Space...Hero?...Saturdays ABBOTT AND COSTELLO COMICS "About Space" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our...Heroes?...
(Don't worry, you didn't miss a post!
Part 1 appeared yesterday as part of our ongoing Friday Fun feature!)

The unemployed Abbott and Costello are hired by a mad scientist to crew his experimental rocket aimed at Mars...which is currently at war with Jupiter!
Astra, beautiful ruler of Mars, mistakes them for Jovians and shoots them down.
Crash-landing on Mars in the "Swamp of Death", our dim-witted duo encounter and make friends with a fire-breathing dinosaur/dragon.
Good thing, since the Jovians have landed (without crashing) in the swamp and are about to launch a sneak attack on Astra's palace!
When the Jovians shoot at the duo and their dinosaur/dragon, the trio head for the nearest city!
Within, Astra prepares a special formula that enhances one's courage.
But, unknown to her, aide Taro is a traitor working for the Jovians, and he switches her formula for plain water...which she drinks, believing it to be the courage-enhancer!
A&C arrive, the city's robot guards scare the dinosaur/dragon off and the pitiful pair are captured!

Then the poop hits the propeller...

(Hey, it's a PG-13 blog!)

Written by John Graham and illustrated by Lily "Lilly" Renee and Eric Peters, this tale from St John's Abbott and Costello Comics #3 (1949) shows what a decent special effects budget could've done for decent (but not great) A&C flicks like Universal's Abbott and Costello Go to Mars!

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Abbott &Costello

Complete Universal Pictures Collection

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Friday Fun ABBOTT AND COSTELLO COMICS "About Space" Part 1

Bud Abbott (the skinny straight man) and Lou Costello (the plump comedian)...

...were one of the most popular comedy teams in movies, radio, and TV for decades!

Yes, it's a cliffhanger!

And, no, you won't have to wait a week to see the conclusion!

Be here tomorrow, as we present the fantastic finale in our ongoing weekend feature,...

Space Hero/Space Heroine Saturdays!

Though some of their movies are (rightly) considered classics, it was always due to the duo, who were never given a decent-sized budget!

Even my all-time favorite, Universal's Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, had only a b-movie budget and a lot of recycled sets, props, and costumes!
This original (not adapted from radio or movies) story from St. John's Abbott and Costello Comics #3 (1948), written by John Graham and illustrated by Lily "Lilly" Renee and Eric Peters, shows how comics creators visualized spectacular tales unrestrained by financial limitations!

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Lily Renee, Escape Artist

by

Trina Robbins

Space Hero Saturdays MAN O' MARS

Here's a kool klassic from the 1950s...the lead story from a 1953 one-shot that combined all the great cliches of space opera (spaceships, ray guns, aliens, half-naked space babes) in one tight ten-page tale set only thirteen years from now...

These days, this story would be a six-issue mini-series with tie-ins to several other titles.

The rest of Fiction House's Man O' Mars one-shot from 1953 was made up of unrelated reprints from earlier issues of Planet Comics.

The interior artist is Maurice Gutwirth, but the writer is unknown.

The original cover was done by Maurice Whitman, one of the Golden Age's more prolific artists with credits at almost every company of the era!

When the book was reprinted by IW Comics in 1958 from the original printing plates, the covers weren't included, so publisher Israel Waldman commissioned Angelo Torres...

...who created a superb Frank Frazetta-style cover, doing his fellow Fleagle Gang member proud!

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Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3

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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