Reading Room VIC VERITY "Rocket Rex"

Long before Rocket Raccoon, there was...

Take a handsome hero, a helpless heroine, a sinister villain, add spaceships and ray guns and, you've got classic 1940s-50s sci-fi action!
Except everyone's an anthropomorphic animal!

This never-reprinted story from Vic Verity Magazine #7 (1946) was obviously the first episode of a projected series.

Unfortunately, it appeared in the last magazine the short-lived Don Fortune Publishing ever produced!

Both the writer and artist are, at this point, unknown.

But the other stories in the comic were the work of CC Beck, Otto Binder, and others who worked on the Fawcett Comics line, so the odds are that the writer and artist for Rocket Rex are also from that ensenble.

Monday Madness STRANGE JOURNEY "Captain Kiddeo Space Bum"

Is it humor?

Is it serious?

I can't decide...

...read the tale and judge for yourself!

The title is a variation of "Captain Video", a tv show which had been cancelled three years earlier when this never-reprinted tale appeared in Ajax-Farrell's Strange Journey #3 (1958).

Yet the story itself has nothing to do with Captain Video, not even as a spoof of it, like MAD's superb Captain Tvideo which you can read HERE!

The attempts at humor and wit are lacking in both, and the illustrations have none of the wonderful background detail (Called "chicken fat" by artist Will Elder) MAD's artists were famous for!

Plus, the art is so jammed-up, I have the impression the original (perhaps unpublished) story was longer, and re-edited to fit into the 5 page slot in an otherwise average sci-fi anthology.

We do know it's a product of the S M Iger Studio which packaged Ajax-Farrell's books, but not who the particular creatives were...

Where are the "Kool" Uniforms for Don da Con's Space Force?

The uniforms for Don da Con's "Space Force" have been unveiled...

...and are military surplus camos...for space warfare!
When you're given a multi-million dollar budget and you cant even do better than a 1970s tv series...

...you're really badly off!
Ironically, the comic-book version of Space Force has a much better uniform...

But, then, in the comic, Don da Con has lost over 100 pounds from his real-world weight!

(Or those spacesuits have built-in Spanx!)

Sad, ain't it?

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Trump's Space Force

(either for yourself, or as a gift for a con friend/relative)

Reading Room WEIRD WORLDS "Green Horror"

We presented the 1950s version of this tale HERE...

...now here's the redrawn 1970s version with the script taken almost verbatim from the original!

"They went beyond the stars only to find terror that could destroy everything"

That was the contents page description from Eerie Publications' Weird Worlds V1N10 (1970) for this reworking by artist Walter Casadei of "Planet Eaters" from Key's Weird Mysteries #1 (1952).

Casadei started his career as a humor and "good girl" artist.

But when he proved he could handle any genre, Walter's assignments became predominantly a horror/sci-fi illustrator!

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The Worst of Eerie Publications

Friday Fun ZANY "Li'l Abnrr"

Unseen since 1959, a look at how comics...

...and by extension, media in general, change to reflect pop culture trends!

Comics, in particular, jump on the latest fad, sometimes revamping the book or strip almost beyond recognition!
The classic example was the mid-1960s "New Blackhawk era", when the middle-aged WWII veteran flyers, published continuously since 1942, became superhero/spies...because the two hottest pop culture trendsetters at the time were Batman and Bond!
(Think I'm joking?
You can read the transition story beginning HERE!)
BTW, both the artist who did a dead-on imitation of Al Capp's style and the scripter for this never-reprinted Li'L Abner spoof from Candar's Zany #4 (1959) are unknown!

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Li'l Abner: the Frazetta Years Vol 1