Saturday, January 28, 2023

Space Hero Saturdays MAN O' MARS

Here's a kool klassic from the 1950s...the lead story from a 1953 one-shot that combined all the great cliches of space opera (spaceships, ray guns, aliens, half-naked space babes) in one tight ten-page tale set only thirteen years from now...

These days, this story would be a six-issue mini-series with tie-ins to several other titles.
The rest of Fiction House's Man O' Mars one-shot from 1953 was made up of unrelated reprints from earlier issues of Planet Comics.
The interior artist is Maurice Gutwirth, but the writer is unknown.
The original cover was done by Maurice Whitman, one of the Golden Age's more prolific artists with credits at almost every company of the era!
When the book was reprinted by IW Comics in 1958 from the original printing plates, the covers weren't included, so publisher Israel Waldman commissioned Angelo Torres...
...who created a superb Frank Frazetta-style cover, doing his fellow Fleagle Gang member proud!
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Friday, January 27, 2023

Friday Fun GET LOST! "How It All Began..." & "How to Make Your Own Comic Book!!"

In the mid-1950s, the young, multi-talented, creative team of Ross Andru and Mike Esposito...
...took a big risk and started their own comics company, MikeRoss Publishing!
They told a fascinating tale of how it came about...
...which didn't have a bit of truth to it!
Then, they decided to "teach" others the "secrets" of how to emulate their success...
As you can see, Ross and Mike were having fun and producing some great material.
Ironically, and through no fault of their own, it would all come crashing down a few months later!
And though their product consisted of a only two non-horror series (humor and romance) and a couple of 3-D one-shots, they were caught in the paranoid backlash against four-color fun that less than a fifth of existing comics publishers survived!
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Andru and Esposito
Partners for Life

Thursday, January 26, 2023

Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "Supermen"

Yes, you read the title correctly..."Supermen"!
But this tale from Charlton's Out of This World #3 (1957) isn't about your usual muscle-bound heroes...
After all, who said only human minds and bodies were being affected?
Written by Jack Oleck and illustrated by Steve Ditko, this oft-reprinted tale is one of only four stories the prolific Oleck scripted for Charlton...and all four were illustrated by Ditko!
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Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder MEDUSA CHAIN Part 3

After avoiding being gutted by Basenga and his cronies, Adams returns to his cabin and rests, dreaming of how he broke jail to track down the executive who planed to destroy the ship Chon was on to collect the insurance, forcing Adams to euthanize half the crew so the other half would have enough food and air to survive the trip home after the bombs were disarmed.
When he awakens...
Next Wednesday...
...Things Go from Bad to Worse!
The amount of violence and gore is amazing when you're aware writer/artist Ernie Colon spent decades illustrating the wholesome adventures of Casper the Friendly GhostRichie Rich and the rest of the Harvey Comics crew...

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Reading Room: SPACE ADVENTURES "Lunar Rendezvous"

A 1950s-style script with art that tries to offer a 1960s "psychedelic" feel...
...in this never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Space Adventures V2#6 (1969)
Sam Glanzman was an amazingly-versatile artist, whose work in every genre from sci-fi to war to romance to Westerns was usually exemplary.
Whether this was a rush job...or he was experimenting with a new inking style...or he simply had an off-week, it's just not up to his usual high standards.
BTW, you may notice the indicia says "Vol 1 Number 6", but the book is actually from Vol 2 Number 6!
Charlton's first Space Adventures title ran from 1952-56 (1-21), then 1958-64 (23-59) for a total of 58 issues.
(There wasn't a #22 in either part of the run).
This tale was from a 1968-69 revival of the title that lasted only 7 issues.