Reading Room NORGE BENSON "Attacked by the Aurorans"

As on Earth, there are hidden races in Pluto's unexplored wilds...

...and like the hidden races of Earth, these guys are somewhat xenophobic!

Since artist Al Walker was now in the military, one of the few female artists in 1940s comics, Fran Hopper (using her maiden name Deitrick) takes over the illustrating duties in her very first comic book assignment!

Though she tries to match Walker's layout style and sense of humor, the tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #23 (1943) is but a pale shadow of what Walker would have done with the same script!

This is not a dig against Hopper!

Walker was a unique talent, and anybody following him would suffer by comparison.

Fran found her niche doing other strips like Gale Allen and Her Girl Squadron and Yank Aces of World War II, rendering over 120 stories exclusively for Fiction House via the Iger Studio during her career!

Fran passed away this past November.

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Planet Comics

Volume 6

Super Bowl? I'll Show You a True SUPER Bowl!

Today, we PARTY, with our own Super-HERO Bowl!

A marathon of comic book-based DVDs and BluRays from around the world.

(Thank the tech gods for multi-region players!)

See you tomorrow with more exciting tales!

Reading Room TRAGG AND THE SKY GODS "Where Prowls the Devil Shark" Conclusion

So, what's going on with the cavemen, aliens, and dinosaurs in Tragg's prehistoric world?

...Zorek, learning that rebellious officer Fernek is still alive and that reinforcements are en-route from Yargon, decides to silence the rebel before he can tell the other Yargonians of the commander's failures.

Following the radiation from Fernek's jetpack, the Yargonian attack force comes upon...

The series ends with many open plotlines.

What happens when the other Yargonians arrive?

Do they arrest Zorek, or continue with his plans?

Does Fernek work with Tragg and the humans to resist the Yargonians?

Do he and Keera try to contact the others and tell them the truth?

Do the Yargonians end up abandoning their attempt at conquering the Earth?

Does Keera actually accept Fernek's love?

Sadly, we'll never know the answers.

Unlike most of the other Silver/Bronze Age Gold Key series, Tragg and the Sky Gods has never been reprinted or revived in new tales.

But...there is one more chapter in the story of Tragg and Lorn...a "lost tale" from their beginnings that finally saw publication just as Gold Key itself headed for extinction!

Click HERE to visit our "sister" RetroBlog Heroines! and read that final tale...

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Jurassic Classics

A Collection of Saurian Essays and Mesozoic Musings

by

Donald F Glut

(featuring the behind-the-scenes info on the creation of Tragg and the other Gold Key comic series Don worked on!)

Friday Fun TRAGG AND THE SKY GODS "Where Prowls the Devil Shark" Part 1

It's just another evening in prehistoric times...

...as Neanderthals assault a "sky goddess" (actually a stranded alien woman)!

To Be Concluded...
TOMORROW!
Ferenk was believed killed when Zorek shot at him...

...but, in the best tradition of comic book storytelling, unless you see the inert body, there's no guarantee he's actually dead!

Tragg and the Sky Gods was cancelled with the previous issue we presented, #8 (1977), but the next issue was in production when that occured!

Comics publishers are notoriously..."thrifty"...and, since the material had already been paid for, there was no reason not to use it!

Gold Key Spotlight was the "graveyard" for inventory material from various genres' cancelled titles, including sci-fi/fantasy, teen humor, and funny animals!
(It also served as filler for Whitman ComicPacs, sold in the 1960s and 70s in non-traditional markets like five-and-dime shops, supermarkets and grocery stores.

Read about them HERE and HERE!)

Unused stories from all three of writer Don Glut's books, (Tragg, Dagar the Invincible, and Occult Files of Doctor Spektor) finally saw publication in this anthology title.

Ironically, this issue of Spotlight was #9 (1977), which was the issue number of Tragg the story was intended for!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

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Jurassic Classics

A Collection of Saurian Essays and Mesozoic Musings

by

Donald F Glut

(featuring the behind-the-scenes info on the creation of Tragg and the other Gold Key comic series Don worked on!)

Reading Room CALVIN "New Pool"

The Black Panther was not the first Black Marvel character to get a cover-featured series!

He wasn't even the second!

He was the third!

First was Luke Cage, who received his own title...

...and is now the star of his own Netflix series!

The second character was...

Several months before Prince T'Challa took over a reprint book and began a memorable series that's serving as part of the plot of the new blockbuster opening February 16th...

...this character took over a reprint book and began a series that nobody remembers!

Written and penciled by Kevin Banks and inked by "NT", this never-reprinted tale from Marvel's Li'l Kids #11 (1972) was part of a brief, 3-issue run of one-page gags and 3-5 page stories that seemed recycled from vaudeville routines and 1940s-50s comic strips.
BTW, you can read our other Calvin re-presentations HERE!
What makes the strip somewhat more fascinating is the identity of the little-known writer-artist behind it.
"Kevin Banks" was not a pseudonym, but a staffer at Marvel in the early 1970s!
Even the ever-amazing comics researcher Nick Caputo could find little about the mysterious Mr Banks, as seen HERE.
What Banks did after working at Marvel is unknown.
Did he work in advertising?
Become an art instructor?
Switch careers and become an accountant or fireman?
We may never know the answer...

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The Boondocks
Because I Know You Don't Read the Newspaper