This strip started out as a typical Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers clone...
...but when eccentric (to put it mildly) writer/artist Fletcher Hanks took over as of Buzz's second appearance in Fiction House's Planet Comics #7 (1940)...well, let the apocalyptic craziness begin!
Just another Tuesday for Buzz Crandall, who, despite the "Space Patrol" in the title, seems to run a two-person operation with only his girlfriend to aid him!
Like the tales of Fletcher's other Space Hero, Fantastic Comics'Space Smith, these stories played with the fact that there werem't any "rules" to follow and took the concept of "anything goes" to dizzying levels!
Starring a host of tv and b-movie actors including handsome-but-wooden Leonard Hicks as the benevolent Martian leader Kimar, 60s villain/voiceover artist Vincent Beck (who did lots of work for Irwin Allen's sci-fi shows) as the film's mustache-twirling, scenery-chewing Martian villain, Voldar, and John Call as a pretty damn convincing cuddly Santa Claus, the film is classic kiddie matinee programming at its' retro campy best!
The plot's pretty simple.
The children of Mars are in a funk.
The adult Martians deduce it's due to the children's strict and sterile upbringing, and that to "normalize" them, the kids must have fun!
And what could be more fun than celebrating Christmas?
But, to do a proper Christmas, you need a Santa Claus!
Thus, the Martians journey to Earth to kidnap Santa Claus and force him to create a Christmas celebration on Mars!
Then, as they used to say in TV Guide's plot listings, hilarity ensues! (well, sorta)
As an example of low-budget filmmaking, it's amazingly-effective.
Every penny (what few of them they had) is up on the screen.
The costuming and Santa's Workshop and Mars sets are as good as those of tv shows of the period.
(The Martian robot is probably the weakest element from a design and execution standpoint, but, hey, nobody's perfect!)
There's extensive use of military stock footage (from Dr. Strangelove, no less).
And, the idea to utilize the then-current Wham-O Air Blaster toy guns as Martian weapons was either a stroke of marketing genius or clever use of limited funds. Either way, sales of the guns shot thru the roof after the film hit the kiddie matinee circuit!
If you're between 3-9 years old, the flick's a lot of fun.
If you're between 10 and whatever the local drinking age is, it'll drive you nuts, especially the theme song! And to prove it...here it is!
If you're over the local drinking age...do so before watching! It's available on a host of public domain DVDs and BluRays as well as one of the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 snarkfests.
BTW: The image at top is the cover of the comic book tie-in. There was also a 45rpm single of the theme, a spoken-word LP album of the movie's dialogue (which included the comic book), and a novelization, all of which are HTF...and expensive when you do find them!
Be Here Next Friday,
when we begin our re-presentation of the comic book adaptation of the movie!
Now I can't get that damn theme out of my head..."Hoo-ray for Santy Claus..."
...now, we show you the earlier version created by one (possibly two) Silver Age comics legends!
Illustrated by Steve (Spider-Man/Doctor Strange) Ditko, the writer of this tale from Prize's Black Magic Comics V4N4 (1954) is unknown.
It could be either Jack (King) Kirby or Joe Simon, or both, since they were the editor/art director team of the Simon & Kirby Studios which packaged Black Magic and several other books for Prize Comics! But we don't know for certain! (And if I have to explain who Jack Kirby is, you're not a regular reader of this blog!) One thing we are certain of...while both stories used the same script (with a couple of modified word balloons), Ditko's version runs six pages, while Munoz's remake is seven pages long! Don't believe me? Click HERE and compare!
Which one do you, dear reader, believe is an example of better storytelling?
Usually, in "Tales Twice Told" we present the original story first...
...but this time, we're going with the later, reworked version from the same script first!
Illustrated (or is that re-illustrated by Cirilo Munoz, this tale from Eerie Publications' Weird V8N4 (1974) is a re-working of a story from 20 years earlier that, up until then, had not been reprinted...despite the fact it had been illustrated by a major Silver-Age artist! Trivia: that original tale remained hidden under the cowbwebs of history until 2008.over a half century later, and only in black and white! But you'll see that story from 1954, in brilliant color, right here on Thursday!
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