Fighting Crime in a Future Time! The Coming of...Space Detective!

Art by Joe Orlando and Wally Wood

Blending the hard-boiled gumshoe, sci-fi and superhero genres, Avon's Space Detective burst onto the comics scene in 1951.

Future-era wealthy philanthropist Rod Hathway and his secretary Dot Kenny fought interplanetary evil and helped the innocent as Avenger and Teena, using the methods of 1940s gumshoes combined with the technology of the far future!
Blasters instead of revolvers!
Personal jetpacks instaed of taxis!
Stories, whose titles included "Opium Smugglers of Venus" and "SpaceShip of the Dead", delivered fast-paced action illustrated by, among others, comics legends Wally Wood and Joe Orlando, who would go on to greater graphic story glory as mainstays of EC Comics' Weird Fantasy and Weird Science titles.
One interesting aspect is that all the Space Detective stories in a given issue have an underlying plotline (usually a villainous mastermind) who's caught or killed in the final story!
Here's the inside-cover contents pages from the four-issue run, to give you a taste of what's to come..

Art by Joe Orlando and Wally Wood

Art by Wally Wood and Joe Orlando

Art by Gene Fawcette

So, since it's both space opera and crime fiction, we're going to run it on both this blog and our "brother" blog Crime & Punishment™!
The first chapter will appear here tomorrow, the second at Crime & Punishment™ on Friday, then the conclusion back here on Saturday!
Weird Trivia:
1) Despite the fact that neither character wore a mask, nobody ever commented "hey, ain't you that famous Hathway guy?" or somesuch.
(Maybe they were too busy looking at Teena's cleavage?)
2) Nobody ever calls Rod "Space Detective"! He's always called "Avenger".
3) The original user of the name "Avenger", a Doc Savage-style pulp/comic character, hadn't been published since 1944. The trademark had lapsed, so it was used on this unrelated character from a different company.
(This sort of thing is far more common in comics/pulps than you might think.
For example, three different companies have had a "Captain Marvel", none of whom were related to the other companies' versions!  
Marvel Comics itself has had several Captains Marvel including a father and son and two women [one of whom was romantically-involved with the first Marvel Captain Marvel!)

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Reading Room: STRANGE GALAXY "Space Monsters"

Yesterday, we posted the final adventure of Kenton of the Star Patrol...

Art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito

...except, it both was and wasn't the final tale!

The script was used, almost verbatim (but with a renamed lead character), for a new story in the first issue of the short-lived 1970s b/w magazine Strange Galaxies!

All the other names, including the female lead, Maeve, and various locations, remained the same...

In fact, all the stories in Eerie Publications' Strange Galaxy V1N8 (which was the first issue), were re-dos of earlier stories from various defunct comic companies!

I guess they figured that no one would remember the original 1950s tales in 1971...

The rewriter/adaptor is unknown, but could be editor Carl Burgos, who created, among others, the Golden Age Human Torch and the first Silver Age Captain Marvel (the android who said "Split"!).

The stories don't have individual art credits, but according to the Weird World of Eerie Publications by Mike Howlett, the illustrator is one of the artists who were regular contiburors to the Eerie Publications line, Oscar Fraga.

We already presented the original (HERE) and re-do (HERE) of another Strange Galaxy/Strange Worlds/Strange Planets story!

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Reading Room: KENTON OF THE STAR PATROL "Monster-Men of Space"

It's time for interstellar adventure with Kenton of the Star Patrol...

...as another talented artist takes the reins for his final tale!

This Kenton story from Avon's Strange Worlds #6 (1952) as penned by Gardner Fox and rendered by Everett Raymond Kinstler, who left comics for fine art (including numerous official portraits of US Presidents).
Previous Kenton artists Joe Orlando and Wally Wood did the cover for the issue...

...but, when the cover was reused for IW/Super's Eerie #1 (1958), which contained stories from Spook Comics, the art looked decidedly-different!

Was the Eerie cover the original version, which was modified to make the alien match the Kinsler-drawn aliens?
Ironically, when the Kenton story was reprinted, it had a totally-new cover by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito featuring aliens who looked nothing like the Monster-Men...

And there's yet another twist to the tale of this tale, which we will tell...tomorrow, when we go from Strange Worlds and Strange Planets to Strange Galaxies!

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Cover Preview: SHERLOCK HOLMES "Liverpool Demon"

Our good friend Francesco Francavilla is doing covers for one a new mini-series...

Issue #1

...featuring one of our favorite characters!

Here's the synopsis...

The year is 1888: the Great Detective and the ever dependable Dr. Watson find themselves in the bleak northern port city of Liverpool from whose still bustling docklands grim slave vessels once sailed.

Violent gangs roam the streets and the city’s struggling police force are fighting a war against an all pervading criminal underworld.

A strange creature is sighted high among the rooftops and soon dead bodies bearing strange wounds begin to mysteriously appear.

Only Sherlock Holmes can cut to the heart of the mystery and expose the truth behind the spectre of The Liverpool Demon.

Here's the covers for the other three issues in the series...

Issue #2

Issue #3

Issue #4

It looks like a helluva lot of fun, and, of course, the Greatest Sleuth of All will find a (ahem) logical explanation for all the satanic goings-on!

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My Uncle is The Lone Ranger and 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!
And, at least once, through two different characters' incarnations with a crossover character...Dan Reid!
Much has been written about the radio show episodes that tied The Green Hornet and The Lone Ranger together, using Dan Reid, who was both Britt (Green Hornet) Reid's father, and John (Lone Ranger) Reid's nephew!
Though Dan was the same character in both shows, different actors played him on the two series, because Dan was a 'tween/teen on the 1880s-set Lone Ranger, and a middle-aged/elderly man on the contemporary (1940s) Green Hornet!

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 subtle 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 at Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™, with the conclusion at Hero Histories™.
In both entries, we're providing not only the comics tales, but the radio show episodes as well, so you can compare them!

Plus, we're presenting the introduction of Dan Reid (as a kid) into the Lone Ranger series, which added another ongoing character with whom the Masked Rider of the Prairie could interact (especially when the actor playing Tonto went on vacation or was out sick) in both comics and mp3 formats!
You'll find Part One HERE at Western Comics Adventures™ and Part Two HERE, back at Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™.
Enjoy!

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