Planetary Reef

If you were with us last time, you may recall that we were stalking the wild wandering brain as it hunted through some old familiar territory and looking at Flint Baker.

It still seems to be digging in Planet Comics, but something else now has its attentions...

Let us pause to ask "Reef"? Isn't that a rather Aquatic name for an outer space character? Not to mention the avian adversary.

This all seems rather strange. 

Tracking back to the spawning point in #13, we find that Reef Ryan's adventures take place on Neptune. 
Well, that makes sense for the name.

Here's how he got started...

Hugh Fitzhugh is a pseudonym, and we don't know who was using it. That premiere episode may have been drawn by Al Gabriele. It's more certain that he drew the follow up tale -

Reef took care of Sarku in the next couple stories, but stuck around on Neptune for the next dozen issues. His final solo strip appeared in #25, unless one counts a reprint or two in the final days of Planet Comics.

But why has the wandering brain focused on this series? What has it got to do with the path it started with Flint Baker?

Perhaps if we keep following it we will learn what it's up to...

page art by Al Gabriele from Planet Comics #s 13 & 14 (1941)

Leaving Mars

Shhh!

My brain has gone wandering back to one of our previous topics. Let's try not to scare it and maybe it will lead us somewhere interesting.

It seems to have taken an interest in Flint Baker. We saw Flint when our topic was Dick Briefer, who wrote and drew the first episode (and created the series? Unknown and likely unknowable) for Planet Comics #1. Briefer moved on after that, and so did we.

If you missed it, here was the first episode. After Briefer's departure, Herman Bolstein takes over the writing chores, and Arthur Peddy , whom you may recall from posts on Red Panther or Captain Thunder, is our new artist. Dick and his ginchy stylings may be gone from the strip, but we get four-armed martian ape, a brutal kill, and a very early use of pogo platforms -

A few issues later, things got interesting as they decided to take the series out of the Solar system and into unknown space ...

...but the very next issue they were back in-system, and working it sequentially. Mercury, then Venus, then Mars again. (Home doesn't count)

So far we've managed to not spook the wandering brain. Maybe if we don't disturb it, we can follow it further...

page art by Arthur Peddy for Planet Comics #s 2 & 5 (1940)

Stan Lee Vs. Spider-Man! Who Would Win?

As one might have noticed from last evening's post, i went digging for a few more Un-Comics. This time, it wasn't random digging - i was fair certain there were riches in this vein. I just hadn't opened it up in quite some time. 

Where was i going digging? Into Blip!

We already looked a bit at Pizzazz! so Blip! was only natural, and overdue. Blip!, like Pizzazz!, was a magazine published by Marvel Comics. This one was aimed at Video Game Players back in 1983. One might expect a range of years there, but it lasted only 7 issues, all covered dated '83.

In my digging i found 3 Un-Comics to reward my search - and a nice bonus tie-in to one of them. The third of those, from the final issue of Blip!, we saw in the post mentioned above.

The first comes from the first issue and appears to be the first ever Mario Brothers comic - a Triple First bonus -

If anyone knows of a Mario strip prior to '83, let us know.

The second (and final?) of the three is just a bit more odd than the other two. You see, that was when the Spider-Man game from Parker Brothers came out. So, Spidey got the cover -

Yes, those are the actual game graphics on the screen.

Inside, we get the Big Match...

 ...Spidey Vs. Stan!...

Those kids had some serious bragging rights back in those days, and that was before Stan got to be so well known and loved as a cultural figure. 

The article was followed directly by our Spider-Man un-comic, with art by Jazzy John Romita! - also featuring the video game -

art by Bob Camp and John Romita for Blip #s 1 & 2 (1983)

PROOF! Video Games STOP Violence!

Well, what a surprise.

Regular readers may know that the Universe seems to hate the idea of me doing artwork. But, i've been setting up the desktop system and updating software to start doing some render work to create photos from which to paint.

Of course, that means that this weekend the machine suddenly started shutting down randomly for no discernible reason. Not overworking or overheating - shutting down while idling.

Arrgh.

While I fight with that, here's a short Un-Comic featuring The Hulk. Dan Koeppel and Al Milgrom offer a counter argument to the parents decrying video games and violence -

Remember when the Mayor of New York was entertaining? That's a bigger indicator of how much time has passed than rolling out the big CRT monitor on a cart.
 

page art by Al Milgrom for ...? (1983)

(source tomorrow)