Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder AGAR-AGAR "Harem of Bacchus"

...well that's really all you need to know about the plot...such as it is!
Rescued by a handsome centaur!
Considering the fascination some women have for horses...nope!
I'm going to stop before I get in trouble...
This story from New England Library's Dracula #6 (1971) was written by Luis Gasca under the pen-name Sadko  and illustrated in a Peter Max-esque style by Alberto Solsona.
It's the last of three that were published in the 1972 Warren trade paperback (also called Dracula) that reprinted the first six issues of this bi-weekly British magazine.
The remaining stories have been unseen by American audiences, but will be posted here weekly until all have been re-presented!
It'll be a groovy trip, baby!

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Reading Room WEIRD MYSTERIES "Spirits from Outer Space!"

An astronaut returns from space and doesn't act like himself...
...yeah, it's a bit of a cliche, but this tale from Key's Weird Mysteries #1 (1952), has a surprise gimmick to defeat the baddies!

Illustrated by Walter Palais (brother of better-known Golden Age artist Rudy Palais) and Mike Esposito, this "possession by aliens" tale manages to present a variation of the old story with the fact that literally ANY pain causes the parasite to flee.

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Monday, November 13, 2023

Monday Madness RACE FOR THE MOON "Asylum"

Twilight Zone-style story from Race for the Moon #1, illustrated (and possibly written) by Bob Powell!

With the world the way it is now, perhaps we should rename our planet from "Earth" to "Asylum"!

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Sunday, November 12, 2023

Have Yourself a Star Wars Christmas with...CHRISTMAS IN THE STARS!

Click on the pic to see the superb Ralph McQuarrie cover art in all it's glory!
You were expecting the Star Wars Christmas Special?
Here's John (Finn) Boyega hearing this album for the first time!
(For the record, I got the album when it came out..and still have it!)

Saturday, November 11, 2023

Space Hero Saturdays BLACKHAWK "Battle on the Moon"

Since today is Veterans Day, let's look at the post-war adventures of a team of WWII vets...
...as these Commie-crushing Russkie-Smashers fight for freedom everywhere on Earth...and beyond!
BTW, note the Blackhawks don't walk around the airless vacuum on the Moon's surface in the story itself wearing just their leather uniforms with helmets!
(Nor does the leggy Russkie woman wear just her shorts!)
Though the writer of this never-reprinted tale from Quality's Modern Comics #99 (1950) is unknown, it's illustrated by penciller John Forte and inker Chuck Cuidera.
The "Dark Knights", as they're often referred to, went whole-heartedly after Russkie and Chinese Communists during the post-World War II days of their Quality Comics run.
But, when the characters continued at DC after Quality closed up shop, other opponents like mad scientists, aliens, and the occasional ex-Nazi, took center stage, along with newly-created super villains until the middle-aged aviators became superheroes/spies in the Swinging '60s as shown

 HERE!
(You truly have to see it to believe it!)
Trivia: John Forte is better-known to present-day comics readers as the primary artist on the first few years of The Legion of Super-Heroes' run in Adventure Comics, while Blackhawk co-creator Chuck Cuidera remained on the strip after DC took it over, almost to the very end of the Silver Age run!
Plus, Cuidera inked Dick Dillin (who penciled almost all the DC Blackhawk stories) on Dillin's Hawkman run after Blackhawk was cancelled!
And, in an ironic turn, that the Blackhawks adopted uniforms surprisingly-similar to the Russkies' outfits in this story when they entered a "scientific adventurer" phase in the early 1960s...

..yet nobody noticed!
(Of course it was over a decade later...)

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