Reading Room RIOT "Pascal the Rascal"

In 1956, one of the many MAD clones did a spoof of the then incredibly-hot new comic strip...

...Dennis the Menace illustrated by an artist whose identity you probably won't guess!

Was I right?

Did you guess who it was?

Atlas' MAD rip-off RIOT #6 (1956) ended the book's run with some spectacular (and never-reprinted) artwork by Bill Everett, John Severin, Dan DeCarlo and this piece by an unrecognizable Joe Maneely!

Joe, whose art normally looked like this...

...totally-suppressed his own style to match Hank Ketcham's style down to the thickness of the linework while making the character look just different enough to avoid copyright and trademark infringement!

It was a beautiful job, and an example of this amazingly-ignored artist!

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Hank Ketcham's Complete

Dennis the Menace

1951-1952

Volume 1

Friday Fun REX DEXTER OF MARS "Moonlight Murder Mystery"

Seems Like Rex Dexter has given up all hope of ever reaching Mars again...

...especially since Earth needs him to bail it out of imminent destruction again!

As of this never-reprinted story from Fox's Mystery Men Comics #14 (1940), how many times has Rex Dexter saved the Earth?

HERE

HERE

HERE

HERE

HERE

HERE

And of course, this story!
That's seven out of fifteen stories...over 50% of all Rex Dexter tales to this point!
For a guy Earth doesn't want around, they keep calling on him a lot, eh?
Hey, kiddies!

As a kool bonus, you, too, can construct a Lunite Death Ray (non-working, of course)!

Who do you think we are, the NRA?

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Comics About Cartoonists

Stories About the World's Oddest Profession

Reading Room ALIEN ENCOUNTERS "Invasion!"

Hostile, technologically-advanced aliens are coming our way!

Can we defeat them in only two pages?

The "menacing aliens are no threat because they're too small" trope is an old one, going back to golden-age comics.

My personal favorite, because of its' simple, effective storytelling by one of my all-time favorites, can be found HERE!

This never-reprinted Tim Truman written/illustrated "sci-fi Western" tale is from Eclipse's Alien Encounters #4 (1986).

There's a wealth of material from 1980s anthologies that has not seen the light of day since publication, and we will dip into this treasure trove of material as we find/acquire them!

BTW, "Fer SRB" on page 1 refers to fellow writer/artist Stephen R Bissette, presumably because the aliens resemble his creature designs.

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Scout

Volume 1

by Timothy Truman

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder BEYOND THE FARTHEST STAR "Test Pilot"

We Have Already Seen...

...note that, at this point, the story has diverged from the novel.

Howard Chaykin assumes this art duties for this issue, continuing the adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' only "hard sci-fi" story (as compared to the "scientific romances" of John Carter and Carson of Venus) with this fast-paced, never-reprinted installment from DC's Tarzan: Lord of the Jungle #216 (1973).
The question is...who scripted it?
Various sources attribute either Marv Wolfman or Denny O'Neil, with no definitive answer available.

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Beyond the Farthest Star

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Reading Room STRANGE ADVENTURES "Winner"

In the early 1970s, DC experiemented with pulp-style illustrated prose tales...

...in genre (sci-fi, horror, western, and romance) titles!

Written by Denny O'Neil, and rendered in retro 1950s Buck Rogers style...

...by Murphy Anderson, this never-reprinted text feature from DC's Strange Adventures #227 (1971) seems more a tribute to classic 1940s-50s "hard" sci-fi pulps instead of a then-current "new wave" science fiction tale!

Murphy seemed to be DC's "go-to" guy when they needed retro-style material in the 1960s-70s!

He was the artist for Silver Age revival try-outs of Golden Age characters in Brave & Bold (Starman & Black Canary) and Showcase (Dr Fate & HourMan and The Spectre), as well as the first few issues of The Spectre's own Silver Age title!

Anderson was also the initial artist on DC's Bronze Age version of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars, as well as filing-in where needed on other Burroughs strips including Korak and Beyond the Farthest Star!

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Mysteries in Space

The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics