Russkie-Smashers / Chi-Com Crushers LARS OF MARS "Terror Weapon" Conclusion

When Last We Left the Martian disguised as a Human Actor Playing a Martian on TV...

Art by Allen Anderson

...he was heading for Manchuria to stop a mad Soviet scientist from unleashing a super-weapon that could freeze anything!

After facing several deadly devices, Lars uses his ability to travel at light-speed...

Written by Jerry Siegel, illustrated by Murphy Anderson, this was the cover-featured tale from Ziff-Davis' Lars of Mars #11 (1951), the second (and last issue) of the series!

BTW, the cover artist is Allen Anderson (no relation to Murphy)

And, Allen also did the cover to the second (and last) issue of Ziff-Davis' Space Busters...which was illustrated by Murphy!

Weird, huh? 

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Russkie-Smashers / Chi-Com Crushers LARS OF MARS "Terror Weapon" Part 1

Old Commies Never Die...

...they just return in the next issue working for different Commies, as the guy who doesn't just play a Martian on TV, but is a Martian playing an actor playing a Martian on TV while fighting crime in real life (got that?) discovers...

What Next?

Will Lars Stop Raskov?

Will Raskov Stop (and/or Kill) Lars?

Be Here Next Monday for the Astounding Conclusion!

You'll note the Communist Chinese were illustrated in a non-cartoony manner, unlike the overly-caricatured Japanese in most World War II comics and animated cartoons!
(The unfortunate lemon-yellow skin-tone wasn't artist Murphy Anderson's choice, I'm sure.)
Written by Jerry Siegel, illustrated by Murphy Anderson, this was the cover-featured tale from Ziff-Davis' Lars of Mars #11 (1951), the second (and last issue) of the series!

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Russkie-Smashers LARS OF MARS "Terror from the Sky"

Commies and atomic weapons!

As the Frank Sinatra song says, "They go together like Love and Marriage..."

...as the guy who doesn't just portray a Martian on TV, but is a Martian playing an actor playing a Martian on TV while fighting crime in real life (got that?) discovers...

Could this be an attempt to set up an ongoing Lex Luthor-esque arch-enemy (but with lots of hair) for our hero in this tale from Ziff-Davis' Lars of Mars #10 (1951)?

The duo who created this short-lived series had a lot of collective experience with the Last Son of Krypton! Writer/editor Jerry (Superman) Siegel and and artist Murphy (Buck Rogers) Anderson (who did a lot of work on Superman during the Silver and Bronze Ages) incorporated a lot of Man of Steel-style story elements.
BTW, Raskov returns next issue with even more super-scientific weapons.
And, yes, the irony of a guy from the "Red Planet" battling the"Red Menace" of Communism doesn't escape us...

Trivia:

The cover paintings for both issues of Lars of Mars were painted by Allen Anderson, who was not related to interior artist Murphy Anderson!

Here's a "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon"-style factoid (done in only four degrees)...

1) Ziff-Davis also published a short-lived adaptation of an actual sci-fi tv series, Space Patrol, illustrated by Bernie Krigstein.

2) Krigstein illustrated the first issue of another Ziff-Davis sci-fi series: Space Busters!

3) Bernie was replaced on interior art for the second (and final) issue of Space Busters by...Murphy Anderson!

4) Allen Anderson did the painted cover for the Space Busters issue illustrated by Murphy! (Norm Saunders had painted the first issue's cover!)

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featuring the covers of both issues of Lars of Mars!

Reading Room Annex: CAPTAIN VIDEO in "Dark Side of the Moon" Conclusion

Read the first part of this tale HERE.

 Aliens operating on the Dark Side of the Moon plan to attack Earth, and only Captain Video (with the Video Ranger) can stop them...

You may ask, "What's so special about this? It's typical sci-fi."
And you'd be right.
Except, due to it's low-budget nature, the Captain Video TV show and movie serial showed aliens who looked like this...

The "alien invasion force" from Captain Video; the Serial. Note Captain Video (Judd Holdren) and the Ranger on the left in clever disguises.

Only in the comic, unencumbered by financial or special effect restrictions, was the full, unfettered potential of the show (such as it was) realized.

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Reading Room Annex: CAPTAIN VIDEO in "Dark Side of the Moon" Part 1

Yes, Ed Norton's idol, TV's first space commander battled alien invaders as well as terrestrial threats!
From Captain Video #5, with art by George Evans & Martin Thal featuring the likenesses of tv star Al Hodge as Captain Video, and Don Hastings as the Video Ranger...

To be continued, tomorrow!

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Reading Room Annex: MAN O' MARS

With Battle: LA opening this week, we thought we'd present some of the more memorable alien invasion-themed comic stories of the Golden Age.
First up...the lead story from a 1953 one-shot that combined all the great cliches of space opera in one tight ten-page tale...

These days, this story would be a six-issue mini-series with tie-ins to several other titles.

The rest of the book was made up of unrelated reprints from earlier issues of Planet Comics.
While the interior artist is unidentified in the Grand Comics Database, it looks, IMHO, like either the pencils or inks were by Mort Meskin.
The cover was done by Maurice Whitman, one of Fiction House's more prolific artists.
When the book was reprinted in 1958, yet another cover was done (see left), featuring totally different-looking characters and flying saucers that appeared nowhere in the story!

We included the original cover as part of our Martians! Martians! Martians! retro collectibles line including mugs, t-shirts and other nifty stuff.
There's lots of vintage alien invasion-themed stuff there, as well as at SpaceMan Jet and the SpaceBusters (whom we'll also be presenting in the Reading Room Annex this week), and Quatermass: the Man Who Inspired the X-Files!
Keep checking back for more alien fun..and Watch the Skies!