Showing posts with label sci-fi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sci-fi. Show all posts

Thursday, June 5, 2025

Reading Room DO YOU BELIEVE IN NIGHTMARES? "Man Who Crashed into Another Era"

Here's a short story featuring dinosaurs, illustrated by Steve Ditko...
...just before his stint on Charlton's Gorgo!
Ok, so it was the old "It's only a dream" scenario.
You got to admit, it's well-done!
From St John's Do You Believe in Nightmares? #1 (1957), a short-lived anthology produced just before St John went out of business.
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Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Reading Room STRANGE WORLDS "Abduction of Henry Twigg"

Here's a dream come true for all us fanboys and nerds (Yep, I'm one)...
...in this Joe Kubert-illustrated tale from Avon's Strange Worlds #8 (1952)...
Talk about politically-incorrect...from both sexes!
But it's still entertaining, and that's what counts, eh?
Note: we've run stories from two different series named "Strange Worlds".
This tale is from the first one, published by Avon Comics in the early 1950s.
By the late 1950s, Avon Publishing had abandoned comic books and concentrated on "traditional" publishing (hardcovers and paperbacks) in various genres (including sci-fi and horror).
Curiously, when comics became "hot' in the 1960s, Avon did not reprint their comic library in paperback format the way Ballantine Books did with EC ComicsSignet did with DC ComicsLancer did with Marvel. and Belmont did with Archie's super-heroes!
Considering they owned the material and didn't have to pay to reprint it like all the other publishers did, it seems like a lost opportunity for Avon to make some quick cash.
Note: We've re-presented several tales from the other Strange Worlds, published by Atlas Comics in the late 1950s, literally right before they became Marvel in 1961!
It's easy to tell which is which, since the Atlas/Marvel version features work by creatives like Jack Kirby, Don Heck, and Steve Ditko who would be the creative mainstays of the Marvel Age of Comics, while the Avon books have art by illustrators who would make their mark at DC, like Joe Kubert and John Forte!
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Saturday, May 31, 2025

Space Hero Saturdays SPACE ACE "Nothing Weapon!"

Buckle Up for EXCITEMENT in the Far-Flung Reaches of Space...

...as Magazine Enterprise's Space Ace 2.5 makes his initial appearance, and he's looking good!





Al Williamson does the penciling, showing off his superb design and anatomy skills.
The inking is by Williamson plus the legendary Fleagle Gang (Frank Frazetta, Angelo Torres, Roy Krenkel, George Woodbridge).
If that weren't enough, the script is by Gardner Fox, taking the somewhat more juvenile concepts of "Space Ace 2.0" (as seen HERE and HERE) and making them a superb example of classic, epic space opera.

BONUS #1: the original art for page one...
Is that magnificent, or what? ;-)
Bonus #2
This story in 3-D
Get your Red/Blue glasses out...



From 3-D Zone #10 (1988)
"ZoneVision" conversion by Ray Zone.

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Saturday, May 24, 2025

Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "Flying Saucers of Death!"

Though He Doesn't Go into Outer Space in This Post...

...the "Sentinel of the Spaceways" does take on flying saucers like The Shadow, Buck Rogers. and Spurs Jackson before him!








Trivia: The insignia shown in the final panel are from the US Army Air Corps, the predecessor to the US Air Force....which was formed in September, 1947.
But, though the cover date is 1948, the story was written and illustrated around summer 1947...before the official creation of the Air Force!
Dr Osmosis had appeared once before, in Fawcett's Captain Midnight #52 (1947).
Intended to be an ongoing genius criminal arch-enemy to Cap, his career was derailed by the introduction of colorful alien enemies to battle Midnight.
Dr Osmosis would appear twice more, then disappear into the ether!

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Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Reading Room (and Bonus Video) STAR*REACH "Why Viking Lander/Mars?" by Ray Bradbury

A very kool, never-reprinted adaptation of a Ray Bradbury poem...
...first performed by the legendary author at the 1976 San Diego Comic-Con the week after the Viking probe landed on Mars!
Sadly, there's no extant video or audio recording of the event, but we did find a more recent reading by Robert Picardo ("The Doctor" on Star Trek: Voyager)
AFAIK, the poem's never been reprinted in any of the Bradbury anthologies, or anywhere else, for that matter!
It's only appearance was in Star*Reach #6 (1976), illustrated with absolutely beautiful art by Alex Nino!
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Thursday, May 15, 2025

Reading Room MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN COMICS "Small Fry!"

You can't tell me this isn't a "lost" Kirby Klassic from the 1950s...
...with the only question being "who was the penciler and/or inker over Jack Kirby's layouts?"
When Prize Comics' Monster of Frankenstein title was revived during the horror comic boom of the early 1950s, besides a wonderfully-gruesome version of Dick Briefer's Monster, it featured a number of two to four page "fillers".
Most of these tales appear to be, at the very least, laid-out by Jack Kirby.
This never-reprinted story from Prize's Monster of Frankenstein #33 (1954) is a prime example.
Some of the "camera angles" are easily-recognizable from later Ant-Man stories by Jack Kirby.
The Grand Comics Database lists the story's creators as "unknown", but considering the volume of work Simon & Kirby did for Prize before leaving to form their own company, Mainline, it's not unlikely this was an "inventory" story meant for insertion wherever editorial material page count came up short.
Sadly, the writer of the story is, as in so many cases of tale from the 1940s-60s, unknown...
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Monday, May 12, 2025

Monday Madness ANDROMEDA "Klang! Klang!"

Who Hasn't Dozed Off on a Bus or Train...or Trolley?

But what's important is where you are when you wake up!



This never-reprinted Victorian-era high adventure tale from Andromeda #5 (1978) by writer/artist Derek Carter shows a mode of transport that has all-but disappeared from the American landscape except for amusement parks.
(AFAIK, the only city that still has cable trolleys is San Francisco.)
Derek Carter did only four stories in comics, but has gone on to an active career in both commercial and fine art!
You can check out his website HERE.

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Saturday, May 10, 2025

Space Hero Saturdays SPACE MOUSE "Atomic Attack!"

Before the Space Mouse We've Already Re-Presented HERE and HERE...
...there was an earlier one whose adventures ran for several years!
And this is as close as you'll get to an origin for him featuring the introduction of equipment and plot elements that'll pop up over time in the series!
Oddly, this Frank Cairn-written and illustrated story was neither the lead nor the cover-featured tale in Avon's Space Mouse #1 (1953)!
Go figure!
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