[Robb_K]

Major Inapak The Space Ace 1
This giveaway comic book apparently was never distributed by Inapak in 1951

(1) Front Cover - Artwork by Bob Powell
A fairly well-staged cover drawing that catches the eye, stressing action in Space, with the Superhero, Major Inapak saving a child(Robin John) (ostensibly from the "evils" of vitamin deficiency, which could potentially lead to chronic illness, stunted growth, and poor performance and deficient learning in school).

(2) Inside Front Cover and Indicia statement
Advertising page for Inapak Vitamins (Magazine Enterprises' giveaway comic book production services to market children's products that could be tied to a newly-created iconic comic book character representing the product).  With suggestions of The World's greatest discoveries in the background, the potential manufacturing customer's product could be touted as "A Wonderful New Discovery".  Or a new health product could be called "A new health care discovery".  Or a new entertainment product could be touted as "A new breakthrough in entertainment".

(3) Major Inapak Space Ace - 13 Pages
In the year of 2031 (80 years into the future), The Old Master Rocketeer, tells the story The Greatest Rocketeer of Them All, Major Inapak, who saved The Earth from a terrible disaster back in 1982, with the help of Lunarchips.  With the East Bloc of countries rivalling the West Bloc for World dominance, they plan to attack each other from Space.  The West sent rocket satellites into Space with nuclear weapons to be dropped on The Eastern countries, IF the latter were to start a war.  The West also built a powerful sound amplifier to detect sounds from Space.  They detected sounds from The Moon, sounding like beings talking. They detected a message saying, "Destroy Earth!".  So, immediately, USA started a project to send a rocket to The Moon to find out who was there and how they planned to attack The Earth. 

Major Inapak (must be of Inuit heritage???) was chosen to command the Moon Rocket trip.  Robin John (appears to be a 9 or 10-year old boy), was illegally snooping around the rocket base, and sneaks into The Moon Rocket as a stowaway.  Major Inapak has the ground crew prepare to launch the Moon Rocket early, upon hearing the news that the City of Denver was wiped completely off the map instantly by some sort of ray.  Inapak takes off before extra fuel for his return trip can be loaded.  Meanwhile, on The Moon, the cruel green villain's, (Roxtyl's) cable that powers the Aliens' radar-type device temporarily keeps them from continuing to destroy Earth's cities.  The Earth's Moon Rocket lands and Inapak and Robin put on space suits and go out exploring.  They see a signal receiver, and the previously unknown planet, up in the sky. They surmise that the deadly rays are sent from the other planet, and relayed from The Moon towards the targets on Earth.  Inapak turns the giant relay receiver to aim the rays back towards The Unknown Planet.  While he does that, Robin hides in a cave, because an Alien spaceship is heading towards them.  Inside, Robin meets a Lunarchip (small Moon animal). The Alien rocket lands, and The Aliens capture Major Inapak.  But Robin, with Lunarchip's help, saves Inapak, by pushing a large boulder off a short cliff rolling into the Aliens, knocking them over like bowling pins. There are some great action panels with inapak taking defeating Roxtyl in one-on-one combat.  Roxtyl realises that his death ray will hit the relay surface in mere seconds, actually Robin John.  And his pet Lunarchip is the very animal he befriended on The Moon, who also stowed away on The Moon Rocket's trip back to Earth. 

A cute story for little children.

(4)Science Sidelights - Experiments demonstrated by Major Inapak - 3 Pages

Major Inapak demonstrates how ordinary table salt is made up of 2 minerals that ingested alone, are both poisonous to Humans and animals.  He alkso demonstrates the properties of Dry Ice, and how surace tension on water acts like a "skin".  And most importantly, he explains how vitamins and essential minerals keep children and grownups healthy.

(5) Inside Back Cover - Advertising page for Inapak Vitamins
Scenes of what children can do with full energy from drinking the delicious chocolate vitamin powder in their milk.

(6) Back Cover - Major Inapak in another advertisement for Inapak Vitamins

[Robb_K]

Space Comics 5 - Avon Periodicals
Finally another comic book in my collection!  - Albeit containing stories I don't like and artwork I don't like!
But, it has a couple worthy features in that it's a Golden Age comic book and fairly rare (probably because not many people liked it enough to buy or keep it).  I have it because I'm a historian, archivist and completist.

(1) Space Mouse - "The Lost World" - 6 Pages - Drawn by Frank Carin
Not to be confused with Walter Lantz's "Space Mouse" from the early 1960s, this one was invented by Avon's Chief Editor and Art Editor of all of that publisher's Funny Animal and other Children's Comic Book Series, Frank Carin (Nee Francis Carino), in 1953.  That character had his own series of 5 issues from 1953 to 1954, plus his stories also appeared in Avon's "Space Comics", "Funny Tunes", "Merry Mouse", and "Super Pup".  The artwork seems kind of weak, even for Carin, who drew "cute", generic funny animal characters, many of which (despite supposedly being widely different species) look very much alike.  ALL of the stories in this book seem to look very much like Carin's work.  Izzy Klein is listed as the artist on 2 of the stories, whose artwork seems a fair bit weaker.  My guess is that Carin drew ALL the storyboards, and probably drew most, if not all of the pencils, and Klein inked the 2 stories whose pencils and inking are credited to him, and maybe also penciled the "Peter Rabbit" story, which looks a lot weaker than the normal Carin-penciled Peter Rabbit stories.  The artwork is so simple that it looks more like its patterned after Lego parts than how things look in Space.

This 6 Page story is typical of Avon's short Funny Animal stories in that the plot is very simple, there is very little space to develop characters and settings, establish character motivations, and pace stories decently to build up suspense to a climax, and leave any room for an epilogue.  That is ruinous even for a domestic comedy story, but, in my opinion, it makes adventure stories in which characters travel to other countries or, in this case, other planets, it make them more like a story outline, than telling an entire story, as there is almost no room for including any details.  In this story, which wastes its entire first page on a domestic scene in a local park, and the entire 6th page on the epilogue, after Space Mouse and his girlfriend (Milly) return from the newly-discovered ("Lost World") planet.  That left only 4 pages for ALL of the action in Space and on the distant planet, containing alien monster animals, and the reason for telling the story.  The writer tells us that dozens of the dinosaurlike monsters are attacking Space Mouse, but we only see two of them in any of the panels.  Uranium is supposed to have pulled their spaceship down to the lost planet.  Not believable, and not necessary to tell this story. Space Mouse does some digging for uranium.  This story has a lot happening, - which flies whizzing by, over the 4 pages of action, making the story difficult to follow.  I get the feeling that the writers and artists of these stories didn't take pride in this work, and thought little kids wouldn't notice the difference between a well-told and drawn tale and just some weak cartoony scribbles thrown down on a page.  I never understood the point of Avon's trying to create a "Funny Animal/Sci-Fi Adventure Genre", which would have been extremely difficult to do successfully even given entire 52-page books to contain only one long adventure story, let alone having only 36 page books containing four or five 6 page stories, using inferior artists drawing "cute" characters, even for their supposed villains!  Reading this story was a waste of time, and I'd have been embarrassed to have my name attached to it in any way.  and the weak artwork was also not worth seeing.

