Was INAPAK the Chocolate Drink That NEVER Actually Existed?

Tuesday, we presented the miracle chocolate drink Inapak...

Now here's an interesting point...

It apparently never existed!

Really!

From extensive research (we're talking off-line and on-site) thru the archives of several dealers and collectors who handle related food ephemera like Ovaltine and Quik (now Nesquik) packaging and advertising, we've yet to come across anything (besides the comic book itself) relating in any way to Inapak!

Could it have been a proposed project that never got off the ground, like Victor Fox's Kooba Kola?

If so, who was behind it?

Magazine Enterprises, the publishers of the The Avenger, FunnyMan, and original Ghost Rider, produced the comic, and it's copyrighted in their name, not an outside corporation, as most licensed comics are!
Bob Powell is obviously the artist, though the writer is unknown.
It's theorized on the Grand Comics Database that Gardner Fox scripted the two stories in the book.

Speaking of which, here's the short tale from the back of the book...

Now, here's my theory about who Major Inapak is and how he came to be...
At this point (1951), there were a number of kids' sci-fi tv shows like Captain Video, featuring characters who also promoted their sponsors' products...

...and there was talk of a tv version of radio/comic/movie serial hero Captain Midnight (who was still owned by Ovaltine) with a heavier sci-fi/space opera flavor to compete with Captain Video, Tom Corbett: Space Cadet, Space Patrol, et al.
A Captain Midnight TV series eventually aired in 1954-56 with some sci-fi elements, but set present-day to keep the budget down.

(And of course, it had lots of promotion for Ovaltine products...)

Could this book have been a tryout with the original, futuristic, format for Captain Midnight, spotlighting his sponsor, Ovaltine?

And, when it didn't sell to Ovaltine, the story was retitled/relettered with a new character and a non-existent chocolate drink to demonstrate what Magazine Enterprises could do for potential clients, and then used as a trade-show giveaway to drum up business for a licensed-comic division (similar to what both Marvel and DC have today)?

You'll see the action-packed space adventure right here on Saturday!

Remember INAPAK, the Amazing Chocolate Drink?

Bosco?

Bah!

Quik?

Crap!

Ovaltine?

Ewww!

You want serious chocolate flavor in your milk?

Here it is...

It must be true!

Major Inapak says so!

And Major Inapak wouldn't lie!

In fact, he uses science to prove his point...

Major Inapak returns to tell the Youth of America what to do...

You'll pardon me while I scamper out to the supermarket to get a box!

Be back Thursday for more on...Inapak!

Reading Room DO YOU BELIEVE IN NIGHTMARES? "Man Who Crashed into Another Era"

Here's a short story featuring dinosaurs, illustrated by Steve Ditko...

...just before his stint on Charlton's Gorgo!

Ok, so it was the old "It's only a dream" scenario.

You got to admit, it's well-done!

From St John's Do You Believe in Nightmares? #1 (1957), a short-lived anthology produced just before St John went out of business.

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Unexplored Worlds

Steve Ditko Archives, Vol 2

Reading Room STRANGE WORLDS "Abduction of Henry Twigg"

Here's a dream come true for all us fanboys and nerds (Yep, I'm one)...

...in this Joe Kubert-illustrated tale from Avon's Strange Worlds #8 (1952)...

Talk about politically-incorrect...from both sexes!

But it's still entertaining, and that's what counts, eh?

Note: we've run stories from two different series named "Strange Worlds".

This tale is from the first one, published by Avon Comics in the early 1950s.

By the late 1950s, Avon Publishing had abandoned comic books and concentrated on "traditional" publishing (hardcovers and paperbacks) in various genres (including sci-fi and horror).

Curiously, when comics became "hot' in the 1960s, Avon did not reprint their comic library in paperback format the way Ballantine Books did with EC Comics, Signet did with DC Comics, Lancer did with Marvel. and Belmont did with Archie's super-heroes!

Considering they owned the material and didn't have to pay to reprint it like all the other publishers did, it seems like a lost opportunity for Avon to make some quick cash.

Note: We've re-presented several tales from the other Strange Worlds, published by Atlas Comics in the late 1950s, literally right before they became Marvel in 1961!

It's easy to tell which is which, since the Atlas/Marvel version features work by creatives like Jack Kirby, Don Heck, and Steve Ditko who would be the creative mainstays of the Marvel Age of Comics, while the Avon books have art by illustrators who would make their mark at DC, like Joe Kubert and John Forte!

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3

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Reading Room HOUSE OF MYSTERY "Human TIme Capsule"

Under this kool Ruben Moreira cover...

...lurks an even kooler, never-reprinted tale of illegal aliens and crime from DC's House of Mystery #64 (1957)!

