Sunday, August 3, 2014

Reading Room: PLANET COMICS "Fero: Interplanetary Detective and the Kidnapped Councilman's Daughter"

When we first met him, Fero battled scientific menaces on present-day (1940s) Earth.
As of his next appearance, without explanation, he's set in the far future!
This never-reprinted tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #6 (1940) was written and illustrated by Al Bryant under the pen-name "Allison Brant".
The change in venue from present to future without any in-story explanation (not even a caption like "returing from the past to the 21st Century..." or some-such) seems odd considering the same writer/artist is doing this follow-up tale.

Friday, August 1, 2014

Meet Rocket Raccoon...

Unlike Guardians of the Galaxy team-mates Groot and Star-Lord, he didn't get a solor story or cover pic...
...in fact, he didn't even show up until mid-way through the story...which was cancelled on a cliffhanger (which was never resolved) a few pages later!
Be here on Monday (after you've seen Guardians of the Galaxy) to read his first appearance.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Reading Room MARVEL PREVIEW "The Star-Lord: Who He Is and How He Came to Be"

The lead character of the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie (opening tomorrow) was quite different...
...when he debuted in the b/w magazine Marvel Preview #4 (1976)
How different?
Let co-creator Steve Englehart tell you...
You can read a follow-up article by Englehart explaining how things might have proceeded if he had stayed on the strip HERE.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Magnet of Magneto"

Nope, it's not the mutant villain/anti-hero/hero of X-Men fame, but an entire planet...
...hell-bent on conquering the universe!

Written by Joe Gill and illustrated by Steve Ditko, this tale of menace and magnetism from Charlton's Space Adventures V2N5 (1969) is scientifically-inaccurate, but fun.
and isn't that what comics are all about?
You may recognize the splash panel as the cover for this issue...
...which we ran when we presented the other cover-featured story a couple of weeks ago.
Charlton had a tendency to re-use/recompose interior art for covers, especially with their anthologies.
Whether it was for budget or deadline reasons has been lost to the mists of history.