Showing posts with label RobotMen of the Lost Planet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RobotMen of the Lost Planet. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Wednesday World of Wonder ROBOTMEN OF THE LOST PLANET "Chapter Three: Rise of the Humans!"

When Last We Left What Remains of Humanity...

Don't you love it when the story synopsizes itself?
(Note that inside front cover illustrator Mort Lawrence did an excellent job matching story artist Gene Fawcette's art style!)
So there's at least one universe where we don't end up enslaved by machines!
Yay!
This 1952 one-shot title from Avon Comics was scripted by Walter (The Shadow) Gibson and rendered by Gene Fawcette.
Avon did an amazing amount of one-time-only titles, probably more than any other publisher.
Some were adaptations of novels Avon's paperback division had published, like An Earth Man on Venus.
Others, like RobotMen, were original stories.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ROBOTMEN OF THE LOST PLANET "Chapter Two: the Robots Rule the Earth!"

...just five years and we've lost all sense of fashion?
(And what weapons were they using to kill the large mammals that provided those big pelts?)
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Next Wednesday:
The Astounding Finale as We Witness...
Rise of the Humans!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ROBOTMEN OF THE LOST PLANET "Chapter One: the Massacre of Mankind!"

Last week, we showed you a 1970s version of this robo-apocalyptic tale...

...now witness the sheer terror of the original 1950s version!

The art for this 1952 one-shot title from Avon Comics is by Gene Fawcette, an Avon mainstay who did everything from horror to Westerns to romance.
If you compare the two tales, you'll see the robots are totally different in this version.
They're based on a still-popular toy first marketed in the early 1950s... Obie the Popping Martian/Panic Pete/Bug-Out Bob!
Who came up with the idea is unknown, and there was no attempt at an actual tie-in between the toy and the comic...
Beyond that, the most unusual aspect of this tale is the scripter...Walter Gibson, aka "Maxwell Grant", the primary writer of the legendary pulp character, The Shadow!
Yeah, that guy!
Gibson, a trained magician-turned writer did very little "hard" sci-fi during his long career...except in 1951-54, where he edited (and wrote under several pseudonoms) most of the contents of Charlton's short-lived pulp magazine (only two issues) Fantastic Science Fiction, as well as Charlton's Space Adventures comic for its' first eleven issues and co-creating and scripting Spurs Jackson and his Space Vigilantes for Charlton's newly-created Space Western Comics!
(Yes, it really existed, as shown HERE!)
He also wrote this comic and several other one-shots for Avon Comics.
For the record, Gibson also wrote two volumes of prose adaptations of Twilight Zone TV episodes (with a couple of original tales mixed in), but none of those were sci-fi.
BTW, while this was the only tale adapted into b/w in the 1970s, there were two more chapters of the man vs funky robot saga!
You'll see them next Wednesday and the Wednesday after that...
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Reading Room: "Cargo from Mars"

A non-sensationalistic title hides a damned good story...
...that appeared in back of a famous one-shot comic book.
Illustrated by Gerald McCann, this well-written little tale was hidden in the back of this 1952 book...
...noted for it's rather silly-looking robots based on this toy, known as "Popping Martian", "Panic Pete", or "Bug-Out Bob"!
Be here tomorrow when we present part one of the cover-featured robot apocalypse along with a secret connection to a legendary pulp hero!