Un-Comics is what we call comics that didn't appear in typical comics. Sometimes that means special promotional comics. Other times, like today, it means comics that came from magazines that featured text stories. They might come from books or other places.
Today, they come from the '30s & '40s editions of Thrilling Wonder Stories.
One thing that often tweaks my attention is things that force a little perception shift. Most are likely familiar with at least the Otto half of EandO Binder - one of the great Old Men of the industry and a leading voice of Science Fiction in the comics back in the day.
But, did you know that Earl and Otto had a big brother who led the way? (Okay, if you know the name Eando, you probably did) It skews my brain a bit thinking of back when a venerable old man of the industry was the punk kid brother breaking in.
Jack Binder both wrote and drew a science fiction strip for the magazine for a few years called IF. In later decades it likely would have been What If-?, but i guess we were saving that name.
These were short pieces, only one or two pages each, so here are a dozen and a half of them for you to check out the series -
There was at least one other Un-Comic from Thrilling Wonder Stories, and a bunch of interesting connections to comics yet to come.
We'll definitely be back to look deeper into the magazine.
page art by Jack Binder for Thrilling Wonder Stories (see file names for individual months) (1937-1940)
This is a great selection, thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome - keeping these things from being lost and forgotten is a big reason for doing the work.
DeleteI just bumped into a Jack Binder story in Silver Streak Comics while doing some digging this afternoon - Cloud Curtis And His Golden Bullet. I'm pulling more issues from '40-'42 to see what else i can find. Hopefully we'll be seeing a post on those soon.