Monday Mars Madness CAPTAIN ROCKET "Meets the Mind Stealers"

Welcome to a story about Martians...

...who weren't Martians!

There were three never-reprinted Captain Rocket stories in his one and only issue from the short-lived PL Publishing, but only two were comics!

The third was a text feature!

The cover (which omits Cap's rather dorky helmet in favor of a kool transparent one) and this text feature from PL's Captain Rocket #1 (1951) were written and illustrated by Harry Harrison, who later gave up illustrating and became a major sci-fi/fantasy writer (including the novel Make Room! Make Room! which was the basis for Soylent Green!

And here's a weird note: Though this tale involves Saturnians, the little vignette in the upper left of the cover warns us..."We must prepare for an invasion from MARS!"

Since there are no Martians in either of the comic stories, was the tiny Cap head shot referring to the aliens in the text feature, who might have been written as Martians, but changed by the editor into Saturnians (perhaps because he felt Martians were too much of a cliche)?

Or was there another, unpublished, Captain Rocket tale that got bounced into the never-printed second issue?

The answers are lost in the mists of time...

BTW, the headlined cover feature "Man Who Wanted a World" wasn't even a Captain Rocket tale!
It was the debut (and only) appearance of space heroine Aurora of Jupiter!

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

Who Knows What Reboots Lurk in the Minds of Writers?

With the most extensive revamp/reboot to the legendary character since the 1960s Radio Comics version...

...by James Patterson and Brian Sitts (now in bookstores and at Amazon)...

...we hereby present the updated (as of the Silver Age), but never-reprinted reboot origin of He Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men from Radio Comics The Shadow, as the "Grande Finale" to our annual Summer RetroBlogs Blogathon, beginning tomorrow at Hero Histories!
Click
HERE
Monday to enjoy!

Space Force Saturdays SPACE BUSTERS "Empress of Belzar"

Space Busters was a war/military comic...set in the future.

Think of it as a less-sophisticated version of Starship Troopers, sorta "Sgt Fury or Sgt Rock in Space"!

Interestingly, it featured a woman (albeit a non-combatant) as a regular member of the front-line team.
(A rarity in comics until the late 1980s)

As to the plot...the planet Belzar has invaded our Solar System, managing to conquer everything from Pluto to Mars, with Earth next in line.

However, Earth's military is about to launch a counter-attack...

Unlike the other strips we've been running, this wasn't a spacegoing police force, but a "marines in space" series.

(BTW, for those who were wondering, Space Busters wasn't "inspired" by Robert Heinlein's Hugo Award-winning Starship Troopers since it pre-dates it by more more than half a decade!)
Illustrated by EC Comics mainstay Bernie Krigstein (who was also the artist on ZD's Space Patrol, based on the TV series), this premiere tale from Ziff-Davis' Space Busters #1 (1952) was likely scripted by editor Jerry (Superman) Siegel!

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Starship Troopers #0

Markosia Comics

Friday Fun / CoronoaVirus Comics MAD "Look at Modern-Day Bacteria"

Think our concerns about diseases and a possible plague are something new?

This never-reprinted feature from MAD Magazine #153 (1972) combines humor with medicine and politics!

Among those whom writers Max Brandel & Frank Jacobs and artist Bob Clarke skewer are President Richard Nixon (R), Vice-President Spiro Agnew (R), conservative Presidential candidate George Wallace (I), and the radical liberal Students for a Democratic Society!

(Google them if you're too young to remember!)

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MAD About Trump!

A Brilliant Look at Our Brainless disgraced ex-President (up to 2018)

and/or

MAD About the Trump Era Error

(2018-2020)

Reading Room UNKNOWN WORLDS OF SCIENCE FICTION "Kick the Can"

It's said that space opera = "horse opera" with rayguns instead of six-guns...

...and just like the revisionist westerns of the '60s and '70s, this Bronze Age tale is a more sophisticated version of that concept.

Written and illustrated by Bruce Jones, this never-reprinted tale from Marvel's Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #4 (1975) takes the cliches of both horse opera and film noir, puts them in a sci-fi setting and makes them work in a way the Comics Code would not have allowed in a color book.
(Helping a wife escape her husband through extra-legal means and deliberately allowing someone to die were both no-nos to the Code.)
Plus, Jones' classical illustration style gives the tale an emotional resonance a more-stylized artist wouldn't have achieved.
BTW, Jones is still active in the field, as his LinkedIn site shows.

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Bruce Jones'

Razor's Edge