Thursday, January 5, 2023

Reading Room GREEN PLANET Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...
Art by Dick Giordano
Exiled by the repressive government of Earth, Jason Tolliver and other dissenters are shipped to the planet Klorath in a far distant solar system where a colony of rebels led by Tolliver's father had been established.
Upon arrival at the so-called "Green Planet", they discover a partially-completed colony encampment, totally-deserted.
The new arrivals cautiously move into the camp, and utilize the supplies to finish the camp and grow food.
Within a couple of weeks, the camp is completed and the first crop ready to harvest, but an attack by a giant pterodactyl-like creature on the farmers provides a possible answer to the fate of the previous Earthmen.
Following the creature to its' nest on a nearby cliff, Jason encounters another human...but not one of the Earthmen!
Tolliver and the fur-garbed man fight off an attack by one of the pterodactyls, then go their separate ways, having conquered a common foe, but unable to communicate.
Jason returns to the camp, calls a meeting and informs the others that they are not alone on the Green Planet...
For those who say classic sci-fi was just Westerns with spaceships instead of horses, this story, with its' "pioneers and native inhabitants" concept seems to prove them correct, albeit with a much happier ending than most settler-Indian encounters in the real Old West.
Penciled by Charles Nicholas, inked by Vince Alascia using the combined pen-name "Nicholas Alascia".
Based on the 1960 Monarch Books novel by J Hunter Holly (Joan Carol Holly), the writer of the comic adaptation is unknown.
Note: Charlton Comics and Monarch Books were divisions of the same company, much as Archie Comics and Belmont Books were also owned by the same people.
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by J Hunter Holly


Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ATARI FORCE Part Three "Conclusion"

We Have Already Seen...

...an encounter with a huge Cthulhu-like alien propels the Atari Institute's experimental mutiverse-spanning vessel Scanner One into an unknown realm,where they make a forced landing on a planet with a beautiful, deserted futuristic city.
While exploring, alien ships attack them, but a different alien vessel rises up from below the city to defend the moribund metropolis and the Atarians.
Using their advanced technology to interpret data sources found in the city, the Earthmen learn the attacking aliens are "Zylons", and the fighter craft that saved them was designed to destroy the attackers!
In a fit of righteous anger, Commander Champion and Security Officer O'Rourke decide to carry the battle back to the Zylons.
But the crew's medical officer, Dr Orion, perceives his crewmates acting our of character, and searches for the reason why...
Considering DC's Atari Force V1N3 was published in 1982, I don't think it'd be a spoiler to reveal the Dark Destroyer did, in fact, survive...and would become the Atari Force's primary nemesis!
Though the Zylon vessels and the other fighter craft (as shown in the comic) are based on the Colonial Vipers and Cylon Raiders of Battlestar Galactica...

Art by Bob Larkin
...they were, in the video game itself, based on the X-Wings and TIE Fighters of Star Wars!
But that's another story...which we'll tell next month!
Next Week...
A NEW World of Wonder!


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Art of Atari

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Reading Room GREEN PLANET Part 1

Based on a then-recent (1960) novel by J Hunter Holly...
...which is mentioned nowhere in the comic itself or on the cover!
Go figure!
But, what is the answer?
Be here Thursday for the startling conclusion!
Penciled by Charles Nicholas, inked by Vince Alascia using the combined pen-name "Nicholas Alascia".
Based on the 1960 Monarch Books novel by J Hunter Holly (Joan Carol Holly), the writer of the comic adaptation is unknown.
Note: Charlton Comics and Monarch Books were divisions of the same company, much as Archie Comics and Belmont Books were also owned by the same people.
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by J Hunter Holly

Monday, January 2, 2023

Monday Madness: FLYING SAUCERS x FOUR #1 "Secret of the Flying Saucer!"

In the old days (pre-Silver Age), comic books recycled plots every few years...
Art by Bill Everett
...since the editors believed the target audience changed every few years!
This month, Monday Madness will look at how a specific concept was re-used for over a decade by one publisher.
Exhibit #1 is this tale...
Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Fred Kida, this never-reprinted, pre-Comics Code tale from Atlas' Men's Adventures #21 (1953) is definitely more "horror" than "sci-fi".
That's to be expected since this was the era of horror comics' greatest popularity, before the Congressional witchhunts and claims of comics causing juvenile delinquency.
Stan Lee would reuse the concept of a sentient spaceship meeting hapless humans several more times...as we shall see
Next Monday!
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Sunday, January 1, 2023

Happy New Year's Day!

Action Comics #81. Art by Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye
One of the coolest New Year's Eve/New Year's Day covers ever!