Space Hero Saturdays SPACE VOYAGERS "Hot Spot"

Every few years in comics, there's a short-lived never-reprinted sci-fi space adventure series...

In the 1960s it was Gold Key's Explorers in the Unknown.

In the 1970s, it was DC's Space Voyagers, appearing in the back of Rima the Jungle Girl.

Though this is the origin tale, it appeared in DC's Rima the Jungle Girl #3 (1974), after a two-parter (set after the events of this tale) ran in #1 & #2!

(Oddly, the second pilot episode of the Classic Star Trek tv series, "Where No Man has Gone Before", aired as the third episode of that series.)

Scripted by Robert Kanigher and illustrated by Alex Nino, the series ran thru the first five issues of Rima before disappearing.

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Satan's Tears

The Art of Alex Nino
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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ALIEN WORLDS "Ride the Blue Bus"

As Our Economy Collapses, We Ask "Is This the Future Don the Con has in mind for us?"

Thanks to him, we are edging ever closer and closer to it!

This never-reprinted post-apocalyptic tale by writer Bruce Jones and artist George Perez from Pacific's Alien Worlds #7 (1984) has an odd quirk.

Both Toby's friend, Juke, and the unnamed bus driver are illustrated as Black.

Yet neither is colored differently than the blond/blue-eyed Toby!

Was this deliberate?

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George Perez

StoryTeller
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Space Hero Saturdays JET POWERS "Fleets of Fear!"

When Last We Left Jet Powers...

...oh, heck, I'll let writer Gardner Fox and artist Bob Powell explain what happened in the previous story...

He stops alien invasions and solves matters of the heart!

Jet Powers is truly a Renaissance Man!

Sadly, this was his final appearance in sci-fi...but not in comics.
When next he appeared, several months later, it was as "Army Air Ace" Jet Powers in the revival of Magazine Enterprises' WWII title American Air Forces!

Though he looked and sounded like the space-adventure hero, down to the curly white hair, there was no reference to his being a scientist, nor any use of sci-fi elements in the new Korean War-set stories!
This particular tale from Magazine Enterprises' Jet Powers #4 (1951) was one of two sequels to separate cliffhangers featuring the hero in the previous issue.
It's unusual that a series would have a pair of unrelated cliffhangers for one character in the same issue, but that's what writer Gardner Fox and artist Bob Powell did!

Considering the previous issues had inter-related stories in the same book, I wonder if this was a case of the first parts of a pair of two-part stories being completed, but the second parts weren't ready when the deadline crept up on them.

(In those days, comics had to come out on schedule since they were dependent on their status as periodicals to qualify for lower postage/shipping rates.)

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Bob Powell's Complete

Jet Powers
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Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN SCIENCE "Cat Men of Phoebus"

When Last We Left Our Space-Faring Heroes...

After defeating a threat to the Earth by aliens who crash-landed on the far side of the Moon, Gordon Dane and Rip waste no time in dealing with another group of aliens who just kidnapped Luana from their headquarters...

The art on this never-reprinted story from Youthful's Captain Science #2 (1950)  is by Gustav Schrotter.

The writer is unknown.

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3
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Space Hero Saturdays OUTER SPACE "Third Planet"

Some stories are truly a "product of their time"...

...such as this Silver Age story that reflects the pacifist attitudes of the 18-30 year-olds of the era.

That's how the tale ended in the idealistic 1960s.

If they re-did it today, in the far more cynical 2020s, one (or both) commanders would have had a strike force ready to attack the second the other side disarmed.

This tale from the Charlton one-shot Outer Space (1968) was illustrated by Pat Boyette.

As to who wrote it, it could have been Boyette (who had already proven himself as a writer with several stories for Charlton's anthologies as well as a couple of issues of Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt), or Joe Gill, who co-created several pacifist heroes including Peacemaker with Boyette, and GunMaster with Dick Giordano!

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Mysteries in Space

The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics
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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder GRAPHIC SHOWCASE "Eyes of Mars" Part 3

When Last We Left an Earthman (not named John Carter) on Mars...

...well, now that you know what's going on...jump in!

Sadly, there was no fourth installment!

Happily, writer-artist Michael Kaluta went on to become a full-time comics/sci-fi illustrator, becoming the definitive comic artist for The Shadow...

...as well as working on actual Edgar Rice Burroughs interplanatary fantasy, but not John Carter of Mars...

...but Carson of Venus which you can read by clicking HERE!

Next Wednesday...a new World of Wonder!

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Michael Wm. Kaluta: Sketchbook Ser

ies

Volume 1
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