Space Force Saturdays ROCKY JONES: SPACE RANGER "Forbidden Frequency"

With so much modulated energy (wi-fi, digital tv, am-fm, etc) floating in the ether...

...I'm truly surprised something like this hasn't come to pass by 2012!

Or...has it?

The concept of subliminal programming goes back to the 1860s.

Usually, it involves audio or visual stimulation beyond human perception, but in this case, it's an energy frequency that interferes with the human mind's function.

Queen Cleolanthe was the ongoing villainess on the Rocky Jones series...

Played with fun "bad girl" panache by Patsy Parsons, Cleolanthe both fought against Rocky and was uncontrollably-drawn to him!

Note: From Flash Gordon and Princess Aura to Rocky Jones and Cleolanthe to James T Kirk and (insert Girl of the Week here), scantly-clad space babes just can't resist square-jawed Earthmen on tv and in movies!

(Not that I'm complaining...)

This story from Charlton's Space Adventures #16 (1955) was illustrated by Ted Galindo and Ray Osrin.
The writer is unknown.
Almost all of the Rocky Jones tv episode-compilation movies are available on inexpensive DVDs and two of them Crash of the Moons and Manhunt in Space were roasted on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Rocky Jones will return in the near future...

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Rocky Jones: Space Ranger Collection

Featuring Six Three-Episode Compilation Movies

(That's almost half the TV series in one set!)

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Space Force Saturdays ROCKY JONES: SPACE RANGER "Velocity X"

"Warp drive" didn't begin with Star Trek...

but lightspeed (or faster) travel was a rarity in 1950s' tv science fiction, where rockets dominated the skies!

Of all the 1950s Space Heroes we present here, Rocky Jones seems closest to the most famous tv Space Hero of all--Capt James T Kirk!

While the credits for this story from Charlton's Space Adventures #15 (1955) list Ted Galindo and Vince Alascia as the artists, there's enough difference from the other stories credited to them for me to believe it's actually Alden McWilliams.

Rocky Jones will return in the near future...

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Rocky Jones: Space Ranger Collection

Featuring Six Three-Episode Compilation Movies

(That's almost half the TV series in one set!)

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Space Force Saturdays SPACE PATROL (TV) "Lady of Diamonds"

1950s Media was Loaded with Low-Budget Sci-Fi Series...

...including this one, a saga of those who protect the 30th Century space-lanes in both the video and audio realms!

Tonga later reformed and ended up as the Assistant Security Chief for the entire Space Patrol organization!

Space Patrol ran Monday thru Friday on tv and semi-weekly on radio from 1950 to 1955, using the same performers for both media.

This comic book adaptation from Ziff-Davis Publishing ran for only two issues in 1952, and was written by Philip Evans (who did a lot of movie and tv tie-ins and co-created Drift Marlo, about a special investigator at Cape Kennedy), and illustrated by Bernie Krigstein (who also did SpaceBusters, a comic series about intergalactic Marines which we presented as part of Space Force Saturdays) before moving on to EC Comics, where he achieved his greatest fame).
The book ended not due to poor sales, but because Ziff-Davis left the comic book business during the "comics cause juvenile delinquency" controversy of the early 1950s, deciding to concentrate on publishing magazines instead, and still continuing to this day as seen HERE.

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Space Patrol
Missions of Daring in the Name of Early Television
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We're Going APE on the 50th Anniversary of the Planet of the Apes TV Series!

To Be More Accurate, Our "Brother" RetroBlog...
...Secret Sanctum of Captain Video, will be celebrating with a month-long look at never-reprinted British comics (there weren't any American comics) from the mid 1970s featuring the characters from the short-lived (only fourteen episodes) tv series starring Roddy McDowall, Ron Harper, James Naughton, and Mark Lenard!
The Saga Begins Friday, on the 50th Anniversary at
Secret Sanctum of Captain Video!

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Planet of the Apes

Omnibus 3

Reprinting the Prose Adaptations by Noted Sci-Fi Author George Alec Effinger of Eight TV Series Episodes

Originally-Published in Four Separate Volumes in 1974-75!

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Monday Madness MAD-DOG "Rabid"

He is The Hero We Need NOW...

...at least, that's what they thought in 1992, according to Ace Comics' editor Harlan Stone.

Writer Evan Dorkin, penciler Gordon Pucell, and inker Ray McCarthy play along with the premise of the short-lived TV 1990s series BOB (starring Bob Newhart) about a Silver Age comic character being revived in the Dark Age of the 1990s.

Editor Harlan Stone, mentioned above, is the character on the show who supports reimagining the Adam West-Batman-like Mad-Dog as a psychopathic killer vigilante, which Mad-Dog's creator, Bob McKay, hates, as shown in this "behind the scenes" page...

So, Stone proposes this comic (published by Marvel) which will present both versions!
You can read Bob McKay's upbeat Silver Age version right now over at our 'brother" RetroBlog Hero Histories by clicking HERE!
And you can watch (yes, watch) the series' origin story at another "brother" RetroBlog, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video, by clicking HERE!

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BOB

Complete Series on DVD

from Paramount Home Video on Demand

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Space Force Saturdays ROCKY JONES: SPACE RANGER "Space Infantry"

With the school year over and kids off to summer vacation...

...lets look at the never-revealed school days of the newest space hero in our line up, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger!

Sneaky little SoB, ain't he?

Wonder if he had a classmate named James Tiberius Kirk?
BTW, the character's Space Academy days were never shown on TV.
The series, set in 2054, started with him already an officer!

Scripter of this never-reprinted, totally-original tale from Charlton's Space Adventures #15 (1955) is unknown, but the art is by Ted Galindo, a journeyman artist who did work for Charlton, Prize, and Gold Key from the mid-1950s to mid-1960s.

Oddly, Charlton didn't give Rocky Jones his own title, as most publishers did with licensed characters, but inserted him into the already-established Space Adventures comic for four issues (and gave him the cover each issue).

The tv series itself was a weekly filmed series, not a live videotaped daily series like Captain Video or Tom Corbett: Space Cadet, giving it a slightly "slicker" look (and better special effects) than most of the competitors.

It was syndicated, and ran for 39 episodes over two seasons.

All of the eps are three-part stories and were re-edited into feature-length films which were released to syndication in the 1960s, after the series had ended its' run.

Almost all are available on DVD and two of them, Crash of the Moons and Manhunt in Space, were roasted on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Rocky Jones will return in the near future...

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Rocky Jones: Space Ranger Collection

Featuring Six Three-Episode Compilation Movies

(That's almost half the TV series in one set!)

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ROGER CORMAN 1926-2024

Roger Corman and Vincent Price

One of the most influential filmmakers from the 1950s onward, Roger was one of the greatest "hyphenates" (writer/director/producer/occasional actor/etc) in history.

He gave career-starting jobs to numerous future cinema icons from Francis Ford Coppola to Pam Grier to James Cameron to Jack Nicholson to Martin Scorsese to Peter Bogdanovitch.

He revived the slowing careers of numerous 1920s-1950s performers, and made some of them (like Vincent Price and Joan Crawford) pop culture icons!
Plus, Corman brought numerous foreign movies to America that no other US studio wanted to invest in, like Fantastic Planet, The Tin Drum, and Cries and Whispers.

Roger's works are a major part of the entertainment side of my life...and always will be.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go rewatch Gas-s-s-Or-It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It, Corman's final film for AIP!

You'd be surprised how timely it still is!

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How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime
(Roger Corman's Autobiography)