Reading Room SPACE ACTION "Silicon Monsters from Galaxy X"

If you're a cheesy sci-fi fan like me, you'll go for a story with a title like...

...'cause with a title like that, you're in for a fun (if not totally rational or even coherent) time!

While the writer is unknown, the art for this tale from Ace's Space Action #2 (1952) is attributed to "Jim McLaughlin", who had a short-lived comics career doing work primarily for Ace!

After Ace dropped comics in 1955 to concentrate on paperbacks, "Jim" did a couple of stories for Atlas/Marvel and a run on Dell's comic adaptation of TV's Gunsmoke!
Then "Jim McLaughlin" disappeared!
Totally.
Unlike most comic book artists who went on to do commercial art or newspaper strips, there's no trace of "Jim McLaughlin" after his brief foray into four-color publishing...and no background about his pre-comics career!
Here's another interesting point...his art style altered considerably during his career.
In this story, the inking looks a lot like the work of long-time artist Jim Mooney!
In fact, a number of panels resemble Mooney's work on the DC strip Tommy Tomorrow, which Jim Mooney was both penciling and inking during the same period as "Jim McLaughlin's" work for Ace!
In McLaughlin's later work (particularly his Gunsmoke art), while the layouts look similar, the inking style is totally-different!
Was "Jim McLaughlin" a pen-name for a penciler working with at least two (if not more) different inkers?

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Science Fiction Comics
Taylor History of Comics
Vol 3

The BIGGEST 2024 Time-Lost Summer Blogathon Re-Presentation Concludes This Week...

..and if you missed any part of it, here's your chance to catch up by following the links!

Intro

Part 1

Part 1.5

Part 2

Part 2.33

Part 2.66

Part 3

Part 3.5

And this Week...

Be Here Wednesday for

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder

Then Friday at

Heroines

And Finally, Saturday Back Here for

Space Force /Space Heroine Saturdays

The Latest RetroBlog Time-Lost Blogathon Entry Started YESTERDAY...

...as the re-presentation of the Never-Reprinted Premiere Space-Opera Graphic Novel Began!

Don't Worry, You Can Catch Up Before the Next Chapter.

But Before You Do, It Would be Helpful if You Read This Intro First...

Historical Notes:

The Dune movie referred to was Alejandro Jodorowsky's ambitious and potentially-ground-breaking, but sadly-stillborn production detailed in the recent documentary Jodorowsky's Dune.
Side note: Many of the creatives gathered for this project ended up working on Ridley Scott's Alien! including HR Giger, Chris Foss, Moebius and Dan O'Bannon!
The Space Wars, which was filming at the time, was, as you might have guessed, Star Wars!
Now that you have some context for the era StarFawn was created in, go HERE to read the first part, then return to this blog on Wednesday, to read the next chapter!

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StarFawn

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Space Force Saturdays PERIMETER PATROL SERVICE "Mission to Malooka"

Meet the Perimeter Patrol Service in their never-reprinted premiere...

...from Ziff-Davis' Amazing Adventures #5 (1951)!

This story is a superb example of pulp/comic space opera of the era with all the classic elements:

Square-jawed heroes!

Rockets & ray-guns!

Literal bug-eyed monsters!

No scantly-clad women in this particular tale, but the other Perimeter Patrol Service sagas have them!

BTW, this premiere appearance is illustrated by Murphy Anderson, who had just finished his first run on the Buck Rogers newspaper strip.

He would later specialize doing sci-fi/fantasy at DC Comics, including Hawkman, Adam Strange, and Superman!

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Trump's Space Force

(either for yourself, or as a gift for a con friend/relative)
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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder WORLDS UNKNOWN "Black Destroyer!" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

Art by Gil Kane & Frank Giacoia

While exploring an alien world, the crew of the Space Beagle encounter Coeurl, who looks like a Terrestrial panther or lion...with the addition of tentacles!

But this is not a friendly housecat!

It's a primitive, but sentient, being who can not only reason, but deceive...

Trivia: The announced adaptation of Day of the Triffids ended up as the cover-featured tale in the premiere issue of Worlds Unknown's b/w magazine successor, Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction...

...under a misleading, but undeniably-kool cover by Kelly Freas!
In fact, an adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon's KillDozer ran in the next issue of Worlds Unknown...

Meanwhile, back with Black Destroyer...

Roy Thomas was concerned that the finale as shown in the adaptation wasn't clear enough, so he included an explanation on the letters page...

Bonus #1: You can read the complete original short story HERE.
Feel free to compare and contrast!
Bonus #2: here are the illustrations from the original pulp magazine, so you can see how closely Dan Adkins and Jim Mooney kept to the pulp magazine "feel" of the tale!

"Black Destroyer" was later incorporated with later short stories about the exploratory vessel Space Beagle into the novel Voyage of the Space Beagle, which is a tribute to Charles Darwin's scientific exploratory ship, "The Beagle".

BTW, Van Vogt sued 20th Century Fox over the 1979 movie Alien, claiming that it ripped off elements of "Black Destroyer" and "Discord in Scarlet", both of which were adapted into Voyage of the Space Beagle.

Fox settled out of court.

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Voyage of the Space Beagle

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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder WORLDS UNKNOWN "Black Destroyer!" Part 1

A 1930s pulp story adapted into comic form in the 1970s...

...and a clear inspiration for aspects of movie and tv science fiction ranging from Forbidden Planet and Alien to Star Trek and Space: 1999 (among others)!

Will Coeurl deceive the crew and return with them to Earth?

Or will he simply kill the humans and commandeer the ship?

Find out in the conclusion next Wednesday, plus read some kool background info about the comic adaptation!

This tale from issue 5 (1974) of Marvel's short-lived science fiction anthology Worlds Unknown was adapted by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Dan Adkins & Jim Mooney.

It's based on "Black Destroyer", A E Van Vogt's first published story, which appeared as the cover story (a rare honor for a writer's premiere tale) in Astounding Science Fiction (July 1939).
It was later expanded in Vogt's novel Voyage of the Space Beagle, which continued the voyages of the starship and crew!

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Voyage of the Space Beagle
(which includes "Black Destroyer")
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Space Hero Saturdays STAR HUNTERS "Part 1: The Farrell Alternative" Conclusion

When last we left our handsome intergalactic rogue...

...swashbucking Donovan Flint, after single-handedly rescuing a vital Earth-bound shipment of fresh food from space pirates, is invited to a meeting with Director Farrell of The Corporation.

But when he arrives, the smiling rogue discovers getting out will be much harder than getting in...

We want to apologize for this post being a week late.

This was supposed to appear last week, and Jumpin' Jupiter was supposed to appear this week.
But the birth of my first grand-niece took priority and my assistant couldn't follow my terrible handwriting on a post-it about which post went when and things went "futzy"!

Note about this story...though this never-reprinted tale appeared in the double-sized DC Super-Stars V2 #18 (1977), it's actually the first of two regular-sized issues of the proposed series which were cobbled together.
You'll see the other one in the near-future...and this time on the correct order!

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Mystery in Space

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