Reading Room CAPTAIN SCIENCE COMICS "Ghosts From the Underworld"

In the scientific world of the future, there's no place for unexplainable things like ghosts...

...or is there?

So there was a plausible (albeit far-fetched) explanation for the "ghosts"!

This one-shot tale from Youthful's Captain Science #3 (1951) was illustrated by Don Perlin at the beginning of his long (45+ years) comics career.

In fact, it was his first published work!

Don continued working steadily (writing/penciling/inking/editing/art directing) until the mid-1990s, when he went into semi-retirement.

He still does an occasional cover or spot illustration as well as private commissions.

Before Ant-Man...There Was FLY-MAN!

Actualy, there were two of them!

A Golden Age superhero...

who only appeared twice!

And this longer-running Silver Age hero...

...who was co-created by Jack Kirby, Ant-Man's co-creator!

Read about them at our "brother" RetroBlog; Hero Histories!

Reading Room MYSTERY IN SPACE "With His Head in the Stars"

DC's last attempt at an ongoing sci-fi anthology (except for an occasional one-shot)...

...was this revival of a classic title that, unfortunately, ended after only seven issues.

Writer Arnold Drake and artist Steve Ditko were both Silver Age pros who knew how to make a short story's surprise ending work, as this never-reprinted tale from DC's Mystery in Space #116 (1981) demonstrates.

Reading Room KIDNAPPED BY A SPACE SHIP "Part 6 - Laughing Death"

In the year 1970, two 'tweens and two adults ended up on an alien world...

...where both scientifically-advanced inhabitants and savages co-exist!

Out of the frying pan and into the fire...but science will provide an answer!

This tale from Treasure Chest V14N16 (1959) feels like a chapter from an old movie serial, moving from one peril to the next.
Note that the comic was a bi-weekly, so the readers had to wait two weeks, unlike movie audiences who only had a week between serial chapters at their local theatre!

Writer Frances Crandall followed the accepted concepts of space travel postulated by scientist Werner Von Braun and, illustrated by Chesley Bonestell in various books and magazines like Conquest of Space, and popularized in numerous 1950s movies like Destination Moon and Angry Red Planet!

Artist Fran Matera was also the art director/art editor for Treasure Chest, but is best known for his long run on the Steve Roper and Mike Nomad newspaper strip.

Design of the Week "DIARY SECRETS: OH, JIM, IF ONLY WE COULD!"

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another.
This week, put a "beach read" retro romance comic book cover on your beach blanket, t-shirt, canvas bag, e-reader, and other stuff!

Available on all sorts of kool kollectibles!

Enjoy...and make sure you have plenty of drinks.
Gotta keep hydrated in this heat!