Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "Antique Collectors"

What's "antique" really depends on your point of view...

...as this tiny tale (from 1959) demonstrates!

Cars from 1959 are extremely collectible now, and it's only 66 years later!

Both the writer and artist of this story from Charlton's Out of This World #13 (1959) are, sadly, unknown.

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder CAPTAIN COMET, SPACE PILOT "vs the Vicious Space Pirates!"

A space-going hero named "Captain Comet" who saves the Earth?

Plus, he's drawn by Al Williamson and Frank Frazetta?

Sign me up!

Note: he's not DC Comics' mutant mental marvel...

 ...but a character who only appeared once, in 1953, two years after DC's space hero debuted in Strange Adventures #9, and would continue as an ongoing strip through 1955 (usually getting the cover slot)!

The Captain Comet we've just shown you was more a Flash Gordon / Buck Rogers-type hero, set in the future, battling interplanetary threats with fists and ray guns.

Appearing in the first issue of Toby Press' anthology title Danger is Our Business, he obviously was meant to be an ongoing character, but there was never another appearance, except for a reprint in 1958.

Did DC issue a "cease and desist" due to trademark infringement?

We'll never know...

Reading Room LOST WORLDS "Space Race"

If you think a high-speed auto race is fun...

...what if the race was between high-speed spacecraft?

This is the sort of story that proves the trope that most sci-fi of the Golden Age was just re-written Western stories.

Replace the horse or stagecoach with a spaceship, six-shooters with ray blasters, and Indians with aliens, and voila, a sci-fi story!

This never-reprinted tale from Lost Worlds #6 (1954) was penciled by John Celardo and inked by Bernard Sachs.
The writer is unknown.

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3

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Monday Madness FLASH GORDON COMICS "The World You WILL Live In"

In 1950, what amazing advances did we think the 21st Century would bring?

As shown in this uncredited (and never-reprinted) feature from Harvey's Flash Gordon #1 (1950), all five predictions have, in fact, come to pass...albeit in modified form.

Unlike the predictions from #1, most of these from #2 have not come true!

Only the wristwatch one has occurred, and only on expensive, high-end timepieces!

In 2025, we do have laser scalpels (in limited use, mostly for eye surgery) and lasers are used to remove tattoos.

The mobile telephone one can be interpreted as cell phones, but radiophones in cars were a popular item among the rich (and spies/superheroes) in the '60s to early '80s.

(Batman, James Bond, Honey West, Matt Helm, The Avengers [Steed and Peel, not the superheroes] and The Green Hornet all had them!)

Extensive mining of minerals from the ocean floor has yet to occur, and the sun's going nova billions of years from now has been predicted since the 1800s.

So, 4 out or 5 for this never-reprinted feature from Harvey's Flash Gordon #3 (1950) is pretty good, eh?

Both the artist and writer are unknown.

Let's take one final look at this never-reprinted strip...

Of the five predictions in this one-pager from Harvey's Flash Gordon #4 (1950), the first is a possibility, the second and fifth have yet to occur, and the third and fourth have come true.

Both the artist and writer are unknown.

This was one of three different new one-page features that appeared in all four issues of the series which reprinted the Flash Gordon Sunday newspaper strip by Alex Raymond, reformatted for the comic book page, and with new covers (not by Alex Raymond).

The others were "Stories Behind the Stars" (about the myths behind constellation names) and "Know Your Planets" (about the other worlds in the solar system).

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Perfect Crime!"

A never-reprinted cross-genre tale from Journey into Mystery...

...combining crime and science fiction, is our entry for this Sunday!

You'll note the last two panels are re-lettered.

I suspect the Comics Code Authority felt it was too cruel to allow the criminal to die for something he technically didn't commit!

This was one of the two tales backing up Mighty Thor's very first appearance in Marvel's Journey into Mystery #83 (1963).

Ah, you've heard about that story, but not this one, eh?

Don Heck penciled and inked the tale.

Stan Lee plotted it, but experts are not sure if he scripted it.

Lee usually signed the later short stories he scripted, but only Heck's signature is here.

Just about everything Lee didn't script at this point was handled by his brother Larry Lieber.

(Stan's birth name is Stanley Leiber. He used "Stan Lee" on his comics work because he wanted his real name on the Great American Novel he planned to write.

When he finally realized he would be forever known for his comics and not any prose novel he might write, he legally changed his name to "Stan Lee".)

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Thor Masterworks
Volume 1 
featuring the Thor stories that appeared in front of the never-reprinted tales we're presenting!