Showing posts with label Gold Key Comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gold Key Comics. Show all posts

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Reading Room G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES "Secret Weapon" Part 3

...he was hot on the trail to find the base from which a new, potent secret weapon had been used by the Germans to devastating effect!
Disguised as a German soldier, G-8 is about to infiltrate the enemy lines...
Written by Leo Dorfman, penciled by George Evans, and inked by Mike Peppe, this section leads us into the villains' underground lair for a James Bond-esque finale...
To Be Concluded, Tomorrow at
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...the OOP & HTF 1970 paperback novel

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Reading Room G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES "Secret Weapon" Part 1

..let's parachute into the story!
Written by Leo Dorfman, penciled by George Evans, and inked by Mike Peppe, the opening chapter sets up G-8's cred as a master spy and tantalizes us with hints of the German plot!
But he's far more than that, as we shall see!
To Be Continued, Tomorrow at
Support Hero Histories
Visit Amazon and Order...
...the OOP & HTF 1970 paperback novel

Monday, August 29, 2016

G-8 and His Battle Aces are coming...

One of the major pulp heroes of the 1930s-40s...
...Popular Publications' G-8 and His Battle Aces was a bit of an anachronism since the series was set during World War I!
While such titles about aviators from "The Great War" were not uncommon during the pre-World War II period, they were mostly typical wartime adventures.
But only G-8 featured a near-superhuman hero with a team of diversely-talented pilots and aides battling fantastic foes over the skies of Europe.
Running 110 issues from 1933 to 1944, all written by creator Robert J Hogan, the series had both sci-fi and horror-fantasy tales, mixing genres as the author saw fit!
In 1970, due to the success of Bantam Books' Doc Savage reprints, Berkley Books reprinted the first eight G-8 tales, with the first three reprints using new Jim Steranko art, which we're presenting here.
Unfortunately, G-8 met the fate so many other pulp reprint series (except for Doc and The Avenger) experienced during this period...cancellation!
The story we'll be running starting tomorrow was published before the paperback reprints hit the stands.
In the mid-1960s, Gold Key did a number of one-shots to "test the waters" for reviving classic properties.
Besides a Doc Savage comic adapting the pulp/paperback novel a proposed movie was based on, GK also did Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers...and G-8!
Written by Leo Dorfman, penciled by George Evans, and inked by Mike Peppe, with a kool painted cover by George Wilson featuring actor/model Steve (Doc Savage) Holland as G-8, the tale is AFAIK, an original story based on the characters...
Be Here Tomorrow as the Saga Begins!

Friday, August 10, 2012

Reading Room: THE OWL "Attack of the Diabolical BirdMen" Conclusion

Before we begin tonight's episode of The Owl, a musical interlude...
Written by Jerry Siegel, illustrated by Tom Gill
If you haven't fled screaming in agony from your iPad, laptop or desktop, we'll continue...
The criminal gang calling itself the Birds of Prey is stopped during an attempt to hijack an armored car by The Owl and Owl-Girl.
The next day, The Owl, in his secret identity of Detective Nick Terry, saves the Chief of Police from a murder attempt by a trained blackbird with poison claws.
Meanwhile, enraged by an editorial mocking them by newspaperwoman Laura Holt, aka Owl-Girl, the evil avians lay a trap for the girl reporter...
Along with DC's simultaneous attempt to turn the military-themed Blackhawks into superheroes, this was probably the worst "updating" attempt of the Silver Age.
Scripted by Jerry Siegel, and illustrated by Tom Gill, this never-reprinted adventure from Gold Key's The Owl #1 (1967) was the first of only two issues of the Golden Age hero's short-lived revival.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Reading Room: THE OWL "Attack of the Diabolical BirdMen"

In 1967, if you couldn't do Batman, do the next best thing...
...and up the "camp" quotient to the MAX!
Actually, dear reader, you'll have to wait until...
Same Owl-Time!
Same Owl-Blog!
 (Sorry, couldn't resist)
Scripted by Jerry Siegel, and illustrated by Tom Gill, this tale from The Owl's premiere issue in 1967 is a perfect example of a viable concept gone horribly wrong.
Siegel had been doing similarly-bad pseudo-campy work for Archie's Mighty Comics imprint (including their revival of The Shadow from #4 to #8), with mediocre art by Paul Reinman.
But taking Lone Ranger artist Tom Gill, and making him do a pseudo-Bob Kane/Sheldon Moldoff pastiche instead of his usual clean storytelling was truly the last straw.
This revival of a Golden Age character would last only two issues!