(2) Peter Rabbit - "Test Pilot" - Drawn by Frank Carin and Isadore Klein - 7 Pages
What kind of rabbit has such short ears?  Can this be the "Peter Rabbit" of Beatrix Potter, Harrison Cady, and Vince Fago???  Even Frank Carin didn't draw rabbit ears as short as cat ears!  I do like the bit of ironic black humour on the story's opening splash panel where two pilots are talking about Peter as a test pilot for experimental space ships, with the first saying: "He must have nerves of steel to do that job", and the 2nd says: "Either that, or he's tired of living!".  That is incredibly unexpected, and unbelievably shocking to find in these normally pablum-filled, "Kiddy Fare" stories in Avon's (Carin's) funny animal and young children's series.
Peter is testing the newest space rocket when something goes wrong, and the ship is diving downward at breakneck speed, out of control.  Ground Control orders him to abandon ship using the exploratory shuttle craft.
He lands on the closest asteroid.  Peter asks to examine the ship's wreckage and finds evidence of sabotage.  He suspects it was done by a rival space vehicle engineering contractor for US Government contracts(interesting that it is a German firm, whose president is named Wolfgang von Lange, and his saboteur underling is named "Weil".  Peter catches the saboteur in his new test vehicle seemingly before he could damage the ship.  But he had placed a gas pellet in the air circulation system, which will put Peter to sleep.  While Peter sleeps the spaceship's automatic pilot drives it in circles.  The saboteur approaches it, and boards it to send it crashing into  The Moon with Peter aboard.  The threat of death in these Avon little kiddie stories! - unusual!  But Peter wakes up in time to avoid the crash.  Peter deflects meteorites off his ship to batter the rival ship, and tows the ruined rival ship back to Earth.  So his company wins the government contract to produce the spaceships, and gets a month's paid vacation as a reward.  This story is more interesting and funny than this book's first story.

(3) Fred & Frank's "Moon Rocket" - 2 Page Text Story
A young child's fantasy story that is mildly interesting, with a slight twist at its end.  But, as most of these are, it is solely used as a filler feature, and to satisfy The US Postal Service's lower cost 2nd Class bulk Mail requirements.

(4) Super Pup - "The Green Peril" - Drawn by Frank Carin - 8 Pages
A Sci-Fi story for Superhero fans!    The "Dark Side of The Moon" on the opening page looks awfully light .  I'd hate to see a scene from the Light Side.  I'd be blinded!    Super Pup has some of his thinking written in a narrative at the top of a panel.  I don't believe I've ever seen that in a comic book, except when a character is narrating a story (and he is NOT in this case).

Again Frank Carin's artwork in this story is in his usual very simple style.  This story has not only a Dog hero, but a Dog villain, as well.  Zuckor, the master villain, has gathered together the master criminals of The Universe to plan to do away with Super Pup, their Arch Nemesis.  Their scientists built a machine that is weapon that fires a ray that destroys all living tissue.  They prepare to capture Super Pup, making their headquarters on The Moon, and making trips to Earth to set up the means for his capture.  The set up cobalt bombs in strategic positions in various countries, planning to coerce the major nations' governments to shame Super Pup into surrendering himself to the villainous group, to save The Earth's population.  Super Pup flies to The Moon, pretending to surrender himself.  The Villains pour hundreds of pounds of cement over him, hardening into a cement block.  But Super Pup escapes by breaking out of the block and burrowing into the ground, before they shoot the death ray at it.  He watches the group's actions to find a map of where the cobalt bombs are hidden, finds them all, and brings them to The Moon.  He also breaks up their death ray machine, and captures their leaders.

This story has a decent adventure and logical plot.  But, it is more like an outline of a story, rather than actually watching an adventure play out, because all the panels show almost no detail, the actions are too simple to relate to how real events occur in real life, so the reader can't really imagine how they happened or believe they are happening in this story.  So, unlike Carl Barks' adventures of Uncle Scrooge, or Herge's Tin Tin, or Terry and The Pirates, the reader of this story can't look at these symbolic drawings, and feel like these actions are really taking place in an alternate Universe, as we can in the best-drawn and written in detail stories about cartoon characters.  So, it is very difficult for the reader to enjoy reading stories as poorly staged and poorly written and with such lack of detail as this, and all of its low level of quality.

(5) Merry Mouse - "The Awful Truth" - Drawn by Isadore Klein -7 Pages
This story has nothing to do with Outer Space, why is it in "Space Comics".  If they could take a leased character property like Peter Rabbit, and put him in a "Space Environment" for placement in this book, why couldn't they do that with one of their own copyrighted characters, like Merry Mouse?

Merry Mouse has a new job as a delivery boy.  His first important job is to deliver truth serum to his town's main police department office.  Wanting to do that as quickly as possible, he takes a shortcut through a park, and the city water reservoir, but trips and spills the serum into the reservoir (pond).  Being thirsty, he takes a drink from the reservoir's drinking fountain, so despite trying to avoid telling his boss what happened, the serum compels him to do just that.  So his boss fires him.  The serum compels him to tell his girlfriend that he had been sacked on his first day.  He tells her that the truth serum is in the city's water supply.  All over the town, people are confessing their bad deeds, and true desires (not pleasing at all to others), and Merry cannot get hired to another job.  But, because the crooked political group that controlled the city's politics was thrown out of office, and Merry's former boss feels he can win the new election for Mayor, he rehires him back to his delivery boy job.  His first delivery is a barrel of monkeys.  Of course he trips, falls, again, breaking the barrel, and the monkeys run amuck.  It's a fairly tight plot and has a few funny scenes, and a slightly funny, but expected, ending.  But it has a few pages showing people volunteering the terrible truth, which seem fairly dull and too stretched out (wasting space).  So, this gag/coincidence-driven story could probably fit better in 5, rather than 7 pages, or needs better jokes to sustain 7.

All in all, as Editor, I'd have used a Space-themed story in its place.  But, IF I'd have been Avon's children's  titles' Chief Editor, I probably would have decided against the idea to produce funny animal Space-themed series (like "Space Mouse" and "Space Comics", in the first place).  That just can't work in agonisingly short stories for very young children.  Walter Lantz's 1960s "Space Mouse" DID publish some longer stories 10-14 pages) that helped fit adventures with a little more detail.  But even that size didn't work well enough, even given that Lantz had support for them from his "Space Mouse" animated cartoons.  Even so, the comic book series only lasted about 4 years with Western Printing (Dell and Gold Key) as opposed to 30-40 year very profitable comic book runs for his major animated characters.

