Sunday, April 29, 2018

Reading Room WEIRD THRILLERS "SandFlower of Venus"

Alien worlds have potentially-lethal animals and plants...
...but the most dangerous creature in the Universe is...Man!
I take it back.
The most dangerous creature in the Universe is Woman!
This never-reprinted tale from Ziff-Davis' Weird Thrillers #1 (1951) was probably illustrated by a round-robin of Dan & Sy Barry, Murphy Anderson, and Frank Giacoia.
The writer is unknown.
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Friday, April 27, 2018

Friday Fun REX DEXTER "Radium Creatures of Capris"

Starting with Fox's Mystery Men #2 (1939), the legendary Lou Fine did a pair of covers...
...featuring a Rex Dexter almost totally-different from the Dick Briefer character inside the book and in situations that had no relation to the story in that issue!
But they were really kool, eye-catching pieces!
When Rex received his own one-shot title, Briefer adapted the garb Fine had designed...
...but with his own distinctive touches!
Now, on with the story!
The use of Earth-based magnetism to propel and recover un-powered spacecraft is a rather unique touch that Briefer seems to have come up with on the spur of the moment.
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Thursday, April 26, 2018

50 Years Ago, the Avengers' First Non-Comic Book Adventure...

...involved a world-conquering madman!
Note: neither Quicksilver or the Scarlet Witch appear in the book, though they're referenced as past members.
The Wasp and Iron Man are the other featured members of the team in this story!
Written by long-time pulp/comic book writer Otto Binder (whose credits include Superman and the original Captain Marvel, this never-reprinted tale is a rolicking, fast-paced adventure that would have made a kool flick back in the Swinging 60s!
Trivia: Binder co-created both Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes!
Though there had been numerous paperback reprints of Marvel comics by Lancer Books, this was the first prose novel...and an original story, not an adaptation of any of the comics tales!
There were three previous comic book prose novels before this...all based on DC characters!
George Lowther's Adventures of Superman (which, technically, was based on the radio show), and Winston Lyons (William Woolfolk's) Batman vs the Three Villains of Doom (based as much on the tv show as the comic) and Batman vs the Fearsome Foursome (a novelization of the 1966 theatrical movie).

Karzz is more an alien Kang the Conquerer than Thanos the Mad Titan, but there are a number of parallels between this and Infinity Wars.
Now, before you go see the new movie...read the intro and first chapter of this lost classic...

The inside cover teaser!
Yes, (Stan the Man) Lee intros the story!
Iron Man does show up in Chapter Two...after running into Karzz!
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Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder CARSON OF VENUS "Terror from the Sky!"

...but if there's anything a lifetime of reading/watching science fiction has taught me, it's that things are not as they seem...
Remember, while the "you're not really dead because your alien biology is different from mine" concept is a cliche these days, the novel Pirates of Venus was written in 1932, and was a relatively new idea back then.
(One of the things that drove me nuts about reviews of the movie John Carter was the complaint it was "so derivative" of everything from Flash Gordon to Superman to Star Wars...when the 1911 story Princess of Mars was the inspiration for the aspects of those properties that people were complaining John Carter copied!)
Len Wein and Mike Kaluta keep the story racing along in this chapter from DC's Korak Son of Tarzan #50 (1973).
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