Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Wednesday World of Wonder FLASH GORDON "and the Mole Machine" Starring BUSTER CRABBE!

Think of This as a Podcast with Pictures!

In the 1960s, due to the popularity of old radio adventure shows like The Shadow, The Lone Ranger, and I Love a Mystery being re-released on LP records, MGM/Leo the Lion Records created a series of new audio adventures of classic characters in the same style, but with hi-fi audio, such as this album starring Buster Crabbe, who played Flash Gordon in three movie serials from 1930 to 1940 reprising the role.
Trivia: Oddly, there weren't any albums of Flash Gordon's radio adventures until the 1970s!
Though ostensibly-written by cast member Ronald Liss, one of the two tales...
...was based on a story in King Comics' just-revived Flash Gordon comic book, written and illustrated by noted creative Al Williamson, who had succeeded Alex Raymond on his Secret Agent X-9/Secret Agent Corrigan newspaper strip and had ghosted some of Dan Barry's 1950s run on Flash!
We've combined the two versions together in a Power Records-style presentation!
(The original album didn't include the comic book!)
Click on the link HERE to open the audio file and read along 
Note that the audio version is not a word-for-word transcription of the comic, but it's close enough that it's easy to follow the story...
Bonus: the art for the cover, uncropped and without text/trade dress.
Plus, a study done by Al Williamson for the album cover, inked and colored by Gray Morrow and used as the cover of the Flash Gordon-themed prozine Heritage (1972)...
BTW, we normally would've included a Flash Gordon story in our ongoing Space Hero Saturdays feature...except it takes place on (and under) Earth, not in space!
Next Week, a different World of Wonder!

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Flash Gordon
A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic
(which reprints the story and the album cover, but in black-and-white!)
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Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "The World Awaits"

We know Steve Ditko as the co-creator of The Amazing Spider-Man...
...but he was equally-adept at visualizing insects as well as arachnids!
(Yes, there is a difference!)
This lovely Ditko-rendered story from Charlton's Out of This World #12 (1959) would really have benefited from some Stan Lee-esque scripting rather than Joe Gill's stilted prose, which renders the ending rather...dull.
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Monday, April 13, 2026

Monday Mecha Madness SHOGUN WARRIORS "Starchild" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

...Ilongo Savage, piloting Dangard Ace, tries to divert a recently-hatched alien from heading for populated areas.
But, the creature has some hidden surprises...










The Mecha Meyhem Continues in May as Genji (aboard Combatra) Battles...Whatever the Heck That Is!
(I was going to call it "A Big Hand for the Little Lady!", but I resisted.
Oh, wait...I did say it...)

Sunday, April 12, 2026

Lunar Reading Room: RACE FOR THE MOON "Thing on Sputnik 4"

Now That Aretmis II has Safely Returned...

...let's look at a tale created during early days of space travel, before Man had made it beyond the stratosphere, when we had NO idea of what awaited us "out there", but it was so kool to speculate...


From Harvey's Race for the Moon #2 (1958).
Beautifully-rendered by Jack Kirby and Marvin Stein.
It's both amazing and depressing to see what we hoped to achieve in the (then) near-future
Then to see what we actually did...
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Saturday, April 11, 2026

Space Hero & Heroine Saturdays ASTONISHING "Menace from the Moon!"

Congratulation to the Artemis Crew for a Successful and Safe Trip to the Moon and Back!
But what if something had happened while they were on the Far Side, totally out of communication with Earth?
OK, this tale from Atlas' Astonishing #5 (1951), written by Hank Chapman and illustrated by Cal Massey is a tad silly.
They claim the ship was lost five years earlier, yet speculate the crew was still alive and coming home?
C'mon, even a kid in the 1950s would find that concept...well...DUMB!!!
(And that's being polite!)

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