Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder CARSON OF VENUS "Mars--or Bust!"

Starting this week, we're presenting runs of short-lived series on Wednesdays...
...beginning with one of the very best from two future comic legends!
When Gold Key lost the license to Edgar Rice Burroughs properties in 1971, DC snapped it up right away!
The then-new Conan the Barbarian title had proven pulp characters had viability as comics and both DC and Marvel were grabbing up pulp properties currently in paperback reprints to adapt.
While Marvel was concentrating on Robert E Howard's characters (and other barbarians) along with Doc Savage, DC got Doc's stablemates The Shadow and The Avenger as well as Burroughs' lineup.
Besides continuing the Tarzan and Korak titles (from their Gold Key numbering), DC decided to re-launch John Carter along with previously-unadapted series Pellucidar and Carson of Venus as back-ups!
Note: While Gold Key's Tarzan had visited Pellucidar in several multi-issue tales, the underground world and it's inhabitants never had stand-alone stories!
There was no shortage of eager creatives to handle the new series!
Writer Len Wein and illustrator Michael Kaluta got the nod for Carson and ran with it, as you can see in this premiere story just dripping with both period mood and pulp-style high adventure from DC's Korak: Son of Tarzan #46 (1972)!
The team adapts ERB's introductory Carson novel Pirates of Venus in a multi-issue arc.
Oddly, they leave out one of the more interesting aspects of the book...a number of references to other Burroughs characters including Tarzan, David Innes, Captain Zuppner, Abner Perry and Jason Gridley!
Whether this was DC's or the Burroughs Estates' decision is unknown, but I find it hard to believe serious fans like Wein and Kaluta would deliberately leave out the references...
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The Complete Ace Books Carson of Venus Series

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

How Do You Handle a Humongous Movie Cast on Posters?

Easy!
Do a Bunch Of Posters!
Apparently color-coded to the Infinity Stones everybody is trying to protect/steal/recover...
...the posters each give an Avenger a starring spot...
...with allies dynamically-filling out the designs.
Yes, I note neither the Hulk nor the Vision get "star' status...
...but neither does the Black Panther, though I'm not certain if he's "officially" an Avenger or not!
And where the hell are Ant-Man/Giant-Man and Hawkeye?
Will Clint Barton follow his Silver Age comics story arc and become Giant-Man/Goliath?
Or will he skip that incarnation and go directly to Ronin?
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Monday, March 26, 2018

Reading Room NORGE BENSON "Kaws of the Lost Planetoid"

One thing you have to say about Pluto in Golden Age comic books...
...it certainly wasn't a dull place to live, or visit!
Is it just me or is Frosting getting even smaller than before?
Initially, he was the size of an adult bear, then he became the size of a chimpanzee!
Now he's small enough to sit on Norge's head like a hat!
Lily Renee continues the illustrating chores in this tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #30 (1944), handling spacecraft, criminals, and beautiful women with equal aplomb!
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Planet Comics
Vol. 8

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Holiday Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Hot Cross Buns"...Two Ways!

Sometimes Walt Kelly liked a nursery rhyme so much...he used it twice!
Such is the case with this one...from Dell's Four Color Comics: Easter with Mother Goose #103 (1946), and then, with an extra rhyme, in Easter with Mother Goose #220 (1949)
You gotta admit, if there's anyone who can do a classic nursery rhyme and make it appear fresh both times, it's Walt!
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Saturday, March 24, 2018

Reading Room GET LOST "Circle, the Triangle and the Square"

Sometimes, a comic tale doesn't need perspective, anatomy, or even characters to tell a story...
...as this classic bit of storytelling from Mikeross' Get Lost #3 (1954) proves!
The graphics are simple, but effective...but the key is the captions and their use of slang to deliver the punchline!
Though it only lasted three issues, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito's Get Lost was one of the best of the MAD comic knock-offs, never quite hitting the heights of Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder's lunacy, but coming close with several tales, including this one!
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