Saturday, January 4, 2025

Space Force Saturdays ROCKY JONES: SPACE RANGER "Forbidden Frequency"

With so much modulated energy (wi-fi, digital tv, am-fm, etc) floating in the ether...
...I'm truly surprised something like this hasn't come to pass by 2012!
Or...has it?
The concept of subliminal programming goes back to the 1860s.
Usually, it involves audio or visual stimulation beyond human perception, but in this case, it's an energy frequency that interferes with the human mind's function.
Queen Cleolanthe was the ongoing villainess on the Rocky Jones series...
Played with fun "bad girl" panache by Patsy Parsons, Cleolanthe both fought against Rocky and was uncontrollably-drawn to him!
Note: From Flash Gordon and Princess Aura to Rocky Jones and Cleolanthe to James T Kirk and (insert Girl of the Week here), scantly-clad space babes just can't resist square-jawed Earthmen on tv and in movies!
(Not that I'm complaining...)
This story from Charlton's Space Adventures #16 (1955) was illustrated by Ted Galindo and Ray Osrin.
The writer is unknown.
Almost all of the Rocky Jones tv episode-compilation movies are available on inexpensive DVDs and two of them Crash of the Moons and Manhunt in Space were roasted on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Rocky Jones will return in the near future...
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Featuring Six Three-Episode Compilation Movies
(That's almost half the TV series in one set!)
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Friday, January 3, 2025

Friday Fun MODNIKS "Noel Talent: the Most Unkindest Cut"

By the early 1970s, Jack Davis was an established, successful, and busy, commercial artist...
...so when was this weird filler piece, published in 1970, created?
Written by Gary Poole and illustrated by Davis, this one-off tale appeared in the second (and final) issue of Gold Key's Modniks in 1970.
But here's the weird part...
The previous issue of this title appeared three years earlier...in 1967!
That's a loooonnng time between issues!
Plus, Davis had never done any work for Gold Key, and it had been years since Jack had done any work for Dell (which Gold Key split off from)!
And, Poole didn't start working in comics until the mid-1960s, after GK had split from Dell, so this wasn't inventory from that period!
Did Davis know Poole (who had been a radio/tv writer for years before coming to comics) and illustrated this as a favor for a friend entering the field?
We'll never know...
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Thursday, January 2, 2025

Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "What Happened?"

It's a question I've groggily-asked on more than one New Year's Day...
...but here it's the title of an example of classic Ditko storytelling!
Most likely scripted by Joe Gill, this taut tale from Charlton's Out of This World #3 (1957) is one of those fun "gotcha" shorts in the vein of both EC Comics' sci-fi line and, later, TV's The Twilight Zone.
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Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "You Are the Jury"

We Close Out 2024 with a Trial...

...unlike any we've ever seen...with the stakes being the survival of the planet Earth, itself!
What would you decide, considering the state of the planet (and the USA) as of December 31, 2024?
Illustrated by Steve Ditko and scripted by an unknown writer, this tale from Charlton's Space Adventures V1N11 (1954) presents an interesting dilemma.
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(Which reprints this story)
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