Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Monday, November 2, 2020
Monday Madness / Trump Reading Room YOUR VOTE IS VITAL!
It's never been more important...
BTW, note that, even in the 1950s, less than half of qualified Americans voted...
Illustrated by Warren Kremer and Al Avision, this one-shot published by Harvey Comics in 1952 (68 years ago) was offered for only a couple of pennies a copy to anyone or any organization who wanted to utilize it to get out the vote!
Amazing how it's both generic and pertinent even decades later!
Note: Our gratitude to the ever-amazing Kracalactaka for the scans of this ultra-rare comic!
Note: Our gratitude to the ever-amazing Kracalactaka for the scans of this ultra-rare comic!
Now, unless you want things to stay as they are...or get worse...if you're over 18 and under 110...
Sunday, November 1, 2020
Sean Connery (1930-2020) in Comics
Only one of the late, great Sean Connery's James Bond movies was adapted into comics...
...the first one, Doctor No!
Published in England as part of Gilberton's Classics Illustrated series, it was considered too lowbrow by the publisher's American editors.
They shopped it around to US publishers, almost all of whom passed on it...except DC Comics, who ran it (with Comics Code-approved changes) as part of their Showcase anthology comic!
Ironically, DC released the comic in January, 1963...but the movie wasn't in American theatres until May, 1963, by which point the bi-monthly comic was off the newsstands two issues and four months ago!
Remember, no internet, streaming video, DVD/BluRays, or even video cassettes at that time!
Remember, no internet, streaming video, DVD/BluRays, or even video cassettes at that time!
As you may have guessed, it sold poorly, and DC never picked up the option to do other James Bond movie comics...though their contract gave them the rights for a decade!
(Haven't you ever wondered why Gold Key, the leading movie-tv comic adaptor didn't do 007 comics?)
But that didn't mean Sean Connery (or his likeness) didn't appear in DC books!
In 1965, DC launched a futuristic spy series, Interplanetary Investigations in Mystery in Space.
Though the lead character, Jan Vern, was a typical blond, square-jawed comic hero (who looked in some panels like Robert Shaw, Connery's nemesis in From Russia with Love), supporting character Agent X aka Damos was a dead ringer for Sean...
Sadly, the never-reprinted series ran only two issues, but you, dear fan, can see them HERE and HERE!
(and, yes. both chapters feature Damos!)
In the early 1970s, Connery's appearance as Zed in the movie Zardoz...
...inspired (if that's the word) the look of a new Superman character...
...Vartox, a hero from another planet, who, after the misunderstanding on the cover of DC's Superman #281 (1974) was cleared up, became a staunch ally to the Man of Steel!
He's guest-starred ever since in various DC titles in basically the same outfit!
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Saturday, October 31, 2020
Space Force Saturdays SPACE SQUADRON "Last of the Martians"
Meet Mxxptrm!
No, not "Myxzptlk"!
No, not "Myxzptlk"!
You can't get rid of this guy by getting him to say his name backwards!
And, though he's a Martian, he's neither little, nor green!
An interesting aspect of Space Squadron was that, unlike Speed Carter's Space Sentinels, the Squadron had members from every allied world, not just Earth.
"Max", who debuts here, becomes a valued (albeit temperamental) teammate, rather like Worf on Star Trek: the Next Generation.
Art from this never-reprinted final story from Atlas' Space Squadron #1 (1951) is by George Tuska who later became the final artist on the original Buck Rogers comic strip (1959-67) and then assumed the art duties for almost a decade on Marvel's Invincible Iron Man!
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Friday, October 30, 2020
Friday Fun / Humor in a Jugular Vein "Blechhula!" & "Night Gawker"
Here's two creepy classics from the 1970s that should've been comic books, but weren't!
...as presented in our "brother" RetroBlog specializing in TV/movie/radio comics, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video!
Both were satirized in never-reprinted strips from Marvel's short-lived humor comics Spoof and ARRRGH!
Blacula never made it to comics, but Night Stalker has appeared under the Moonstone banner since 2002.
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