Happy Birthday to Me!

Taking the day off to celebrate...

See you tomorrow...

Reading Room CLIFF HANGER "Chapter Four: Madman's Holiday"

When Last We Left Our Hero...

..and now, on with the show...

Can Cliff Outrun a Wall of Water?
What is the Secret Behind The Tunnel Between Florida and South America?

Does Quint Have a Fate Worse than Death in Store For Jill?

The Answers to These and Other Questions Will be Found...Next Week!

Written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by Al Williamson, this backup strip from Pacific Comics' Somerset Holmes #4 (1983) keeps the excitement of 1930s-40s movie serials going at a maniac pace!

Reading Room MYSTERIES OF UNEXPLORED WORLDS "Forbidden Formula"

Before Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four #13 (1963)...

...there was 

...The Watcher!

We're talking big bald alien in a cloak, part of a legion of cosmic observers keeping an eye on the doings of other races throughout the universe (and, presumably, the multiverse)!

Here's his first (and only, AFAIK) appearance from Charlton's Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #18 (1960)

Unlike Marvel's Watchers, Codin and his fellows deliberately interfere directly with others, albeit surreptitiously.

But, I'm compelled to ask...did this story influence either Stan or Jack several years later when they introduced their Watcher?

Guess we'll never know...

Both the writer and artist of this never-reprinted tale are, ironically, unknown.

(Too bad the Watcher can't tell us...)

The Grand Comics Database speculates the illustrator is Bill Fraccio, a long-time Charlton mainstay who did everything from romance to Westerns to war to sci-fi!

Reading Room: FLASH GORDON "Chapter 2.1: Escape from Blue Magic"

We Have Already Seen...

Flash Gordon's memory has been wiped by his captor, Azura (Queen of Blue Magic), who instructs the now-compliant Earthman to change the ship's course...

Thus, the first issue of Marvel's 1995 mini-series Flash Gordon ends.
But the second (and final issue) begins next Wednesday!
Dare you miss...
The Secret Origin of Flash Gordon?

Flag Day

See You Tomorrow!