Thursday, February 14, 2013

Reading Room: LOST WORLDS "Worlds Apart"

"Submitted for your approval, a romantic triangle with unequal sides..."
"...because one point of this scalene triangle is firmly entrenched...in the Twilight Zone!"
(It works if you read it in a Rod Serlingesque voice.)
Cue Twilight Zone theme music...
While the writer for this story from Standard's sci-fi anthology title Lost Worlds #5 (1952) is unknown, the art is by Nick Cardy, who began his career in the Golden Age and still does the occasional comics cover today at the age of 91!
Happy Valentine's Day!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Reading Room: FANTASTIC WORLDS "Ace of Space"

Not to be confused with Space Ace (who went through several different incarnations)...
...this guy is a Cold War fighter pilot transplanted to a Star Wars setting!
Darn those aliens!
Sending robot "drones" to do their fighting instead of going man-against-lizard as God intended!
Though the scripter for this tale from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #7 (1952) is unknown, the artwork is by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, with a couple of panels redrawn by Mike Sekowsky!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Reading Room: OUTER SPACE "His Own Little World"

After co-creating Spider-Man and Dr Strange, Steve Ditko left Marvel in 1967...
...for reasons still unknown to all but the parties involved.
For the next few years, he went on to work for everyone but Marvel, including Charlton, where he returned to Captain Atom, created a new Blue Beetle, and did a plethora of one-off tales like this one!
Is this device a matter-creator (which would create items from scratch) or a teleporter (which would move already-existing things from their origin point to Rudd's location)?
If it created things purely from his brain-patterns, it would look exactly like the photograph, no matter how old the pic was!
Maybe I'm just over-thinking the whole thing.
At any rate, this story from Charlton's one-shot Outer Space #1 (1968) was penciled and inked by the extremely-busy Ditko, but the writer is unknown.
BTW, the printing on this particular issue was pretty bad.
In fact, Charlton was noted for the poor quality of it's printing,  since they used old printing presses that were designed to print boxes and other packaging that used cardboard and plastic, not newsprint!
When the story was reprinted over a decade later, it came out somewhat cleaner, as you can see HERE.

Monday, February 11, 2013

BLACK BEETLE #1 Goes to Second Printing!

He's a NEW pulp-style character so popular that his #1 is already being reprinted...
...and #2 is due out on Feb 20th!
 So what are you waiting for, Bunkie?