As noted last time, my favorite strip in Fantastic Comics was Flick/Flip Falcon by "Orville Wells" - another rather obvious pseudonym, as with Professor Fiend's "Boris Plaster".
I don't know who wrote it, but in the beginning it was drawn by the late Don Rico, an artist whose name might not be too well known now since he died back in '85. But, as well as being one of the greats of the industry back in the old days, his influence is still being felt today. In fact, he's one of the credited writers for the upcoming Black Widow movie.
And he was there at the dawn of comics with this series launching back in 1939 -
Yeah - i was hooked pretty instantly on this one.
With his return to Mars, he and Adele learn that there was more to the story than Flick realized in his first encounter -
The next few issues wrap things up and then expand the boundaries of the series. First they follow through on that last panel, meeting the real Martians...
...and then working to overcome the invaders.
The fight to free Mars is a quick one. Flick does his Lemuel Carter routine...
...and Adele impersonates a goddess to save the day...
After a quick name change from Flick to Flip and an accidental side trip through time on the way home, they start to explore the neighborhood...
...with a bit of savagely dated social commentary, deftly deflected by our hero...
...and, honestly, i'm not quite sure what to think about how the final battle ends...
Just why is that creature pouncing on it's dead mate? Let's all be glad the camera moved on...
And then things started to get weird -
In the next issue, Flip took his first trip to Mercury. Again.
Um... different Mercury? Like, above he went to "the planet called Mercury" and next time he's going to actual Mercury? Did we switch writers? Was Venus not hot enough? Will Flip be forced to mate with the Insect Queen of Mercury?
Yeah, that's an actual question.
page art by Don Rico from Fantastic Comics #s 1-3, 5, & 6 (1939, 1940)
