10 August 2018

3-Day Weekend Matinee - Far Beyond My Time

As previously noted, excepting the original presentation which ran in Heavy Metal back in '79, i completely missed the Buck Rogers revival comic strip from Jim Lawrence and Gray Morrow. There was another Buck Rogers comic back then which i did catch, though most folks in the USA may have missed it - even though it was based on the US television series starring Gil Gerard and Erin Gray:


Look-In is a UK magazine which featured comic series often based on tv shows. The issue in which Buck debuted also featured comics starring Benny Hill, Charlie's Angels, The Smurfs, Mork & Mindy, and the now largely forgotten Sapphire & Steel. (And, no - I can't read those old Benny Hill strips without hearing Yackety Sax) These were typically serialized stories in short 2-page chapters.

Before we get to our main feature, of course, we have our ongoing serial - Twin Earths from Oskar Lebeck and Alden McWilliams.

Previously on Twin Earths: Vanna is a defector from Terra - Earth's more technologically advanced twin in the same orbital position hidden by the sun. Having allied herself with the FBI, she has been educating her liason, agent Garry Verth, and his team about her culture and science. After revealing the existance of "Space Islands," what we would call Space Stations, Vanna helps them to create a detection system. Meanwhile, the FBI has discovered a "telviphone" - a combination telephone and television - and is attempting to learn more about it and the technology involved...

Twin Earths - Chapter 12

To Be Continued...

Our Buck Rogers tale is written by Angus P. Allan, with artwork from Martin Asbury. Angus was the sole writer for the series, but there were three artists who rotated over the not-quite 2 1/2 years the series ran, with two of the three returning for a second engagement.
The story that kicked off the series: The Praxonian Conquest -

 


As noted above, the continuing adventures (and so the next two tales) were presented in full colour.
Here's the cover of the issue in which the series premiered:


Oh... If you were wondering about that title "Far Beyond My Time" - Buck Rogers, like M*A*S*H, was a tv show that used an instrumental theme song which had featured lyrics in the movie version. And, with both shows, i got a lot of weird looks when i sang along with the theme. (The lyrics to Suicide Is Painless certainly didn't help) The theme for Buck Rogers was titled Suspension, by Kipp Lennon. The lyrics -
Far beyond the world I've known, far beyond my time
What am I, who am I, what will I be?
Where am I going and what will I see?
Searching my mind for some truths to reveal
What thoughts are fantasy, what memories real?

Long before this life of mine, long before this time
What was there, who cared to make it begin?
Is it forever or will it all end?
Searching my past for the things that I've seen
Is it my life or just something I dreamed?

(Instrumental break)

Far beyond this world I've known, far beyond my time
What kind of world am I going to find?
Will it be real or just all in my mind?
What am I, who am I, what will I be?
Where am I going and what will I see?

art from Twin Earths newspaper strips (1952) and Look-In v10 #s 43-39 (1980)

FF&G - FAQ

It's Friday already?
Well, at least i noticed in time for Friday Fun & Games -


As you may well know, i've been rather buried in old Funny Animal comics this week. Since i'm already there anyway, that's our theme this week - the Funny Animal Quiz. (You didn't think i was running a Frequently Asked Questions for Friday Fun & Games, did you?)
These all come from the 1940s since that's where i've been working -








Solutions and sources tomorrow, of course.

09 August 2018

Full Spectrum Gray - Short Tales

When i say Short Tales, i mean only 4 pages apiece - quite short indeed. So here are a half dozen of them illustrated by Gray Morrow from 1956 -







Silver Age Science - 1950s Style!

Hopefully, I'll have more words for you tomorrow. My brain is rather frazzled from hours of hunting & sorting data and prepping images for the Funny Animalphabet. Kind of lost track of time, but progress was made.

page art by Gray Morrow for  Journey Into Mystery #41, Journey Into Unknown Worlds #48, Marvel Tales #s 150 & 152, Uncanny Tales #46 (1956)

08 August 2018

Strange Wanderings

Some days my mind just wanders on its own, pondering odd intersections...


I found the results amusing enough to share.

art by Ditko, Dark Dimension by Luma Pictures, slapdash editing by -3- (2018)

Full Spectrum Gray - The Other Space Guy

I was recently made aware of the Buck Rogers revival strip drawn by Gray Morrow. Though i'd long been aware of the comic he did with Jim Lawrence for Heavy Metal back in '79, i missed the ensuing comic strip completely.But there is another spaceman with whom Gray is deeply intertwined in my mind - and, no, i'm not talking about his work with Flash Gordon. Rather, a hero who never really caught on big in the United States the way he did elsewhere.

Perry Rhodan originated in Germany over 55 years ago when K.H. Scheer and Clark Darlton, two of the most popular German SciFi authors of the time, teamed up to create the new epic. And Epic it was, with nearly 3000 weekly short novels published over almost 4 decades.From 1969 to 1978 it was translated into English and published by Ace, and most of the books sported cover paintings by Gray Morrow. Although i didn't know who he was at the time, these covers were probably some of my earliest exposures to his artwork.

Here's a dozen of Morrow's cover paintings for the books without all them words in the way -













I am uncertain exactly how many books were translated and published in English, but the above cover is from #93 and there were another couple dozen or more after that. (And then another couple dozen more from Master, but i don't think Gray Morrow did paintings for them) So there's a whole bunch of them out there for those seeking new Morrow paintings or something different to read.

Here is one more piece that wasn't a cover painting, to my knowledge. It was a crew portrait painted at some point in the 1970s, but for what, i don't know  -


paintings by Gray Morrow for Perry Rhodan #s 2, 20, 30, 32, 39, 42, 58, 59, 80, 81, 89, & 93