Saturday, July 28, 2012

The Greatest HERCULES of All is Coming to RetroBlogs™!

We hope you've enjoyed five days of...
at Crime & Punishment this week
and we want you to join us next week as
Secret Sanctum of Captain Video 
goes to sunny Italy for a week of posts featuring two sword and sandal (with a hint of sorcery) sagas starring Steve Reeves...
...featuring the manly art of John Buscema
and...
...with muscular renderings by Reed Crandall and George Evans!
The testosterone will be oozing off your screen!

Friday, July 27, 2012

PHANTOM LADY at the London Olympics...in 1948!

Join the voluptuous vigilante known as the Phantom Lady...
...as she battles those who would destroy the 1948 Olympic Games (which also took place in London)
by visiting our newest "sister" blog, Heroines™!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Reading Room: EXPLORERS IN THE UNKNOWN "Hostile Asteroid"

In the 1960s, we were about to reach the Moon...
...so the idea that we would first explore the Solar System, then nearby stellar systems, within a few decades wasn't unreasonable.
We developed a new metal alloy, Zakanite, just to use it on ID tags and insignia?
There's not a nut or bolt on the ship made from it..or even the crewmens' ID tags and insignia?
And you wonder why Congress cut NASA's budget in the mid-1970s!
We do learn there's only three officers (including the ship's commander) in the ship's complement.
Because there's only four pages in each story, there's no character development between them.
This odd tale from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea #8 (1966) was written by Dick Wood (who wrote the entire series) and illustrated by Nevio Zaccara (who remained the strip's artist until the final chapter).

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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Reading Room: "COMICS" McCORMICK "Captain Catapult"

Each issue our hero encounters characters from a different comic strip/book genre!
This time, he aids a super-hero in the Superman / Captain Marvel mold.
The main difference between this strip and it's primary rival, SuperSnipe, is that "Comics" daydreams about interacting with comic characters, but SuperSnipe actually tries to do heroic deeds like capturing spies or rescuing kittens, but invariably screws up and ends up being grounded (or worse).
This story from Holyoke's Terrific Comics #4 (1944) is written and illustrated by Ed Wheelan.
The final blurb mentioning "Suspence" Comics is totally-inaccurate.
While Holyoke did publish Suspense Comics (note the spelling), "Comics" never appeared in that title, only in Terrific Comics.
When Wheelan moved over to EC Comics in 1947 (before they did horror and sci-fi titles), he was given his own book, Fat & Slat, where he carried over several older strips, including "Comics" McCormick.
Fat & Slat only lasted four issues before being retitled Gunfighter and made into a Western comic.
#4 marked "Comics" McCormick's only cover appearance in his too-short existence.
Wheelan did over 300 stories during his career from 1938-1949, almost all of them as both writer and artist.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Reading Room: SPEED CARTER: SPACEMAN "Famous Explorers: Mars"

In 2004, we reached Venus and Mercury!
Then, in 2007, men reached another planet...
You do remember this stuff, don't you?
It was only a few years ago!
Oh, it's just a comic book from the 1950s, when we thought we'd be all over the solar system by 2000!
Didn't quite work out that way, did it? 
Damn. ;-(
This story from Speed Carter: SpaceMan #3 (1953) references the previous Famous Explorers tales in its' first paragraph, mentioning the explorations of Venus and Mercury.
Written by Hank Chapman, and illustrated by Al Eadeh.

Note: the astronauts in this story, which takes place three generations in the "past" of Speed Carter, have different uniforms and lower-end technology than what's shown in the Speed Carter tales.

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