Reading Room: SPACE PATROL "Gambling Den of Space"

Spacehawk wasn't Basil Wolverton's only sci-fi comic series...

...he also did this series about interstellar cops in action for Centaur's Amazing Mystery Funnies!

(Does Kodi look like a prototype for Star Trek: the Next Generation's Ferengi?)

The multi-talented Basil Wolverton wrote, illustrated, lettered, and probably colored, this tale from Amazing Mystery Funnies #22 (1940).

It's one of the first of the "law enforcement in space" sub-genre that prospered in pulp and comic sci-fi in the 1930s and 40s, and carried over to TV in the 1950s.

Note: the 1950s TV/radio series Space Patrol was not based on Wolverton's strip.

(Could you imagine them trying to do the aliens in the gambling ship using 1950s-level makeup techniques?)

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"My Son is The Green Hornet!"

Status quo-changing events are not a new phenomenon in fiction.
Even in the Golden Age of Comics, series and characters received revamps (or even total reboots) if sales weren't meeting expectations.
Sometimes, the revamp extended through a character's other media incarnations as well!

To celebrate the release of the new Dynamite comic series Masks, which teams up the greatest mystery-men of the Golden Age of Comics and Pulps (plus radio and movie serials), RetroBlogs™ will be running some never-reprinted tales of those amazing heroes through the month of December!

First-off is the story that changed the status quo of The Green Hornet!

Much has been written about the 1947 radio show episodes that tied The Hornet and The Lone Ranger together, using Dan Reid, who was both Britt Reid's father, and John (Lone Ranger) Reid's nephew!

The 1940s Harvey Green Hornet comic book series had been loosely-adapting the radio show's scripts into comic stories, but when this storyline (spread over four episodes) ran on the radio show, the comics' creatives had to do some serious juggling to fit two hours of dramatic radio into two eight-page chapters in a single issue!

(And, yes, a Lone Ranger reference is in the comic story, too!)

It's so historically-important that we couldn't confine this tale to a single blog!

You can see the results tomorrow at Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™, with the conclusion Tuesday at Hero Histories™.

Plus, we'll be running tales of other heroes presented in Masks including Zorro, The Shadow, Miss Fury, Black Terror, and Green Lama through the RetroBlogs™ line during December.

And don't forget to check out...

The Classic Green Hornet Store

The Man Who Personifies Christmas...

Trash the Tree!

Mangle the Mistletoe!

Exterminate the EggNog!

It's 2012!

And only ONE MAN can show us the True Way to Financial Salvation!

Ebenezer Scrooge!

Charles Dickens' immortal hero is back to lead us thru these dark times!
And only Atomic Kommie Comics™ could offer you so many different bargain-priced ways to show how you appreciate Him!
We offer almost two dozen designs including...
Several from the very 1st Edition of A Christmas Carol!
Several from the A Christmas Carol edition illustrated by legendary fantasy artist Arthur Rackham!
A trio from A Christmas Carol the 1951 movie with Alastair Sim as the definitive screen Scrooge!
PLUS: several other Scrooge and Christmas Carol designs including a "Bah, Humbug!" in classic Victorian-era lettering!
What better way to show what Christmas 2012 means to us all?
Choose from our miserly-priced Clothing, Collectibles (including 10 or 20 packs of greeting cards /  Christmas cards!), or Aprons and Stockings to proclaim to the world your loyalty to Him!

Give the gift that keeps on giving

(even if you, personally, don't)!

And "Bah, Humbug!" to all this Holiday Season!

Reading Room: "COMICS" McCORMICK "Inspector Conrad Cosmic"

Each issue our hero encounters characters from a different comic strip/book genre!

This time, he aids a space-going adventurer not unlike Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers.

This story from Holyoke's Terrific Comics #6 (1944) is written and illustrated by Ed Wheelan, who did over 300 stories during his career from 1938-1949, almost all of them as both writer and artist.
Despite the blurb, this was Comics McCormick's final appearance in Terrific Comics, due to the book's cancellation.
His next appearance was a single story in Cat-Man Comics #28, then he joined Ed Wheelan's other strips in Fat & Slat, an EC Comics anthology title dedicated to Whelan's work that lasted only four issues.
(BTW, the story with the robot was published in Fat & Slat #3.)

While Flash and Buck were primarily newspaper comic strip characters, both had comic books that reprinted their newspaper appearances.
In addition, there were numerous space-hero characters created specifically for comics including SpaceHawk,  Rex Dexter, and Rocket Kelly.

The main difference between "Comics" McCormick and it's rival series, 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 #6 (1944) is written and illustrated by Ed Wheelan, who did over 300 stories during his career from 1938-1949, almost all of them as both writer and artist.

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Space: the Final Frontier (for Christmas Gifts)...

Since the 1890s, and the heyday of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, science fiction-themed presents have found a place under the Christmas tree and in Xmas stockings for the young (and young at heart)!
Continuing that entertaining tradition, Atomic Kommie Comics™ is proud to offer our line of retro-design sci-fi/fantasy collectibles, The Future WAS Fantastic!™, for both kids AND adults!
We're talking 12-month calendars, mousepads, mugs, magnets, t-shirts, sweatshirts and other goodies featuring some of the niftiest illustrations from the comic books, pulp magazines, and movie posters of the 1930s-1960s, all digitally-restored and remastered!

Spaceships with wings and big fins!

Ray Guns that can zap an entire army in a flash!

Slimy Aliens!

Killer Robots!

Heroes in bubble-helmeted tight spacesuits!

Heroines in even tighter space suits!

Never did the future look so...stylish!
If you're looking for something in the vein of Star Wars or Star Trek (You did know that George Lucas wanted to remake Flash Gordon, but King Features didn't want to trust a young director whose biggest credit at that point was American Graffiti, didn't you?), here's the stuff that provided the visual inspiration for today's hi-tech flights of fantasy!
Enjoy, and may your rocket tubes never overheat...