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

Thursday, January 15, 2026

Reading Room EERIE ADVENTURES "Vampires from Venus"

 It's Freezing, Windy, and Snowy Outside...

...perfect weather for a tale about an invasion by aliens from a hot and steamy planet!


This 1951 tale combining mobila, lethal plants (based on the Triffids from the novel Day of the Triffids which had just been published) and vampires (with their classic weakness, sunlight) from the Ziff-Davis one-shot Eerie Adventures was illustrated by Bob Powell and Howard Nostrand.
The writer is unknown.
Eerie Adventures used leftover material from the recently-cancelled Amazing Adventures with an attempt to market it as horror rather than sci-fi/fantasy.
Only one issue was published as the title was dropped by Ziff-Davis to avoid legal action by Avon who already had an ongoing Eerie comics title.
ZD then did a Weird Adventures one-shot, which sold well, but discovered there was already a title with the same name from PL Publishing which debuted the month before!
So ZD retitled their book Weird Thrillers, before PL could take legal action.
The series ran five more issues before the Dr Wertham-led Seduction of the Innocent witch-hunt forced the cancellation of all horror-related comic books.
(Ironically, the PL series only ran two more issues before the entire company folded.)
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Wednesday, January 14, 2026

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder RAUMPATROUILLE "Hüter des Gesetzes" (Guardians of the Law)

After twice defeating energy-based aliens known as "Frogs"...
...the crew of the Orion 7 encounter rebellious robots on an Earth colony!
(Note the story makes use of Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics!
 Kool!)
OK, let the comparisons to how Kirk and Spock would've handled it begin...

Sunday, January 11, 2026

The Chicago Bears Beat the Green Bay Packers in the Playoffs for the First Time in Decades!

Celebrate the Chicago Bears' Playoff Victory Against Their Eternal Regional Rivals, the Green Bay Packers...

...with this cool, never-reprinted tale from Prize Comics' Babe V1N4 (1948-49) about the "Chicago Crushers" pro football team by writer/artist Gordon "Boody" Rogers, a graduate of the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago, who obviously was a Chicago football fan!
(Though we're uncertain if the strip's Crushers were a variation of the Chicago Bears...or the Chicago Cardinals, who later moved to St Louis, then to Arizona!)
But the guys in green she's mopping the gridiron against on the cover (whom she never actually plays against in the tale) are pretty clearly the Green Bay Packers!

...we thought we'd re-present an almost century-old example of how the game might be with a woman super-star...and what a woman she is!
Note: Though I'm a born-and-raised New Yorker (specifically Brooklyn), I currently have "dual citizenship" with residences in both Chicago and Manhattan,
Sadly, though, neither the Jets or Giants made the playoffs, so, this year I'm going with the Bears...
One of writer/artist Boody Rogers' wildest creations, Babe: the Darling of the Hills, was one of several hillbilly series "inspired" by the phenomenal 1940s success of Al Capp's Li'l Abner!
Babe Boone derived her abilities from "lightning juice" which was fermented from the bark of trees struck by lightning!
When it and Rogers' other ongoing series, Sparky Watts, were cancelled, Boody retired from commercial art and comics, opening a pair of art supply stores!
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Thursday, January 8, 2026

Reading Room CRUSADER FROM MARS COMICS "Escape to Nowhere"

The idea that we should leave Earth before atomic war destroys it is not new...
...nor is the "surprise ending" to this never-reprinted backup tale from Ziff-Davis' Crusader from Mars #1 (1952)
"You blew it up!
Damn you!
Damn you all to hell!"
Almost two decades before Rod Serling had Charlton Heston scream those words to the sky at the conclusion of Planet of the Apes, artist Mike Becker and an unknown writer presented a much more mellow discovery by space travelers returning to Earth centuries in the future!
The script may be by editor Jerry (Superman) Siegel...
Mike Becker illustrated over 100 crime, horror, romance, sci-fi, sports, spy, war and western stories for various publishers including Timely, Ziff-Davis, Hillman, Youthful, and Nedor/Better/Standard from 1948 through 1956.
What happened after that is, regrettably, unknown.
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Wednesday, January 7, 2026

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder RAUMPATROUILLE "Planet ausser Kurs" (Planet Off Course)

After being demoted from front-line combat to local space patroling, Cliff McLane and his crew discover previously-unknown beings composed of pure energy have overrun a distant outpost.
(SPOILERS: the sharp-eyed among viewers may have noticed that certain members of the star fleet showed great reluctance to deal with the invaders.
Wonder why?)
Now, the aliens return with a plan to send a rogue planet hurtling on a collision course with Earth!
(Note: It's German with English subtitles.
I've tried to set them up before creating the link, but you may have to click on the "gear" icon to implement them manually.)
Be back next Wednesday for another retro-kool adventure!

Tuesday, January 6, 2026

Monday Mecha Madness (Continued) SPACE ADVENTURES "Imitation People" Conclusion

Though it doesn't look like a love story...
...that's what this cover-featured tale from Charlton's Space Adventures V2N4 (1968) most definitely is!
We Have Already Seen...

Scientist Warren Simms' human-looking robots populate Earth II, a planetoid on the edge of the Solar System that serves as a first line of defense against alien incursions.
Simms' robots are programmed to mimic human behavior and emotions...but some of them (his aide Clarissa, particularly) seem to be transcending their programming!
While meeting with Earth's Grand Council to acquire additional funding and resources, Clarissa makes a startling revelation...
Don't you just love a happy ending?
Since the Simms robot is, for all intents and purposes, Simms, we could say that love is eternal and transcends death.
But, what of his soul?
Writer Joe Gill and artist Jim Aparo don't address that matter in this never-reprinted tale.
But that doesn't mean we can't speculate about it, eh?
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Monday, January 5, 2026

Monday Mecha Madness SPACE ADVENTURES "Imitation People" Part 1

Do Robots/Androids Have Souls?
Can they feel "real" (not programmed) emotions?
What does this Don (the Con) Trump wannabe have in mind?
This Joe Gill-scripted, Jim Aparo-illustrated, never-reprinted story from Charlton's Space Adventures V2N4 (1968) will be concluded ...tomorrow!
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