He was Flash Gordon!
He was Buck Rogers!
He was Thun'da!
He was Tarzan!
And, he was the star of his own comic book series...twice!
From the 1940s to the 60s, numerous celebrities had their own comic books which took the approach that anything they did on movie/tv/radio, they could do in "real life"!
While comics based on Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, et al, just did Western tales, the four-color stories of performers like John Wayne and Buster Crabbe covered as many genres as the actors themselves!
In fact, the issue this short appeared in (Lev Gleason's Amazing Adventures of Buster Crabbe #1 from 1953) had three tales, this space opera, a jungle adventure, and a Western!
Interestingly, in all of the stories, no matter the locale or time period, Buster is himself, not one of the characters he played!
Interestingly, in all of the stories, no matter the locale or time period, Buster is himself, not one of the characters he played!
The first, from Eastern Color, ran a dozen issues over two years and featured art by, among others, Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, George Evans, Bob Powell, and Roy Krenkel, among others.
This tale was illustrated by Ed Martinott, who worked exclusively for Lev Gleason and Good Comics in the early 1950s before switching to advertising.
Pretty good work, including accurate likenesses of Crabbe in most panels.
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