3-Day Weekend Matinee: Day The Second

Continuing our weekend matinee, we have part 2, of course, of our main feature - Vic Torry And His Flying Saucer from Bob Powell, and chapter 2 of our serial - Twin Earths, from Oskar Lebeck and Alden McWilliams. Today's extra feature is a couple of shorts from our old Fly Girl friends - Jet Dream And Her Stunt-Girl Counterspies.
If you missed yesterday's matinee and want to catch up, here's the quick link.

First up, our serial feature. In chapter one, we met Vana - an agent from Terra, another human inhabited world that exists in an opposite orbital position from our Earth. Vana is attempting to convince our government of her story and the FBI has assigned agent Garry Verth to investigate her tale...

Twin Earths - Chapter 2:

To Be Continued...

If you haven't met Jet Dream's team before these two posts should give you a fair introduction, though there have been a few more here. The team's adventures only run 4 pages apiece, so we've got two for you today -

Refill the popcorn & drinks - it's time for the main feature: part two of Vic Torry And His Flying Saucer -

Join us tomorrow for the concluding chapter of Vic Torry, as well as more Twin Earths and ...?
(And maybe a movie tonight? We'll see how the connection holds up)

Twin Earths by Oskar Lebeck and Alden McWilliams for United Features,  Jet Dream drawn by Joe Certa for Man From UNCLE #s 11 & 12, Vic Torry by Roy  Ald and Bob Powell for Vic Torry And His Flying Saucer #1 (1947, 1950, 1952)

3-Day Weekend Matinee: Day The First

You know what's been missing from our weekend matinees? A Serial!

It's well past time to correct that, so starting today we'll be running Oskar Lebeck & Alden McWilliams' classic newspaper strip - Twin Earths. The notion of a twin planet in an opposite orbit around the sun is a fairly familiar one these days, but when Twin Earths launched back in 1952 it may well have been a pioneering concept.
For the forseeable future, we'll be opening up each weekend matinee with a chapter in the classic serial fashion. (Don't worry - it ran for over a decade)

To Be Continued...

I'm sure some are waiting for our advertised Main Feature, but first - a surprise story: the first tale of Undercover Girl, at whom we were peeking earlier in the week.

Yeah, we'll definitely be back for more with Starr later.
But now it's time for our featured tale - part one of 1950's Vic Torry And His Flying Saucer. Vic Torry is drawn by Bob Powell, one of the artists on Fly Girl Gale Allen. If you're not familiar with Bob's work, one of his biggest hit series was Cavegirl - so you can be sure we'll be seeing him as our meandering look at cavemen in comics proceeds over time.
Vic Torry was a one shot title. So far as i know, the 3-part story featured this weekend is his only published adventure. In case you missed it earlier, and because it's a very cool example of an early mixed photo and paint comic cover, here's the cover again as we kick off our tale -

Join us tomorrow and Sunday for the continuing and concluding chapters.

Twin Earths by Oskar Lebeck and Alden McWilliams for United Features,  Undercover Girl drawn by Ogden Whitney for Manhunt #1, Vic Torry by Roy  Ald and Bob Powell for Vic Torry And His Flying Saucer #1 (1947, 1950, 1952)

Gale Allen, Fly Girl

Have you met Gale Allen? She's another Fly Girl, and she was a little different...

I've put off Gale while trying to access better copies of early issues of Planet Comics. Unfortunately, many of those old issues are only available to me in microfiche format. Ack.
However, i've managed to track down paper versions of those first couple appearances, so let's talk Gale.

She wasn't around as early as Connie, nor quite as early as Flyin' Jenny. She debuted a year later in 1940 in the 4th issue of Planet Comics. And, as one might guess from the title of the book, Gale her girls weren't limited to atmospheric vehicles as members of the Women's Space Battalion.

Gale went through a number of changes over the course of her 39 adventures (not counting reprints & revivals), including multiple variations on the title and changes of creators. She started out fairly simply in Planet Comics #4. Though signed Fred Nelson, that was a pen name and the actual writer and artist(s) are unknown...

...and #5, now Gale Allen Of The Girl's Patrol with art from Bob Powell...

Within a few issues, her page count was increased by 50% and the possessive 's' was dropped from the title. Bob Powell was still handling the art chores this time...

Planet Comics #11 featured the last tale from the original scripter, or rather, the original nom de plume - Fred Nelson. Perhaps the unknown writer continued with a new house name signed to the book. Al Bryant took over the art for this one...

The next issue (#12) saw a new name on the title - Douglas McKee - another pen name that leaves us with no clue to the writer, and a new artist each issue as they switched gears on the strip (apologies for the first two - i cleaned up the microfiche as best i could)...

Oh, yeah - we'll be coming back here next time...

art by Bob Powell, Al Bryant, George H. Appel, Robert Webb, Art Saaf(?) for Planet Comics #s 4, 5, & 10-14 (1940, 1941)