Cover Gallery FANTASTIC WORLDS and LOST WORLDS

They ran for a combined total of only five issues...

Art by Alex Toth

...but Standard's short-lived sci-fi anthologies Fantastic Worlds and Lost Worlds had some first-rate talent both on the covers and inside them!

Art by John Celardo

Plus, all five covers had something in common quite unique in publishing...

...none of the covers had anything to do with any of the interior stories!

Art by Alex Toth & Mike Peppe

Despite the captions, which did mention titles from stories inside the books...

Art by Mike Sekowsky & John Celardo

...the art didn't depict anything even close to what was in the tales!

But they sure look kool, don't they?

Space Hero Saturdays SPACEHAWK "Pirates of Uranus"

This tale from Novelty's Target Comics #10 (1940)...

...is the most reprinted and reformatted of all the stories about Basil Wolverton's "Superhuman Enemy of Crime!"!

Besides the usual reprintings in both color and b/w, the tale was hand-colored and edited down by two pages in Marvel's Epic Illustrated #12 (1984)...

...and even converted into blue/red 3-D in 3-D Zone #18 (1989)

Wouldn't you just love to see this stuff animated?
Lord knows I would...

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Friday Fun EH! "Paradise Gained!"

"It is better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven!"
--Milton "Paradise Lost"
Though the inspiration may be from Milton, this story's script is strictly from hunger!

Illustrated by Dick Ayers, this never-reprinted tale from Charlton's first MAD color comic clone, EH! #2 (1954), is strangely-compelling as a snapshot of 1950s America's follies and fears.
I'd suggest anybody under 50 use an encyclopedia to figure out what events from that era the characters are referring to!

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George Perez (1954-2022)

One of the most-successful of the second wave of fans-turned-pros...

...George Perez became his generation's Jack Kirby*, producing a massive (and magnificent) body of work spanning decades and genres**, yet never losing his modesty about his accomplishments...

...or his fanboy sense of humor, as this piece, done during his run on the Logan's Run comic demonstrates!
Besides super-heroes and tv/movie adaptations, George drew almost anything he was asked to do...including the massive JLA/Avengers crossover (two different versions) and the continuity-redefining Crisis on Infinite Earths!
He even did two Beatles-themed projects...

...The Beatles Story and the unreleased-in-America Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band**!

We've presented a few of his lesser-known stories...

Frank (Dune) Herbert's thought-provoking "Occupation Force"

The post-apocalyptic "Ride the Blue Bus"

Gullivar Jones "Martian Genesis"

...and next Tuesday and Thursday we'll present a couple more rarely-seen tales illustrated by George.

*To be fair, Kirby created far more characters than Perez, who specialized in revamping/revitalizing characters!
**Curiously, though he did numerous super-hero tales involving romantic relationships, George never did an actual romance comic story!
***Sgt Pepper was released in Europe (including England) and Asia.

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ADVENTURERS' CLUB "Whick! Whock! Whick! Whock!"

Let's end the too-brief run of this retro (even when it was published almost 50 years ago) series...

...with a story about the world's most unique timepiece as we present the final chapter of The Adventurers' Club!

This never-reprinted story from DC's Adventure Comics #430 (1973) featured a new creative team, writer Arnold Drake and artist Luis Dominguez (who had illustrated the only cover the Adventurers' Club appeared on as shown last week) and an oddly-red-headed Nelson Strong!

Though the Adventurers' Club strip ended, Nelson Strong would reappear a couple of decades later in DC's Swamp Thing #145-150 (1994-5) as a big-game hunter attempting to capture Swampy.
Nelson dies in the attempt and is briefly resurrected as an Elemental!
Bet that would've been a helluva Adventurers' Club story, eh?

Next Wednesday

A New World of Wonder!