Land-line still down.
Should be repaired on Monday.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Friday, August 24, 2012
Reading Room: SPACE RANGERS "Mad-Man of Mars"
In the '50s you couldn't swing a dead Slime-Cat without hitting an interplanetary policeman...
...so here's the first appearance of Charlton's contribution to the mayhem from Space Adventures #1 (1952)!
At this point, they're called "Space Rangers", but that won't last long.
In #2, the leader, Rex Clive takes top billing on the strip, which is retitled "Rex Clive and His Space Officers".
Then it becomes just "Rex Clive" until it's final appearance in #7.
Ironically, as of #15, Space Adventures began a new strip adapting a hot new tv show...Rocky Jones: Space Ranger!
I don't think Rex Clive would've found that turn of events amusing...
Illustrated by Lou Morales.
The writer is unknown.
And yes, Space Rangers/Space Officers/whatever will be joining Space Squadron and the Space Sentinels in the Reading Room.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Reading Room: LOST WORLDS "Man Who Didn't Know Venus"
Nedor/Better/Standard Comics produced several sci-fi anthologies...
...none of which lasted more than three issues.
But it wasn't due to lack of quality.
With a contributor list that included Alex Toth, Ross Andru, Mike Sekowsky, Nick Cardy, and Jack Katz, you're talking some of the great and soon to be great storytellers of comics!
But there was one other sci-fi creator who did a story for Lost Worlds, one of only four tales he did for comic books.
Jerome Bixby, novelist and short-story writer, as well as screenwriter whose credits include...
IT! the Terror from Beyond Space!
Fantastic Voyage
Star Trek "Mirror, Mirror" and "Day of the Dove"
and the short story "It's a Good Life" which was adapted on both the original Twilight Zone tv series (by Rod Serling) and the 1983 feature film (adapted by Richard Matheson).
BTW, around the time he wrote this, Bixby had just left his position as editor of the Planet Stories pulp magazine at Fiction House, where he also contributed a couple of text pieces to Planet Comics and Indians (his only non-genre text piece)!
BTW, let me know if this size is readable or not
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Reading Room: SPACE SQUADRON "Star Smasher"
Do you remember how, in 1952, we sent men into space in flying saucers?
What?
You don't?
But, it's ancient history, as this tale from the year 2000 reveals in flashback...
Ah, the days when we actually believed in "American Exceptionalism"...
This story from Atlas' Space Squadron #1 (1951) was illustrated by George Tuska who later became the final artist on the original Buck Rogers comic strip (1959-67) and then assumed the art duties for almost a decade on Marvel's Invincible Iron Man!
The writer is unknown, but the scripting is clearly more simplistic and juvenile-oriented than the relatively more-sophisticated Speed Carter series written by Hank Chapman several years later.
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