Friday, April 17, 2026

Friday Fun YAK YAK "How to Win Friends"

Sometimes, we need to get away from current events...
...and just enjoy a good laugh, courtesy of legendary writer/artist Jack Davis!
From Dell's Four-Color Comics #1186 (1961)
Dell gave MAD mainstay Jack Davis his own title in the Four Color Comics series, to do with as he pleased.
The series, Yak Yak (subtitled "A Pathology of Humor") only ran two issues, but they were pure Davis, who wrote, penciled, inked, and colored the whole project as well as providing painted covers for both issues!
It's never been reprinted, except for excerpts here and there.
Hopefully, somebody will do so in the near future...
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Thursday, April 16, 2026

Reading Room RACE FOR THE MOON "Face on Mars"

The most famous story from Harvey's Race for the Moon anthology series...

...is this tale from #2 by writer/peniler Jack Kirby and inker Al Williamson which doesn't take place on the Moon...but on Mars!

Why is it so famous?

Keep in mind that this was the era of the Chariots of the Gods? fad, and to many, this pic was confirmation that aliens had either come thru the Solar System and stopped off not only on Earth, but Mars as well, or were from Mars initially!
And, there were those who remembered this little comic tale from their childhood.
The truth was a bit more mundane.
Click HERE for NASA's explanation.
To this day, there are still those who say it's a cover-up, that there is life on Mars, and that "the face" is a relic of their existence.
Judge for yourself.
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Mars in the Movies
A History
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Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Wednesday World of Wonder FLASH GORDON "and the Mole Machine" Starring BUSTER CRABBE!

Think of This as a Podcast with Pictures!

In the 1960s, due to the popularity of old radio adventure shows like The Shadow, The Lone Ranger, and I Love a Mystery being re-released on LP records, MGM/Leo the Lion Records created a series of new audio adventures of classic characters in the same style, but with hi-fi audio, such as this album starring Buster Crabbe, who played Flash Gordon in three movie serials from 1930 to 1940 reprising the role.
Trivia: Oddly, there weren't any albums of Flash Gordon's radio adventures until the 1970s!
Though ostensibly-written by cast member Ronald Liss, one of the two tales...
...was based on a story in King Comics' just-revived Flash Gordon comic book, written and illustrated by noted creative Al Williamson, who had succeeded Alex Raymond on his Secret Agent X-9/Secret Agent Corrigan newspaper strip and had ghosted some of Dan Barry's 1950s run on Flash!
We've combined the two versions together in a Power Records-style presentation!
(The original album didn't include the comic book!)
Click on the link HERE to open the audio file and read along 
Note that the audio version is not a word-for-word transcription of the comic, but it's close enough that it's easy to follow the story...
Bonus: the art for the cover, uncropped and without text/trade dress.
Plus, a study done by Al Williamson for the album cover, inked and colored by Gray Morrow and used as the cover of the Flash Gordon-themed prozine Heritage (1972)...
BTW, we normally would've included a Flash Gordon story in our ongoing Space Hero Saturdays feature...except it takes place on (and under) Earth, not in space!
Next Week, a different World of Wonder!

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Flash Gordon
A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic
(which reprints the story and the album cover, but in black-and-white!)
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Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "The World Awaits"

We know Steve Ditko as the co-creator of The Amazing Spider-Man...
...but he was equally-adept at visualizing insects as well as arachnids!
(Yes, there is a difference!)
This lovely Ditko-rendered story from Charlton's Out of This World #12 (1959) would really have benefited from some Stan Lee-esque scripting rather than Joe Gill's stilted prose, which renders the ending rather...dull.
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Monday, April 13, 2026

Monday Mecha Madness SHOGUN WARRIORS "Starchild" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

...Ilongo Savage, piloting Dangard Ace, tries to divert a recently-hatched alien from heading for populated areas.
But, the creature has some hidden surprises...










The Mecha Meyhem Continues in May as Genji (aboard Combatra) Battles...Whatever the Heck That Is!
(I was going to call it "A Big Hand for the Little Lady!", but I resisted.
Oh, wait...I did say it...)