Read Your Vegetables

While i have made mention of my favorite underground artist team - the Overland Vegetable Stagecoach - it recently hurt my brain to realize that we've only had a single feature on Dave Sheridan, and only a single page of Fred Schrier's work.

Let us fix that, shall we?

Due to the Id-based nature of such trips, much of today's post has been split to our back room for adult content, The Other Voice Of ODD! Unlike most such posts, the back room version of this post does not include most of the stories presented here. It does feature the story above, The Fun House, and The Line (presented below with black bars) with the uncensored page, as well as The Sex Evulsors Of Technicus. Please visit the other version of this post to enjoy those tales.

(This page has been lightly censored. Not redacted, or any other BS way of avoiding saying censorship.
Unexpurgated version available on the back room version of this post.)

When previously we saw Fred Schrier's artwork, he showed us How To Build A Time Machine. Next time we visit, he'll show us how travel in one.

pages from Balloon Vendor # 1 (1971), Meef # 1 (1973), Mother's Oats #s 1-3 (1969, 1971, 1977)

More UFO Nattering

UFOs are, by nature, odd and mysterious things that are frequently confusing to the perceptions. So i guess it's rather natural that the comics seem to follow suit.

I mentioned last time that Gold Key's book, UFO Flying Saucers, continued for another 6 issues beyond the 7 issues that i originally had on hand. And that Whitman published another 5 issues. (Note that Gold Key and Whitman are both divisions of the same company - Western Publishing) While digging through the archives last night, i found another 12 issues from Gold Key - they changed the title to UFO & Outer Space with issue #14. The series continued through #25 in 1980.
And so the stack has grown...

Meanwhile, we've got more of the speculative pieces from those first seven. Eschewing dramatic presentation structures, let's open with perhaps the most interesting speculative possiblity -

ARE THE UFOS LIVING BEINGS? (art by George Roussos)

WHO FLIES THE SAUCERS??? (art by Frank Bolle)

WHERE DO FLYING SAUCERS COME FROM? (art by Luiz Dominguez)

Of course, it's always good to have a handy identification guide for spotting UFOs...

MODERN TYPES OF UFOS AND FLYING SAUCERS (script by Leo Dorfman, art by Rocco Mastroserio)

UFO'S THE SHAPE THEY'RE IN (art by Luiz Dominguez)

As mentioned previously, much of the book was dedicated to case studies of UFO encounters. We haven't looked at any of those as yet, so let's close out this post with a story that combines those with the speculative works which we've been viewing...

DO CREATURES FROM OUTER SPACE WALK THE EARTH??? (art by Frank Bolle)

"It is possible that somewhere in the universe, someone is reading a horror story about a fellow creature who explored a distant planet and was attacked by four horrible little bipeds."

Yeah. I can see that. "Horrible little bipeds" being how human beings were known to galactic society seems believable.
(Hermit, remember?)

page art from UFO Flying Saucers #s 1, 4, 6, & 7 (1968, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1975)

JET-A-REENO!

As noted last time, i spent years thinking that Jet Dream And Her Stunt-Girl Counterspies #1 was the only appearance of Jet and her team. Also noted: I was wrong.

I had long given up on seeing more of Jet's team. Another decade and more passed until, one day while digging through old UK Annuals, i ran into this story -

My brain melted. How did this come to be?
The hunt was on!

My first mistake in looking for more of Jet Dream was looking to the future after her comic - much of her stories took place before her comic was released. The second mistake was not digging through old back-up strips.

Jet Dream and her team had another 15 adventures beyond the two we've seen. They ran as a break between acts in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. comic from Gold Key. (The tale above was found in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'s  1970 UK Annual - pointing us to the original source. It was actually the team's 9th adventure.)

The first tale appeared in TMFU #7 and she appeared every issue through #22, the final issue. Oddly enough, she never seems to have shown up in The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. despite seeming to be a natural companion piece. A pity, because that would have meant more stories.
Here's her introductory tale, scripted by Dick Wood, with art by Mike Sekowsky & Mike Peppe -

For balance, here's the final Jet Dream story from TMFU #22. Like The Set-Up Sultan that opened this post, artwork is by Joe Certa; the writer is unknown on both -

These days those short little tales would each be decompressed into a 3 issue mini-series, but i enjoy those old stories that packed all they could into just a few pages.

Want more Jet Dream?
Join us this weekend when we'll be revisiting old friends including Jet, Joe, Koppy and Ulysses.

Jet Dream pages by Dick Wood, Mike Sekowsky, Mike Peppe, and Joe Certa for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. #s 7 & 22 and 1970 Annual (UK) (1966, 1969, 1970)