Reading Room CRUSADER FROM MARS "Beachhead on Saturn's Ring"

Ziff-Davis had two short-lived titles about visitors from the Red Planet...

...Lars of Mars (which we covered HERE) and this one, about a pair of Martian criminals sent to dispense justice throughout the Solar System.

Yeah, you read that right...

You thought maybe they were a husband-and-wife alien police officer team like Katar and Shayera Hol, the Silver Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl?

Nope!

Tarka murdered his rival for the love of a woman and committed the first felony on Mars in 50 years. The Martian government branded his arm and sentenced him to exile.

Together with his fellow criminal Zira, they were sent to Earth to rid it of crime.

If they failed, then they would be destroyed--and so would Earth.

Using their advanced technology, they battled evil both on Earth, and occasionally in outer space, as seen here.

The writer for this tale from Crusader from Mars #2 (1952) is unknown, but probably is the book's editor, Jerry (Superman) Siegel.

The penciler appears to be Marvin Stein, but the inker is unknown.

Reading Room CAPTAIN FLIGHT "Story Behind the Cover"

Just as fellow World War II aviator Captain Aero became a space hero...

...Captain Flight followed suit in the final issue of his book.

However, his trip into space was not in comic form, but as a text story!

And it's one helluva sendoff...

Does the rest of Mankind settle on Eden?

Do the Edenites/Atlantians return to Earth?

What happens next?

We'll never know, since this story in Four Star's Captain Flight Comics #11 (1947) is Flight's final apperance!

Both cover and story illustrations are by L B Cole. but the writer is, regrettably, unkown.

Reading Room WEIRD THRILLERS "Princess of the Sea"

Though the cover may not look like it, this is a love story...

Art by Allen Anderson

...so it's a perfect post for Valentine's Day, 2014!

Well, it sure ain't Little Mermaid, or even Splash!

Penciled by Dan Barry and inked by John Giunta, the writer of this tale of love beneath the waves from Ziff-Davis' Weird Thrillers #3 (1952) is, sadly, unknown.

Note: when the story was reprinted in the anthology Weird Romance, it was again given the cover...

...also by an artist named "Anderson", but in this case it was Brent (no relation to Allen) Anderson!

Reading Room: SPACE SQUADRON "Space Demons"

Life in the year 2000 was perilous indeed...

...or so it was said 49 years earlier, when this story from Atlas' Space Squadron #3 (1951) appeared!

Letting Edgar go unpunished despite risking numerous lives was, unfortunately, a typical plot point both in this series, and in later juvenile space-based comics and tv shows like Lost in Space, where, if anyone had any sense, they would've tossed Dr Smith out an airlock without a space suit after his first attempt to kill them...

Illustrated by George Tuska who later became the final artist on the original Buck Rogers comic strip (1959-67) and then assumed the art duties for almost a decade on Marvel's Invincible Iron Man, this was a typical tale of Atlas' resident space hero of the early 1950s.

The writer is unknown, but the scripting is clearly more simplistic and juvenile-oriented than the relatively more-sophisticated Speed Carter several years later.

Reading Room WEIRD THRILLERS "Space-Age Glass"

What a great concept!

Presented in Ziff-Davis' Weird Thrillers #3 (1952), this short extrapolates a kool idea from then-current scientific knowledge.

Sadly, both writer and artist are unknown.