Reading Room CAPTAIN FLIGHT COMICS "Story Behind the Cover"

In the "old days", comics often had amazing covers like this...

...that had nothing to do with any of the comics tales inside!

Sometimes they wrote a text story around it!

Does the rest of Mankind settle on Eden?

Do the Edenites/Atlantians return to Earth?

What happens next?

We'll never know, since this story in Four Star's Captain Flight Comics #11 (1947) is Flight's final apperance!

Both cover and story illustrations are by L B Cole. but the writer is, regrettably, unknown.

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Black Light

World of L.B. Cole

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder HUNT BOWMAN IN THE LOST WORLD Part 1B

When Last We Left Our Hero...

...he's the Buck Rogers-ripoff "astronaut frozen and defrosted centuries later in a post-apocalyptic Earth" guy underneath this incredibly-kool Dave Stevens cover, which is based very loosely on what's about to occur in the story...

Computer system...in a cave?

The cliches just keep coming!

While writer Bruce Jones has done some absolutely spectacular work in comics, I'd say this is not one of his award-winning moments!

Clearly, the Dave Stevens cover (above) is the reason Blackthorne's Planet Comics V2N1 (1988) is $50 (or more) on the back-issue market!
Note also that Stevens did exactly what the original Fiction House Planet Comics' cover artists did in the 1940s...take a plot element and hyper-cheesecake it!
(Not that I'm complaining...)
Nonetheless, if you want to see what develops, be here next Wednesday.

Warning: the remaining issues do not have Dave Stevens covers!

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Just Teasing

by Dave Stevens

Out of Print 12x18" book of frameable full-page cheesecake posters taken directly from Stevens' original art used for comic and book covers...including the Planet Comics cover...without any logos or lettering!

Reading Room (JOURNEY INTO) UNKNOWN WORLDS "Strange Car!"

Did you know there are many 1950s Atlas/Marvel never-reprinted "lost" tales?

...here's one of them, a never-reprinted story of autos, aliens, and alternate universes!

If the police found the body of the alien, Earl would've been charged with murder as well.

Perhaps they found the body, saw it was alien in nature, and thought it was a mannikin?

This tale from Atlas' Unknown Worlds #36 (1950) has an odd artistic pedigree.

The inker has been positively-identified as Russ Heath, but the penciler and writer are both unknown.
BTW, you'll note our post's title says (Journey Into) Unknown Worlds.
The indicia says Unknown Worlds, and as of the next issue, until the end of the run, it would read Journey into Unknown Worlds.
Also, this is the first issue of the title!
The book had been Teen Comics, and before that, All-Teen Comics.
Comics publishers did this because they were notoriously cheap, and each new comic title (classified by law as a new periodical) required a new second-class mailing license for subscriptions.
So publishers tried to keep the numbering of already existing titles, modifying the name just slightly, to keep the already paid license!
But the postal authorities caught them, and Atlas had to pay for a new second-class license and restart the numbering!
So, technically, this was #1, and as of what would have been #39, the numbering restarted with #4!

As a result, the book has two different numbers 36, 37, and 38...which drives current collectors nuts!

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

Monday Mars Madness Presents "The Lost Cinematic Worlds of Barsoom" (We Call it Mars)

You may remember 2012's John Carter of Mars movie...

...bud did you know about the two movie versions that went as far as having test reels produced?
Or the low-budget Z-movie (not even good enough to be a B-movie) that went direct to cable TV?

In 1931, legendary animator Bob Clampett worked with John Coleman Burroughs (Edgar Rice's son) to create the following piece...

No movie studio was interested in backing the project.
Most told Clampett that their audiences has no interest in "realistic" animation!
(The Fleischer Brothers proved them wrong with Superman several years later...)

In 2004, Kerry Conran pitched a John Carter movie done in almost total CGI...

...like the movie he just completed, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow!
If Sky Captain had done better at the box office, Kerry undoubtedly would have been given the green light.
But, it didn't, and he wasn't.

There was a low-budget "updated to the present day" version, Princess of Mars, which went direct-to-video/cable/satellite TV just before the big budget flick opened!

It was so low-budget the Tharks didn't even have four arms, and were the same height as John Carter!
(Plus, Dejah Thoris was an ex-porn star!)

The mega-budget film that finally was produced after years of delays, rewrites, and changes in writers, directors, and cast, did poorly, though it was, in fact, damned good...

Because of its' poor performance at the box office, we're unlikely to see another attempt to bring Barsoom to life anytime soon...

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Check our Martian artifacts at the

Art of Barsoom™
 Collectibles Corner

Did You Join the Annual Summer RetroBlog Blogathons?

If you didn't, you missed...

...the only never-reprinted Shang-Chi comic story ever, unseen for 40 years at

Pop Art Martial Arts!

A classic gothic romance/beach read at

True Love Comics Tales!

Plus: these three too-kool for school, never-reprinted, prose super-hero tales...all unseen since the 1960s at
Hero Histories!

The rebooted Silver Age origin of He Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men!
The Shadow!

The first novel featuring the Star Spangled Avenger!
Captain America: the Great Gold Steal!

And last, but certainly not least, the premiere novel featuring the Caped Crusaders and a trio of evildoers!
Batman vs 3 Villains of Doom!
Lucky for you, it's not too late!
Sit down now and start reading!