Monday, August 5, 2024

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

...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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Monday, July 29, 2024

NoKo Crushers MADAM ZERO "Rockets of the Red Mist"

Perhaps Falwell was inspired by this forgotten  heroine's never-reprinted final tale from Fiction House's Fight Comics #84 (1952)!
Anonymous Commie-buster Madam Zero made only three appearances in her short-lived career!
A mistress of disguise, she always surprised the (also anonymous) secret agent who narrated these stories and who played the helpless "Steve Trevor" to her plain-clothes "Wonder Woman"!
Nothing is known about her real identity, motivations, or even which department she worked for!
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Monday, July 22, 2024

MAD-DOG "vs. the Truly Amazing Space Creatures from the Omega Galaxy"

We interrupt "Russkie Smashers" for an important announcement...

WE'RE BEING INVADED!!!
FLEE FOR YOUR LIVES!!!


Mad-Dog's Silver Age-era creator/writer/artist Bob McKay doesn't exist, despite receiving credit on the cover...
...as well as the splash page.
He's the title character of the 1992-94 TV show BOB, the final series starring the late, great, Bob Newhart!
McCay was the creator/writer/artist of the Silver Age Batman-esque character Mad-Dog!
Unlike most Golden and Silver Age creators, he managed to hold on to the copyright to the character!
When, in the "present day" of 1992, Harlan Stone, editor of Ace Comics, contacts Bob and offers to publish new adventures of Mad-Dog, McCay is ecstatic...until he sees that Stone wants to reboot the character as a grungy, homicidal vigilante!
Stone proposes this comic (published by Marvel) which will present both versions!
Note that, for the purposes of this story, actual writer-penciller Ty Templeton and inker Jeff Albrecht are identified as McCay's "assistants"!
You can read Stone's overly-violent Dark Age version right now over at our 'brother" RetroBlog Atomic Kommie Comics by clicking HERE!
And you can watch (yes, watch) the series' origin story at another "brother" RetroBlogSecret Sanctum of Captain Video, by clicking HERE!
BTW, Russkie Smashers will return next Monday!

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from Paramount Home Video on Demand
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Monday, July 15, 2024

Russkie-Smashers BLACKHAWK "Winged Menace!"

Better Russkie-Smashing Through Technology!!!

The Dark Knights utilize real-world technology in their final, never-reprinted, appearance from Quality Comics!
When this tale by writer Robert Bernstein, penciler Dick Dillin and inker Chuck Cuidera appeared in Blackhawk #107 (1956), the deLackner HZ-1 Aerocyle was undergoing tests by the Department of Defense!
Sadly, this rather kool-looking device failed the tests, as detailed HERE.
BTW, a "backpack helicopter" had been posited back in the 1940s, but was deemed not feasable as a weapon.
But that didn't stop sci-fi magazine and comic creatives from utilizing it in their stories!

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Monday, July 8, 2024

Viet-Cong Wallopers TOD HOLTON: SUPER GREEN BERET "The Curtain Rises!"

Never failing to capitalize on a pop culture trend...
...numerous comics publishers, noticing the popularity of the 1966 hit single Ballad of the Green Berets (by Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler and Robin Moore) quickly produced comics series featuring the elite Army unit.
Most were standard war comics, but one stood out from the rest for sheer weirdness...
What do you get when you combine
the Green Berets
with Teenagers and SuperHeroes?
Why,
SUPER GREEN BERET
of course!
Using his new-found powers of teleportation, telepathy, telekinesis, transmutation, time travel, invulnerability, and super-strength, Tod decides to fight Enemies of Our Country, mostly in present-day Asia, but also traveling through time to the American Revolution and World War II, during his two-issue run!
Yes, it's as hokey as it sounds!
Created by writer Otto Binder (who co-created the Golden Age Captain Marvel and the Silver Age Supergirl) and illustrator Carl Pfeufer, who was a busy artist in the Golden Age doing superhero and western strips at both Fawcett and Timely (Marvel Comics' predecessor), the series ran for only two Annual-sized (64-page) issues.
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