We nearly lost the wild, wandering brain as it hunted through the deep wilds of Planet Comics, but we managed to catch up to it again - and we learned what it was stalking!
We saw it rooting around Flint Baker and Reef Ryan - now we know what it was actually hunting: Space Rangers:
With issue #26 of Planet Comics, the two series merged into one with art from Lee Elias, who was already drawing Reef Ryan at that point. (Hugh Fitzhugh remains anonymous)
I was going to run the first three episodes as introduction to the series, but i just liked Lee's splash to #4 too much, so we're skipping ahead -
The duo remained as the Space Rangers team for about 40 issues or so, until the waning days of the title. Both returned to their solo strips for a few issues in the last days, but those were reprint stories. For most of their adventures, they were teamed together.
Could they be the Planet's Finest team if they're usually off-planet?
Somehow, we still have not gotten to the first strip I thought we'd look at from Planet Comics, even though it's been mentioned once or twice (in this same context, i believe).
Maybe soon...
page art by Lee Elias for Planet Comics #s 26, 27, & 29 (1943, 1944)
