Tuesday, July 2, 2024

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO UNKNOWN WORLDS "Lost...One World"

James Blane is in for a rough day...
...or is it a rough year...or decade...or...
"A chance to do your life over, with no memory of what you've done previously.
Would you repeat your mistakes, or take a different path...into The Twilight Zone?"
(Sorry, couldn't resist)
This odd tale of time and turnover was the lead (but not the cover feature) in Atlas' Journey into Unknown Worlds #53 (1957).
However, these scans are from Marvel's Worlds Unknown #4 (1974), which had better reproduction.
Art by Bob Powell, but the writer is unknown.
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Monday, July 1, 2024

The "TimeLost" RetroBlog Summer Blogathons...

...Begin Today!

To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of The Shadow (the Movie)a re-presentation of the 2-issue adaptation of the film by the man who visually-defined He Who Knows What Evil Lurks for several generations of readers, Mike Kaluta (along with writer Joel Goss)...plus we're providing comparisons between the comic and the movie (with film clips) in...
Crime and Punishment!
And

Our Annual "Beach Read" Book-Length Gothic Romance Graphic Novel!
Five Chapters, Published Daily!
And, we proudly guarantee that...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
Only At

True Love Comics Tales!

Sunday, June 30, 2024

See Psychedelic Sharks & The FIRST Aquatic Super-Hero...THE SHARK!

Before Shark Week Begins,
You gotta see this to believe it!
(If only these had been done as black-lite posters!)

Read the whole tale, based on the TV series Adventures in Paradise, at our "brother" RetroBlog, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video, HERE, HERE, and HERE!
Plus...
Before Aquaman!
Before Prince Namor; the Sub-Mariner!
There Was...

The son of Neptune (who may or may not be the Roman god), The Shark once lived in an undersea kingdom, but set out to fight all crime committed at sea by anyone; human, sea-dweller, or extraterrestrial alien!
He's called "Shark" because sharks often accompany him...and eat his enemies!
The character is also a skilled scientist, who creates and uses technology far beyond then-current human science! 
  • His super-powers include...
  • The ability to breathe underwater
  • Superhuman strength and near-invulnerability (which he loses on land unless he's in physical contact with a magic knife given him by his father)
  • Mental control of sea life!
  • Ability to create creatures made of water, which he can direct mentally!
With a strip appearing in both Amazing-Man Comics and Stars and Stripes Comics, The Shark lasted until Centaur Publishing (which also published pulp magazines) gave up comics. 
You can read six of his tales (including his premiere) at another of our "brother" RetroBlogs, Hero HistoriesHERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE!

Saturday, June 29, 2024

Space Force Saturdays ROCKY JONES: SPACE RANGER "Space Infantry"

With the school year over and kids off to summer vacation...
...lets look at the never-revealed school days of the newest space hero in our line up, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger!
Sneaky little SoB, ain't he?
Wonder if he had a classmate named James Tiberius Kirk?
BTW, the character's Space Academy days were never shown on TV.
The series, set in 2054, started with him already an officer!
Scripter of this never-reprinted, totally-original tale from Charlton's Space Adventures #15 (1955) is unknown, but the art is by Ted Galindo, a journeyman artist who did work for Charlton, Prize, and Gold Key from the mid-1950s to mid-1960s.
Oddly, Charlton didn't give Rocky Jones his own title, as most publishers did with licensed characters, but inserted him into the already-established Space Adventures comic for four issues (and gave him the cover each issue).
The tv series itself was a weekly filmed series, not a live videotaped daily series like Captain Video or Tom Corbett: Space Cadet, giving it a slightly "slicker" look (and better special effects) than most of the competitors.
It was syndicated, and ran for 39 episodes over two seasons.
All of the eps are three-part stories and were re-edited into feature-length films which were released to syndication in the 1960s, after the series had ended its' run.
Almost all are available on DVD and two of them, Crash of the Moons and Manhunt in Space, were roasted on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Rocky Jones will return in the near future...
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Featuring Six Three-Episode Compilation Movies
(That's almost half the TV series in one set!)
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Friday, June 28, 2024

Friday Fun FROM HERE TO INSANITY "Build It Yourself"

In the pre-Ikea era, assembling/building your own furniture successfully was a rarity...

...as writer/artist Jack Kirby points out!
This never-reprinted tale from Charlton's From Here to Insanity V1N11 (1955) spoofs the do-it-yourself mania that spread across post-war America thanks to magazines like Popular Mechanics and Mechanix Illustrated.
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