Friday, October 28, 2011

"Corpses of the Jury"

Ten-HUT!
We end Halloween month with a tale based on the real-life horrors of concentration camps!
Warning: NSFW!
Memories of World War II and the Nuremberg Trials were still fresh in peoples' minds when this tale was published in 1953 in Voodoo #5.
There were stories aplenty of hidden Nazis being tracked down, but most involved them being tried and executed by Allied (American/British/French) law-enforcement, not spectral beings, and certainly not in so gruesome, yet poetic, fashion.

Until next week...
Dis-missed!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

SPACEBUSTERS "Death Rite of the Dwarfs"

Ten-Hut!
In space, no one can hear you die...
The third (and final) chapter of the Mars Campaign from #1 of SpaceBusters.
You can find Part One HERE and Part Two HERE!
We hope you enjoyed this look into the future of armed conflict (as shown in the 1950s).
If you want to see the second (and final) issue of SpaceBusters, let us know.
Until next time...
Dis-missed!

which also features SpaceMan Jet!
and here are some War in Space-themed goodies from Amazon!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

SPACEBUSTERS "Charge of the Battle Women"

Ten-Hut!
Space is the place for battle...
Part Two of the Mars Campaign from SpaceBusters #1.
Part One can be found HERE.
It's a fascinating look at male-female relationships as shown in comic books of the 1950s, proving those Lois Lane comics and their attitudes towards women weren't an aberration.
BTW, you'll notice the Amazons on the comic's cover (shown above) are wearing considerably less...armor! ;-)
Tomorrow, the conclusion of the Mars Campaign!

Until next time...
Dis-missed!

which also features SpaceMan Jet!
and here are some War in Space-themed goodies from Amazon!

Friday, October 21, 2011

SPACEBUSTERS "Empress of Belzar"

Ten-Hut!
From the haunted skies of World War II to "Space, the Final Frontier"...
SpaceBusters was a war comic set in the future.
Think of it as a less-sophisticated version of Starship Troopers, sorta "Sgt Fury or Sgt Rock in Space" with "spacebusters" being slang for front-line soldiers, much like "dogface" or "leatherneck"!
Interestingly, it featured a woman (albeit noncombatant) as part of the front-line team.
As to the plot...Belzar has invaded our Solar System, managing to conquer Mars, with Earth next in line.
However, Earth's military is about to launch a counter-attack...
The art for this tale was by Bernie Krigstein, who went on to do astounding work at EC Comics before leaving the business for commercial art and teaching at New York's High School of Art & Design.
All three stories in SpaceBusters #1 take place on Mars.
We'll be posting the other two over the weekend.
Don't miss them!
Until next time...
Dis-missed!

which also features SpaceMan Jet!
and here are some War in Space-themed goodies from Amazon!

Friday, October 14, 2011

WINGS COMICS Ghost Patrol "Revenge of the Shadow Squadron"

Ten-Hut!
From deep space in the not-too-far future to the haunted skies of World War II...
 ...as we present the first of a long-running series that combined the aerial with the ethereal!
Starting with this tale in Wings Comics #66 (1946) published by Fiction House, Ghost Patrol* (retitled Ghost Squadron in #71) ran new stories for 35 issues, plus heavily-edited reprints in it's last two appearances in Wings as well as three issues of Ghost Comics.
Each story in this anthology series featured a different aviator encountering specters who aided him in accomplishing his mission against otherwise impossible odds.
All were scripted by "Capt. Derek West", a pen name used by numerous writers for a series of one-shot tales in Wings as well as this series.
This premiere tale was illustrated by Rodlow Willard, who did only a half-dozen comic book stories before going on to handle the art on Scorchy Smith, a popular aviation newspaper comic strip.

*DC Comics had an ongoing feature
in Flash Comics about three deceased French Foreign Legion pilots who fought the Nazis called Ghost Patrol when the similarly-named Wings Comics feature debuted.
No doubt a letter from DC's lawyers to Fiction House was the cause for the change to Ghost Squadron.
When this story was reprinted in Wings Comics #112, the title page was altered...
...plus several panels detailing Elaine's killing a German guard with a garrote wwere deleted, and two pages (6-7) were combined into one (making her look much less competent than in the original tale)...
Thus is history rewritten!

Until next time...
Dis-missed!
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Friday, October 7, 2011

ATOM-AGE COMBAT "Third Element"

Ten-Hut!
From the skies of World War II to deep space in the not-too-far future...
 ...where we're still fighting each other...
...until we're given a reason to unite against a common (alien) foe!
This tale from 1959's Atom-Age Combat #3 is illustrated by artist Dick Ayers, best-known for a long run as penciler (and inker when Jack Kirby did pencils) on Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos.
With the USSR reaching outer space before us, we became concerned that not only could the Commies hit us with Earth-based missles and aircraft, but that they would reach the Moon and use it as a missile base as well as put missile-equipped satellites in orbit over us!

Until Next Week...
Dis-missed!