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

Saturday, October 28, 2023

Spooky Space Force Saturdays STRANGE GALAXY "Space Monsters"

Art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito
...except, it both was and wasn't the final tale!
The script was used, almost verbatim (but with a renamed lead character), for a new story in the first issue of the short-lived 1970s b/w magazine Strange Galaxies!
All the other names, including the female lead, Maeve, and various locations, remained the same...
In fact, all the stories in Eerie Publications' Strange Galaxy V1N8 (which was the first issue), were re-dos of earlier stories from various defunct comic companies!
I guess they figured that no one would remember the original 1950s tales in 1971...
The rewriter/adaptor is unknown, but could be editor Carl Burgos, who created, among others, the Golden Age Human Torch and the first Silver Age Captain Marvel (the android who said "Split"!).
The stories don't have individual art credits, but according to the Weird World of Eerie Publications by Mike Howlett, the illustrator is one of the artists who were regular contiburors to the Eerie Publications line, Oscar Fraga.
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Saturday, October 21, 2023

Spooky Space Force Saturdays KENTON OF THE STAR PATROL "Monster-Men of Space!"

It's time for more spooky interstellar adventure with Kenton of the Star Patrol...
...as another talented artist takes the reins from Wally Wood and Joe Orlando for Kenton's final tale!
This Kenton story from Avon's Strange Worlds #6 (1952) is penned by Gardner Fox and rendered by Everett Raymond Kinstler, who left comics for fine art (including numerous official portraits of US Presidents).
Previous Kenton artists Joe Orlando and Wally Wood did the cover for the issue...
...but, when the cover was reused for IW/Super's Eerie #1 (1958), which contained stories from Spook Comics, the art looked decidedly-different!
Was the Eerie cover the original version, which was modified to make the alien match the Kinsler-drawn aliens?
Ironically, when the Kenton story was reprinted, it had a totally-new cover by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito featuring aliens who looked nothing like the Monster-Men...

And there's yet another twist to the tale of this tale, which we'll tell...next week, when we go from Strange Worlds and Strange Planets to Strange Galaxies!
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Saturday, October 7, 2023

Spooky Space Force Saturdays KENTON OF THE STAR PATROL "Vampires of the Void"

Strap on your blasters and activate your ato-jets, kids...
Art by Joe Orlando and Wally Wood
...as we join our space-faring hero against gorgeous aliens who suck the life from humans!
Now that's a sci-fi horror tale...and illustrated by Wally Wood and Joe Orlando!
Gardner Fox scripted the story published in Avon's Strange Worlds #4 (1951) and it actually makes sense, given the scientific knowledge of the era.
Add a kool (if slightly misleading) cover by Wood and Orlando...and you've got a cult classic!
Hard to believe it's only been reprinted twice!
But...it has been re-told twice more!
What do we mean by that?
Be Back Next Week to Find Out!
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Saturday, September 9, 2023

Space Hero Saturdays SPACE ACTION "Invaders From a Lost Galaxy"

A "Lost Galaxy"?
Not The "Lost Galaxy"?
How many "Lost Galaxies" are out there?
And, is this one really lost, or just misplaced? ;-)

While the writer is unknown, the art for this Flash Gordon-inspired tale from Ace's Space Action #1 (1952) breaks down as pencils by Lou Cameron, inks by Rocco Mastroserio!
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Thursday, June 15, 2023

Reading Room WEIRD TALES OF THE FUTURE "Ten Thousand Years Old!"

Here's the "pilot episode" for an ongoing comic series that never came about...
...but did see publication in Key's Weird Tales of the Future #1 (1952)!
It's an interesting premise, and the publishers even gave the story the coveted cover slot...
Art by Ross Andru and ?
...yet next issue, Jerry and Jill were nowhere to be found!
So, what happened?
With a cool (if somewhat implausible) story by an uncredited scripter and pencils (and possible inks) by Ross Andru, it seemed like the sort of ongoing feature that could anchor a title.
Was a second story commissioned?
We'll never know...

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Reading Room LOST WORLDS "First Man to Reach the Moon"

In this 1952 tale, Mankind doesn't reach the Moon until 2021!
For the record, most sci-fi stories of the era show a manned Moon landing occurring by 2000!
While we don't know who wrote this story from Standard's sci-fi anthology Lost Worlds #6 (1952), the illustrations are by Art Saaf, a steady contributor to comic books from the beginning of the Golden Age to the end of the Bronze Age (1940-1980).
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