[The Australian Panther]

Space Action #2 (August (1952)
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=15533
Molno and McLaughlin became Charlton Mainstays. Both could draw but rarely showed what they could really do.   
Lou Cameron This is likely early work by Lou.
He did his best work for Classics Illustrated. He was given an award for his work - for either his 'Dr Jeckly and Mr Hyde or War of the Worlds - both of those still inspire artists today. But the powers that be at Classics illustrated, not only did they not tell him he had won an award, they went to the function to pick up the award themselves. I don't know how he felt, but every time I think about it, I feel like punching walls.
He retired from comics and like Paul Wheelahan took to writing, particularly  westerns.
A great loss to comic art, in my opinioin.
Lou Cameron (1924 - 2010)
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/lou-cameron/
Prisoners of the Incredible Plants
Death by Carniverous Plant life was a standard sub-genre.
Last panel page 5 - he jumps out of the ship, next panel the ship is already in space. The artist was taking shortcuts? Or was that the writer?
More realistically, the returning ship just needed to carry a seed with it to start the infestation.
Chlorophyl bombs? What, DDT? Agent orange? destroy the environment to save the planet?
Not the best work by either the artist or the writer.   
The Weird threat of the space giants.
So by 2170 we have progressed to dressing like Romans or Greeks.
The female always has to be told she can't go on the expedition because 'its too dangerous' and she always gets her own way because she's stubborn so 'You'll have to take her!'
Hmm, an alternate universe story. aren't many of those in the golden age.
Giants? they are 9 feet tall at best.
The ending is unusual. The big bad warlords vow to 'help you, until our dying day!'
Also, there are apparently no 'Giantesses' to keep the species going. 
Weird seems to have been an all-purpose word, judging by the number of times it is used in Golden age comics.
Dangerous migration of the Baalites.
Did they have a contest? Who can come up with the most ridiculous story title?   
Theres a wind in 'the cold void of space?!'
A driverless car that 'works on the same principle as Radar? If you say so.
Fascinating with these stories how the writers casually wipe out whole species and planets 'because they are the bad guys. '
Silicon monsters from Galaxy X
The Silicon monsters look like they are seriously into Bondage.
All three of these stories are variations on a theme.
Humanity goes into space, encounters aliens that are out to destory them. Humanity destroys them instead.
The end.
From a 2025 perspective, disappointing.   

[SuperScrounge]

All three of these stories are variations on a theme.
Humanity goes into space, incounter aliens that are our to destory them. Humanity destroys them instead.
The end.

"We come in peace. Shoot to kill. Shoot to kill. Shoot to kill." 

[The Australian Panther]

Major Inapak the Space Ace (1951)
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=22996
Can't find out if there really was;-

"Inapak" was a chocolate flavored vitamin powder for milk, somewhat like "Ovaltine". 

but what interests me, is where did the name 'Inapak' itself come from? Could be an Alphabet soup name or maybe you bought it 'InAPak'?
Also,
Why Major Inapak? Most comic headline characters are either Captain or Sarge.
And thinking about this, Why is Colonel Carol Danvers, 'Captain Marvel'?
So Steve Rogers doesn't have to defer to her?
Powell's work here is great. He is very much unappreciated. He was one of a handful of Golden Age artists who tried out for Marvel when they were going through their first expansion but couldn't work with Stan Lee.
"New York was a far different place in '82 than it was today"
Got that right!
"Earth was divided into two zones of armed might and watchfulness, the East and West"
Got that right too.
Hpw come Robin, the stowaway, has a space suit and one that fits him?
An interesting Origin story. Told as a yarn to children, from the future. And Powell was having a ball drawing this one.In the very next story we are back in the present again, and Robin is an adolescent again.
Science Sidelights
The most interesting element here is the window behind them.
Look at the last panel.
I believe Ditko got this design for DR Strange from Eisner's The Spirit. Correct me if i'm wrong.
I was looking at Powell's work here and thinking there was a strong Eisner influence. Seems I was right.
This only goes 20 pages - which is evidence it was a giveaway and not a regular newstand comic.
Better than most giveaway comics - a labour of love.
Thanks QQ.
One plus to me about the Reading Group is that it forces me to look closer to books that I would not otherwise have spent much time on. And that is rewarding. 

[Quirky Quokka]

Hi everyone - Sorry it's taken me a while to get to your comments. Here are my responses to a few of your comments on the first book, interspersed with some of my extra thoughts:

Space Action #2 (1952)

Cover

It's an interesting cover that would make you take a second look. Though I don't think it really relates to any of the stories? Can any of you see a connection? Reminded me of the posters for 'Forbidden Planet' in which it looks looks like Robbie the Robot has attacked Anne Francis, but he doesn't do that in the movie.

Prisoners of the Incredible Plants

Robb said

The Humans kill every plant on Earth, while trying to kill the alien plants that land upon The Earth in their attack.  The alien plants all die, as well.

and Panther said

Chlorophyl bombs? What, DDT? Agent orange? destroy the environment to save the planet?

Yes, this was one of the more bizarre elements of the story for me. A solution that involves killing all the plants on Earth is really no solution. Only a few days later, the first green sprout occurred again on earth. Even if the soil hadn't been contaminated and that was true, how long would it be before it could be harvested or before trees could be used again? An extremely dumb solution.

Also, it took me a while to work out how many crewmen there were. I was thinking it was just the four who got off the ship, though we eventually find that there had been six. The captain with the grey temples reminded me of Reed Richards (Mr Fantastic) from the Fantastic Four, though they didn't make their debut until 1961. And in the last few frames, would stripping off really help them cool down if they were that close to the sun? Oh well, it gave us a chance to see bare-chested astronauts! 

The Weird Threat of the Space Giants

Morgus said

Glad they kept the tradition of men wearing bathing caps and women in cocktail waitress dresses. Fetch me another whiskey sour and blow on the dice, honey.

I love the first frame, where the Captain is completely covered, including a high collar, a cape and gloves; but the girl is in short sleeves and bikini bottoms. At least Star Trek gave Lieutenant Uhuru long sleeves to go with her micro mini 

Panther said

So by 2170 we have progressed to dressing like Romans or Greeks.The female always has to be told she can't go on the expedition because 'its too dangerous' and she always gets her own way because she's stubborn so 'You'll have to take her!'

LOL - I always wondered why people in Star Trek suddenly turned up in that sort of clothing too. I suspect they ran out of time in the lead-up to some episdoes and the wardrobe department just said 'We've got some togas you can use'. And I wish it was that easy for women to join space missions at the last minute. I'd be hanging around NASA just in case  Though she does get to use her chemistry skills later in the plot, so she's not just along for the ride.

Robb said:

The Aliens, who had preached that they lived to conquer all other peoples they would meet (showing no mercy), would so quickly, change to admitting that his people were wrong and offered that their few surviving Giants would help The Earth's people all the remainder of their lives.  I understand that during the early 1950s, such treatment of the villains had to be shown at the end of stories to keep these magazines "safe" to be read by our children.

Thanks for explaining that, Robb. I wondered the same thing. It's unlikely that such an evil alien would have a complete change of heart so quickly, but I guess it showed a redemptive element. Though wouldn't it have also been good if children saw that he was punished for his deeds? (Like 'Crime Doesn't Pay'). He ends up with something like community service.

Panther said:

Giants? they are 9 feet tall at best.

Yes, that struck me as well. In some frames, they look exactly the same height. Very little was done in the art to emphasise that they were supposed to be giants.

Dangerous Milgration of Baalites

Panther said:

A driverless car that 'works on the same principle as Radar? If you say so.

I guess they mean that radar can detect things so it doesn't run into them? In any case, I thought it was interesting that they predicted something that is now possible, though not as yet widely used.

SuperScrounge said

I sometimes wonder at the plotline of having a villain sacrifice themselves for the greater good, especially when it doesn't seem like the writer has done enough to foreshadow the possibility. Jut Drago didn't feel like the type of character to do that, so it felt like the writer just wanted to say, 'aren't pirates just good guys deep down?'

