Saturday, February 15, 2025

Space Hero Saturdays OUTER SPACE "Blueprint for Survival"

Sometimes a Space Hero is just an ordinary guy...

...or someone extraordinary pretending to be ordinary!
This never-reprinted story from Charlton's Outer Space #21 (1959) follows the standard convention of movie/TV sci-fi of the era with friendly aliens who look perfectly human, but dress better (or at least more futuristically than us!
Written by Joe Gill, penciled by Matt Baker, inked by Vince Colletta.
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Friday, February 14, 2025

Friday Fun MARGIE COMICS "Elusive Valentine!"

Here's a never-reprinted Valentine's Day treat...
...from almost 80 years ago years ago, featuring a teen humor character from the company that later became Marvel Comics!
Until the mid 1970s when Archie Comics became the sole "teen humor" publisher, every company had several titles with wacky teenage protagonists.
Margie, created/written/illustrated by Morris Weiss was typical of the genre...
  • Irresponsible, impulsive teen (of either gender)!
  • Usually-clueless object of affection!
  • Constantly-irritated parents!
  • An annoying younger sibling (usually of the opposite gender to the protagonist)!
  • Various eccentric friends!
Initially a backup strip that floated to whatever humor comic needed a 5-6 page filler, she finally got her own title by taking over Timely's Comedy Comics in 1946 as of #35 and holding on to it until #50 in 1950, when the book became Reno Browne: Hollywood's Greatest Cowgirl.
Margie went back to being a floating backup strip for another year before disappearing completely, never to be seen again!
This particular tale (one of the few comic tales I could find with "Valentine's Day" in the title that didn't deal with the famous gang-war massacre!) is from Timely's Margie Comics #37 (1946).

Happy Valentine's Day!

Thursday, February 13, 2025

Baker Reading Room OUTER SPACE "Fall Guy"

Despite Being Published in a Comic Called Outer Space... 

...this is a totally Earth-bound story, until...




Cue the Twilight Zone theme...
Written by Joe Gill, pencilled by Matt Baker, and inked by Vince Colletta, thie never-reprinted story from Charlton's Outer Space #24 (1959) takes the whole "fraternity hazing" mindset, and tosses it in the trash where it belongs!

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Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder AIRSHIP ENTERPRISE "Infernal Machine" Part 3b

We Have Already Seen...

...preparing to go into battle to avoid assimilation by the Sky God Damballah, Captain Janus Tibbs checks on repairs to the heavily-damaged Enterprise!
But a new threat from within arises...








It's, Literally, Into the Belly of the Beast...
Next Wednesday!
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Graphic Novel re-presenting the mini-series along with additional goodies
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Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Baker Reading Room CROWN COMICS Voodah in "Justice of the Jungle!"

When you hear the phrase "Lord of the Jungle", you visualize Tarzan or Thun'da...

...or some other White guy.
But, during the Golden Age of Comics, one such jungle lord was Black!
Debuting in Golfing/McCombs' anthology Crown Comics #3 (1945), Voodah was the first Black hero in comic books.
Illustrated by Matt Baker (who most fans know was one of the premiere Good Girl artists of the '40s-'50s, but don't know that he was one of the few African-American comic artists of the era), the idea of a non-White jungle hero seems obvious today, but was extremely-daring in the 1940s!
In fact, it was so daring that Voodah became paler, eventually becoming just another White guy bossing the locals around!
But, before he went White, Voodah had some kool adventures, including battling a dinosaur single-handed!
You'll see a couple more of them before the end of the month!
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