Reading Room CAPTAIN JOHNER AND THE ALIENS "Space Derelict"

When Last We Left Our Space-Going Adventurers...

...writers Robert Schaefer & Eric Freiwald and artist Russ Manning brings us up to speed and drop us right into the action!

With only 4-5 pages per issue to work with, the new writer/artist still did an amazing job of putting together short, yet satisfying, tales.

(Manning, who had written and illustrated the premiere tale had to drop the writing duties due to time constraints.)

BTW, this short from Gold Key's Magnus: Robot Fighter #2 (1963) was not reprinted in the 1967 Captain Johner and the Aliens one-shot, but was included in the 1995 two-issue mini-series from Valiant/Acclaim.

Shakespeare: the Graphic Novels!

If you're both a graphic novel and Shakespeare fan (or know someone who is)...

If you're a home stager looking for an interesting, kitchy, yet inexpensive, display piece for a library or den...

If you know a budding thespian (or are one)...

Or, if you feel the need to inspire a youngster who just isn't into classic literature, yet...
Why not try one of these three kool posters based on the first comics adaptations of the Bard of Avon by Famous Authors Illustrated!

Romeo and Juliet

Hamlet

Macbeth

The comics these images were derived from were produced in the 1940s-50s by a company competing with Classics Illustrated for the educational comics market!
They were so successful, that Gilberton Publishing, the owners of Classics Illustrated, bought out the company to eliminate competition!
Since these books are so hard to find today, one can assume that, when Classics issued their versions of these stories, they "suggested" that libraries and schools destroy the Famous Authors editions (to avoid confusing the kids, of course).

At any rate, these posters, available in several sizes up to 16" x 24" are the perfect size for bedroom, dorm room, or den, and come in a variety of paper types, from a matte finish poster stock to canvas!

Ods Bodkins!
Verily and forsooth!
If thou dost not acquire yon wall decor, than what canst we say but..."Lord, what fools these mortals be?"

If Donald Trump Was a Superhero, Which Superhero Would He Be?

Did Donald Trump, born in 1946, read comics when he was a kid?

And, if so, which hero did he dream of being?

Superman?

No, despite being one of the single mightiest beings in the universe, Superman's stories required logical thinking to enjoy, and we've seen Donnie's not big on that, even now.

Captain America?

Certainly patriotic, but not powerful enough.

Donnie thinks BIG!

So there's only one character he might have read, and whose adventures are wish-fulfillment without having to think about how it works, much like Don the Con's pronoucements about how he'll run the country.

Follow the LINK, read the following, and compare the story (and captions) to Trump's descriptions of himself and how he'd be as President!

Reading Room TALOS OF THE WILDERNESS SEA "...to the Wilderness Sea!" Part 2

We pre-empted last week's installment due to Prince's passing...

...so let's continue where we left off!

On a post-atomic war Earth, civilization has reverted to medieval levels.

Radiation-mutated BeastPeople are used as slaves by unmutated humans.

Jaggar, leader of a team of slavers, comes across Shan and Vereena, a BeastFolk couple who have just given birth to a baby who appears to be a normal human!

Shan tries to keep Jaggar from stealing his newborn son and is slain, leaving Vereena to mourn both her mate's death and the loss of her child.

Jaggar uses the child to replace the stillborn child of ruler, Zar Totth.

(Totth's wife had suffered stillborn births three times, and her midwives were put to death each time.

Jaggar's wife, Ingla, was the new midwife, and would suffer the same fate if the fouth child was stillborn...which it was!)

Jaggar and Ingla make the switch, Zar Totth names the baby Carn Whitemane, and proclaims the child to be his future heir...

The story continues...next Friday!

Riding high on the success of the Sword of the Atom mini-series and follow-up annuals which re-imagined the hard sci-fi character in a barbarian adventure setting, Gil Kane (along with collaborator Jan Strnad) was given the go-ahead for another high-adventure series, this time based on a new character.

Planned as a 12-issue mini-series, cutbacks at DC dictated that the already-penciled and scripted first two issues be combined into a one-shot whose sales would determine if the project would continue.

Unfortunately, the unfamiliar character didn't attract a large enough audience (as The Atom had), and only the single, open-ended issue came about.
It's never been reprinted since its' publication in 1987.

BTW, if you're thinking the plotline seems familiar, It's because Kane based it on the Biblical tale of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt, transposed into a barbaric future!

Reading Room UNUSUAL TALES "Look into the Future"

One of Charlton Comics' defining traits was...

...using montages of interior art as their covers.

Usually, the cover would utilize several different stories' art, but in this case, they played up the final story in the issue!

A morality play in a sci-fi/fantasy context.
Rod Serling was a master of this concept, as he displayed weekly on the original Twilight Zone.
This never-reprinted story from Charlton's Unusual Tales #27 (1961) illustrated by Steve Ditko and probably written by Charlton mainstay Joe Gill follows the concept to a "T", within the limitations established by the Comics Code Authority.
If it had been done pre-Code, Simms would've come to a horrific (and graphic) end...