Reading Room: THOR in "The Magic Hammer"

One more pre-Marvel Thor-themed story by Jack Kirby!

Ironically, published in Tales of the UnExpected #16 (1957), a DC Comic!

AFAIK, Jack Kirby penciled and inked this particular story.
(Usually, he just penciled, since he was so freakin' FAST!)
The Thor in this tale is visually-similar to his villainous "Thor impostor" from The Sandman story in Adventure Comics #75

 The Mjolnir, however, is a dead ringer for the Marvel Comics' Thor's...

If you want to see the Golden Age Thor, his adventures can be found in our brother blog, Hero & Heroine Histories™.

Reading Room: TARA QUEEN OF THE SPACE PIRATES in "Key of the Cuchin Van"

Click on the art to enlarge

We continue the space-spanning saga of Tara, Queen of the Space Pirates with this tale from Wonder Comics #18.
There was no origin story, but the splash pages usually gave a brief set-up for new readers.

The Grand Comics DataBase lists Gene Fawcette, who did the two previous stories, as the penciler/inker, but it looks like fellow Wonder Comics artist Jerry Scott, who used a more standardized layout and looser inking style.

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Reading Room: BARBARELLA 2.2

When Last We Left Our Heroine...

With Captain Dildano and the rest of his crew dead, and their ship a derelict, Barbarella is stranded on Lython...

There are more plot elements and characters who ended up in the movie, though at the flick's beginning, rather than midway through, as they do here.
Some characters like "Klill, the horrid little Martian", didn't end up in the film.
The explanation of why the inhabitants are dressed in mid-19th Century Earth fashions was utilized a year later in the Classic Star Trek episode "Squire of Gothos".
However, the "antique-looking" clothing and technology didn't make it into the Barbarella film's version of this sequence.
More Barbarella later...

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Barbarella Collectible Corner

Jeffrey Catherine Jones 1/10/44 ~ 5/19/11

From Esquire Magazine, 1972

Jones' autobiography conveys her life far better than I ever could.

Rest in Peace

Reading Room: BARBARELLA 2.1

When Last We Left Our Heroine...

All you really need to know is that Captain Dildano's spacecraft was forced down by a gigantic jellyfish...ok, plot logic is not the strip's strong suit.

Just enjoy the kool art...

Dildano also dies in the movie, but under vastly different circumstances.
In fact, this particular sequence is not adapted into the 1960s cult classic flick!
More tomorrow!

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Barbarella Collectible Corner