Number 610


Aurora of Jupiter


We're finally wrapping up the entire contents of Captain Rocket #1, a one-shot comic from 1951.

Aurora is quite a babe, 1951-style or 2009-style. Bikini-wearing space-babes...the reason I wanted to be an astronaut.

...and dig that crazy cigar-chomping alien!

The other three stories from the issue are in Pappy's #517, Pappy's #533, and Pappy's #563.

Number 563


Space Falcon and the Pirates of the Stratosphere


Here is the third story from the one-shot Captain Rocket, a Canadian comic book from 1951.

It's well-illustrated, but the silly costumes, as usual, crack me up. I especially like the open-shirted look of Tubby. Say, this isn't Tubby Tompkins of Little Lulu fame grown up, is it?

Futuristic fashions notwithstanding this has robots, and I love a story with robots.

The first two stories from this science fiction comic can be found in Pappy's #517 and Pappy's #533.

Number 533


Monsteroids of the underworld!


Captain Rocket returns in the second story from his one and only appearance, Captain Rocket #1, from 1951.

In this story we have a villain named Gorgo, a gas that turns humans into monsters (or monsteroids, as they're known here), a primitive version of the Internet where Captain Rocket references the story on Gorgo, an earth-boring machine, art swipes from Flash Gordon...this is fast-paced and goofy, just how I like my comic book science fiction.

Number 517


Graveyard of the Rocketeers!


Captain Rocket #1 from 1951 may be the only comic book published by P.L. Publishing of Canada. I don't know of any other, and if you do let me know.

At one time I heard that Harry Harrison had something to do with it. Harrison was Wally Wood's collaborator for a time, and went from comics into being a world famous science fiction writer. But whether he had anything to do with Captain Rocket I don't know. I'm not an expert on Harry Harrison’s comics work.

Captain Rocket is space opera, pure and simple; Planet Comics stuff...rocket ships that look right out of Buck Rogers, ridiculous costumes, and girls who wear bikinis as everyday clothing. It's so simple-minded that Captain Rocket can disguise himself as a bearded rocket ship navigator in a crooked gambling joint, and you know he's a navigator because it says so right on his tunic.

I love this sort of thing. In spite of its built-in dumbness the strip is great fun. Captain Rocket may have been doomed by low sales or poor distribution. I'll be posting the other three stories from the comic at some future time.