Sunday, March 7, 2021

Reading Room BLAST-OFF "Little Earth"

This is a classic example of an unheralded gem by two graphic-story masters...
...that has been reprinted only once, and in a limited-edition trade paperback, so most of you have never seen it!
Oddly, the GCD lists it as penciled by Reed Crandall and inked by Al Williamson, but Teddy I at pencilink.blogspot.com reverses the credits!
Personally, I think both artists, in typical Fleagle Gang-style worked at both tasks in various panels.
The writer is Larry Ivie, who scripted several dozen stories for Marvel, DC, Tower, King, and Warren in the 1960s, and also published Monsters and Heroes, a competitor to Famous Monsters of Filmland!
According to the Kirby Museum, this story was intended for Harvey's never-published Race for the Moon #5 in 1958, but remained unused until 1965, when it ran in the Harvey one-shot anthology Blast-Off!

Saturday, March 6, 2021

Space Force Saturdays SPEED CARTER "Jet-Men of Zurko"

...now he battles self-propelled aliens from an unnamed star in this tale from Speed Carter: SpaceMan #4 (1954).
According to Marvel's writers, aliens are idiots who can be tricked by everything from photos of ancient ruins to comic book panels showing monsters or high-tech weaponry that doesn't really exist!
Remember the end of Fantastic Four #2 (1961) by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby?
Reed Richards showed cut-out comic book panels from Journey into Mystery and Strange Tales to the Skrull fleet commander stating the creatures and super-science weapons shown were real and ready to use against alien invaders!
(Of course, the idea that Jack Kirby could draw stuff that could scare the pants off hostile aliens does have a real appeal...)
And, I remember at least a couple of other pre-Silver Age Marvel stories with a similar concept, including one where movie special effects techs frightened aliens with fake robots from a sci-fi film they were shooting on location...
Written (as are all the Speed Carter stories) by Hank Chapman and illustrated by new artists Mike Sekowsky, Don Heck, and Jack Abel.
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(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

Thursday, March 4, 2021

Reading Room WORLD OF FANTASY "Guardian of the Stars!"

What's kooler than a Jack (King) Kirby cover?
How about the never-reprinted Steve Ditko story it leads into?
Did the cover or the story come first?
The total redesign of the robot indicates whichever was done first wasn't provided to the other artist as reference!
Also, shouldn't the title be "Guardian of the Earth"?
Of course, that would be a "spoiler", ruining the drama shown on the cover...
Illustrated by Steve Ditko, this tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #17 (1959) was probably plotted by Stan Lee, though the scripting doesn't read like his work.
Keep an eye on this blog as we re-present more never-reprinted Steve Ditko stories and covers!
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Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder LOST WORLD "Sinister Stalkers of the Subway"

...Hunt Bowman and his Scooby Gang exposed a traitorous human brainwashed by the VoltaMen before he could lead them into a trap...
Both artist Lily Renee and whoever the writer was behind the "Thorncliffe Herrick" pen-name lived in NYC.
So, they were aware of the 9th Avenue elevated train (which had recently-closed and was in the process of being dismantled), when this story from Fiction House's Planet Comics #40 (1946) was created and published.
In addition, this was the last appearance of the "Scooby Gang", as new assistants come and go for the remainder of the series!

Discover MORE Amazing Factoids...
Next Wednesday!
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