Yes, it's interesting that this story had a redemptive theme like the last one. As Robb said, they may have wanted to have this type of ending so that the comic was 'safe' for children. I guess it shows that anyone can change, which is a good thing, but I agree with you that there wasn't enough foreshadowing. Hard in a story of this length I guess, though they could have at least shown him having some doubts about his way of life.

The Silicon Monsters of Galaxy X

SuperScrounge said 

Almost sounds like an adult movie. 

What does Galaxy X have to do with this story? Another galaxy isn't even mentioned in this story.

We used to have a compilation of 20 B-grade sci-fi movies (some were C or D grade) and that title would easily stand alongside any of them 

Robb said

This story uses the typical theory of that time, that IF there are other life systems in our Universe that are NOT based upon carbon, they would most likely be based on silicon.

I didn't know that.

And my thoughts? In the middle panel on p. 2, Jon and his wife can still apparently speak clearly while in a lip-lock 

In the last frame on p. 6, the aliens are close enough to be fired at, but on p. 6 Jon takes time to chat with the survivors, then seems surprised that the aliens are coming.

On p. 7, it's amazing what you can do with a soldering iron. Popular Mechanics, anyone?

Record Ad

Morgus said:

LOVED the way they made HILL BILLY two words.

I'm more alarmed that I knew two of the songs on the 'Hill Billy' list. Would they have just equated hillbilly music with country music? I know quite a few of the hymns, but I hardly knew anything on the hit parade. I only know 'The Little White Cloud that Cried' because it was on Jamie Redfern's first album, which I used to own. Jamie was one of the original team members on Aussie show 'Young Talent Time' and released the song at the age of about 14. When Liberace came to Australia as a guest on the Logies (i.e., the Australian Emmys), he was so impressed with Jamie Redfern that he invited him to come on tour with him in the States, which he did in 1972. But I digress! 

Overall

I thought this book was okay, but I must admit that I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. The stories and writing were okay, but not great. As is often the case, more length would have helped in making the plots hang together better.

I thought the art on the spaceships was pretty good, though some of the other art was a bit patchy.

Overall, it was interesting to see what kind of sci-fi was around in 1952, and there were some good elements, but the overall quality was a bit disappointing.

Thanks for your comments everyone.

Cheers

QQ

[crashryan]

As for the Major's name, I always figured Inapak was thus named because all those nifty vitamins and minerals came to you IN A PACK (or rather a "packette," as the back cover calls it).

[Quirky Quokka]

As for the Major's name, I always figured Inapak was thus named because all those nifty vitamins and minerals came to you IN A PACK (or rather a "packette," as the back cover calls it).

That seems likely, now you've mentioned it Crashryan, but it hadn't occurred to me. I guess they wanted a fairly generic name if it was indeed a sampler comic to show companies how theur products could be advertised. But it makes Captain Inapak seem even dorkier.

Cheers

QQ

[Quirky Quokka]

Major Inapak - The Space Ace #1 (1951)

Cover

Robb said

A fairly well-staged cover drawing that catches the eye, stressing action in Space, with the Superhero, Major Inapak saving a child(Robin John) (ostensibly from the "evils" of vitamin deficiency, which could potentially lead to chronic illness, stunted growth, and poor performance and deficient learning in school).

I really like the cover. Though the alien's mouth makes it look a bit like horror, and I wasn't sure if that was a kid or a small alien before reading the story. The face looks a lot stranger than the normal kid we find inside. And not a hint that the evils he's fighting will be vitamin deficiencies  In hindsight, I wonder why they didn't work that into the story somewhere, like Roger Ramjet and his proton pills.

Inside ad

Morgus said

My fave hands down was the Bob Powell Vitamin give away. Man, there HAS to be a great back story there.

What do you mean, Morgus? You don't believe that vitamins are the next greatest invention after the atom bomb?   

As Robb has noted, it looks like this may have been a promotional comic to let manufacturers know what Magazine Enterprises could do to plug their product. It seems a shame if Major Inapak was just intended to be a one-off adventurer advertising a made-up product. Or was it a product that never really got off the ground? I didn't realise that was the case when I selected this book. I thought some of you would be able to tell me that you remembered taking Inapak as a kid. In some ways, it makes the book even more interesting.

And Crashryan, that's amazing that you were on the spot to snap up an actual copy at a ComicCon.

SuperScrounge said

How times have changed. If an artist drew a boy and girl in their underwear these days they'd probably be accused of being pedos.

I thought they were in their swimsuits. But now that you mention it, the girl does look like she's wearing a petticoat.

Robb said

Advertising page for Inapak Vitamins (Magazine Enterprises' giveaway comic book production services to market children's products that could be tied to a newly-created iconic comic book character representing the product).  With suggestions of The World's greatest discoveries in the background, the potential manufacturing customer's product could be touted as "A Wonderful New Discovery".  Or a new health product could be called "A new health care discovery".  Or a new entertainment product could be touted as "A new breakthrough in entertainment".

Yes, it seems strange that they would compare Inapak to all of these major discoveries. I'm not sure when vitamin supplements became better known, but they would have been around by then. (Who can forget Lucy and her Vitametavegamin commercial on 'I Love Lucy'?) Are any of these benefits different to any other vitamins?

Main Story

SuperScrounge said

Wow! The first moon rocket will be in 1984? I wonder if we'll live to see that? 

Kind of funny to see how they thought a moon launch would be like.

Given the research that was going on at the time, it's strange in one way that they didn't anticipate a moon landing sooner. And should we be looking at other ominous meanings of 1984? But when this was written in 1951, we didn't even have Sputnik so I guess it would have seemed almost unbelieable that man could walk on the moon in the next decade. And I thought the launch was starting to approximate what an actual launchpad and rocket might look like. Not too far removed from the Saturn V.

Panther said

Powell's work here is great. He is very much unappreciated. He was one of a handful of Golden Age artists who tried out for Marvel when they were going through their first expansion but couldn't work with Stan Lee ... How come Robin, the stowaway, has a space suit and one that fits him?

Thanks for the extra info about Powell. I've read a bit about Stan Lee's methods and I imagine a lot of artists would have had trouble with the way he worked and the speed with which stories were being generated. Re the space suit, there's a bit in the narration box on p. 7 that says the old-time pressure suits could be stretched to fit anyone. Makes no sense, but at least they attempt an explanation.

And some of my thoughts:

It starts with the old man telling the kids a story in 2031, but the blond-haired boy is wearing the same striped short as Robin in the 1980s story. At first I thought it was the same kid. Also interesting that an artist drawing kids in 1951 thought they'd be wearing the same style of clothes in 2031. Though actually, kids still do wear clothes like that!

Good to know that it only takes a mechanic with a wrench to crawl under a satellite rocket and turn it into a moon rocket within a few days! And how do the Major and Robin survive those liftoff G-forces in just regular clothes (and for Robin, nothing to strap him in)?

p. 7 How come scientists had discovered Pluto by then but apparently couldn't work out that there was a planet behind the moon? Had it only just appeared? (Maybe I missed that)

p. 11 I really liked the series of action pictures without dialogue balloons. It's not often I've seen a whole page like that in a comic from that time. The art overall was very good.

A nice twist at the end when we find out who the old guy is. Alas, he never does come back to tell us another story. It seems a shame if Major Inapak was only created for a promotional sampler. Were they intending to drop a real product in there if they got a sponsor? That might explain why vitamins weren't a feature in the actual story.

