RAUMPATROUILLE "Planet ausser Kurs" (Planet Off Course)

We Have Already Seen...

After being demoted from front-line combat to local space patroling, Cliff McLane and his crew discover previously-unknown beings composed of pure energy have overrun a distant outpost.

(SPOILERS: the sharp-eyed among viewers may have noticed that certain members of the star fleet showed great reluctance to deal with the invaders.

Wonder why?)

Now, the aliens return with a plan to send a rogue planet hurtling on a collision course with Earth!

(Note: It's German with English subtitles.

I've tried to set them up before creating the link, but you may have to click on the "gear" icon to implement them manually.)

Be back next Friday for another retro-kool adventure!

Charlie Hebdo: One Year Later!

"The assassin is still out there"

Reading Room SPACE MOUSE "Beauty Contest"

In the 1950s, both funny animals and sci-fi were popular comics genres...

...so, it was inevitable that someone would combine the two!

Though it's the cover-featured story in Avon's Space Mouse #1 (1954), "Beauty Contest" is not the origin of the Rocketing Rodent.

That tale, "Atomic Attack", comes later in the book.

Artist Frank Carin began his career as a movie cartoon animator before turning to comics at Timely (later Marvel), in the late 1940s, doing the teen humor comics Georgie and Nellie the Nurse as well as the funny animal books Mighty Mouse and Wonder Duck.

He was also mentioned (along with a self-portrait) in Stan Lee's long OOP Secrets of the Comics book as shown HERE.

This led him to Avon, where he became a mainstay of their unjustly-obscure funny animal line, doing Peter Rabbit, Little Jack Frost, and Merry Mouse along with Space Mouse.

As for who wrote "Beauty Contest"...well that person's name is lost to the mists of time.

Since it's stated in Secrets of the Comics that Carin preferred to just draw, it's a fair bet he didn't write the tale.

Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "Conquered Earth"

Ever wonder if Steve Ditko could do Jack Kirby-style star-spanning storytelling?

Well, wonder no more!

Illustrated by Ditko, written, most likely, by Joe Gill, this tale was tucked in the back of Charlton's Out of This World #4 (1957), which featured three Ditko-rendered stories out of four tales!

Ah, those were the days...

When the story was reprinted in Charlton's Space War #31 (1978), it was finally cover-featured, with a new kool, Kirby-esque cover by Ditko that had nothing to do with the story...

...but it is kool!

Reading Room SILVER SURFER: THE ULTIMATE COSMIC EXPERIENCE Part 1

Prepare thyself for graphic greatness...

...as we present the final collaboration of the legendary creative team of Stan Lee/Jack Kirby!

Join us next Monday for the cataclysmic cosmic combat!
(That furshlugginer Stan Lee-esque writing style is infectious!)

Co-plotted by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, scripted by Lee, penciled by Kirby, inked by Joe Sinnott.
Touchups in a couple of panels by John Romita Sr.