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

When Last We Visited Post-Nuclear Armageddon Earth...

...taken from his beastfolk parents when he was a newborn, Carn is raised by a royal family who weren't aware of his non-human heritage.
(He was secretly swapped for their stillborn child by the midwife.)
While exploring by himself, the now-teenage Carn is attacked by a pack of wolves, but he instinctively communicates mentally with a giant white cat who saves him, then brings him to a nearby beastfolk village whose priestess is...his true mother!

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.

Here's a Friday the 13th bonus!
The text feature about the project and its' creators!

We hope you've enjoyed this never-reprinted book from 1987.
Keep an eye on this blog as we present more of these long-lost stories!

Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "It's a Small World..."

Behind this kool Jim Aparo cover...

...is an equally-kool Steve Ditko-illustrated tale!

BTW, neither has seen the light of day since their intitial publication in Charlton's Space Adventures V2N8 (1969).

Now that's a weird, out-of-left field, ending in a wild tale probably written by Charlton mainstay Joe Gill.

BONUS: the original art for the cover...

Be here tomorrow for MORE of Gil Kane's Talos of the Wilderness Sea!

Reading Room: SPACE CLUSTERS Part 3

We Have Already Seen...

Pursuing criminal Ethan Dayak, Lieutenant Kara Basuto of the Terran Interplanetary Corps follows him from star system to star system, always one step behind him.
Due to the huge distances, both of them go into suspended animation during the trips between planetfalls.
But the more time they spend in hibernation, the more their minds and bodies begin to alter...

To Be Concluded...
NEXT WEEK!

Reading Room WORLD OF FANTASY "Xom! The Menace from Outer Space!"

Behind this kool, never-reprinted Jack Kirby/Christopher Rule cover...

...lurks an equally-cool (but visually-different) never-reprinted tale!

Plotted by Stan Lee, scripted by Larry Lieber, and penciled/inked by Joe Sinnott, this cover-featured tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #18 (1959) was a combination of the "giant monster with weird name" and Twilight Zone "switch ending" tropes Lee was so fond of.

You'll note the "monster" is rendered pretty much the same on both the cover and insides, while the Earthmen and aliens are vastly-different!

I'm not certain which was done first, but the difference between the Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers renderings by Sinnott and the...well...Kirbyesque versions on the cover are striking!

Reading Room CAPTAIN JOHNER AND THE ALIENS "Matter of Judgement"

When Last We Left Our Astronauts...

With half his crew on an alien ship and half the alien crew on his, Johner heads home to Earth...

Written by Eric Freiwald & Robert Schaefer and illustrated by Russ Manning, this morality tale from Gold Key's Magnus, Robot Fighter #3 (1963) also sets up a potential menace in another group of aliens who are, in fact, hostile!
There's more space opera action to come, next week!