Space...Hero??? Saturdays PLANET COMICS "Cosmo Corrigan and the Cosmic Chorus Girls!"

What do you do when you want to heat up a planet that's colder than America's MidWest in February?

Cosmo Corrigan has the answer...cosmic chorus girls!

Sady, Cosmo never got back to Pluto!

He wasn't in the next issue of Planet Comics, nor would he reappear anywhere else in the known universe.
His fate remains a mystery...
Written and illustrated by Seymour Reit (who later co-created Casper the Friendly Ghost), Cosmo's final tale appeared in Fiction House's Planet Comics #11 (1941).
But don't think this is the end of our winter-inspired posts!

There's more frigid fun to come!

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Reading Room WEIRD MEN'S ADVENTURES "I Walked on the Moon"

 In the early 1950s, EC Comics set the pace for other companies...

...as this hybrid sci-fi/horror tale from Atlas' Men's Adventures #26 (1954) clearly demonstrates!

You'll note the post's header reads Weird Men's Adventures, but I mentioned earlier the book was  just Men's Adventures.

It's not a typo.

The indicia title was Men's Adventures, and from 1-20 it featured war and high adventure tales.

But, with #21, it became a horror title and "Weird" was added in a graphic burst to the logo (but not the indicia).

Six issues later, the brief revival of the Golden Age Human Torch and Toro took over the book for two issues before it was cancelled.

Though the writer for this tale from is unknown, the artist (doing a credible Wally Wood imitation) is Gene Colan!

Trivia: When the story was reprinted in Marvel's Weird Wonder Tales #17 (1976), it was retitled and the splash panel was rewritten (including removing the "Weird Men's Adventure" blurb)...

Considering that, in 1976, it was over five years since the first Moon landing, I'm not certain why the editor made the change...

BTW, note the "originally-presented" caption references the wrong issue!
It's #26 not #24!

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Space...Hero??? Saturdays PLANET COMICS "Cosmo Corrigan in 'Martians, Mercurians and Money!' "

 Yeah, I know the logo says "Cosmic", not "Cosmo"...

...but he's called "Cosmo" in the story itself, as well as the next (and final) tale, so I consider the logo to be a typo!

Now, back to Pluto, the world that makes our current weather look like a balmy summer day!

Be here next Saturday for Cosmo's frigid final adventure!

Illustrated by George Tuska (who would handle the Buck Rogers newspaper strip in the 1950s, as well as becoming Iron Man's illustrator when he received his own book in the 1960s) the scripter for this tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #10 (1941) is, regrettably, unknown.

("Ray Alexander" was a Fiction House pseudonom.)

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Friday Fun WORLD OF FANTASY "Man from Tomorrow!"

Admittedly, Humor is Subjective...

...but the conclusion to this tale made me chortle.
And since this is my blog, this is where it goes!



OK, not quite Twilight Zone level irony...but it'll do!

Illustrated by Carl Burgos, likely-plotted by the book's editor Stan Lee, and probably-written by Stan's brother and Atlas/Marvel writer-artist Larry Lieber (Stan's birth name is Stanley Lieber), this neve-reprinted tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #17 (1959) of a con gone wrong hits all the right "silly" notes for me!

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Reading Room WORLD OF SUSPENSE "Brain Trap"

When You Come Up with a Great Idea That Will Change the World....

...if you work for a major corporation, your innovation could produce a tale of brains, business, and betrayal!

And so, the world had to wait, until the mind-reading side-effects were filtered out, for Rogaine...

This never-reprinted story from Atlas' World of Suspense #5 (1956) was illustrated by George Roussos, but the writer is, mercifully, unknown.

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Space...Hero??? Saturdays PLANET COMICS "Cosmo Corrigan: Exiled from Earth!"

Like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and many other handsome space heroes...

...Cosmo Corrigan had a weird first name.

Unlike them, he was a bit of a screw-up and wise-ass...

...so he was sent to the Solar System's equivalent of Siberia...the frozen planet Pluto, qualifying him (sort of) for appearing as part of Space Hero Saturdays!

Planet Comics was noted for its...well...lack of scientific accuracy, being much more "science fantasy" than hard science fiction (which at least tried to apply known scientific facts to the storytelling).

But this series seems almost like a space opera sit-com, featuring a slacker as the hero!

Sadly, it only ran for three installments...which you'll see over the next few Saturdays!

Illustrated by George Tuska (who would handle the Buck Rogers newspaper strip in the 1950s, as well as becoming Iron Man's illustrator when he received his own book in the late 1960s) the scripter for this tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #9 (1940) is, regrettably, unknown.

("Ray Alexander" was a Fiction House pseudonom.)

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Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN SCIENCE "Tracking the Flying Saucers"

A dying alien gives a human without fear the ability to defend Earth...

...nope, it ain't the Silver Age Green Lantern!

It's Captain Science!

Appearing full-blown in the first issue of his own title in 1950, Captain Science was a bold attempt at a Captain Video-type comics hero, one more dependent on brains and technology than brawn.

Unlike Captain Video, who created advanced technology simply because he was really smart,  Gordon Dane was shown to be smart and had the advantage of possessing alien knowledge he could use in adapting and improving present-day tech to serve new uses as the situation required.

Visually, the art on his never-reprinted premiere appearance by Gustav Schrotter is adequate, but hardly distinctive.

Captain Science Will Return!

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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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