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| This Big Red Spot of Jupiter story has haunted me for years. Every comicon and Comicfest I've been to I've hunted for this issue, not knowing the name of the comic. Big eureka for me, and a happy thanks to this whole structure that makes moments like these possible. |
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| I was surprised (to say the least) to see a story about "The Face on Mars" in a comic book from 1958. Much speculation has been written on the subject in books and magazine articles, but AFAIK none of these theories about a "face on Mars" entered the popular cultural consciousness until sometime in the 1970s. In fact I believe the entire conjecture arose from some NASA Mars satellite photos not taken until much later than 1958. Or did the book and article writers somehow recollect the Kirby story from Race For the Moon? Great story, anyway. |
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| Kirby was well informed with his science which is something people don't tend to take into account when discussing his work. The idea that the asteroid belt was the remains of a planet was current up to the 70's but it is not longer held. Here is a link to up to date current theories if you are interested.
https://phys.org/news/2017-09-theory-asteroid-belt.html |
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| Additional Information |
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| Publication | September 1958 | Price: 0.10 USD | Pages: 1 | Frequency: bi-monthly |
| Notes | Taken from splash of "Island In the Sky", with alterations likely by Joe Simon. |
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| Credits | Letters: typeset |
| Content | Genre: Science Fiction | Characters: Bill Fenner; Mike Baker |
| Notes | Taken from splash of "Island In the Sky", with alterations likely by Joe Simon. |
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| Credits | Pencils:? (photograph) | Inks:? (photograph) | Letters: typeset |
| Content | Characters: George Jowett (photo); John Sill (photo); Tony Pascarella (photo); Jim Norman (photo) |
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| Contents | In This Issue (1 page) |
| Notes | Contents page. |
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| Credits | Letters: typeset |
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| Credits | Letters: typeset |
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| Comic Story | The Thing on Sputnik 4 (5 pages) |
| Synopsis | A triangular meteor is captured and brought on board a space station. Captain Kelly cuts into the meteor and finds a walnut shaped object inside. Major General Holt cautions Kelly against thinking they've found life. The lab technician investigates further but then there's a beep-beep sound and an explosion rocks the lab. There are more explosions accompanied by the beeps. Kelly is outside and sees an old Sputnik satellite which is beeping and then sees a space creature clinging to it. The walnut object appears and reunites with the space creature and they fly off in a triangular meteor. |
| Content | Genre: Science Fiction | Characters: Captain Kelly; Major General Holt; Bio-Chemical Lab Technician |
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| Comic Story | Turmoil in the Heavens! (1 page) |
| Synopsis | What happened to the planet Polis. |
| Content | Genre: Science Fiction |
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| Comic Story | The Golden Rocket (1 page) |
| Synopsis | A rocket floating in outer space comes near to a space station. The commander is unwilling to take it on board and radios to the rocket for the inhabitants to show their faces. The crewman says he thinks it is unmanned and so they bring it on board. They open the rocket up and find that all the materials inside are unknown to them. There is a radio which shows signals are being received. The crewman says that the signals are coming from Pluto. But it is thought that nothing could be living on Pluto. |
| Content | Genre: Science Fiction | Characters: Space Station Commander; Space Station Crewman |
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| Comic Story | Lunar Trap (5 pages) |
| Synopsis | Ward Stratton is caught in a trap in Lunar Crater Tycho. He is arrested and taken to Colonel Alexandrovna who accuses him of being a spy and saboteur. Stratton is pleased that this is a lady but denies this. Alexandrovna orders Petrov to take Stratton to the site of the damage. Stratton again denies that it was his fault and Alexandrovna threatens to shoot him if he does not confess. Rocks rain down on the car and the pair just escape into a cave. They see that the assailant is a moon creature. A Russian rescue party drives the creature away and Alexandrovna and Stratton shake hands. |
| Content | Genre: Science Fiction | Characters: Ward Stratton (American Lunar Mineralogist); Colonel Alexandrovna (Russian Commandant); Petrov (Russian Soldier) |
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| Credits | Letters: typeset |
| Notes | Honor House Products Corp. |
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| Featuring | Power Gym |
| Credits | Letters: typeset |
| Notes | Honor House Products Corp. |
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| Credits | Letters: typeset |
| Notes | Two pages of various advertisements. |
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| Publisher advertisement | Men! Boys! (1 page) |
| Credits | Letters:?; typeset |
| Notes | Black and white house ad for Race for the Moon (Harvey, 1958 Series) #2 (September 1958); Warfront (Harvey, 1951 Series) #34 (September 1958); and Alarming Tales (Harvey, 1957 Series) #5 (September 1958), with covers shown and advertised as "Now On Sale!" |
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| Comic Story | Island in the Sky (5 pages) |
| Synopsis | Bill Fenner hated the Red Spot of Jupiter. An accident in space kills Bill and his body is fired into Jupiter. The Red Spot returns Bill's body in a transparent cylinder. When the cylinder is opened Bill sits up unaware of anything that has happened to him. After an electrical blow-up, when Bill takes all the power in his body, and then returning from an outside job in space with an empty oxygen tank, Bill is taken by the medics for examination. There is a small organism in his brain which protects him. Bill's body is better than new and he might live to 1000. |
| Content | Genre: Science Fiction | Characters: Bill Fenner; Mike Baker; Doctor Johnson |
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| Text Story | Four on Planet X |
| Synopsis | Captain Gregson feels something is watching them on Planet X. |
| Credits | Letters: typeset |
| Content | Genre: Science Fiction | Characters: Gregson; Jason; The Professor |
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| Publisher advertisement | My Robot Plants |
| Featuring | Alarming Tales |
| Credits | Letters:?; typeset |
| Notes | House ad for Alarming Tales (Harvey, 1957 Series) #34 (September 1958), specifically the My Robot Plants story, with interior panel art and cover shown, and advertised as "Now On Sale". |
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| Text Article | Why Mars? |
| Credits | Letters: typeset |
| Content | Genre: Science Fiction |
| Notes | An article explaining why Mars is the best place for humans to go to. |
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| Publisher advertisement | The Visitor! |
| Featuring | Black Cat Mystic |
| Credits | Letters:?; typeset |
| Notes | House ad for Black Cat Mystic (Harvey, 1957 Series) #63 (May 1958), specifically the The Visitor! story, with interior panel art and cover shown, and advertised as "Now On Sale". Despite "Now On Sale", however, the issue pictured was never published, at least, not in that form. |
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| Comic Story | The Face on Mars (5 pages) |
| Synopsis | The group of four are climbing a gigantic carved statue of a face found on Mars. Fisher steps through an eye socket and finds himself in a lush green city with breathable air and sees giant Martians. A fleet of spaceships attack and destroy the city. The giants have a meeting and point to a space map - there is a planet between Mars and Jupiter. The giants launch a missile to destroy this planet. Fisher suddenly can't breathe properly and then he is found on the surface of modern day Mars. On their way through space they stop in the asteroid belt - the remnants of a destroyed planet. |
| Content | Genre: Science Fiction | Characters: Ben Fisher; Koski; Brennan; Lake |
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| Credits | Letters: typeset |
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| Credits | Letters: typeset |
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| Credits | Letters: typeset |
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| Credits | Pencils:? (photograph) | Inks:? (photograph) | Letters: typeset |
| Notes | Back cover. |
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| The data in the additional content section is courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under a
Creative Commons Attribution License.
More details about this comic may be available in their page here |