Science Highlights

Interesting way to get across some educational information and plug the product. This would have certainly satisfied the educational requirement that might appeal to parents and teachers (as well as qualifying it for cheaper postage as educational material). Though I did wonder if all of those experiments would be safe for kids to do at home. There's no mention of adult supervision.

Final ad

I've always wished I had as much pep as a marching girl 

Overall - Even though this was a promotional comic, I enjoyed it more than the more serious sci-fi comic. It created some good characters with the Major, the boy and a cute alien animal. It's a shame we didn't see them in more adventures. The art was also very good.

Cheers

QQ

[Robb_K]

Major Inapak the Space Ace (1951)
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=22996
Can't find out if there really was;-

"Inapak" was a chocolate flavored vitamin powder for milk, somewhat like "Ovaltine". 

 
What interests me, is where did the name 'Inapak' itself come from? Could be an Alphabet soup name or maybe you bought it 'InAPak'?

Yes, the name "Inapak" came from the fact that you buy all the vitamins and mineral you need each day, in a convenient packette, with milk added, it makes a good tasting drink that kids will want to consume. And tying the superhero namesake icon representing the product, whose adventures the kids will enjoy in the related giveaway comics, will help create more demand for your product.  Everything involved were marketing tools to help bring success to a new way you can promote your product to boost its chances for successful profitmaking.

[Robb_K]

Major Inapak - The Space Ace #1 (1951)

I really like the cover. Though the alien's mouth makes it look a bit like horror, and I wasn't sure if that was a kid or a small alien before reading the story. The face looks a lot stranger than the normal kid we find inside. (1) And not a hint that the evils he's fighting will be vitamin deficiencies  In hindsight, I wonder why they didn't work that into the story somewhere, like Roger Ramjet and his proton pills.

Yes, it seems strange that they would compare Inapak to all of these major discoveries.  (2) I'm not sure when vitamin supplements became better known, but they would have been around by then.
(Who can forget Lucy and her Vitametavegamin commercial on 'I Love Lucy'?) Are any of these benefits different to any other vitamins?

Main Story

SuperScrounge said

Wow! The first moon rocket will be in 1984? I wonder if we'll live to see that? 

Kind of funny to see how they thought a moon launch would be like.

Given the research that was going on at the time, it's strange in one way that they didn't anticipate a moon landing sooner. And should we be looking at other ominous meanings of 1984? (2) But when this was written in 1951, we didn't even have Sputnik so I guess it would have seemed almost unbelievable that man could walk on the moon in the next decade.

It starts with the old man telling the kids a story in 2031, but the blond-haired boy is wearing the same striped short as Robin in the 1980s story. At first I thought it was the same kid. (3) Also interesting that an artist drawing kids in 1951 thought they'd be wearing the same style of clothes in 2031. Though actually, kids still do wear clothes like that!

(4) p. 7 How come scientists had discovered Pluto by then but apparently couldn't work out that there was a planet behind the moon? Had it only just appeared?


A nice twist at the end when we find out who the old guy is. Alas, he never does come back to tell us another story. It seems a shame if Major Inapak was only created for a promotional sampler. (5) Were they intending to drop a real product in there if they got a sponsor? That might explain why vitamins weren't a feature in the actual story.

Science Highlights

Interesting way to get across some educational information and plug the product. This would have certainly satisfied the educational requirement that might appeal to parents and teachers (as well as qualifying it for cheaper postage as educational material). (6) Though I did wonder if all of those experiments would be safe for kids to do at home. There's no mention of adult supervision.

Cheers

QQ

(1) I agree, that the writer should have worked into the story, the fact that vitamin deficiency can lead to lack of energy, chronic illness, poor attention leading to poor performance in school.  And so, Major Inapak should hasve been drinking Inapak chocolate vitamin solution in glasses of milk before each time he made an attempt to defeat the aliens.

(2) There were lots of vitamin supplements for sale at drug stores, pharmacies and grocery stores in Canada and USA in 1951, and I daresay in Australia, as well.  Both British and American pharmaceutical manufacturers marketed several over-the counter vitamin supplements in Canada and Australia.

(3) I'm still wearing the same clothing I was wearing in 1951 (blue jeans, tee-shirts, baseball cap, trainers (tennis/basketball shoes) in 2025 (and I'll probably still be wearing them in 2031 (80 years later).  So why would that not be believed?

(4) Yes, the story implied that the planet's new orbit had just brought it into our Solar System, and Earth was in its continuing path.  But really, it's previous path COULDN'T have been completely blocked from view for all the time after it first came close enough to be seen.  So, that is a logic error by the author.

(5) Yes, ABSOLUTELY, Magazine Enterprises editors planned to get interest from advertising their  sample giveaway comic book, and to substitute their first client's product into that format, and give their new comic book superhero iconic character for that product a new name related to the product, and a assign a related name for the product.  The new story would also be tailored to the product's purpose.

(6) All those experiments would NOT be safe for young children to conduct without adult supervision.  So there should have been a statement to that effect: "Children should NOT attempt to perform these experiments without adult supervision.

[Morgus]

‘Crash, right now, (now being July 5th at 20:25 eastern) they have 29 copies of the Major on sale on Canadian eBay. The prices range from about 20 bucks to 300 bucks. That guy with the box at the comic convention was busy.
You know, in terms of irresistible, that’s pretty high. Right up there with Walt Kelly’s Peter Wheat or Basil Wovertones’s ‘End of the World as We Know It” for Herbert W Armstrong. and The Plain Truth.

[The Australian Panther]

Space Comics #5 (May-June 1954)
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=76456

Space Mouse
Space Mouse is featured on the cover, so I guess this is really his book.
Not sure how to review this.
Funny Animal books work for mew when the type of narrative justifies the format.
This is a very by-the-numbers story. Unlike Bugs Bunny or Donald Duck or Pogo for that matter, the featured character is not distinctive or memorable in any way.
The art is just wha it is, tells the story and that's it.
Peter Rabbit.
Some of what I just said is applicable here.   
Interestingly, like Barks work, the bad guys are Dogs.
The Story is a little more interesting and imaginative.
Super Pup.
Generic Story. Same observations from me.
Merry Mouse.
not in Space this time.
Story is not original, but I enjoyed this one.
Re 'Uncle Bernie's fun shop' is 'Happy the Cowboy' smoking?!
There are apparently 2 artists work on this book, but I can't tell the  difference.
It's good to have the book here, but there are still at least 3 isues missing.
QQ thanks for putting this one up.
We should include more 'Funny Animal' books.
If the guest posts there will be something new tomorrow.
If not, I will post Tuesday AM.
Cheers!   

[Quirky Quokka]

Space Comics #5 (1954)

I liked the cover. A bit of a sight gag. Is it my imagination or is the colour a bit washed out in this comic book? Was it meant to be that subdued or is it just the condition of the book that was scanned?

Space Mouse - The Lost World

SuperScrounge said

Soooooo... uranium has magnetic properties? Of course, it turns out this is different than Earth uranium so I guess it's 'space uranium'. And there's a tremendous explosion, but no mention of radiation, and it wipes out the lost world and the dinosaur-like life, but oh well, no biggy. *sound of head hitting desk*

Yes, I was thinking exactly the same thing about the uranium. The fact that they found dinosaurs alive was almost a tangent. Who cares if we think they've been extinct for millions of years? Let's get rid of these ones too!

