Number 1428: The UFO Spirit

Orson Welles, the enfant terrible of theater, radio and the movies of his day, gets the Will Eisner treatment as “Awsum Bells” in this tale from the September 28, 1947 Spirit Section. I have scanned it from the blackline-and-graytone reprint in Warren’s The Spirit #2 (1974).

The update paragraph on the last page was new for the reprint version. The scripter (credited as Eisner by the Grand Comics Database) had been paying attention to the news stories that began appearing in June, 1947 about mysterious “flying disks” buzzing around in U.S. airspace.

Number 1188: Celebrating the 8th of July!

This is the Pappy's fourth annual* July 8 celebration of flying saucers. Sixty-five years ago today the Roswell (New Mexico) Daily Record published its historic headline:

To commemorate the date I have a couple of flying saucer/UFO stories.

I was inspired to get out my copy of Dynamo #1 (1966) and scan the lead story by Dan Adkins and Wallace Wood based on this wonderful splash panel from Heritage Auctions. I lifted the scan from their website.

My favorite panel is Dynamo saying, "I bet I'm the first guy in history to knock down a space ship with a rock!" The story is full of action and the art is great.

The story, "Landing of the Flying Saucers!" is another zany story from Wonder Woman. Although the whole thing is wild—aliens shaped like skinny Michelin men with lollipop heads and antennae who use expressions like "Heee! Hooo!"—I give writer/editor Robert Kanigher and artist Harry G. Peter credit for originality. I even like the flying saucer, which, unlike most depictions of UFOs in those days doesn't look like it's made of sheet metal, and in fact doesn't look like anything mechanical.

It's an oddball story, something we've come to expect from this title. From Wonder Woman #68 (1954):

*Previous postings are from Pappy's #554, Pappy's #768, and Pappy's #978.

Number 768


Foiled doom!


Today is the 63rd anniversary of the day the Roswell (New Mexico) Daily Record headline shouted, RAAF CAPTURES FLYING SAUCER ON RANCH IN ROSWELL REGION. The story was quickly retracted, but it has become part of the history-slash-mythology of UFO-slash-flying saucer lore for over six decades.

This story from the 1957 Adventures Into the Unknown #91 includes a brain tumor; little bug-eyed blue aliens from another dimension collecting dirt from Earth; little bug-eyed blue aliens taking our hero to their planet for surgery on his brain tumor; aluminum foil. You're just going to have to read it because my attempts to describe it are too feeble. It's written, presumably, by ACG editor Richard E. Hughes, and drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger. This is the second Schaffenberger story this week! I don't usually repeat like that, but for this great artist I'm making an exception.

I'm a sucker for a wild flying saucer story. Last year I commemorated this day in Pappy's #554.

Enjoy, and remember: keep watching the skies.