Friday, January 2, 2015

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Happy New Year!

Why not celebrate with the most famous time-travel story of all?
HG Wells' The Time Machine...
...and Alex Toth's never-reprinted adaptation of the classic George Pal movie at our "brother" blog Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™?

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Best of Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Tale About Time: There Shall Be an Ending!"

Art by Pat Boyette (left) and Jim Aparo (right)
...reporter Paul Mann is plucked from 1967 by the Esroms, peaceful humans from the year 4000 AD who travel in time machine/spacecraft that are mistaken for "flying saucers".
Mann and the Esroms pursue the Honjnosians (evil humans also from 4000 AD) to the time before the Big Bang when Paul falls out of the ship into the ether of the pre-universe...
You'll note the use of the "breaking the fouth wall" storytelling technique with Mann addressing the reader in several panels, (with one panel of other characters thinking Paul's a bit looney).
Denny O'Neil using his "Sergius O'Shaughnessy" pseudonom scripted this conclusion to the book-length tale from Space Adventures #2 (1968).
The art is by the highly-underrated Pat Boyette with what looks like minor redrawing by Jim Aparo in several panels featuring Paul Mann to maintain visual continuity.
Sadly, there were no further adventures of Mann and the men from 4000 AD...

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Best of Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Tale About Time: Race to the End of Time"

...actually, the characters are handling the plot synopsis shtick pretty well, so I'll just let them explain...
Not to be negative (ouch), but things aren't looking good for Paul Mann.
If you want to see how he escapes from the edge of Time and Space, be here tomorrow!
Denny O'Neil (using his "Sergius O'Shaughnessy" pseudonom) scripted this "part 2 of 3" in Space Adventures #2 (1968).
The amazing art is by none other than Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange!
At this point, Ditko had left Marvel and was freelancing for Charlton, Tower, ACG, and Warren, working in every genre imaginable, producing some of the best work of his career, much of which has, sadly, not been reprinted!

Monday, December 29, 2014

Best of Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Tale About Time: The Quest Begins"

Remember the phrase "Everything you think you know is wrong!"...
...because this sequel to the three-parter we just ran HERE, HERE, and HERE will define the concept!
The questions continue to pile up, and one of the most famous artists of the Silver Age takes over the storytelling....tomorrow!
(Not that Jim Aparo was any slouch, but this guy is known even outside comics!)
This sequel to the story from Space Adventures #60 (1967) was by the first story's scripter, Denny O'Neil using his "Sergius O'Shaughnessy" pseudonom, and appeared almost a year later in Space Adventures #2 (1968).
No, that's not a typo.
This is "Volume 2" of Space Adventures, which had been cancelled the year before with #60!
However, while this is Vol 2, #2, it's the first issue of the revival since there was no Vol 2 #1!
Geez, the time travel paradoxes in this story are easier to explain than comic book numbering!