Robb said:

This story has a lot happening, - which flies whizzing by, over the 4 pages of action, making the story difficult to follow.  I get the feeling that the writers and artists of these stories didn't take pride in this work, and thought little kids wouldn't notice the difference between a well-told and drawn tale and just some weak cartoony scribbles thrown down on a page.  I never understood the point of Avon's trying to create a "Funny Animal/Sci-Fi Adventure Genre", which would have been extremely difficult to do successfully even given entire 52-page books to contain only one long adventure story, let alone having only 36 page books containing four or five 6 page stories, using inferior artists drawing "cute" characters, even for their supposed villains!  Reading this story was a waste of time, and I'd have been embarrassed to have my name attached to it in any way.  and the weak artwork was also not worth seeing.

Thanks for the extra info, Robb. It's always good to get some of your insight into the industry. You're right that it didn't give much time for the story to develop. And as I mentioned above, the dinosaur bit almost seemed like a tangent when that could have been the major thrust of the story, given the title. I wonder if they just used some story ideas they already had and then 'space-ified' some of them to cash in on the interest in space?

Panther said

Funny Animal books work for me when the type of narrative justifies the format.
This is a very by-the-numbers story. Unlike Bugs Bunny or Donald Duck or Pogo for that matter, the featured character is not distinctive or memorable in any way.

I didn't mind this story, but you're right that it's not up to the standard of others. I'd also put some of the Rocky and Bullwinkle ones in the good group, along with some of their sidekicks like Boris and Natasha. Much better stories and distinctive characters.

I thought the characters were cute though and could have worked with a better story.

Peter Rabbit - Test Pilot

Robb said

What kind of rabbit has such short ears?  Can this be the "Peter Rabbit" of Beatrix Potter, Harrison Cady, and Vince Fago???  Even Frank Carin didn't draw rabbit ears as short as cat ears!  I do like the bit of ironic black humour on the story's opening splash panel where two pilots are talking about Peter as a test pilot for experimental space ships, with the first saying: "He must have nerves of steel to do that job", and the 2nd says: "Either that, or he's tired of living!".  That is incredibly unexpected, and unbelievably shocking to find in these normally pablum-filled, "Kiddy Fare" stories in Avon's (Carin's) funny animal and young children's series.

Robb, I hadn't even noticed the length of the ears, but you're absolutely right. He does look more like a cat. It's interesting that the 'tired of living' comment is in a kid's comic. I wonder if it reflected the concern of some adults that it was crazy to think of actually putting men in a rocket and sending them off into space? It's still risky business now, but would have seemed moreso in the 1950s.

I did think the idea of Peter being a test pilot was interesting though, as this was in the era between Yeager breaking the sound barrier and the first American astronauts being picked for the Mercury Seven. Lots of test pilots died in that era, so it was certainly risky business. All of the original seven had been test pilots.

In the fourth panel on p. 2, the speech bubbles read in the wrong order, which was a bit confusing.

In the last panel on p. 5, how come we can see Saturn if they're heading for the moon? I guess any generic space background will do??

Not a bad story and the end showed him being a lot kinder by towing the bad guys' ship back to earth rather than leaving the bad guys to die.

Super Pup - The Green Peril

Robb said

This story has a decent adventure and logical plot.  But, it is more like an outline of a story, rather than actually watching an adventure play out, because all the panels show almost no detail, the actions are too simple to relate to how real events occur in real life, so the reader can't really imagine how they happened or believe they are happening in this story.  So, unlike Carl Barks' adventures of Uncle Scrooge, or Herge's Tin Tin, or Terry and The Pirates, the reader of this story can't look at these symbolic drawings, and feel like these actions are really taking place in an alternate Universe, as we can in the best-drawn and written in detail stories about cartoon characters.  So, it is very difficult for the reader to enjoy reading stories as poorly staged and poorly written and with such lack of detail as this, and all of its low level of quality.

Yes some of those panels on the moon are certainly simple and lacking in detail. Thanks for the comparison with Barks. It reminds me of the difference between average and excellent children's picture ones. The average ones illustrate the story adequately, but the excellent ones always have something extra to look at in the background that adds to the story.

This is the second story in the book to mention uranium mining (p. 2). I guess the need for uranium was on everyone's minds after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I wasn't familiar with the term 'cobalt bombs', but I see it's a nastier nuclear weapon intended to contaminate a large area with radioactive waste. So it seems the Cold War is alive and well in this comic, though without any explanation for the kids who will be reading.

p. 4 - Why is an announcement on TV  the only way that the president could contact SuperPup? They had telephones!

Merry Mouse - The Awful Truth

SuperScrounge said

Interesting poster on page 6, panel 2. F. Carin Wanted? seems to poke fun at artist Frank Carin (although the GCD credits the art to Isidore Klein, not Frank).

Nice pick-up, SuperScrounge. I wouldn't have known thereference even if I saw the poster. A great Easter Egg for those in the know.

Robb said

This story has nothing to do with Outer Space, why is it in "Space Comics".  If they could take a leased character property like Peter Rabbit, and put him in a "Space Environment" for placement in this book, why couldn't they do that with one of their own copyrighted characters, like Merry Mouse?

I wondered if they just needed to get something out and didn't have time to write a new Merry Mouse story or at least adapt one of his other stories.

At the bottom of p. 3, I wondered why Milly told Merry she had somethign to show him but the next page jumped to the next day. Then I realised that pages 4 and 5 have been switched around in the scan.

In view of the mayor's confession, maybe we should give truth serum to all of the politicians. Would make for some very interesting TV 

I liked the funny twist at the end.

Ads at the back

Morgus said

But Uncle Bernie’s Fun Shop, (buy now at our low low prices) made my day. The guy looks like he sells factory outlet slot machines. Is that a CIGARETTE hanging out of Happy the Cowboy’s mouth??? Yeah. just what every kid needs. A SMOKING ventrillo doll. Didn’t ANYBODY watch DEAD OF NIGHT??

LOL - It does indeed look like a smoking ventriliquist's dummy. Not exactly Howdy Doody. Though I was also alarmed by the creepy looking doll that had rubber wonderskin. Eww!! I'm glad my mother never got me that one. Though I was never really a big fan of dolls anyway. Would much rather play with my wooden blocks, Lego, plastic construction kit, and red pedal car.

And please tell me that they didn't really send baby turtles through the mail, even if they are 'delivered healthy and safe in a special moss-protected package'.

Overall

I didn't mind this comic book, but as a number of you said, the stories could have been better. I thought the Merry Mouse one actually had the best storyline and it wasn't a space theme. Maybe they were trying to cash in on the space trend, but without really considering how they could translate that into good stories for some of the other characters. But it was a cute book and reasonably entertaining.

Cheers

QQ

[Quirky Quokka]

(6) All those experiments would NOT be safe for young children to conduct without adult supervision.  So there should have been a statement to that effect: "Children should NOT attempt to perform these experiments without adult supervision.

Yes, I was a bit surprised there was no warning to have adult supervision, given that some books and magazines even ask kids not to use scissors without parental supervision. And there's no safety equipment like goggles. I wonder how many mothers came into the kitchen to find little Johnny in the midst of overflowing chemicals?

And thanks for your other answers too.

