Saturday, January 20, 2018

Reading Room TRAGG AND THE SKY GODS "Master of the Living Bones" Conclusion

...a meteor crashes near Tragg, Lorn, and Jarn's new seaside cave home.
Keera, exiled from her defeated people's camp, sees the meteorstrike, and believing it to be another Yargonian ship, goes to investigate.
The alien sees three shadowy beings, The Dark Gods, crack open the meteor and revive the dead alien, Ostellon, within.
She also overhears the Dark Gods command Ostellon to slay Tragg, who is destined to be the father of the modern human race...including the Dark Gods' greatest nemeses in the future, Dagar the Invincible and Doctor Spektor!
Keera rushes to warn her unrequited love, Tragg, and is given sanctuary and food...
"Forget Ostellon! He and the Dark Gods are gone!"
Not in the future...which was already published!
Ostellon's battles with Dagar and Dr Spektor had already occured...and are available in the reprints listed below!
This was the last issue of Tragg's series to feature new material!
The next (and final) issue reprinted #1.
But that wouldn't be Tragg's last appearance!
One more adventure (with a shocking plot twist) was waiting to be told...
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&
Volume 1
(featuring Ostellon vs the title heroes!)

Friday, January 19, 2018

Friday Fun TRAGG AND THE SKY GODS "Master of the Living Bones" Part 1

...but the world of Tragg and Lorn is about to take an abrupt and unexpected turn!
Editor's note: Ostellon previously appeared in Dagar #1 (1972) and #17 (1976) as well as Doctor Spektor #7 (1974)!
Your dinner's going to get cold, Keera, because an uninvited guest is coming!

To Be Concluded...
TOMORROW!
Ostellon previously appeared in both Dagar's and Doctor Spektor's Gold Key titles!
All those appearances took place, chronologically, after this never-reprinted "origin" in Gold Key's Tragg and the Sky Gods #7 by artist Dan Spiegle and writer/co-creator of all three series...Don Glut!
(Dagar was, like Conan and other barbarian heroes, set in Atlantis-era "pre-history", while Spektor ran around in the present-day 1970s!)
The most interesting concept, tossed rather casually into the story, is that Tragg and Lorn are, literally, the parents of the entire human race!
Tragg, Lorn, and Jarn (Tragg's brother) also crossed over into Spektor and Dagar's titles.
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(featuring the behind-the-scenes info on the creation of Tragg and the other Gold Key comic series Don worked on!)

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Reading Room STRANGE WORLDS "Sabotage on Space Station 1"

...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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Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Reading Room 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 tale!
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 tomorrow to see the original four-color version by a different artist!
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Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Reading Room NORGE BENSON "Princess of Pax"

I don't know if it was the editor's or the writer's choice...
...but as of this issue, Norge left frigid Pluto behind for the jungle planet of Pax and its' scantly-clad Princess!
As of this Al Walker-illustrated tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #20 (1942), Norge has become more like the standard square-jawed space heroes who filled the rest of the book battling alien menaces and rescuing mimimally-clad helpless heroines!
But, thankfully, the wacky sense of humor that enabled the strip to survive far longer than it's predecessor, Cosmo Corrigan, is still evident!
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