Thursday, January 12, 2012

Reading Room: GREEN PLANET Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...
Art by Dick Giordano
Exiled by the repressive government of Earth, Jason Tolliver and other dissenters are shipped to the planet Klorath in a far distant solar system where a colony of rebels led by Tolliver's father had been established.
Upon arrival at the so-called "Green Planet", they discover a partially-completed colony encampment, totally-deserted.
The new arrivals cautiously move into the camp, and utilize the supplies to finish the camp and grow food.
Within a couple of weeks, the camp is completed and the first crop ready to harvest, but an attack by a giant pterodactyl-like creature on the farmers provides a possible answer to the fate of the previous Earthmen.
Following the creature to its' nest on a nearby cliff, Jason encounters another human...but not one of the Earthmen!
Tolliver and the fur-garbed man fight off an attack by one of the pterodactyls, then go their separate ways, having conquered a common foe, but unable to communicate.
Jason returns to the camp, calls a meeting and informs the others that they are not alone on the Green Planet...
For those who say classic sci-fi was just Westerns with spaceships instead of horses, this story, with its' "pioneers and native inhabitants" concept seems to prove them correct. (Although with a much happier ending than most settler-Indian encounters in the real Old West.)
There was never a follow-up tale, although this one was finally reprinted thirty years later, still with no credit for the original book it was based on by J Hunter Holly (Joan Carol Holly)
The writer of the comic adaptation is unknown.
The story was penciled by Charles Nicholas, inked by Vince Alascia.
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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Reading Room: GREEN PLANET Part 1

Based on the then-current (1960) novel by J Hunter Holly...
...which is mentioned nowhere in the comic or on the cover!
Go figure!
But, what is the answer?
Be here tomorrow for the startling answer!
Penciled by Charles Nicholas, inked by Vince Alascia.
Based on the novel by J Hunter Holly (Joan Carol Holly), the writer of the comic adaptation is unknown.
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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Monday, January 9, 2012

Reading Room: CAPTAIN AERO "Alien Invasion"

What do you do with a wartime character after the war?
In the case of fighting aviator Captain Aero, you make him into an extraterrestrial fighter!
Art by Rudy Palais, writer unknown.
Captain Aero was one of numerous costumed aviators who fought the Axis in comic books during World War II.
His distinctive traits included a mustache that came and went depending on the artist and an aircraft that could use its' propeller like a buzz-saw.
In his early days he was assisted by the Sky Scouts, a gang of kids who wanted to be aviators, and who were popular enough to have their own backup strip.
By the time of this never-reprinted story's publication in Captain Aero Comics #25 in 1946, WW II was over, and sales on military-themed comics were dropping.
A number of them, like Blackhawk, shifted to battling criminals and/or Communist spies.
But not Captain Aero!
He was destined for bigger things...like interplanetary conflict!
The series' change of concept was taken even further in the next issue...as you'll see in a week or so.

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featuring the cover art from this issue of Captain Aero Comics by LB Cole!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Design of the Week--Somali Pirates? Bring 'Em ON!

This week...Sailors on the high seas need not fear!
The US Navy will protect them from Somali pirates, even if they are Iranian nationals!
Click HERE to browse thru an assortment of t-shirts, mugs, and other kool komic kollectibles!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Fantastic Femmes: Junie Hoang

She's talented!
She's cute!
She's controversial!
She's Junie Hoang, and she's complaining that her career was ruined by the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) because they revealed her real age!
She's 41, and doesn't look it!
She's 41? So what? She's HOT!
While she's never had a big break, Junie has been working pretty regularly since 1992, including a lot of animation voice work!
She even voiced Chun Li in Street Fighter 2: Victory!

We wish you the best, Junie, and hope to see (or hear) you on the screen soon!

Genre credits include:
Ginger DeadMan 3: Saturday Night Cleaver (Sandy) / GingerDeadMan 2: Passion of the Crust (Ensign Del Rio)
Note: Junie plays two different characters since #3 is a time-travel story transporting the villain back to the 1970s.
 1000 Ways to Die "Gratutity Violence"
Tropic Thunder (Day Player, scene deleted)
Back on Topps (Tough Asian)
Spirits Among Us (Jennifer)
Adventures of Zion Man & the Supreme Comander (Queen Lucealot)
Z: a Zombie Musical (Zombie Mailwoman)
 Macross:
Eve of Destruction / When Worlds Collide / Fallen Angels
(additional voices)
Voodoo Dolly (Stephanie Hung / Ms Fix-It / Tool Time Lad)
 All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku TV (additional voices)
Street Fighter II: Victory (Chun Li)
BubbleGum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 (additional voices)
Martian Successor Nadesico (Eri / additional voices)

Check out...