Cheers

QQ

[The Australian Panther]

And please tell me that they didn't really send baby turtles through the mail, even if they are 'delivered healthy and safe in a special moss-protected package'. 

I felt queasy about that too.
Do the US mails not have regulations against sending live animals through the mail?

[SuperScrounge]

I wonder how many mothers came into the kitchen to find little Johnny in the midst of overflowing chemicals?

Look, mom, I'm gaining superpowers! 

Do the US mails not have regulations against sending live animals through the mail?

They probably do now, but I'm not sure at the time.

Remember there was a time in the US when parents would mail their kids before new laws forbid it. (As I understand it, it was cheaper than buying train tickets, and as long at the kids had the correct postage and the address to be taken to mailmen would carry them along in their trucks.)

[Morgus]

Q.Q. and Panther; it happened.

And turtles weren’t the worst.

Some scum sucker shipped spider monkeys. Cruel and despicable, but I guess legal. Eventually shut down, but not soon enough. I think a couple of local outbreaks of some disease did the trick.
One of my aunts in Cincinnati took her fists and a  broom to a really creepy guy selling them door to door. Said he was selling them to build a church. Boy did that make her mad.
When the whole Jim Jones/Peoples Temple thing went down she sat both upright and screamed at the TV that HE the guy at her door. Everybody said she was nuts, but nope. Local papers backed her up, with an unspoken feeling the creep should have been nipped in the bud in Ohio.
If only.

[Robb_K]

I wonder how many mothers came into the kitchen to find little Johnny in the midst of overflowing chemicals?

Look, mom, I'm gaining superpowers! 

Do the US mails not have regulations against sending live animals through the mail?

They probably do now, but I'm not sure at the time.

Remember there was a time in the US when parents would mail their kids before new laws forbid it. (As I understand it, it was cheaper than buying train tickets, and as long at the kids had the correct postage and the address to be taken to mailmen would carry them along in their trucks.)

Did the parents write notes for the postman saying "Handle with care" (do not toss box into truck)!  Human child inside!"  I hope the crates that housed them at least had air holes.  How in The World did the parents manage to get the children to go into the boxes to be shipped???  "Junior, we're going to play a fun game.  First, you get inside this "Fun Box".  After you are safely inside, I'll tell you what happens next!".  I wonder how many children ran away from home, rather than willingly stepped inside a shipping crate, or let a postal employee build a crate around him or her?  I remember back in the late 1940s and 1950s when lots of animals were shipped in crates and boxes, mostly by freight-shipping trucking  services, and even moreso by the railrods; but I also ember that the national postal services shipped the smaller boxes as well.

[Robb_K]

Space Comics #5 (1954)

I liked the cover. A bit of a sight gag. (1) Is it my imagination or is the colour a bit washed out in this comic book? Was it meant to be that subdued or is it just the condition of the book that was scanned?

Space Mouse - The Lost World

SuperScrounge said

(2) Soooooo... uranium has magnetic properties? Of course, it turns out this is different than Earth uranium so I guess it's 'space uranium'. And there's a tremendous explosion, but no mention of radiation, and it wipes out the lost world and the dinosaur-like life, but oh well, no biggy. *sound of head hitting desk*

Yes, I was thinking exactly the same thing about the uranium. The fact that they found dinosaurs alive was almost a tangent. Who cares if we think they've been extinct for millions of years? Let's get rid of these ones too!

Robb said:

This story has a lot happening, - which flies whizzing by, over the 4 pages of action, making the story difficult to follow.  I get the feeling that the writers and artists of these stories didn't take pride in this work, and thought little kids wouldn't notice the difference between a well-told and drawn tale and just some weak cartoony scribbles thrown down on a page.  I never understood the point of Avon's trying to create a "Funny Animal/Sci-Fi Adventure Genre", which would have been extremely difficult to do successfully even given entire 52-page books to contain only one long adventure story, let alone having only 36 page books containing four or five 6 page stories, using inferior artists drawing "cute" characters, even for their supposed villains!  Reading this story was a waste of time, and I'd have been embarrassed to have my name attached to it in any way.  and the weak artwork was also not worth seeing.

Thanks for the extra info, Robb. It's always good to get some of your insight into the industry. You're right that it didn't give much time for the story to develop. And as I mentioned above, the dinosaur bit almost seemed like a tangent when that could have been the major thrust of the story, given the title. I wonder if they just used some story ideas they already had and then 'space-ified' some of them to cash in on the interest in space?

Panther said

Funny Animal books work for me when the type of narrative justifies the format.
This is a very by-the-numbers story. Unlike Bugs Bunny or Donald Duck or Pogo for that matter, the featured character is not distinctive or memorable in any way.

I didn't mind this story, but you're right that it's not up to the standard of others. I'd also put some of the Rocky and Bullwinkle ones in the good group, along with some of their sidekicks like Boris and Natasha. Much better stories and distinctive characters.

I thought the characters were cute though and could have worked with a better story.

Peter Rabbit - Test Pilot

Robb said

What kind of rabbit has such short ears?  Can this be the "Peter Rabbit" of Beatrix Potter, Harrison Cady, and Vince Fago???  Even Frank Carin didn't draw rabbit ears as short as cat ears!  I do like the bit of ironic black humour on the story's opening splash panel where two pilots are talking about Peter as a test pilot for experimental space ships, with the first saying: "He must have nerves of steel to do that job", and the 2nd says: "Either that, or he's tired of living!".  That is incredibly unexpected, and unbelievably shocking to find in these normally pablum-filled, "Kiddy Fare" stories in Avon's (Carin's) funny animal and young children's series.

Robb, I hadn't even noticed the length of the ears, but you're absolutely right. He does look more like a cat. It's interesting that the 'tired of living' comment is in a kid's comic. I wonder if it reflected the concern of some adults that it was crazy to think of actually putting men in a rocket and sending them off into space? It's still risky business now, but would have seemed moreso in the 1950s.

I did think the idea of Peter being a test pilot was interesting though, as this was in the era between Yeager breaking the sound barrier and the first American astronauts being picked for the Mercury Seven. (3) Lots of test pilots died in that era, so it was certainly risky business. All of the original seven had been test pilots.

In the fourth panel on p. 2, the speech bubbles read in the wrong order, which was a bit confusing.

In the last panel on p. 5, how come we can see Saturn if they're heading for the moon? I guess any generic space background will do??

Not a bad story and the end showed him being a lot kinder by towing the bad guys' ship back to earth rather than leaving the bad guys to die.

Super Pup - The Green Peril

Robb said

This story has a decent adventure and logical plot.  But, it is more like an outline of a story, rather than actually watching an adventure play out, because all the panels show almost no detail, the actions are too simple to relate to how real events occur in real life, so the reader can't really imagine how they happened or believe they are happening in this story.  So, unlike Carl Barks' adventures of Uncle Scrooge, or Herge's Tin Tin, or Terry and The Pirates, the reader of this story can't look at these symbolic drawings, and feel like these actions are really taking place in an alternate Universe, as we can in the best-drawn and written in detail stories about cartoon characters.  So, it is very difficult for the reader to enjoy reading stories as poorly staged and poorly written and with such lack of detail as this, and all of its low level of quality.

Yes some of those panels on the moon are certainly simple and lacking in detail. Thanks for the comparison with Barks. It reminds me of the difference between average and excellent children's picture ones. The average ones illustrate the story adequately, but the excellent ones always have something extra to look at in the background that adds to the story.

