Reading Room: TIME TRAVELERS "Merlin and the Motorcycle Knights"

The previous Time Travelers tale left "serious" sci fi behind...

...and this one tramples it into the ground.

If Tom Refield looks too young to have been an officer in World War II, remember this story was published in 1950, only five years after the end of WWII, so the idea of Tom serving in an Allied unit less than a decade earlier isn't unreasonable!

Written by Richard Hughes and illustrated by Ken Bald, this story from Operation: Peril #3 (1950) enters straight fantasy with the introduction of Merlin (non-magical and surprisingly traitorous) and King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table.
Next issue introduces alien menaces and an ongoing emphasis on space opera.

Despite this, the series' title will remain "Time Travelers" for the entire run.

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Reading Room: SPACE SQUADRON "Terror from the Deep"

Let's blast-off for excitement (if not scientific accuracy) in the year 2000...

...as the Space Squadron journeys to the "water world" of Neptune!

Until the Voyager 2 flight in 1989, little was known about Neptune except for it's size and color, so sci-fi went all over the place speculating about what lay under the bright blue atomosphere.
Because of the name, derived from the Roman god of the sea, most tales (like this one) portrayed the planet as an aquatic world with a breathable atmosphere and amphibian, reptilian, or fish-like inhabitants.
The writer and artist for this tale from Atlas/Marvel's Space Squadron #3 (1951) are unknown to me, though in the scripter's case, it might be best to remain anonymous.

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Reading Room: SPACE ACTION "War Fleet of the Traitor EarthMen"

If you think you can't trust politicians now...

...let's look at the future (as seen from the 1950s), when they'll betray the whole planet!

Penciled by Lou Cameron and inked by Rocco Mastroserio, this tale from Ace's Space Action #1 (1952), was typical of pulp and comic sci-fi of the era.

The writer is, mercifully, unknown.

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Design of the Week Redux: GangBusters!

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another...unless it sells really well, as this one is doing...so it'll run for one more week!

Celebrate the law-enforcement professional in your life with this retro-kool comic cover from the long-running GangBusters radio show.

Note: there was also a movie serial, TV series, plus two features re-edited from the TV show!

Trivia, the last season of the radio show was narrated by narrated by Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr., retired head of the New Jersey State Police and father of US Army General Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.!

Reading Room: CAPTAIN SCIENCE "and the Insidious Doctor Khartoum"

Captain Science was a kool combination of "high adventure" and "sci fi"...

...as this wild 'n wooly (if slightly politically-incorrect) tale from Youthful's Captain Science #4 (1951) incorporating time travel, sword-and-sandal action, a Yellow Peril menace, and (if that ain't enough) a Lovecraftian monster, all in only eight pages!

I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted!
Wally Wood and Joe Orlando did the art, and you can tell these guys were having the time of their lives, as they cut loose with some of the wildest stuff ever to grace sci-fi comic books.

They also changed the "linked-stories" concept from the first three issues, making the two-per-issue Captain Science stories stand-alones instead of two-parters.

Unlike the earlier Captain Science stories, which have never been reprinted, these Orlando/Wood stories have been re-published all over the place, but they're still well-worth seeing again!

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