Reading Room STRANGE WORLDS "Octopus-Kings of the Lost Planet"

Sometimes the cover of a comic doesn't match the contents...

...until you look closer!

While there is no comic tale called "Octopus Kings of the Lost Planet" in Strange Worlds #2 (1951), there is a text story...

Written by "W Malcolm White", a name that only appears in three text stories in Avon Comics, so its safe to state that it's a pen-name.

The illustrators for the cover and interior spot illustrations are unknown.

Regrettably, the files and records of Avon Comics are long gone, so we'll probably never know.

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

Space Force Saturdays MARS COMPANY in "Winner"

In the early 1970s, DC experimented with pulp-style illustrated prose tales...

...in genre (sci-fi, horror, western, and romance) titles!

Written by Denny O'Neil, and rendered in retro 1950s Buck Rogers style...

...by Murphy Anderson, this never-reprinted text feature from DC's Strange Adventures #227 (1971) seems more a tribute to classic 1940s-50s "hard" sci-fi pulps instead of a then-current "new wave" science fiction tale!
Since it featured the last story about Earth's interplanetary fighting force, Mars Company, we felt it would be the perfect "capper" to the SpaceBusters saga, which Murphy re-conceived just before its' cancellation!

Murphy seemed to be DC's "go-to" guy when they needed retro-style material in the 1960s-70s!

He was the artist for Silver Age revival try-outs of Golden Age characters in Brave & Bold (Starman & Black Canary) and Showcase (Dr Fate & HourMan and The Spectre), as well as the first few issues of The Spectre's own Silver Age title!

Anderson was also the initial artist on DC's Bronze Age version of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars, as well as filing-in where needed on other Burroughs strips including Korak and Beyond the Farthest Star!

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Mysteries in Space

The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder LOST WORLD "Jewel of Destiny"

As the finale to the Golden Age adventures of Hunt Bowman and alien princess Lyssa, here's the only text feature based on the series, from Fiction House's Planet Comics #38 (1945)!

Next Week...

the rebooted, 1980s version of the

LOST WORLD!

Dare You Miss It?

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

Who Knows What Reboots Lurk in the Minds of Writers?

With the most extensive revamp/reboot to the legendary character since the 1960s Radio Comics version...

...by James Patterson and Brian Sitts (now in bookstores and at Amazon)...

...we hereby present the updated (as of the Silver Age), but never-reprinted reboot origin of He Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men from Radio Comics The Shadow, as the "Grande Finale" to our annual Summer RetroBlogs Blogathon, beginning tomorrow at Hero Histories!
Click
HERE
Monday to enjoy!

Reading Room LOST WORLDS "Man Who Didn't Know Venus"

Nedor/Better/Standard Comics produced several sci-fi anthologies...

...none of which lasted more than three issues.

But it certainly wasn't due to lack of quality.

With a contributor list that included Alex Toth, Ross Andru, Mike Sekowsky, Nick Cardy, and Jack Katz, you're talking some of the great and soon-to-be-great storytellers of comics history!

But, there was one other sci-fi creator who did a story for Lost Worlds, one of only four tales he did for comic books.

Jerome Bixby, novelist and short-story writer, as well as screenwriter whose credits include...

IT! the Terror from Beyond Space!

Fantastic Voyage

Star Trek "Mirror, Mirror"* and "Day of the Dove"

and the short story "It's a Good Life" which was adapted on both the original Twilight Zone tv series (by Rod Serling) and the 1983 feature film (by Richard Matheson).

BTW, around the time he wrote this, Bixby had just left his position as editor of the Planet Stories pulp magazine at Fiction House, where he also contributed a couple of text pieces to Planet Comics and Indians (his only non-genre text story)!

BTW, let me know if the type at this size is readable or not.
*The Mirror Universe created by Bixby in "Mirror, Mirror" has proven to be so popular that the plot has reappeared in over half of the spin-off series spanning almost all of Federation and StarFleet history!
And let's not get into the numerous (and sometimes contradictory) novels and comics about the concept...

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder DUKE "Last White Man"

From the first issue of a long out-of-print 1950s Playboy competitor comes this Ray Bradbury tale...

...which was presented only once with this title!

Intended as one of several new stories to link previously-published Mars tales in the now-legendary anthology The Martian Chronicles (1950) as a sequel to "Way in the Middle of the Air", it was delayed due to editorial requests for revisions and ended up initially-appearing in 1951 in a non-science fiction magazine dedicated to short stories in every genre as "The Other Foot"...

...before finally making its' appearance in a later, equally-legendary Bradbury anthology in 1951...

How did this unusual retitling come about?
In 1957, with Playboy dominating the newsstands, a new publisher introduced an African-American counterpart called Duke, which featured Black creatives and cheesecake models.

(The centerfold models were called "Duchesses"!)

Along with acclaimed Black writers Langston Hughes, Erskine Caldwell, and Chester Hines, the premiere issue featured Ray Bradbury's short story "The Other Foot", now entitled "The Last White Man"!

Unlike most of Bradbury's works, this tale has, to date, never been adapted into any other media!

(Sadly, Duke only lasted six issues.)

AFAIK, the only time "The Other Foot/The Last White Man" has ever been cover-featured was in a rare, limited-run book produced by, of all companies, Xerox, in 1967!

Try finding a copy of it at a reasonable price (or even a clean scan of the cover)!

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Tomorrow Midnight

Adaptations of Ray Bradbury's sci-fi stories from EC Comics!

Plus a new cover by Frank Frazetta

Defeat of the Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger has met the one enemy he couldn't conquer..

The box office.
His new (and somewhat controversial) movie has bombed...badly.
To be fair, it did do better than John Carter...which didn't have any "marquee name" performers like Johnny Depp.
Despite this, our brother blog, Western Comics Adventures™ will continue entries all this month about the most famous Western duo in fiction (whom we've covered a number of times previously).

This Monday, you'll see a classic retelling of the team's origin.
Who knows, we may pull in more eyeballs than saw the movie...

It's Lone Ranger & Tonto Month at Western Comics Adventures!

With a new (and somewhat controversial) Lone Ranger (and Tonto) movie opening next Wednesday, our brother blog, Western Comics Adventures™ will be dedicating July to entries about the most famous Western duo in fiction (whom we've covered a number of times previously).

This Monday, you'll see a classic feature on Tonto; his biography, cultural background, and skills & abilities, that was consistent through the various versions in radio, tv, comics, pulps (yes, pulps) and movies up to the late 1990s!

There'll also be entries about the incarnations of the duo in various media with lots of hard-to-find stuff to link to and/or download.

And maybe an explanation for the bird on Johnny Depp's head...