This is the second story in the book to mention uranium mining (p. 2). I guess the need for uranium was on everyone's minds after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I wasn't familiar with the term 'cobalt bombs', but I see it's a nastier nuclear weapon intended to contaminate a large area with radioactive waste. So it seems the Cold War is alive and well in this comic, though without any explanation for the kids who will be reading.

p. 4 - (4) Why is an announcement on TV  the only way that the president could contact SuperPup? They had telephones!

Merry Mouse - The Awful Truth

SuperScrounge said

(5) Interesting poster on page 6, panel 2. F. Carin Wanted? seems to poke fun at artist Frank Carin (although the GCD credits the art to Isidore Klein, not Frank).

Nice pick-up, SuperScrounge. I wouldn't have known thereference even if I saw the poster. A great Easter Egg for those in the know.

Robb said

This story has nothing to do with Outer Space, why is it in "Space Comics".  If they could take a leased character property like Peter Rabbit, and put him in a "Space Environment" for placement in this book, why couldn't they do that with one of their own copyrighted characters, like Merry Mouse?

(6) I wondered if they just needed to get something out and didn't have time to write a new Merry Mouse story or at least adapt one of his other stories.

(7) In view of the mayor's confession, maybe we should give truth serum to all of the politicians. Would make for some very interesting TV 

I liked the funny twist at the end.

Ads at the back
( Please tell me that they didn't really send baby turtles through the mail, even if they are 'delivered healthy and safe in a special moss-protected package'.

Overall

I didn't mind this comic book, but as a number of you said, the stories could have been better. I thought the Merry Mouse one actually had the best storyline and it wasn't a space theme. Maybe they were trying to cash in on the space trend, but without really considering how they could translate that into good stories for some of the other characters. But it was a cute book and reasonably entertaining.
Cheers
QQ 

(1) Yes, the colouring in this book is very degraded.  The first owner probably read it many times outside in bright direct sunlight, or read it often in his/her bedroom with direct sunlight shining on it through a window.  In addition, the scanning process has settings that can vary the lightness or darkness. which can also affect the colours, and the condition and built-in colour reading capability of the scanning machine greatly affects the colour hues read and reproduced.

(2) Maybe this unearthly, magnetic Uranium is rare Isotope 237, which is found only on The Earth's Moon, and it's radiation is very deadly to plants?

(3) Yes, the wisecrack from the rocket testing ground crew about Peter Rabbit's "death wish" came directly from the story writer's knowledge of how dangerous that job was in real life.  As I stated above, it was an attempt to put an adult spin on the story with that bit of ironic, and black humour.  Almost all of my favourite comic book story writers on Golden Age  Comics from my childhood, or Silver and Copper Age comics drawn and written by colleagues and myself, were written on 2 levels, one for the children readers, and one for teenagers and adults, who understood a lot more about life and could enjoy the humour.  To me, a good writer writes stories that he, or she, would enjoy reading. Most of the writers I know show their storyboards to their colleagues for feedback, long before they submit them to their editors.  So, a lot of that adult-level humour is for the writer/artists themselves and their friends, and maybe their editor (if the latter has a good sense of humour).

(4) Yes!  A Superhero like Super Pup should have been on a private line to The President of the most powerful nation in The World, so the leader can get ahold of him instantly when his help is needed (just as that should have been the setup for Superman and Captain Marvel, in the Universes (dimensions) where each of them were the only Superhero on Earth.

(5) Izzy Klein (no cousin of mine - as far as I know) drew that poster to give a nod to, and poke fun at, his story, and art editor, and drawing colleague on this book, Frank Carin, who also drew the storyboards as a guide for Klein, as well as may have drawn the final pencils on the better-drawn one of Klein's 2 stories, over which Klein drew the ink lines.  Lots of comic artists draw their friends, colleagues, and editors into their finished drawings as background characters, cameo, one panel characters or on political campaign or police wanted criminal posters.  After I am gone from this World, a remote, stylised likeness of me might exist for another 50 or 100 years.  My feeble bid for "immortality".   

(6) Yes, Carin probably just threw the "Merry Mouse" story in this book because they wanted to showcase their different Avon Funny Animal characters, and originally planned to have a Merry Mouse Space Story there, but couldn't get one finished in time.  Merry Mouse's story in "Space Comics" #4 was also NOT set in Space; but it DID involve Merry and Milly flying a rocket ship to Africa (to go big game hunting)!  Strangely, that story was the LEAD story in "Space Comics #4".  Carin was mainly an artist, not really a lover of writing stories, and apparently, he was so busy running Avon's Young Children's Comic Books operation, and Nation-Wide Comics, as well, that he had little time to think about planning the various issues of several series for each of the two publishers, but especially, needed to pay more attention to Nation-Wide, as he was co-owner of that firm.

(7) I agree with you that the NON-Space "Merry Mouse" story, had the best story plot in this book, with Merry inadvertently spilling the highly concentrated "truth drug" into his city's water reservoir, causing the crooked political officers to tell the truth about their graft and incompetence.  And the "Peter Rabbit" rocket test piloting story had the other promising story plot.  However, Carin didn't give them enough size to develop those stories to a level anywhere near as detailed as they would have needed to make much more interesting and funny stories, and make their lead characters more well developed, so that they'd become more popular, and sell more of their books.  The so-called "Space" / Sci-Fi stories tried to use the skeletons of tried and true plots used in The Pulp and magazine Sci-Fi Space exploration stories with alien sentient villains and exotic planets and alien plantlife.  But the short size of the stories, and lack of story planning (due to the pitifully low rate of pay for the story writing, and the lack of respect for the children's reading ability and intelligence, resulted in stories thrown together with little thought based on just cliche idea of the   most basic structure of Sci-Fi story plots.

(8} The US Postal Service most certainly DID send packages of baby Turtles through the post.  Imagine how horrible the kids would feel opening a box of dead baby turtles.  I suppose that the sender would offer to refund their money or to  send a replacement package out to the.  I wonder what % of the purchasers asked for a second attempt to have them arrive alive?  of course, some of those advertising companies were fly-by-night operations, who kept changing their company names and addresses, and never sent refunds.  I don't know how many of ther turtle sellers were legitimate companies careful to keep up good reputations.

[SuperScrounge]

Did the parents write notes for the postman saying "Handle with care" (do not toss box into truck)!  Human child inside!"

No, they folded them up and stuffed them into envelopes. We're not barbarians you know. 

I couldn't find the video I watched years ago (I think was on Today I Found Out), but typing Mailing Children into YouTube's search engine brought up quite a few videos on the topic https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mailing+children

[Robb_K]

Did the parents write notes for the postman saying "Handle with care" (do not toss box into truck)!  Human child inside!"

No, they folded them up and stuffed them into envelopes. We're not barbarians you know. 

I couldn't find the video I watched years ago (I think was on Today I Found Out), but typing Mailing Children into YouTube's search engine brought up quite a few videos on the topic https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mailing+children

Thanks for that link.  It's very interesting.  I can remember several comic book stories and films in which adults secretly climbed into boxes and were carried onto railroad trains, trucks, or airplanes, and taken to where the people wanted to go.  Of course, in real life that would be a very risky thing to do.