Wednesday Worlds of Wonder MAN-GODS FROM BEYOND THE STARS Part 2

We Have Already Seen...

Art by Neal Adams

In the far-distant past...

technologically-advanced aliens visit the Earth on a mission of exploration.

Their mandate is to observe, but not interfere.

In the present (1975)...

scientists discover ancient cave paintings that tell of god-like beings who came down among the primitive humans.

But, the paintings don't tell the whole story...

Next Wednesday: The Conclusion!

Written by Doug Moench, illustrated by Alex Nino. this tale from Marvel Premiere #1 (1975) has never been reprinted!
As we said last week, When Jack Kirby returned to Marvel in 1975, while he did take on writing and illustrating two of his greatest co-creations, Captain America and Black Panther, his new projects (Eternals, Machine Man/Mister Machine, and Devil Dinosaur, were all set firmly outside the Marvel Universe, as was the one-shot Silver Surfer graphic novel Kirby and writer Stan Lee produced (which you can read HERE),often referring to Marvel characters as fictional, 
All that went by the wayside, when Kirby left Marvel to do animation design for Hanna-Barbara and Ruby-Spears along with his own independent comics projects.
It appears the Marvel creatives couldn't wait to incorporate the new characters and within months, all of Kirby's characters were guest-starring in various titles including Thor, Hulk, Ka-Zar, and even What If?, firmly integrating them with links to everyone from the Norse and Greek gods to Thanos himself (who was retroactively made the son of two Eternals).

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Eternals by Jack "King" Kirby

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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder MAN-GODS FROM BEYOND THE STARS Part 1

 Chariots of the Gods? was the primary inspiration for Jack Kirby's Eternals...

...now part of both the Marvel Multiverse and the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
So let's look at a strip from the same era, the mid-1970s, also inspired by Erich Von Daniken's concepts!

The Story Continues..Next Wednesday!

Written by Doug Moench, illustrated by Alex Nino.

Though largely discredited today, Von Daniken's books about "ancient astronauts" influenced pop culture from the 1970s to the present, including tv (BattleStar Galactica), movies (Prometheus and Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull), and comics (Tragg and the Sky Gods)

The Eternals was originally called Return of the Gods and, like Mister Machine/Machine Man was intentionally not intended to be part of the Marvel Universe!
We'll go more into that next week...

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Chariots of the Gods

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Lunar Reading Room FOUR COLOR COMICS "Maybes About the Moon"

As the Artemis II Moon Shot is Postponed Until April...

...we're presenting a never-reprinted feature from the days before we had even landed on the moon the first time!

This never-reprinted short from Dell's Four Color Comics #1253 (aka Space Man #1) appeared in 1962, just as our Mercury space program was getting under way, so it's a lot of speculation.

Illustrated by Jack Sparling, but the writer is unknown.

BTW, even though it appeared in Four Color Comics, it's in black and white because it appeared on the inside back cover.

The inside covers of comics used to be printed with only one color, black, instead of the four colors CYAN, YELLOW, MAGENTA, and BLACK (CYMK), that make up all the colors in standard comic printing, as a cost-saving measure!

Friday Fun PETER RABBIT "Trouble on the Moon!"

As Artemis prepares to launch, we wanted to present a Moon-themed Space Mouse story...

but all we could find was this strip also by Space Mouse's writer/artist/animator Frank Carin!

This never-reprinted tale from Avon's Peter Rabbit #30 (1955-6) isn't based on the classic Peter Rabbit character created by Beatrix Potter.
Avon Comics had been running a comic since 1947 reprinting the similar Peter Cottontail newspaper strip by Harrison Cady (based on books by Thornton Burgess) under the name Peter Rabbit Comics.

Perhaps due to not wanting to pay to license the Harrison Cady strip, the series was rebooted with a totally-new, very Americanized, contemporary version of the character, as of #7 (1950), which continued until #34 (1956).

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Golden Treasury of
Klassic Krazy Kool Kids Komics
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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder WEIRD FANTASY "Judgement Day"

This 1950s comics tale is considered the gold standard in utilizing a sci-fi motif for social commentary...

...rightfully-so, I must say!

Perhaps it's a tad slow-paced, even pedantic, by today's standards and the pay-off isn't as shocking as you might expect, but this oft-reprinted tale by writer Al Feldstein, artist Joe Orlando and colorist Marie Severin from EC's Weird Fantasy #18 (1953) was quite controversial when it first appeared.
Even when it was reprinted in the Comics Code-approved Incredible Science Fiction #33 (1956), it caused hassles.
The Code wanted Tarlton changed to a White guy!
Publisher Bill Gaines refused!
The Code tried to get EC to, at least, remove the beads of sweat from Tarlton's brow!
Bill Gaines, again, refused!
The Code refused to approve the comic.
Gaines said he didn't care.
As it was, "Judgement Day" was a reprint fill-in for a new story ("An Eye for an Eye") the Code refused to approve, and, since it was EC's last color comic ever, they'd print it without the Code stamp.
The Code gave in and approved the reprint without changes.

No less a personage than Ray Bradbury praised "Judgement Day" effusively in the final letter (among many...except one...that praised the tale) in Cosmic Correspondence...

Public praise from one of the Masters of Science Fiction/Fantasy!

Can't argue with that...

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Judgement Day and Other Stories
Illustrated by Joe Orlando

Fantagraphics' EC Comics Library
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Lunar Reading Room RACE FOR THE MOON "First Man on the Moon"

This Comic Was Published in 1958...

...but the date established for the events of this tale (which obviously shows technology beyond what was available at the time) is also 1958!

Was this Bob Powell-illustrated story part of the unpublished inventory for Harvey's cancelled early 1950s horror comics line?

That would explain the 1958 dateline, which would've been five years or more in the future!

In fact, the only material in the entire book that had been done specifically for Harvey's Race for the Moon #1 (1958) was the cover by editor Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, and Marvin Stein...

...which showed spacecraft then in development, and the intro page, also illustrated by Powell, which showed the Russkie Sputnik satellite, which had only recently been launched!

The rest of the issue consists of reprints from Harvey's early 1950s horror comics, re-edited to conform to the Comics Code Authority and one other previously-unpublished story, clearly set in the future, and also illustrated by Powell as seen HERE!
The two later Race for the Moon issues featured all-new material, mostly set in the near-future like the tale shown HERE.

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Simon & Kirby Library

Science Fiction

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