MAN ON VENUS Part 3

We Have Already Seen...

Cover art by Gene Fawcette

...an experiment in "teleportation by radio wave" inadvertantly sends technician Miles Cabot to the planet Venus, where he discovers humanoids (including a ravishingly-beautiful woman) known as "Cupians" and giant intelligent ants (who've enslaved the humanoids) who call themselves "Formians"!

Both species communicate only via telepathy on a frequency close to radio waves, so Cabot builds a device to comunicate with them.
He becomes friends with Formian Doggo and Cupian Princess Lilla, which leads to his involvement with Lilla's evil cousin Yuri, who betrays Cabot to the Formians with whom he's formed an alliance...

Next Wednesday:

The Fateful Finale!

Continuing our presentation of Avon's Earth Man on Venus (1950) one-shot comic adaptation illustrated by Wally Wood with Joe Orlando and Sid Check doing inking and minor redrawing.

(The adaptation's scripter is unknown.)

Ironically, the comic book version has been reprinted numerous times, and is probably far more familiar to current sci-fi fans than the original story by Ralph Milne Farley (which is a shame, since the novel is pretty good)!

Check out our Barsoomian artifacts at the

 Collectibles Corner

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder AN EARTH MAN ON VENUS Part 2

When Last We Left Our Hero...

Reprint cover art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito

...an experiment in "teleportation by radio wave" inadvertently sends technician Miles Cabot to the planet Venus, where he discovers humanoids (including a ravishingly-beautiful woman) and giant intelligent ants (who've enslaved the humanoids)!

Both species communicate only via telepathy on a frequency close to radio waves, so Cabot attempts to build a device...

 Next Wednesday:

Exile and Treachery...

Continuing our presentation of Avon's Earth Man on Venus (1950) one-shot comic adaptation illustrated by Wally Wood with Joe Orlando and Sid Check doing inking and minor redrawing.

(The adaptation's scripter is unknown.)

Ironically, the comic book version has been reprinted numerous times, and is probably far more familiar to current sci-fi fans than the original story by Ralph Milne Farley (which is a shame, since the novel is pretty good)!

Check out our Barsoomian artifacts at the

 Collectibles Corner

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder AN EARTH MAN ON VENUS Part 1

After the success of Princess of Mars and the other Barsoom tales...

..."scientific romances" became a major genre in pulp fiction, with tales of Earthmen transported to alien worlds appearing in both genre and mainstream magazines!

Next Wednesday:

the Adventure Continues...

One of the more successful "high-adventure on other worlds" series was the Radio Man saga by Ralph Milne Farley.

Set on Venus, the tales of radio expert Miles Cabot were different enough from John Carter's adventures to warrant several sequel magazine serials, all of which were compiled as stand-alone novels.

Here's a kool article about the series at ERB.com.

The first story, Radio Man, was retitled Earth Man on Venus when Avon reprinted it in the 1950s.

Art by Ray Johnson

Simultaneous with the paperback reprint was a one-shot comic adaptation illustrated by Wally Wood with Joe Orlando and Sid Check doing inking and minor redrawing.

(The adaptation's scripter is unknown.)

Ironically, the comic book version has been reprinted numerous times, and is probably far more familiar to current sci-fi fans than the original story (which is a shame, since the novel is pretty good)!

Check out our Barsoomian artifacts at the

 Collectibles Corner

BARSOOM! (You call it "Mars")

He's 110 years old, but not only was he the basis for a recent big-budget sci-fi / fantasy film, his multi-volume high-adventure saga is the inspiration for almost every major space opera in print or on-screen since his debut in 1911*!
He's John Carter!

The first pulp adventure/scientific romance series created by Edgar Rice Burroughs (predating Tarzan by several months). the six-part serial "Under the Moons of Mars" detailed how soldier-of-fortune John Carter, mortally-wounded by Indians while prospecting for gold in 1870s Arizona, somehow projects his consciousness to Mars, where it is reincarnated in a body identical to his Earthbound form.

BTW, Burroughs suggests that Carter (on Earth) was immortal.
In the opening pages of "Under the Moons of Mars", the author reveals that Carter can't remember his childhood, having always been a man of about thirty years old.
Generations referred to him as "Uncle Jack," but he always lived to see all the members of the families grow old and die, while he remained young.

In Mars' lesser gravity, Carter's normal-human strength is, literally, superhuman!

He can lift over a ton, and can leap over a quarter of a mile!

And, yes, he can breathe, because the Barsoomians operate atmosphere-generating facilities bringing the oxygen content of the air to near-Earth levels.

He rescues and falls in love with the beautiful princess of the city/state Helium, Dejah Thoris, and joins with her in battling tyrannical enemies in a world filled with hidden cities, exotic creatures, and advanced technology (sometimes disguised as "magic").

It's the prototypical "high adventure" series, and its' concepts and tropes can be found in most later sf/fantasy from Flash Gordon to Captain Future to Star Wars.

Probably because of heavy special-effects requirements, there were no film or tv adaptations of John Carter stories until 2009, when a low-budget direct-to-video version of A Princess of Mars was released.

Legendary animator Bob Clampett attempted to produce an animated version in 1936, going so far as to produce an illustrated bible and test footage. But no studio wanted to bankroll the project, believing "realistic" animation wouldn't sell. Several years later, the Fleischer Studio produced the classic Superman cartoons, proving them wrong.

Kerry Conran had just finished the first all-CGI movie, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and wanted John Carter of Mars to be his next project!

You can read about the regrettable fate of Clampett and Conran's attempts HERE!

With public interest in Mars peaking over the past year, Atomic Kommie Comics™ feels it's the right time to re-present some of the best art of past versions of Barsoom and John Carter and offer our fans the chance to acquire collectibles in our Martians! Martians! Martians!™  collection including mugs, t-shirts, and an Art of Barsoom 2022 12-Month Calendar!featuring comic book and pulp magazine art!

With Christmas coming, any of our collectibles combined with one of the books, comics, or dvd/blu-ray as a gift set would make a great Christmas present for the pop-culture/high adventure/sci-fi fan in your life!
(Hey, everybody else is already promoting Christmas gifts!)
For the remainder of November, we'll be presenting never-reprinted John Carter/Barsoom comic stories!
Don't miss them!

*Though The All-Story magazine the first chapter of "Under the Moons of Mars" appeared in is cover-dated February, 1912, the magazine was actually on sale in November-December 1911. 

Cover-dating fiction magazines (including pulps and comic books) 3-4 months ahead of the actual release date was standard practice until the 1990s.