Sunday, June 27, 2021

Reading Room BASEBALL COMICS "Rube Rooky"

Is there anything Will Eisner hadn't done during his long career?
He took chances experimenting with genres like this baseball-themed 1949 comic book...
...which predated a rush of sports-themed comics from various publishers the next year.
Unfortunately, the big problem with being first is that, often, the world isn't quite ready for you, and Baseball Comics lasted only one issue.
But it certainly wasn't for lack of quality, as this Eisner-written and penciled tale, inked by Tex Blaisdell, proves.
There's more to Rube Rooky's one shot at stardom, and we'll be running it on Sundays over the summer, so don't miss it!
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Baseball Comics #2
(A follow-up published decades later)

Saturday, June 26, 2021

Space Force Saturdays SPACE SQUADRON & SPEED CARTER: SPACEMAN "Famous Explorers of Space" Part 6

Both Atlas' Space Squadron and Speed Carter: SpaceMan had "future history" features...
...set in the "past", like this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Space Worlds #6 (1953), illustrated by Christopher Rule, which took place in an unnamed period after the 1960s!

In the alternate future world of Speed Carter, we discover women (even female astronauts) are not always treated as equals...
...but, when push comes to shove, they're as brave and as any men when facing the dangers of deep space exploration!
This story of a future fighting feminist from Speed Carter: SpaceMan #6 (1953) is written (like all the Speed Carter-related tales) by Hank Chapman, and illustrated by Bill Benulis, an artist who entered the comics field in 1949 and stayed only four years in the business.
He became a postman when the comics industry almost collapsed due to the "Seduction of the Innocent" witchhunt (that claimed comics caused juvenile delinquency) swept the country.
But, because he was so prolific, unpublished material by him kept appearing in comics until 1957!
Besides "Famous Explorers", Space Squadron/Space Worlds also presented "future history tales" about the guy who was young hotshot Jet Dixon's crusty Commander-in-Chief when he was a young hotshot pilot...
Young Blast Revere's final adventure (also from Atlas' Space Worlds #6) was illustrated by George Klein.
Both Klein and Christopher Rule were primarily inkers, because, while they were competent pencilers, they could ink faster than they could pencil.
So, in a business where the per-page rate was low, specializing in inking paid better!
BTW, this is the final "Famous Explorers" entry, since both Speed Carter and Space Squadron/Space Worlds were cancelled with #6!
But, there are still several more tales from both titles to tell....
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Friday, June 25, 2021

Friday Food Fun "Man's Guide to Outdoor Cooking" Part 1 "Greet the Grill"

Since it's BBQ season...

...for the next few weeks, we're going to offer you some grilling tips that are as relevant now as they were when the comic was published back in the 1950s!
(Just in time for the 4th of July)
Meats
Beef, Pork,
Hamburgers, Hot Dogs!
Don't Miss It!
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Thursday, June 24, 2021

Reading Room FANTASTIC WORLDS "Ace of Space"

Not to be confused with Space Ace (who went through several different incarnations)...
...this guy is a Cold War fighter pilot-type transposed to a Star Wars setting!

Darn those aliens!
Sending robot "drones" to do their fighting instead of going man-against-lizard as God intended!
Though the scripter for this tale from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #7 (1952) is unknown, the artwork is by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, with a couple of panels redrawn by Mike Sekowsky!

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder LOST WORLD "Of Vultures and VoltaMen!"

...and it appears secrets from the distant past are about to be revealed!
Thanks to this tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #56 (1948), we now know the Martians tried to warn us in August, 1968 that the VoltaMen were en-route to attack and conquer Earth, with the invasion actually occurring shortly after that!
We don't know exactly how long after then that the "present-day" adventures of Hunt Bowman and Lyssa take place, but it's likely less than a century...perhaps even around 2020!
Will Eon the Martian return...and bring his fellow aliens with him?
Note that artist George Evans is improving by leaps and bounds since his debut only a few months ago in #50 as shown HERE!
He's experimenting with perspective and "camera angles", showing much more drama and in the individual panels.
While not quite where he'll be when he works on EC Comics' sci-fi, horror, and war books several years down the line, it's exciting to see his evolution as an illustrator!

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Planet Comics
Volume 12
(contains issues 54 to 59)