A tale about the warmth of love in the coldness of space...
...with a twist ending worthy of The Twilight Zone!
Illustrated by Hy Fleishman, this never-reprinted tale from Key's Weird Tales of the Future #4 (1952)
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Reading Room JET POWERS "Man in the Moon"
Whatever became of the evil Mr Sinn after Jet Powers whipped his butt?
X
Some guys really carry a grudge (but provide great expositional dialogue)!
Nothing to worry about.
Won't be seeing him again!
No, siree...
You don't really believe that, do you?
Good,
'cause if you did, you wouldn't be able to read the rest of this
series, featuring superb Bob Powell art like this, the second Jet tale from Magazine Enterprises' Jet Power #1 (1950).
Monday, March 10, 2014
Reading Room JET POWERS "Captain of Science"
Flash Gordon!
Have you ever noticed that space-faring
heroes almost NEVER have a first name like "Dave" or "Melvin"? (Yeah,
there was DAN Dare, but his last name was "Dare" for chissakes!)Buck Rogers!
Brick Bradford!
Even...Rocket Kelly!
It's always something dramatic and/or futuristic!
Makes you wonder what their parents were thinking when they filled out the birth certificate..."Yeah, 'Brick'! That's a good name for the kid!"
Jet Powers was one of the last of that breed of high-adventure heroes, a kick-butt, blast-first-and-ask-questions-later kinda guy who crossed space and time like you and I cross the street!
As rendered by Bob Powell, one of the most versatile illustrators of the Golden Age (He did everything, sci-fi, romance, war, horror, etc), Jet was a ruggedly-handsome guy with distinctive white hair and a nose that had been broken and reset! (Think of a combo of Bruce Willis and Peter Graves.)
Besides being good in a fight, Jet was a scientific wiz with his own mountaintop base and spacecraft!
He operated as a freelance agent for the United States, at least once meeting the President himself to receive orders!
In four issues of his own title Jet primarily-battled Mr Sinn, an evil scientist equal to himself, who was colored bright green, but like Ming the Merciless, was an alien variation of the "Yellow Menace" villain stereotype.
Powers also met, rescued, and fell in love with Su Shan, formerly a servant of Sinn. Of course, Sinn wanted her back, so Jet had to keep rescuing her for the entire series!
Here's how it all began...
BTW, we did present a later appearance of Jet, unconnected with Mr Sinn or Su Shan, HERE.The amount of hits to that entry inducated you wanted to see more, so we've decided to present his complete adventures over the next few months.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Reading Room WORLD WAR III "Unleashed" Conclusion
...in the Summer of 1960, the Soviet Union launched a devastating nuclear sneak attack on the United States...
Oddly, this series presented a similar series of events to the first issue of Atomic War, but in a slightly-different time-frame, and a different order!
There were no cross-overs and technology and certain events were very different in the two titles.
BTW, Atomic War! came first, in November, 1952, following in December, then going bi-monthly in February and April, 1953.
World War III ran in March and May of 1953, the months Atomic War! wasn't published, giving kids of the era a monthly fix of fissionable future fun!
In mid-1953 most of the Ace Publishing comic line, except for romance and war books (WWII & Korea, not future), and one horror title, were cancelled.
The remainder died when the publisher dropped comics altogether in 1956, concentrating on paperbacks (including the legendary Ace Doubles) until the company was purchased by Grosset & Dunlap in 1972, and is now a highly-successful division of Penguin Publishing Group.
Story by pulp and paperback novel author Robert Turner, who wrote all the tales in both issues of World War III.
Illustrated by Ken Rice.
There were no cross-overs and technology and certain events were very different in the two titles.
BTW, Atomic War! came first, in November, 1952, following in December, then going bi-monthly in February and April, 1953.
World War III ran in March and May of 1953, the months Atomic War! wasn't published, giving kids of the era a monthly fix of fissionable future fun!
In mid-1953 most of the Ace Publishing comic line, except for romance and war books (WWII & Korea, not future), and one horror title, were cancelled.
The remainder died when the publisher dropped comics altogether in 1956, concentrating on paperbacks (including the legendary Ace Doubles) until the company was purchased by Grosset & Dunlap in 1972, and is now a highly-successful division of Penguin Publishing Group.
Story by pulp and paperback novel author Robert Turner, who wrote all the tales in both issues of World War III.
Illustrated by Ken Rice.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Reading Room WORLD WAR III "Unleashed" Part 1
We travel to another potential near future (the 1960s as seen in 1952)...
Be here tomorrow for the conclusion of "Unleashed" along with background about how this series differs from it's "brother" title from the same publisher, Atomic War!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)