Reading Room CAPTAIN JOHNER AND THE ALIENS "Alien Welcome"

As the first human visitors tour the aliens' home world...

...tbey discover the two species are not so different, after all!

Written and illustrated by series creator Russ Manning, the tale from Gold Key's Magnus, Robot Fighter #8 (1964) intrroduces more background about the alien homeworld, including weapons technology like the previously-unseen helmet-guns!

(In the first chapter, the aliens used hand weapons, like the Earthmen.

Perhaps, at home, among civilians, their police/soldiers don't want to display obvious weaponry...)

Happy Father's Day...

Art by Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon

..or else!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Taking the day off to celebrate...

See you tomorrow...

Reading Room CLIFF HANGER "Chapter Four: Madman's Holiday"

When Last We Left Our Hero...

..and now, on with the show...

Can Cliff Outrun a Wall of Water?
What is the Secret Behind The Tunnel Between Florida and South America?

Does Quint Have a Fate Worse than Death in Store For Jill?

The Answers to These and Other Questions Will be Found...Next Week!

Written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by Al Williamson, this backup strip from Pacific Comics' Somerset Holmes #4 (1983) keeps the excitement of 1930s-40s movie serials going at a maniac pace!

Reading Room MYSTERIES OF UNEXPLORED WORLDS "Forbidden Formula"

Before Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four #13 (1963)...

...there was 

...The Watcher!

We're talking big bald alien in a cloak, part of a legion of cosmic observers keeping an eye on the doings of other races throughout the universe (and, presumably, the multiverse)!

Here's his first (and only, AFAIK) appearance from Charlton's Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #18 (1960)

Unlike Marvel's Watchers, Codin and his fellows deliberately interfere directly with others, albeit surreptitiously.

But, I'm compelled to ask...did this story influence either Stan or Jack several years later when they introduced their Watcher?

Guess we'll never know...

Both the writer and artist of this never-reprinted tale are, ironically, unknown.

(Too bad the Watcher can't tell us...)

The Grand Comics Database speculates the illustrator is Bill Fraccio, a long-time Charlton mainstay who did everything from romance to Westerns to war to sci-fi!