Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder LOST WORLD "To Save You, Why Must I Kill You?"

Considering this never-reprinted tale was published over in 1949...

...it's almost frightening to see how applicable the story's moral is to the problems of today's America!
Heroic Hunt Bowman and the duly-elected Earth Council decide on a course of action...gathering the surviving children of North America in a well-prepared location to teach them what they'll need to survive and fight back against the invading VoltaMen.
Rabble-rousers claim Bowman's actions are violating their personal freedom and endangering their children!
(Apparently Republicans survived the invasion from Volta!)
Happily, by the end of the tale, the Repugs...I mean idiots...have learned the error of their ways and the School for Survival is now in session!
Sadly, in the real world, the fools who claim their personal freedom take priority over their survival haven't learned...and may not live long enough to do so!

Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Reading Room ALIEN ENCOUNTERS "Earth Invasion"

There's a twist ending to this alien invasion tale you won't see coming...
...if you're under 35!
I'm serious!
Ah, video arcades...
Kids today have no idea how important those darkened chambers filled with video consoles and pinball machines were to us in the pre-XBox/PlayStation/Nintendo days...and how much money we spent, quarter-by-quarter, in them!
Yeah, there's still Chuck E CheeseDave & Busters, and their ilk, but those are kiddie venues!

Written by Larry Shell and illustrated by Steve (Swamp Thing) Bissette, this never-reprinted tale from FantaCo's Alien Encounters one-shot (1981) captures the long-lost era perfectly.
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Monday, August 2, 2021

Monday Mars Madness ALARMING TALES "Hero"

Here's a short (in more ways than one) space-opera tale...
...though you won't get my pun until the end...
This story of size and space travel from Harvey's Alarming Tales #2 (1957) was produced by writer Jack Oleck, and illustrator Marvin Stein (with what appears to be uncredited layout help by Jack Kirby).
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Sunday, August 1, 2021

The Next Chapter of the RetroBlogs Blogathon Features...ROMANCE???

What's better than a sunny summer day at the beach?
Why, the latest in our annual gothic-themed, multi-chapter Beach Reads in...
...beginning Monday, of course!
Note: this 50-year old tale was reprinted a decade ago...but only in black and white!
This is it's first appearance in full color since 1971!
That's half a century!
Don't miss it!

Saturday, July 31, 2021

Cover Gallery SPEED CARTER: SPACEMAN & SPACE SQUADRON

Here's a look at the covers for the complete run of Speed Carter: SpaceMan...
Art by Bill Everett
Oddly, though they're really nice pieces of art, they never relate to the stories inside the book!
Art by Carl Burgos & ?
Art by Bill Everett
Art by Mike Sekowsky & ?
Art by Mort Lawrence
Art by Joe Maneely
Bill Everett (who didn't do any inside art) did two covers, and Joe Maneely (who did all the Speed stories in the first three issues finally got to do a cover with the last issue!
Here are the covers for Space Squadron.
Note the variants in foreign editions with retitled and redrawn covers...
Art by Sol Brodsky & Christopher Rule.
Vignettes at bottom by George Tuska.
Art by Werner Roth
Canadian Edition
Easily one of the worst recompositing jobs I've ever seen!
Art by Werner Roth
British Edition
Why were the aliens' second heads removed?
Art by Werner Roth
Canadian Edition
Now, this is how you recompose a cover!
Art by Sol Brodsky & Joe Maneely
Art by Sol Brodsky
British
Art by Sol Brodsky &?
We've decided to keep Space Force Saturdays at least through Halloween, so watch this space (pun intended) next week!