Showing posts with label retro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retro. Show all posts

Saturday, September 27, 2025

Space Hero Saturdays CRUSADER FROM MARS "Mission Through Space"

Lars of Mars wasn't the only Martian Sent to Fight Evil on Earth by Jerry (Superman) Siegel!
This guy, along with a female "friend and companion" was sent to Earth to do similar work...but for a very different reason!
If I follow the "logic" of this concept correctly, the Martians send a proven murderer (along with someone who may be either an accessory to murder or an innocent who had nothing to do with the crime except having a murderer obsessed with her) to fight evil on Earth.
Send a convicted killer with emotional control issues (and advanced weaponry) to a primitive planet and tell him to clean it up?
And then, when he screws up. send a fleet of flying saucers in to straighten out the mess.
(Martians apparently don't have a non-interference Prime Directive.)
Also note that the American military seems to be made up of idiot bureaucrats!
The writer for this premiere tale from Crusader from Mars #1 (1952) is unknown, but probably is the book's editor, Jerry (Superman) Siegel, who co-created another short-lived Martian crime-fighter, Lars of Mars, the year before.
The artist is believed to be Marvin Stein, but the layouts have a strong Jack Kirby feel to them.
Considering Stein was doing a lot of work for the Simon/Kirby studio at the time, and Jack was reputed to be very generous in terms of helping his friends, it seems likely he provided roughs for Stein to render full pencils and inks over.
BTW, you may note that Tarka wears a very Superman-style costume in this tale, but on the cover, and in the next (and last) issue, the colors are reversed.
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Thursday, September 25, 2025

Reading Room COSMIC BOOK "UFO and the Perts vs Experts"

Feeling just a wee bit...paranoid?
Feel like the world just doesn't make any sense at all?
Well, you ain't alone, kiddo!
While it's been reprinted several times, this version from Wandering Star Press' Cosmic Book #1 (1986) is the only time it's been presented in color!
The Cosmic Book was a personal obsession for Pat Boyette who packaged it (as well as doing the covers and a couple of tales inside), then shopped it around to numerous publishers until Ace Comics agreed to co-publish it.
Though there were rumors of a second issue, sadly, it never appeared.
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Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Reading Room FANTASTIC WORLDS "Boy Who Saved the World!"

The short-lived anthology Fantastic Worlds featured Earth-based stories...
...contrasting with the other anthology from Standard ComicsLost Worlds, which was a space-opera book.

This superb kid-friendly tale from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #6 (1952) was drawn by Alex Toth and Mike Peppe, though the writer is unknown.

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Sunday, September 21, 2025

Enjoy an Autumnal ADVENTURE IN ROMANCE with "September Squall"

Since it's September and the cold winds are beginning to blow...
...we thought we'd re-present one of the few romance comic stories actually tied-in with the season from an experimental magazine-sized comic book which featured romance stories with high adventure, historical, and Western tales in a kool cross-genre mash-up!

Saturday, September 20, 2025

Space Force Saturdays PERIMETER PATROL SERVICE "Space Pirates on Xarpot"

Space police/military organizations were ubiquitous in 1950s sci-fi...

...and this story was the second one featuring the short-lived Perimeter Patrol Service.
You can read their premiere tale HERE!
BTW, note the painted cover is by the story's illustrator, Bernie Krigstein...who rarely did painted covers!
Considering the three tales were done by the artists who also did SpaceBusters, we wonder if this was intended as a backup series for that title.
This never-reprinted story from Ziff-Davis' Amazing Adventures #6 (1952) is a superb example of pulp/comic space opera of the era with all the classic elements:
Scantly-clad women!
Square-jawed heroes!
Rockets & ray-guns!
And, instead of bug-eyed monsters...space pirates!
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(either for yourself, or as a gift for a con friend/relative)

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Best of Wednesday Worlds of Wonder TALOS OF THE WILDERNESS SEA

It was Going to be an Epic 12-Issue Mini-Series...

...but cutbacks at DC dictated that the already-penciled and scripted first two issues Jan Strnad & Gil Kane (the guys who had revamped The Atom into a high-adventure/barbarian hero in two Sword of the Atom mini-series) be combined into a double-length one-shot whose sales would determine if the project would continue.
Unfortunately, despite the genre pedigree both creatives had, the unknown character didn't attract a large enough audience (as The Atom had), and only the single, open-ended, never-reprinted issue exists!
Here are links to the almost 40-year old "lost" project!
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Thursday, September 11, 2025

Reading Room / Tales Twice Told STRANGE WORLDS "Sabotage on Space Station 1"

...now you'll see where that "flavor" came from!
Damn, we humans are good at this sort of world-saving stuff, eh?
This Norman Nodel-illustrated tale from Avon's Strange Worlds #7 (1952) could have been the basis of an episode of Space: 1999 or Classic Star Trek with just a couple of tweaks!
As to why it was reworked...
Eerie Publications had been using photostats and negatives from defunct comics companies as the source material for their b/w magazine line.
About a year in, they started using South American artists eager to break into the comics market and American artists like Dick Ayers and Chic Stone (who were losing work as the Silver Age ended and comics companies cut back their lines) to re-do old stories with a more contemporary style.
Some illustrators totally-redid the art, using new "camera angles" and clothing/technology designs reflecting contemporary tastes.
In this particular case, artist Cirilo Munoz just lightboxed and re-inked the Nodel artwork!
Editor Carl (Golden Age Human Torch) Burgos eliminated the opening captions and modified a couple of captions and dialogue balloons, but otherwise left the unknown writer's original script intact.
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Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Best of Wednesday Worlds of Wonder SPACE CLUSTERS by Arthur Byron Cover & Alex Nino

It's a Time-Lost, Totally-Original, Never-Reprinted Graphic Novel...

 by noted sci-fi novelist Arthur Byron Cover and incredibly-unique graphic illustrator Alex Nino, which you've likely never seen!
It's Weird!
It's Wild!
It's the Very Embodiment of a World of Wonder!

So What Are You Waiting for?
Here are the Links...

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Reading Room / Tales Twice Told WEIRD WORLDS "Terror on Station One!"

Here's an early 1970s sci-fi space opera tale...
...that reads and "feels" like a 1950s sci-fi space opera story!
And there's a good reason for that!
Wonder why this Cirillo Munoz-rendered tale from Eerie Publications' Weird Worlds V1N10 (1970) feels so...out of date in an early 1970s magazine?
Perhaps because it's almost a line-for-line, panel for panel, re-do of a 1950s story!
Be here Thursday to see the original four-color version by a different artist!
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