Friday Fun GROOVY: The Marvel Comic You NEVER Saw!

Until the 1970s, Marvel Comics was owned by Martin Goodman, who also published lots of non-comics magazines!

In 1968, Marvel switched newsstand distributors and could finally expand the number of titles it had on the racks and spinners from only 11 per month to...whatever the market could bear!

Publisher Martin Goodman decided to do "corporate synergy" decades before it became a buzzword!

He would take comic panels from his b/w magazines, color them, and package them in a comic book-sized anthology!
Note that, despite being distributed with Marvel's comics, none of the Marvel creative crew worked on this project!

What could go wrong?

A lot!

Groovy was racked with the comics, since it was comic book-sized!

But the adult audience (who bought the material in magazines) rarely (if ever) even looked at comics racks and spinners!

Even adding a Marvel logo to the cover didn't help sales.

#3 was the final issue!

Next Friday, we'll provide some examples of the material that appeared inside.

Reading Room WORLDS UNKNOWN "Farewell to the Master" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...
Reporter Cliff Sutherland and photographer Ann O'Hara may be on to the scoop of the century.

An alien robot, which went inert after Klaatu (the alien humanoid it accompanied) was shot and killed (without provocation) when he tried to initiate contact with people of Earth isn't as unmoving as the government believes!
The duo conceal themselves nearby, hoping to catch the automaton in motion...which they do!
They witness the robot enter the alien vessel...which sealed up and apparently deactivated after Klaatu was killed.
And now things get really weird...

Cue the Twilight Zone theme...

The original story by Harry Bates appeared in Street and Smith's Astounding Science Fiction V26N2 (1940) with the following illustrations by Frank Kramer...all of which feature Gnut!

"Farewell to the Master" has been reprinted numerous times, usually in anthologies about Astounding Science-Fiction magazine, or compilations of stories which were adapted into films or TV shows.

But the graphic adaptation from Marvel's Worlds Unknown #3 (1973) has never been reprinted, and no other comic book/comic strip version has ever been done!
However, there was another prose adaptation of the short story...

This book, written by Arthur Tofte, published by Scholastic Books in 1976, combined "Farewell to the Master" with the screenplay for the 1951 movie into a new novel which presents Klaatu and a rather verbose Gnut (not "Gort") as a pair of equal partners, representing their respective civilizations within a galactic organization calling themselves "The Watchers"!
Finally, Lux Radio Theatre produced a one-hour radio adaptation in 1954, narrated by Paul Frees and starring Michael Rennie as Klaatu!
Regrettably, it doesn't use Bernard Herrmann's magnificent soundtrack but it's still worth listening to.
You can link to it HERE!

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY "Nightmare!" Part 1

Previously; Bomba's best friend was killed by the insidious Krag...

...when the duo stopped him from trying to conquer the Earth as he did millennia ago!

But Krag is not the only enemy the Jungle Boy will face...

Thus, this never-reprinted conflict from DC's Bomba the Jungle Boy #7 (1969) is joined!
Be here next Wednesday as Bomba fights his final (in more ways than one) battle!

Reading Room WORLDS UNKNOWN "Farewell to the Master" Part 1

You know the story...sorta.
You've seen (and/or heard) the story adapted...sorta.
Now read the most faithful adaptation of the tale...short of the original novelette!








And before you go any further, "Gnut" is pronounced "Nut".

That's one of the reasons it was changed when the story by Harry Bates was adapted in 1951 into a movie...

Aw, you guessed!

As you've surmised, there were quite a few changes made when the silver screen version was created and produced!

And, when writer Roy Thomas, penciler Ross Andru and inker Wayne Howard went back to the source material for the never-reprinted Marvel's Worlds Unknown #3 (1973)...well, let's let Rascally Roy himself tell you about that...

Be Here on Thursday for the ASTOUNDING conclusion...plus some kool extras (which will explain why I capitalized "astounding"!)

Monday Maternity Madness CHOICES "Some Words From the Guys in Charge"

Want to bet all these characters are based on Republican politicians of the 1990s?

And, note that they are, of course, all males, if not "men" in any meaningful sense of the word, just like most Republican politicians then and now!

For the record, the late writer/artist Howard Cruse is a man.

From Angry Isis Press' Choices: a Pro-Choice Benefit Comic for the Anthology National Organization for Women, produced to raise money after the Supreme Court ruling of Webster V Reproductive Health Services (1989) began the re-imposition of limits to the rights of women over their own bodies!