Showing posts with label space detective. Show all posts
Showing posts with label space detective. Show all posts

Saturday, September 2, 2023

Space Hero Saturdays DRIFT MARLO: SPACE DETECTIVE "Case #1: File of the Periled Peace-Maker" Conclusion

Is an alien from space attempting to sabotage the new Anti-Missile Missile?
Detective Drift Marlo is attacked by someone...or something...near the launch pad.
Later he notices that Dr Fowler, who opposed the project had a bad leg...and the "alien" had the same limp...
This tale from Dell's Drift Marlo #1 (1962), was written by Phil Evans and illustrated by Tom Cooke, who also handled the ongoing Drift Marlo syndicated newspaper strip.
Yes, you read it right...ongoing syndicated newspaper strip.
Running for a decade from 1961 to 1971, the strip, while never a major hit, developed a dedicated audience.
The comic book, which ran only two issues, contained totally-new material, not reprints of the strips, as was so often the case with such titles including Dick TracyBrenda Starr, and Flash Gordon.
There have been no reprint compilation books of the Drift Marlo comic strip, nor was the short-lived comic book version ever reprinted.
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Saturday, August 26, 2023

Space Hero Saturdays DRIFT MARLO: SPACE DETECTIVE "Case #1: File of the Periled 'Peace-Maker' " Part 1

Not the first comic character to be called "Space Detective"...
...but Drift Marlo was the first one to be set in the present (1962), not the future!
...and so does the "alien" Drift encountered!
Coincidence?
You'll have to wait until next week to find out!
Plus: we'll present background info on our all-but-forgotten stellar shamus!
But for now, we will tell you this tale is from Dell's Drift Marlo #1 (1962), written by Phil Evans and illustrated by Tom Cooke.
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Saturday, June 10, 2023

Space Hero Saturdays LANCE LEWIS: SPACE DETECTIVE "Amoeba Men of Saturn"

Another Golden Age interstellar private eye joins our feature...
...as he meets the first of two alien races who will become his arch-foes, and rescues the woman who will become his constant...(ahem)...friend and companion!
Referred to as both "Saturnians" and "Amoeba Men", these aliens would return to wage a full-scale interplanetary war with Earth.
This story from Nedor/Standard's Mystery Comics #4 (1944) was Lance's second appearance ever.
Both the writer and artist are currently unknown, even to the Grand Comic Database.
Since Mystery Comics was cancelled as of #4, Lance moved over to Startling Comics, where he became the cover feature from his premiere in #44 to the book's demise as of #53.
Several years after this series ended, an unrelated Space Detective series written by Walter (The Shadow) Gibson with art by Wally Wood and Joe Orlando ran in its own title at Avon Comics.
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Saturday, October 15, 2022

Space Hero Saturdays SPACE DETECTIVE "SpaceShip of the Dead!"

We're about to join Avenger (aka Space Detective) and Teena...
...as they begin their final published adventure, fighting crime in a future time!

Don't worry Teena, you'll meet up with Beast Man and Vulcan Woman sooner than you think...like NOW, by clicking HERE for Part 2 and HERE for Part 3!

Though the writer and inker are unknown, the penciler of this kool 3-part tale (and the b/w inside front cover synopsizing this tale) from Avon's Space Detective #4 (1952) is Gene Fawcette.
Blending the hard-boiled gumshoe, sci-fi and superhero genres, Space Detective burst onto the comics scene in 1951.
Future-era wealthy philanthropist Rod Hathway and his secretary Dot Kenny fight interplanetary evil and helped the innocent as Avenger and Teena using the methods of 1940s gumshoes combined with the technology of the far future!
Blasters instead of revolvers!
Personal jetpacks instaed of taxis!
Stories, whose titles included "Opium Smugglers of Venus" and "Bandits of the Starways", delivered fast-paced action.
And you can read the complete four-issue Space Detective saga by clicking HERE!
Weird Trivia:
1) Despite the fact that neither character wore a mask, nobody ever commented "hey, ain't you that famous Hathway guy?" or somesuch.
(Maybe they were too busy looking at Teena's cleavage?)
2) Nobody ever calls Rod "Space Detective"! He's always called "Avenger".
3) The original user of the name "Avenger", a Doc Savage-style pulp/comic character, hadn't been published since 1944.
The trademark had lapsed, so it was used on this unrelated character from a different company.
This sort of thing is far more common in comics/pulps than you might think.
In fact, only a few years after the final issue of Space Detective, a new Avenger (a Russkie-smashing superhero) popped up, as shown HERE!
And, in fact, Rod Hathaway wasn't even the first "Space Detective"!
There was another one, Lance Lewis: Space Detective, published by Nedor Comics, a few years earlier, as shown HERE!
However, he was only a back-up strip, and never had his own book, though he was featured on the cover of Startling Comics for a while!

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