Space Force Saturdays PERIMETER PATROL SERVICE "Space Pirates on Xarpot"

Space police/military organizations were ubiquitous in 1950s sci-fi...

...and this story was the second one featuring the short-lived Perimeter Patrol Service.

You can read their premiere tale HERE!

BTW, note the painted cover is by the story's illustrator, Bernie Krigstein...who rarely did painted covers!

Considering the three tales were done by the artists who also did SpaceBusters, we wonder if this was intended as a backup series for that title.

This never-reprinted story from Ziff-Davis' Amazing Adventures #6 (1952) is a superb example of pulp/comic space opera of the era with all the classic elements:

Scantly-clad women!

Square-jawed heroes!

Rockets & ray-guns!

And, instead of bug-eyed monsters...space pirates!

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Trump's Space Force

(either for yourself, or as a gift for a con friend/relative)

Best of Wednesday Worlds of Wonder TALOS OF THE WILDERNESS SEA

It was Going to be an Epic 12-Issue Mini-Series...

...but cutbacks at DC dictated that the already-penciled and scripted first two issues Jan Strnad & Gil Kane (the guys who had revamped The Atom into a high-adventure/barbarian hero in two Sword of the Atom mini-series) be combined into a double-length one-shot whose sales would determine if the project would continue.

Unfortunately, despite the genre pedigree both creatives had, the unknown character didn't attract a large enough audience (as The Atom had), and only the single, open-ended, never-reprinted issue exists!

Here are links to the almost 40-year old "lost" project!
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Reading Room / Tales Twice Told STRANGE WORLDS "Sabotage on Space Station 1"

Tuesday, we presented a 1970s tale with a 1950s flavor...

...now you'll see where that "flavor" came from!

Damn, we humans are good at this sort of world-saving stuff, eh?

This Norman Nodel-illustrated tale from Avon's Strange Worlds #7 (1952) could have been the basis of an episode of Space: 1999 or Classic Star Trek with just a couple of tweaks!

As to why it was reworked...

Eerie Publications had been using photostats and negatives from defunct comics companies as the source material for their b/w magazine line.

About a year in, they started using South American artists eager to break into the comics market and American artists like Dick Ayers and Chic Stone (who were losing work as the Silver Age ended and comics companies cut back their lines) to re-do old stories with a more contemporary style.

Some illustrators totally-redid the art, using new "camera angles" and clothing/technology designs reflecting contemporary tastes.

In this particular case, artist Cirilo Munoz just lightboxed and re-inked the Nodel artwork!

Editor Carl (Golden Age Human Torch) Burgos eliminated the opening captions and modified a couple of captions and dialogue balloons, but otherwise left the unknown writer's original script intact.

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Mysteries in Space

The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics
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Best of Wednesday Worlds of Wonder SPACE CLUSTERS by Arthur Byron Cover & Alex Nino

It's a Time-Lost, Totally-Original, Never-Reprinted Graphic Novel...

 by noted sci-fi novelist Arthur Byron Cover and incredibly-unique graphic illustrator Alex Nino, which you've likely never seen!
It's Weird!
It's Wild!
It's the Very Embodiment of a World of Wonder!
So What Are You Waiting for?
Here are the Links...
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Reading Room / Tales Twice Told WEIRD WORLDS "Terror on Station One!"

Here's an early 1970s sci-fi space opera tale...

...that reads and "feels" like a 1950s sci-fi space opera story!
And there's a good reason for that!

Wonder why this Cirillo Munoz-rendered tale from Eerie Publications' Weird Worlds V1N10 (1970) feels so...out of date in an early 1970s magazine?

Perhaps because it's almost a line-for-line, panel for panel, re-do of a 1950s story!

Be here Thursday to see the original four-color version by a different artist!

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The Worst of Eerie Publications
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Monday Mecha Madness ROCKET SHIP X "Robot Rebellion"

We're DOOMED, do you hear me?

DOOMED, because 2035 will bring a...

...as shown in this never-reprinted tale from Fox's one-shot sci-fi anthology Rocket Ship X (1951)!

It's actually a decent little tale whose creators, regrettably, are anonymous.

Think James Cameron read it as a kid?

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3
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Sunday Sports Special LARS OF MARS "Crucial Game"

Even a Martian pretending to be a TV actor playing a Martian reveres the Great American Pastime...

...and won't allow anybody to sully or demean the sport's image...even if it means cheating to do so!

The ends justify the means even if it involves alien manipulation of peoples' minds, eh?
Great lesson for kids!
Written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, illustrated by noted DC Comics artist Murphy Anderson, this tale appeared in Ziff-Davis' Lars of Mars #11 (1951), the second (and last issue) of the series!
Considering the moral lessons the series apparently taught, perhaps it was for the best...

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Pre-Code Classics

Lars of Mars / Crusader from Mars

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Reading Room / Tales Twice Told TALES OF THE WATCHER "Why Won't They Believe Me?"

We presented the first version of this tale on Tuesday...

...now let's look at the expanded and enhanced rendition!

Scripted by Stan (the Man) Lee, penciled by Gene (the Dean) Colan, and inked by Paul (no nickname) Reinman, this double-length version of the story from the back of Marvel's Silver Surfer V1N3 (1969) has a lot more humor and a bigger build-up to the switch-ending than the original!
BTW, almost all the "Tales of the Watcher" that appeared during the Silver Surfer book's 48-page incarnation (which lasted for the first seven issues before becoming a "regular" 32-page magazine) were expanded remakes of shorter Atlas-era stories!
The exception was the first tale which was a re-vamp of the origin of the Watcher's race from the original run of Tales of the Watcher when it backed-up Iron Man in Tales of Suspense until a brand-new Captain America strip took over the second slot.