Reading Room: CAPTAIN SCIENCE COMICS "World War III with the Ants"

I'm Having Serious Problems with Ant Infestation...

...but never anything like this ant-ageddon (or ant-pocalypse) from Youthful's Captain Science #6 (1953)!

As for who was responsible for writing and illustrating this cult comic classic, theories run from Harry Harrison (who became a major sci-fi novelist and editor), to Dick Ayers to Lou Cameron, but nobody knows for certain.

BTW, this story came out over a year before the classic giant-ant film THEM!

Monday Mecha Madness SPELLBOUND "Too Human to Live!"

They say Artificial Intelligence will Replace Humans in Many Jobs...

...even as co-workers...and management!

Pencilled by Vic Carrabotta and inked by Jack Abel, and likely plotted by editor Stan Lee, this cautionary tale from Atlas' Spellbound #16 (1953) has a clever twist ending that would've been appropriate for an episode of The Twilight Zone!

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Taylor Illustrated History

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Reading Room CAPTAIN SCIENCE COMICS "Spawn of Saturn"

Welcome to the Cover Featured Tale from Captain Science #1 (1950)...

...except it's not about Captain Science!

In fact, the story's title isn't mentioned on the cover at all!

(You can find the actual Captain Science stories from #1 HERE and HERE.)

It's interesting to see a sci-fi tale where a handsome starship captain doesn't go on a landing party to a potentially-dangerous locale!

The writer is unknown, but the art is by Walter Johnson, who not only penciled and inked his own work, but ran a studio that supplied material to a number of comics companies, so some of his "signed" jobs (like this one) show elements of several artists' styles.

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Taylor Illustrated History

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Reading Room WEIRD THRILLERS "Shadow on the Screen!"

For all those whose parents told them "TV is bad for you"...

...and "comics are bad for you", well, they were right, as this comic tale about TV proves!

This tale from Ziff-Davis' Weird Thrillers #3 (1952) was illustrated by Bob Powell.

Powell, besides being a gifted illustrator was also a pioneer in the use of "color holds" in comic books.

The same technique he used on the tv screen was also used in a tale of radio and pulp hero The Shadow HERE, taking artwork that normally would be black-line and making it one of the color plates.

It was a very tricky thing to do back in those days since the interior pages were almost never proofed due to time and cost restraints.

But, Powell does some amazing things with the holds, making them line up exactly almost all the time!

Sadly, the writer of the story is, as in so many cases, unknown...

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The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics: Volume 2

Bob Powell's

Terror
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Space Hero Saturdays SPURS JACKSON & HIS SPACE VIGILANTES "Sun Masters"

Once more we return to the really weird pages of Space Western Comics...

...where both stagecoaches and spacecraft are accepted forms of transportation!

Written by Walter (The Shadow) Gibson and illustrated by Stan Campbell, this tale from Charlton's Space Western Comics #42 (1953) starts out relatively-accurate to the science of the era, but throws it all away at the conclusion!

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Space Western Comics
Cowboys vs Aliens, Commies, Dinosaurs, and Nazis
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Reading Room RACE FOR THE MOON "Face on Mars"

The most famous story from Harvey's Race for the Moon anthology series...

...is this tale from #2 by writer/peniler Jack Kirby and inker Al Williamson which doesn't take place on the Moon...but on Mars!

Why is it so famous?

When NASA's Viking satellite reached Mars in 1976, it took this photo...

Keep in mind that this was the era of the Chariots of the Gods? fad, and to many, this pic was confirmation that aliens had either come thru the Solar System and stopped off not only on Earth, but Mars as well, or were from Mars initially!

And, there were those who remembered this little comic tale from their childhood.

The truth was a bit more mundane.
Click HERE for NASA's explanation.

To this day, there are still those who say it's a cover-up, that there is life on Mars, and that "the face" is a relic of their existence.

Judge for yourself.

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Mars in the Movies

A History
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Lunar Reading Room: RACE FOR THE MOON "Thing on Sputnik 4"

Now That Aretmis II has Safely Returned...

...let's look at a tale created during early days of space travel, before Man had made it beyond the stratosphere, when we had NO idea of what awaited us "out there", but it was so kool to speculate...

From Harvey's Race for the Moon #2 (1958).
Beautifully-rendered by Jack Kirby and Marvin Stein.
It's both amazing and depressing to see what we hoped to achieve in the (then) near-future

Then to see what we actually did...

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Simon & Kirby Library

Science Fiction

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