So the American citizen is the criminal, not the "illegal alien"!

The Mort Meskin-illustrated tale left a possibility for a sequel, which was never realized!

Since even DC doesn't know who wrote it (and the odds are the author is deceased by now), we'll never know...

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Showcase Presents

Strange Adventures

Volume 1
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Reading Room AMAZING ADVENTURES "Amazing Prophecies"

Let's peer into a crystal ball from the 1950s...

...and see they did predict 3-D TV and bigger women (as compared to the females of the 1950s).

But the other prophecies from this never-reprinted feature illustrated by Ross Andru in Ziff-Davis' Amazing Adventures #4 (1951) have yet to occur...

Reading Room (and Bonus Video) STAR*REACH "Why Viking Lander/Mars?" by Ray Bradbury

A very kool, never-reprinted adaptation of a Ray Bradbury poem...

...first performed by the legendary author at the 1976 San Diego Comic-Con the week after the Viking probe landed on Mars!
Sadly, there's no extant video or audio recording of the event, but we did find a more recent reading by Robert Picardo ("The Doctor" on Star Trek: Voyager)

AFAIK, the poem's never been reprinted in any of the Bradbury anthologies, or anywhere else, for that matter!

It's only appearance was in Star*Reach #6 (1976), illustrated with absolutely beautiful art by Alex Nino!

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Star*Reach
Greatest Hits

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!

Reading Room MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN COMICS "Small Fry!"

You can't tell me this isn't a "lost" Kirby Klassic from the 1950s...

...with the only question being "who was the penciler and/or inker over Jack Kirby's layouts?"

When Prize Comics' Monster of Frankenstein title was revived during the horror comic boom of the early 1950s, besides a wonderfully-gruesome version of Dick Briefer's Monster, it featured a number of two to four page "fillers".

Most of these tales appear to be, at the very least, laid-out by Jack Kirby.

This never-reprinted story from Prize's Monster of Frankenstein #33 (1954) is a prime example.
Some of the "camera angles" are easily-recognizable from later Ant-Man stories by Jack Kirby.

The Grand Comics Database lists the story's creators as "unknown", but considering the volume of work Simon & Kirby did for Prize before leaving to form their own company, Mainline, it's not unlikely this was an "inventory" story meant for insertion wherever editorial material page count came up short.

Sadly, the writer of the story is, as in so many cases of tale from the 1940s-60s, unknown...

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Simon & Kirby Library

Science Fiction

Holiday Reading Room EVERY DAY IS A HOLLY DAY "Mother's Day"

Ever wonder why Mother's Day is when it is...or even why it is?

Oddly, there's no entry in this comic for Father's Day!

(Perhaps because Father's Day wasn't made an official American holiday until 1972, decades after this comic was published in 1956!)

Why is this comic entitled "Every Day is a Holly Day" instead of "Every Day is a Holiday"?

Because it was given away to kids by grocers who sold Holly Sugar!

Illustrated by John Rosenberger, it's a unique pamphlet covering a number of American holidays, including both Lincoln and Washington's Birthdays (before they were combined into "Presidents' Day"), Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and a couple of holidays we've largely abandoned...Pan-American Day and American Indian Day!

We'll be presenting the other chapters on the dates they fall upon.

Watch for them!

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Cartoon History of the United States

Space Hero Saturdays SPACE MOUSE "Atomic Attack!"

Before the Space Mouse We've Already Re-Presented HERE and HERE...

...there was an earlier one whose adventures ran for several years!

And this is as close as you'll get to an origin for him featuring the introduction of equipment and plot elements that'll pop up over time in the series!

Oddly, this Frank Cairn-written and illustrated story was neither the lead nor the cover-featured tale in Avon's Space Mouse #1 (1953)!

Go figure!

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Golden Treasury of

Klassic Krazy Kool Kids Komics

Reading Room STRANGE TALES "Beware of Meeks Bringing Gifts!"

A couple of days ago, we brought you a never-reprinted sci-fi comics tale...

...but, while it has never been reprinted, that doesn't mean the story wasn't reused...this time with an oddly-contemporary aspect...

WTF???

Newspeople have a responsibility to uncover and tell the truth objectively and honestly?

Please don't tell FoxNews that...

We do know that Jack Kirby penciled this (also) never-reprinted story from Atlas' Strange Tales #86 (1961).

However, everything else is pure speculation.

It's thought Sol Brodsky inked the story (though it has aspects of Dick Ayers' style as well).

And, since it's not signed "Stan Lee" (as most confirmed Lee-scripted tales were),  the consensus is that Stan's brother Larry Lieber penned the story.