Reading Room: REX DEXTER OF MARS "To Mars and Back"

Remember the interplanetary rocket that took off during the World's Fair of 1939?

No?

Me neither.

But it occurred, because in 2000, this happened...

Wow, that's a helluva lot for only six pages in the back of Fox's Mystery Men Comics #1 (1939)!

Today, it'd be a four-issue mini-series!

Writer-artist Dick Briefer ended up creating a rather kool sci-fi character who became one of the longer-lasting strips of the Fox Comics line, lasting the entire run of Mystery Men Comics as well as his own one-shot title, and as one of the features in Victor Fox's proposed newspaper strip booklet (predating Will Eisner's Spirit inserts by a month or so in 1940).

We'll be running all of Rex's exploits over the next few months, so watch this blog...

Visit our

The Future WAS Fantastic!

Comics Collectibles Store!

Reading Room: BEYOND THE FARTHEST STAR "Adventure On Poloda"

Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote much more than Tarzan and John Carter...

...but not every concept "took off" and became a hit series!

Written by Burroughs in 1940 and published in 1942, the story is basically an updating of John Carter or Carson of Venus but set "present-day" and with no hope of return to Earth since his body was destroyed in the rocket explosion.

In addition, the world our hero ends up on is not the high-adventure fantasyland of Barsoom, but a technologically-advanced version of the Cold War between America and the USSR (with elements of Nazism) in the 1950s!

(There's an excellent piece about history behind the story HERE.)

Adapted by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by the highly-underrated Dan Green, this never-reprinted premiere from Tarzan #213 (1972) takes considerable liberties in condensing whole chapters into six pages.

The comic adaptation continued in DC's Tarzan from #214 to #218 and one issue of Tarzan Family.

There have not been any other comics or adaptations in other media to date.

Check out our artifacts at the

Art of Barsoom™
 Collectibles Corner

Reading Room: ALARMING TALES "KIng of the Ants"

Here's a story done before Lee & Kirby's "Man in the Ant Hill"...

...which served as a "pilot" for Marvel's Astonishing Ant-Man series.

Did it help inspire that creation from studio-mate Jack Kirby?

Read and judge for yourself...

This tale from Harvey's Alarming Tales #6 (1958) was produced by writer Dick Wood, and illustrators Al Williamson and Angelo Torres.

Visit our

The Future WAS Fantastic!

Comics Collectibles Store!

Reading Room: ALARMING ADVENTURES "Secret of the Mountain"

Many humans think we've explored every inch of our home world, the Earth.

They'd be totally-wrong, as shown in this tale from Harvey's Alarming Adventures #3 (1963).

Penciled by Al Williamson and inked by Angelo Torres, this tale was probably intended for the never-published Race for the Moon #5.

Check out

The Future WAS Fantastic!

Comics Collectibles Store!

Design of the Week: CAMPUS ROMANCES

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another.
This week: Vacation is over, time to get back to work or school!
But what goes on when class is not in session?
This vintage comic book cover from Avon's Campus Romances #2 (1949) gives you the answer!
NOTE: The art was originally used on an Avon paperback novel, entitled Where the Girls were Different by Erskine Caldwell [1948].
The comic does not adapt any Caldwell stories.

Available on adult t-shirts, mugs, e-reader, laptop, and phone cases, and many other goodies!