Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Reading Room TIME WARP "Return to the Stars"

...let us take a look back to when we weren't trying to act like total idiots outside of our planet's atmosphere and the threats to peace weren't from our own species.
Using both established pros and talented newcomers, this oversized anthology (68 pages for $1 when the standard comic was 36 pages for 40¢) presented all-new material, almost all of which (including this story) has never been reprinted!
While Howard Chaykin certainly is an "established pro", writer Wyatt Gwyon, who might qualify as a newcomer, is a mystery.
With less than two dozen stories to his credit, Gwyon came onto the comics scene in 1977 scripting horror and sci-fi stories for various DC anthology titles until he disappeared in 1983.
There was no sign of him in comics...or anywhere else...until he popped-up again...with a one-page Wolverine story in Marvel's What If...? #34 (1992)!
Was "Wyatt Gwyon" a pseudonym?
Wyatt Gwyon was the protagonist of William Gaddis' acclaimed novel The Recognitions.
He's a frustrated fine artist with a gift for imitating the styles of Old Masters.
Unscrupulous art dealers and critics use him to create phony "undiscovered Old Masters" they sell for huge prices!
Was Wyatt a novelist/poet/movie-TV scripter who decided to try his hand at comics?
Or was he a DC or Marvel staffer who wanted to make some extra cash?
We'll probably never know...
...or will we?
According to Martin O'Hern, comics creator detective, the Who's Who created by mega-fan Jerry Bails (aka the Father of Comic Book Fandom) identifies "Gwyon" as long-time DC scripter Martin Pasko...but with a "?" by his name, probably because it's never been fully-confirmed.
Mike Kaluta, definitive artist for the comic version of The Shadow, provided pulp-style covers for the entire run.
While they had no relation to any of the stories in the book, they were spectacular!
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Monday, September 9, 2019

Monday Madness FAIRY TALES "Gingerbread Boy"

We skipped our usual Monday Madness entry due to Labor Day...
...so lets's make up for it with the cover-featured (and never-reprinted) tale from Ziff-Davis' Fairy Tales #11 (1951)!
This is not so much a fairy tale as a folk tale or fable.
In most versions it's a fox who carries the Gingerbread Boy across the river and devours him!
The comic strip's art is by Leon Winik, who probably also did the cover, which matches the third panel on the final page above perfectly!
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Sunday, September 8, 2019

Design of the Week Redux SPACE ACE!

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days...

...unless it sells really well, then we continue it for a second week!
This Week...
Before Don Bluth appropriated the name for his video game, there were a couple of totally different Space Aces in the Golden Age of Comics!
This particular one was a Flash Gordon-type set in the then-distant future year of 2000, complete with one-man spacecraft, moving sidewalks, flying cars, mile-high skyscrapers, human colonies on other worlds, etc.! (You remember all that stuff, don't you?)
And, of course, aliens!
LOTS of aliens!

One of the interesting things about this image is that it doesn't feature a scantily-clad woman being held captive by the tentacled alien, making it particularly age-appropriate (but still retro-kool) for under-10 year-old kids' (pre-K / 4th Grade) back-to-school stuff!
Enjoy!

Saturday, September 7, 2019

Reading Room FANTASTIC WORLDS "Boy Who Saved the World!

The short-lived anthology Fantastic Worlds featured Earth-based stories...
...contrasting with the other anthology from Standard ComicsLost Worlds, which was a space-opera book.
This kid-friendly tale from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #6 (1952) was drawn by Alex Toth and Mike Peppe, though the writer is unknown.

Friday, September 6, 2019

Friday Fun SPACE MOUSE "Tasty Planet"

Along with comic tales, comic books ran text features...
...in order to qualify as magazines and get special low mailing rates!
Here's the never-reprinted story from Avon's Space Comics #4 (1954)!
It reads like it was probably written by series creator Frank Carin.
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