Number 1610: Flying gorillas from outer space!

Last week I showed some gorilla horror stories, and now a gorilla science fiction tale from DC. Flying monkeys have been around since the Wizard of Oz, but flying King Kong-sized gorillas, well, that's new.

Not only are they flying giant gorillas, they come from a planetoid which has parked itself in Earth’s sky so the flying giant gorillas can steal our atmosphere. Atom bombs can’t stop them, so our scientists use fear gas* on them. What a crazy plot.

Script is by Gardner Fox. Fox wrote it for editor Julius Schwartz, who used high concepts when planning out stories for his magazines. It’s drawn by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson, and it appeared originally in Strange Adventures #125 (1961). The striking cover is by Sid Greene.

I bought this issue of Strange Adventures when it came out. As goofy as the story is, and despite my love for gorilla-fiction, what I remember most about the comic were the full page ads that heralded Joe Kubert’s Hawkman and the first full-length Aquaman comic.

*There really is such a thing as fear gas, although that name implies that is the gas’s sole effect. It does a lot more damage than that. You can read about it here.

UPDATE: I found this incredible Chinese fireworks package  on the Design/Destroy website a few days after posting the story. I love a coincidence.

Number 1445: Strange adventures of the three genius hillbillies and the monster fisherman

There’s a sense of humor in both these stories from Strange Adventures #21 (1952). The three Herbert brothers, hillbillies who speak like, “We’m the Herberts. We’m heerd tell of a war goin’ on! We’m come to jine the fightin’!” are actually much smarter than they originally appear. The second story, which is cover featured with a beautiful illustration by Murphy Anderson, who also drew the story, is a reverse fish tale.

And that second story causes me some reflection. This issue of Strange Adventures is dated June, 1952. The Al Feldstein/Jack Davis story, “Gone...Fishing!” is from Vault of Horror #22, dated December, 1951-January, 1952. It probably went on sale in October, 1951, and if he saw it could have conceivably planted an idea in writer Jack Miller’s mind. In the EC story the “fisherman” is unseen. Perhaps Miller thought it would be fun to show what was fishing for humans.

From Vault of Horror #22. I scanned this from the Russ Cochran reprint, Vault of Horror #11.

It’s just conjecture, but I find the timing of both stories with similar themes interesting.

“The Genius Epidemic” is by Gardner Fox, drawn by Irwin Hasen and Joe Giella, and “The Monster That Fished For Men” is written by Jack Miller, drawn by Murphy Anderson.

Number 1385: Jet Powers’ apocalyptic tale

Jet #3 did something I don’t think I’ve ever seen a comic do before; it began two separate cliffhangers in that issue, and completed them in #4 (the final issue). So what I’m doing today is showing both parts of the first serial from consecutive issues, and the second two-parter I’ll show at some point in the future.

I’ve shown these scans before a few years ago, and it’s time to dust them off (ho-ho) and show them again, improved from their last appearance.

From Jet #3 (1951) and #4 (1951), written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Bob Powell with his assistants.

Last year I showed the first story from Jet #1. Click on the pic to see it:

Number 1378: Great guns, Skyman!

Looking at the character, The Skyman, I’m flap-jawed at his massive arms...those are some guns! His upper body development looks like one of those padded Halloween costumes to turn the wearer into the Hulk. I don’t have all the Skyman stories, but I have enough to know that he trimmed down after a time. This panel, from The Skyman #3, shows a much more lithe character.

Ogden Whitney, the artist, drew a lot of different features, including superheroes, but he usually didn’t portray them looking so musclebound.

The Skyman was a 1940’s character, created by Gardner Fox and Whitney. The Skyman’s career began in Big Shot Comics #1 and ended in #101 (1949), four issues shy of the comic's last issue. Along the way the Skyman appeared in his own comic for six issues spread over several years, and also in issues of Sparky Watts and The Face.

In this early adventure, from Big Shot Comics #6 (1940), besides the barrel chest and giant arms, we see how the Skyman’s “Atom-atic” pistol works, that his plane will hover and wait for him while he swings through his girlfriend’s window to “scare her,” and about the cancer curing machine — the sole machine in existence — stolen by criminals.

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Here's another early Skyman story I showed a few years ago. Just click the picture.