Space Hero Saturdays MOON ZERO TWO Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Space Western Hero...

Clementine Taplin arrives on the Moon and hires down-on-his-luck, former hot-shot space pilot Bill Kemp to find her space-miner brother, Wally.
Kemp considers doing it while he completes another job: diverting an asteroid composed primarily of sapphire to crash on an unoccupied area of the moon so it can be mined.
He succeeds, barely surviving the perilous task.
Returning to the Moon, the pilot is warned not to help Clementine.
Not the sort to bow to threats, Kemp takes the job and he and Taplin go in search of her brother. They find him at his remote mining location...dead!

It's actually a pretty good film with a lot of kool elements including...

• A real differentiation between "old style" 1970s-1999 tech used by the poor hero and 2020 tech used by rich villains!
• Set, prop and costume design motifs that proved so popular that they popped up for more than a decade on shows from UFO to Space:1999 to Starlost to Star Maidens to Blake's 7.
• A nice snarky action-hero performance by extremely-underrated actor James Olsen, whose main fault seems to be having a receding hairline at a time when a full head of hair was more important than acting ability in film.

Script adaptation and art by Paul Neary for this comic from Fleetway's House of Hammer #5 (1976).
The cover was by Brian Lewis.

For more background and pix from the film, there's a kool page covering all things MZ2 HERE!

and a special bonus...
Moon Zero Two: the Movie!

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Space Hero Saturdays MOON ZERO TWO Part 1

Here's a movie that promoted itself as the "First Space Western"...

...though this psychedelic 1969 flick is more "Space" than "Western"!

Damn claim jumpers!

As you can see, life in 2021 (three years ago) is rough!

Next Saturday, the exciting conclusion as well as some behind-the-scenes info!

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Moon Zero Two

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Friday Fun THIS MAGAZINE IS CRAZY "Fact Realism vs TV is 'em Real"

Old West humor, illustrated by the legendary Jack Davis...

...but NOT from MAD!

It's from Charlton's This Magazine is CRAZY! V4N8, a MAD imitator which lasted only seven issues!

Both as a color comic and a b/w magazine, MAD inspired many imitators.

Some, like Cracked, are going even today (albeit on-line, not in print).
Others, like This Magazine is CRAZY, were short-lived, but able, from time to time, to get work from MAD's regular contributors, almost all of whom were freelancers.
This particular piece from 1959 apparently was a satirical response to TV's sanitizing the images of both cowboys and Indians in ongoing series.
Westerns were the most popular scripted genre at the time, dominating almost half of both the prime time and syndicated schedules.
The writer is, regrettably, unknown but it could be Davis himself, who utilized this format in both issues of his own short-lived color comic humor anthology Yak Yak, as seen HERE and HERE!

The writer is, regrettably, unknown.

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Sincerest Form of Parody

Space Hero Saturdays SPACE WESTERN COMICS "Spurs Jackson and His Space Vigilantes in The Saucer Men"

When you think of "Space Heroes", cowboys and Indians aren't the first people who pop into your head!

Why not?

BTW, Isn't it amazing how these guys (of all people) take the whole idea of outer-space aliens in stride?

  

Just over 70 years ago, Charlton introduced Space Western Comics in 1952, starting with #40.
Though the numbering was a continuation of already-ongoing "parent" title Cowboy Western Comics, none of the previous strips were carried over or revamped, as so often happened when comic titles were altered!
Instead, a new series, set in the present (1952), was launched starring Spurs Jackson who was both a cowboy and electronics expert!

He was also a Federal government contactor, so when he needed backup, the military tended to come a-running (and a-shooting).

Good thing, since his ranch became a magnet for alien invaders during the series' run.

The so-called "Space Vigilantes" consisted of Spurs' ranch hands including Hank Roper and Strong Bow, both of whom had backup strips in the book where they also showed their solo alien-buttkicking talents.

An infrequent supporting cast member was Queen Thula of Mars, whom Spurs met in the story above.

Whenever a tale took place on Mars, or Spurs needed some really advanced tech, she appeared and livened up the usually all-male ensemble considerably.

BTW, if you think that this short story covers a helluva lot of ground in just eight pages, you'd be right.

Today this tale alone would be a six-issue miniseries (with a couple of tie-ins to other titles)

It shouldn't surprise you to learn the writer who penned it was Walter Gibson, aka Maxwell Grant, biographer of the pulp hero The Shadow.

If there was anyone who knew how to cram a narrative with both plot and action, it was him!

Besides aliens from a number of worlds, Spurs and friends battled Commie spies (Hey, it was 1952! "Reds" were EVERYWHERE!), ancient Aztecs, and space-going Nazis!

It was weird!

It was wild!

Sometimes it was dumb!

But it was never dull!

And it only lasted six issues.

After #45, the title reverted to Cowboy Western Comics, and Spurs put in a final appearance in a one-page filler.
He was forgotten.

Until now.

We'll be re-presenting Spurs' never-reprinted battle against Those Who Threaten the American Way of Life here in Space Hero Saturdays.

And we're offering a line of Space Western collectibles...perfect for summer wear at the beach!

Check out the

 Space Western Comics Store

Tell Your Loved One "Giddiyap, Sweetie!" on Valentines Day!

Valentine's Day is almost upon us, and nothing says "I Love You" like gunpowder, horse blankets, and guys who don't bathe for days, right?

Right?

Someone sure thought so back in the 1950s, when two of the most popular genres--romances and Westerns were combined into Western romances (or Romantic Westerns) in both prose fiction and comics.

True Love Comics Tales™ has digitally-restored and remastered the best of the comic cover art from that all-too-brief shining period of American literature for a new line of Valentine's Day goodies including greeting cards, diaries, teddy bears, even shirts, tops, and, well...bottoms for men and women at...

Western Love™

Just the thing for the cowboy or cowgirl in your life!

A Valentine's Day Public Service message from the buckaroos at Atomic Kommie Comics™

Space Hero Saturdays BUSTER CRABBE COMICS "Invaders from Beyond"

Though Buster Crabbe starred in more Westerns than any other genre, he's best-known to the public at large as the movie serial Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers!

As we mentioned earlier,  his comic book adventures included sci-fi and high adventure tales as well as Western stories.

This never-reprinted story, cover-featured in Eastern Color's Buster Crabbe Comics #9, combined sci-fi and Western action, though set in the "present" (1953), like Space Western Comics, which was being published at the same time.

The writer is unknown, but the art on both the cover and story is by Mike Roy, who worked steadily in comics from the beginning of the Golden Age in 1941 until 1980!

Note that Buster is Buster Crabbe, not "Buster Crabbe as a character like Billy West" or somesuch in the tale, and it's assumed that he's actually able to do anything he's shown doing in his films.

There's more alien butt-kicking four-color action with the greatest movie action hero of the 1940s-50s to come!

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Thrilling Fantasy Tales

CoronaVirus Comics FEATURE COMICS "Rance Keane and the Anti-Cancer Serum"

Now here's something you don't see everyday...

...a romantic triangle involving a hero, his girlfriend and the comedy-relief sidekick!

We had an anti-cancer serum...in 1940?

Rance Keane started out in Quality's Feature Comics #22 as a present-day cowboy who moonlighted as an amateur sleuth with Pee Wee as his Gabby Hayes-style sidekick.

By the time of this story in Quality's Feature Comics #36 (1940), he migrated to New York City and lost most of his rural affectations.

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Cancer Vixen

A True Story