Reading Room CAPTAIN ROCKET "Graveyard of the Rocketeers"

He's the one-shot hero whose name has been usurped by many others since...

...but this is the never-reprinted, original Captain Rocket!

The lead story of PL's Captain Rocket #1 (1951) tosses us right into the action with just a one-paragraph synopsis to introduce the character.
It's not bad, but nothing to rave about either.
Regrettably, both writer and artist(s) are unknown to everyone, even the eagle-eyed crew at the Grand Comics Database.
Cap would appear in two more stories, but only one was a comic!
Curious as to how that could be?
Find out his sensational secret...tomorrow!

Reading Room CRUSADER FROM MARS COMICS "Prison Planet"

One of the oldest plots in fiction is "hero fakes going bad"...

...so why not try to "freshen it" by transposing the concept to outer space?

Both the writer and artist(s) for this one-off tale from the back of Ziff-Davis' Crusader from Mars #2 (1952) are unknown.
The Grand Comics Database lists Marvin Stein, but if it is Stein, he had a lot of layout assistance from his Simon & Kirby studiomates, including Joe Simon and Jack Kirby!
Neither Jon Barrett nor this version of Space Police ever re-appeared.

Reading Room: CAPTAIN SCIENCE COMICS "World War III with the Ants"

I've had serious problems with ant infestations...

...but never anything like this ant-ageddon (or ant-pocalypse) from Youthful's Captain Science #6 (1953)!

As for who was responsible for writing and illustrating this cult comic classic, theories run from Harry Harrison (who became a major sci-fi novelist and editor), to Dick Ayers to Lou Cameron, but nobody knows for certain.

BTW, this story came out over a year before the classic giant-ant film THEM!

Give the Pop Culture Fan in Your Life a Customized 12-Month Calendar that Begins (and Ends) on Their Birthday Month!

Perfect for office, dorm, or bedroom!The IDEAL gift for the hard-to-please pop culture fan in your life (or yourself)!
And they can be customized for birthday months!
 You can customize any of these calendars to show, for example, September 2015 to September 2016 (if your birthday guy or gal has their natal day in September)...or give them a 2016 12-month calendar early!

Sherlock Holmes: the Greatest Sleuth of All!™

Basil Rathbone IS Sherlock Holmes!™

WereWolves and Vampires™

Vampires of Pulps and Comics™

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Classic comic book and pulp magazine covers and movie posters, scanned from the originals and digitally-remastered and restored!

Donald Trump = George Wallace?

When your own fans compare you to George Wallace...

...as a retired welder at the Trump rally in Alabama did...

"Donald Trump is telling the truth and people don't always like that," said Donald Kidd, a 73-year-old retired pipe welder from Mobile.
"He is like George Wallace, he told the truth. It is the same thing."

...you know Trump's hitting the target demographic he wants.
Nativist, reactionary, undereducated.
Wallace was so proud of his racist attitudes that he had them included in a comic book produced in 1960 during his election campaign!

These pages are excerpts of the 16-page comic considered instrumental in Wallace's victory in 1960.

You can see the complete comic HERE.

You'll note an emphasis on "states' rights" of the sort Tea Partiers advocate as well as the paranoid fear that the Feds wanted to "take over" Alabama.

BTW, In his inaugural speech after winning the race, Wallace promised "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

Note: Ironically, Wallace was a Democrat.

However, Federally-forced desegregation as well as the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 caused many racist Democrats to switch to the Republican Party (which began catering to the right-wing audience with the "Southern Strategy") or, as in the case of Wallace, joining the newly-created American Independent Party.

In the late 1970s, Wallace became a born-again Christian and recanted his racist attitudes.
But I don't think the 1970s Wallace was the one Donald Kidd was referring to...