Friday, January 6, 2012

The New Miss Moneypenny in Action!

Naomie Harris as "Eve" aka Miss Moneypenny in a scene with Daniel Craig as James Bond.
Whether "Eve" is a code name or Moneypenny's first name is unknown at this point.

None of the previous Bond novels or films give her a first name, though a spin-off novel series, The Moneypenny Diaries, does..."Jane".

Moneypenny didn't appear in either of the previous Craig James Bond 007 movies Casino Royale, which rebooted the series from the early days of Bond's spy career before he received his "00" designation and license to kill or Quantum of Solace.
(Note: Moneypenny did appear in both the novel and 1967 movie versions of Casino Royale.)

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Reading Room: INTERPLANETARY POLICE "Meteor Menace" Conclusion

The Space Siren, after destroying several Earth landmarks (including Yankee Stadium II) with meteors, demands Earth's surrender lest she rain fiery death upon the planet!
While the peacekeeping organization is called the "Interplanetary Police" in the first three tales, it becomes the "Interstellar Police" for the last two!

Writer Hobart Donovan was the writer for the Buster Brown radio show this comic was spun-off from.
He wrote all the stories in the comic book, from sci-fi to western to funny animal!
Donovan was married to actress June Foray, best known as the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel!

Artist Ray Bailey began as an assistant to Milton Caniff on Terry and the Pirates and Male Call.
When Canniff left Terry and began Steve Canyon, Bailey went with him.
Finally going independent, Bailey launched several comic strips including the short-lived Vesta West, and Bruce Gentry, an aviation strip with sci-fi elements which was popular enough to have a 1940s movie serial based on it which features the first appearance of a flying saucer in the movies!
In the early 1950s, he was the artist on the Tom Corbett: Space Cadet newspaper strip at the same time he did the first two tales of this series.

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Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Reading Room: INTERPLANETARY POLICE "Meteor Menace" Part 1

Who would've thought that this never-reprinted, lost classic comic series appeared in...
...of all things, Buster Brown Comic Books?
THEY BLEW UP YANKEE STADIUM!
Of course, it's actually Yankee Stadium II, but readers in 1952 didn't know that...
Be here tomorrow for the planet-shattering (literally) conclusion!
(One spoiler...the Space Siren doesn't destroy any more historic stadiums!
Relieved?)
This short-lived series (only five stories) ran in Buster Brown Comic Book, a giveaway anthology comic published quarterly from 1945 to 1956 to promote Buster Brown Shoe Stores.
Strips ran anywhere from three to twenty four issues.
Since there were no letters pages, there's no way to tell how the popularity of the series was judged.
This tale in BBCB #28, written by Hobart Donovan and drawn by Ray Bailey, is the premiere, setting up the premise quickly and efficiently, adapting elements from various other series including Buck Rogers and Space Patrol, and getting to the action post-haste.

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Monday, January 2, 2012

Updating Previous Blog Posts...

One of the benefits of the blog's redesign is to show art larger than before...
Before, when you had to click to enlarge the art...
Now, no clicking required!
I'm going thru the blog, "repairing" things where needed.
The Reading Room entries (such as this one) are getting priority, since the art can easily be enlarged.
I'll also be updating or redirecting YouTube links that have expired or been deleted by YouTube.

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Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year's!

Action Comics #81. Art by Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye
Expanding the RetroBlogs™ family paid off well as the audiences for each specialized blog grew both through search engines and crossover events, including the Lone Ranger (first multi-blog posting of a single storyline), Frankenstein, and most recently, Christmas Comics multi-blog postings.
RetroBlogs™ fans also accounted for more than half of our various Collectibles stores' sales, so, a humble "thank you" for your display of good taste!
The stores account for more than half of our annual income, so your patronage is greatly appreciated.

One of our New Year's resolutions is to reduce the amount of stuff in our condo, so we're instituting a Graphics Swag and One of-a-Kind Collectibles Page at the top of this blog to sell some of the goodies we've accumulated over three decades in publishing (including stints at various comics companies).
Most of the items are industry-only swag or in-house production items like make-readies or cover/page proofs you won't see anywhere else!
Check back every few days for new items!