Frankly, It's Frankie!

Since a new

movie is opening next week, we're going to do several posts dedicated to Mary Shelley's Modern Prometheus!

Watch for them!

Reading Room: SPACE SQUADRON "Man Who Dared"

Just as Atlas' Speed Carter: SpaceMan had a "future history"...

...so did the earlier Atlas space opera title, Space Squadron, as this tale about the first manned ICBM in 1961 (yes, 1961) demonstrates!

The writer and artist(s) of this tale from Space Squadron #3 (1951) are unknown.

The Famous Explorers of Space feature ran in all five issues of Space Squadron and the single issue of Space Worlds that used up material left homeless when Space Squadron was cancelled.

When Speed Carter: SpaceMan came along a couple of years later, writer Hank Chapman ignored everything done in Space Squadron, producing stories that often contradicted "history" established in the earlier series.

Batman the TV Series on DVD/BluRay...FINALLY!

We're Leaping for Joy!

At last, the 1960s Batman TV series is being released on home video!

A complete series box set has been confirmed, with individual season sets a likely alternative for those who don't want to spend a fortune at one shot...

Ah, to relive the childhood memories of those long-lost days...

Now, where's the other Dynamic Duo of the 1960s...

The Green Hornet?

(and Kato, of course)

Why not a mega-set of the two shows?

Reading Room STRANGE WORLDS "Abduction of Henry Twigg"

Here's a dream come true for all us fanboys and nerds (Yep, I'm one)...

...in this Joe Kubert-illustrated tale from Avon's Strange Worlds #8 (1952)...

Talk about politically-incorrect...from both sexes!

But it's still entertaining, and that's what counts, eh?

Note: we're running stories from two different series named "Strange Worlds".

This tale is from the first one, published by Avon Comics in the early 1950s.

By the late 1950s, Avon Publishing had abandoned comic books and concentrated on "traditional" publishing (hardcovers and paperbacks) in various genres (including sci-fi and horror).

Curiously, when comics became "hot' in the 1960s, Avon did not reprint their comic library in paperback format the way Ballantine Books did with EC Comics, Signet did with DC Comics, and Lancer did with Marvel.

Considering they owned the material and didn't have to pay to reprint it like all the other publishers did, it seems like a lost opportunity for Avon to make some quick cash.

Note: We've recently re-presented several tales from the other Strange Worlds, published by Atlas Comics in the late 1950s, literally right before they became Marvel in 1961!

It's easy to tell which is which, since the Atlas/Marvel version features work by creatives like Jack Kirby, Don Heck, and Steve Ditko who would be the creative mainstays of the Marvel Age of Comics, while the Avon books have art by illustrators who would make their mark at DC, like Joe Kubert and John Forte!

Reading Room FANTASTIC WORLDS "Asteroid God"

Some call Golden Age sci-fi "Westerns with ray guns"...

...but it could also be "jungle tales with aliens instead of natives", as this tale demonstrates!

John Celardo illustrated this story from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #7 (1953), the final issue of a short-lived anthology that featured artwork by Alex Toth, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Gil Kane, and Murphy Anderson, among others.