AMERICA'S BLACK & WHITE BOOK "To France"

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In 1917, as America's Doughboys headed into battle...

When France presented the United States with the great Statue of Liberty, which stands at our gates, she little thought how powerful that symbol of her friendship would some day prove!

By its shining light we now march to her aid!

...a book of the New York Herald newspaper's editorial cartoons, entitled America's Black & White Book: One Hundred Pictured Reasons WHY WE ARE AT WAR, hit bookstores like a bombshell!

Editorial illustrator's W.A. Rogers' visceral renderings, previously seen only by NYC readers, reached a national audience already enraged by atrocities like the sinking of the Lusitania and ready to kick the Central Powers' collective ass!
The illustration above is the final piece in the book.
You can read (and/or download) the entire book from the Smithsonian's website HERE!

Remember those who served in uniform this weekend!

Until next time...

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SPACE BUSTERS "Remember Makano"

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It's the final battle in the series that may have inspired Don the John Trump's fantasy about a "Space Force"...

...appropriately enough, a tale that places emotion over logic!

This never-reprinted tale from Ziff-Davis' Space Busters #2 (1952) is the final story for the short-lived series.

Oddly, none of the sci-fi books about specific characters (this one and Lars of Mars, Crusader from Mars, and Space Patrol) lasted more than two issues!

But the anthologies lasted longer...Amazing Adventures ran six issues and Weird Thrillers ran five!

It must be admitted that Murphy Anderson's revamp gave the book a solid "shot in the arm" artistically, so why it was cancelled so abruptly remains a mystery!

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SPACE BUSTERS "Victory on Valda"

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Editor Jerry Siegel wanted Space Busters to look more like...

... the recently-revamped and revitalized Buck Rogers strip!

But artist Marvin Stein ended up using the original Buck strip as reference in his tryout, and lost the gig!

With a looming deadline, Siegel contacted the Buck Rogers strip's artist, Murphy Anderson (who had recently left the series) to provide redesigns...

...as well as the cover-featured story!

(Note: the cover is by Allen Anderson...no relation to Murphy!)

Personally, I'm not crazy about the purple-red color scheme, but at least it matches the uniform on the cover.
And, I think this is more the "look" Don (the John) Trump wants for his "Space Force" than the utilitarian garb of the first issue!

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WINGS COMICS "Captain WIngs Meets the Commie Korean called 'The Fanatic'!"

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Though you leathernecks and dogfaces may not realize it from this cover...

...this was, arguably, the first Korean War comic book!

Yes, behind this cover from Fiction House's Wings Comics #105 (1949) lurked the first comic book story featuring Americans battling Communist North Koreans...a year before the war broke out!

Note: May be NSFW/NSFS due to racial stereotypes common to the era!

To go a bit "meta" for a second, I'd suspect a Commie told the Fanatic that his name meant "Patriot" or "Hero" in English!

Otherwise why use such an obvious villainous name?

Cover/interior artist Bob Lubbers was also the Art Director and primary cover artist of Fiction House's comic line.

So if his interior artwork seems a little loose, or rushed, remember he was dealing with a humongous workload encompassing a dozen books at any one time!

Note, BTW, that the Koreans are wearing modified WWII Japanese uniforms and flying Japanese aircraft.

Even the precognitive unknown writer didn't know the Chinese and Russians were supplying uniforms and aircraft to the NKs!

Captain Wings was a black-ops operator in the vein of Blackhawk or Captain Midnight, going wherever his country needed him.

Whaever the current threat was, from Nazis to Commies to flying saucer-piloting aliens, Captain Wings fought them all...usually with a beautiful woman at his side...and always won!

Unfortunately, the ultimate villain, cancellation, caught up with him and Wings Comics in 1954!

Until next time...

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SPACE BUSTERS "Mission to Baldor!"

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We're on to Space Busters #2, and the first of the "redesigned" stories...

...as artist Marvin Stein takes a crack at making the "Marines in space" series look more like Buck Rogers!

This never-reprinted story appeared in the back of Ziff-Davis' Space Busters #2 (1952) because editor/writer Jerry Siegel had nothing else to fill the empty pages!
Unfortunately, Stein had gone "old school" Buck Rogers, when Siegel had wanted "modern" Buck Rogers.
So Siegel got the guy who had been illustrating the modern Buck...Murphy Anderson!

You'll see his work starting next week!

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SPACE BUSTERS "Battle for Alana"

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No, recruit, your eyes do not deceive you...

...This Space Busters #1.5 tale is in 3-D!

Put your 3-D glasses on (blue lens on right eye!) and enjoy!

One of the changes made for the second issue of Space Busters was to expand the war against Belzar as the aliens lost their hold on Mars and "Earthian" forces pushed outward!

Human traitor Senstral commands these attempts to "hold the line", after having failed to do so on Mars!

When Ziff-Davis dropped their comics line (except for G.I. Joe), several publishers bought up both the unpublished material, with St John picking up the bulk of it!

This never-published Space Busters story by Bernie Krigstein was converted to 3-D to fill out the St John one-shot Daring Adventures 3-D (1953)!

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SPACE BUSTERS "Frog Men Against Belzar"

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After the stories for Ziff-Davis' Space Busters #2 were written and drawn...

...most of them were shelved, as a new artist, Murphy Anderson, was brought on board to revamp the series' look!

However, the Bernie Krigstein and Martin Stein-illustrated stories that didn't make it into Space Busters #2 did find new homes!

This particular tale is the most-reprinted Space Busters story of all, appearing in St John's Daring Adventures #6 (1954), Decker's Great Exploits #1 (1958) and IW's Strange Planets #18 (1964)..under a new Ross Andru/Mike Esposito cover as shown above!

Oddly enough, though the aliens invading Mars remained "Belzarians" and the Terrans were referred to as "Earthians", the individual heroes went through a name-change.

Blond/blue-eyed Captain Brett Crockett received a new name, becoming "Captain Andall", while his balding and mustached sergeant, Bolo, became "Sgt Bala".
And the nickname "SpaceBusters", used incessantly in the two issues of the series, is nowhere in sight...

We proudly present the lead story of Space Busters #1.5, which is also the final story of the Mars Campaign...

Until next time...

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