Friday, November 10, 2017

Friday Fun MIDNIGHT MYSTERIES "Cry of the Dire Wolf"

In the early 1970s, writer Don Glut created several characters in a new "shared" universe...
...including Doctor Spektor, the host of this Gold Key anthology, and later the protaganist of his own title.
Originally-appearing in Gold Key's Mystery Comics Digest #3 (1972), this tale was reprinted as the cover feature in Gold Key's Dr Spektor Presents Spine Tingling Tales #1 (1975), which featured the already-active mystical crimefighter Dr Spektor as a host introducing reprints of stories.
The story was meant to establish a scientific explanation for werewolves in the Glut "universe",
But, it appears either Glut or his editor had bigger plans for the characters!
The early 1970s were the era of Erich von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods books, ostensibly offering proof that Earth was visited centuries earlier by aliens who influenced human development!
Marvel took a shot at it with "Man-Gods from Beyond the Stars", which was meant to become a series, but didn't sell well enough to warrant continuing past the first story!
Meanwhile, the legendary Jack Kirby presented his own "takes" on the subject with his sequel series to the movie 2001: a Space Odyssey and The Eternals (which was supposed to be called Return of the Gods)!
So somebody at Gold Key thought...let's take this existing tale by Don Glut and Jesse Santos about an alien spacecraft crashing on prehistoric Earth and expand on it from the humans' point of view...with the result being the never-reprinted series Tragg and the Sky Gods, the basis for our next cycle of Friday Fun tales!



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Thursday, November 9, 2017

Reading Room SPACE SQUADRON "Vulturos of Space"

Buckle up your jetpacks, space cadets...
...as we hurtle to the year 2000 (as seen from the 1950s) and witness...
So much for Women's Lib in the then-future!
This never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Space Squadron #2 (1951) reflects the sexual politics of the time it was written.
In reality, by 2000, we not only had female combat pilots in the military, but female astronauts as well...women every bit as brave and comptetent as their male counterparts!
BTW: the writer and artist(s) are unknown.
See the other Captain Jet Dixon of the Space Squadron tales we've presented HERE!
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by Isaac Asimov
(under the pen-name "Paul French")
Omnibus of ALL Six Space-Opera Sagas!
David Starr: Space Ranger, Pirates of the Asteroids, Oceans of Venus, Big Sun of Mercury, Moons of Jupiter, Rings of Saturn

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Reading Room UNUSUAL TALES "Where Does It Go?"

Have you ever seen a bus pass by that you're unfamilar with, and wonder...
..."Where Does It Go?"
This never-reprinted tale behind this never-reprinted Rocke Mastroserio cover offers one possibility!
While the concept is rather kool, I have to ask, why is the robot such an insulting s.o.b.?
Writer Joe Gill, penciler Bill Moino, and inker Vince Alascia probably could have provided the answer when they created this story for Charlton's Unusual Tales #29 (1961), none of them are around now to answer the question...
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Mysteries in Space

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Reading Room BARBARIAN COMICS "...friend in need"

Yesterday, we presented a tale that had been published a decade earlier...
...in a somewhat different version.
Here's the original...
This initial version of the tale appeared in California Comics' Barbarian Comics #3 (1974).
Comparing the two, the dialogue and layout are unchanged in both versions, but the later one was re-inked and re-lettered, presumably because writer/artist Ron Harris had improved his skills in the intervening decade.
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Monday, November 6, 2017

Reading Room VANGUARD ILLUSTRATED "...friend in need..."

In Space, No One Can Hear You...
...Dream (bet you thought I was going to say "Scream" didn't you?), as this never-reprinted story from over 30 years ago proves!
This tale from Pacific's Vanguard Illustrated #5(1984) had appeared a decade earlier in a somewhat different form!
Writer-artist Ron Harris is best-known as the artist for the Dallas and Star Trek newspaper strips in the late 1970s-early 1980s.
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