[MarkWarner]

With the miserable weather a lot of us are currently suffering from, I thought we'd head off for a week of "Weird Adventures On Other World's" in "The Universe of the Future".

All this and more, is promised from Fiction House's Planet Comics #21 https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=18801!!!

The main story that we are concentrating begins on page 27, "Auro Lord of Jupiter". Plenty of reading matter in this book, so if like me you are a cover to cover reader better start real soon!

[misappear]

School is closed due to cold.  comic day!

I love space opera.  Asimov's Foundation and Smith's Lensmen are my favorite stories.  I grew up on Mystery in Space, Space Family Robinson, and I'll watch Robinson Crusoe on Mars every time I see it on.  When I started to collect comics in earnest in the early 1970's, I was aware of Planet, but I bought Planet Stories (the pulp) because it was much cheaper (!!).  Still, I read an occasional Planet when there was a coverless or damaged copy to snag.

Back in the 70's, I would compare the wonderfully written, beautifully drawn literary masterpieces Adam Strange and Space Ranger to the silly Planets of the 1940's and congratulate myself for being so enlightened.  Or at least I liked to think.  I read a Planet now, and I'm still amused by the silliness, but not quite as critical.  I just look at them as a comic version of a Flash Gordon serial or something. 

At any rate, I thought I might point out some of the best lines of text in Planet #21 which just brought a smile to my face as I read:


.....You have stolen our property and enslaved our people! Still, we bring you refreshments as is our custom.....

.....Look, a strange white girl!  What am I bid?.....

.....Whirling about she gasps to see a huge brute being wearing quaint Elizabethian (sic) armor and a murderous pike......

......When my father reads this note I have left him he will know that I have run away with Tono.....Dear Daddy.......

.....At this dizzy speed we will hit the lost world like an arrow......No Hunt, the reverse lever, Here let me take over........

.....Suddenly, a host of beautiful young women spring from hiding......

.....My friends and I were out for a spin in our space ship when we were held up by pirates.......

.....Up with your flippers you bug shaped devils!......

Good choice on this one.  It was fun.  Even "sun people" living on Jupiter.

--Dave

[twiztor]

i only read the lead story, but will check out the others and report back later in the week.

my first thoughts with the Auro strip is that i'd hate to be Tona. He merely says that he'd be exiled if the King found out, and then the Princess coerces him into leaving. Then he gets surprise attacked, and then, after being fed to the Mantis, gets brushed aside while Auro saves his girlfriend. Well, at least all is forgiven when they get back.

i question how holding a jewel makes it possible to breathe denser air, but that's ok.
i also question why such a valuable jewel isn't well guarded.
what a coincidence that Auro happened by.

quite enjoyed the artwork. The flying hellhounds were a nice addition that i didn't expect. and man, that giant mantis was dispatched quickly.
overall, an enjoyable read. i look forward to the rest of the book.

[Drusilla lives!]

... I love space opera.  ...

As I was reading Auro, I was grasping for something to best describe what it was reminding me of and since it's an ongoing monthly feature, I suppose "space opera" is an apt one. 

There's an odd "feel" to the story... to me it seems sort of a mix of sci-fi and Conan-like sword and sorcery.  I must honestly say, I really enjoyed this story.  I was initially expecting more sci-fi, but that was quickly put to an end with the "radium jewel thingy" plot device.  Having read the story to completion, in hindsight, I'd say it could have easily been reworked into a more standard sci-fi story with the introduction of some sort of mechanical device instead of that rather magical jewel... particularly since the "mist people" created the "heavy valley air" through mechanical means themselves.  But with that said, if one is willing to innocently overlook the unexplained nature of that device... one which was literally tossed aside without a care at the end... imo going with that whole jewel angle is the very thing that gave the story its nice, weird, Conan-like atmosphere.    And the art was rather well done. 

I must say, Rafael Astarita is quickly gaining in my eye as one of the best of these very early GA pencillers, judging from what I've seen of his Fiction House work.  But in my opinion the artwork was consistently good throughout the issue (although somewhat uniform stylistically).

"Gale Allen and Her Girl Squadron" was very nicely done and imo, unlike the Rulah story from week 2, this one was a little better constructed... which just goes to show that even if a story exists only as a vehicle to show off beautifully drawn girls, it doesn't have to be poorly written.  Or in other words, one can indeed have their cheesecake and eat it (or perhaps in this case, read it) too.   

Also liked "The Lost World" and the "Will the Insects Conquer the World?" text piece.

As an aside note of interest, both the Auro story and Lost World one got me to look at the next issue... which I'm glad I did.  Lost World is apparently penciled very nicely there by a young Nick Cardy and to my pleasant surprise, JonTheScanner also included some scans of original art for the various stories throughout the issue... thanks Jon.  A very impressive, informative addition imo.  It's nice to see such "extra" material... does anyone know offhand if there are other uploaded comic scans here with added original art?

[paw broon]

How many of the women on these alien planets, and charging around in spaceships, wear high heels? 
I read the whole thing, then re-read it, and on my 3rd. read, I still wasn't sure what to say about it.  There is so much!
The particular story that we had to concentrate on, Auro, starts with the question, "What know we puny earthlings of the weird creatures and strange happenings on distant planets such as huge Jupiter......?"
(And a lot of the dialogue is sort of cod historic)
Well, by the 1930's, "we" knew it was a gas giant with the atmosphere being mostly hydrogen and helium.  But, as this is fiction, I suppose it can be made of whatever the writer likes. And the gravity and pressure doesn't have to crush you to jelly.  I would prefer if the planets were called something else - there is supposed to be imagination at play here so surely writers could think up non solar system names. It annoys me. 
Rant over, the dialogue is a bit overblown, don't you think?  The story seems to be Tarzan in space.  Some of the panels are rather nice but we don't seem to know why Auro is the only person who can survive in the different regions without the gem or a breather kit. 
It's the next story that pleased me more, mainly because I really enjoyed the artwork, and although I had seen his work previously, I didn't know it was Rudy Palais.  I need to find more. Costumed archer v. space dragon and weirdos - good stuff.
Then there is Norge Benson, at which point I thought I was hallucinating. This as madness, features a total incompetent and defies description.  I enjoyed it.
Actually, I think I'm gibbering.  I have to go and read this again, but, left to my own devices, I don't think I'd go near another one.

[narfstar]

Paw and I must be on the same wave length with the Auro story. This story was easy to look at but hard to read. It was not ridiculous in the enjoyable way Rulah was. Very stiff and over explanatory dialog. Auro referring to himself in the third person is not cool either. Norge on the other hand was fantastic. Pure fantastical fiction like Jingle Jangle or Little Nemo with some good girl art thrown in especially page 51. Man makes me want to read them all. Stepping off one planet onto another or grabbing a bell rope that just happens to be hanging in the air outside is wonderful randomness.

[crashryan]

Since I try to read all of every book before commenting, I'm ashamed to admit I only made it partway through this one. Most of the stories are convoluted and illogical. They're fun to look at, though. I enjoy the other-worldly creatures made up of pieces of earth beasts even more than I enjoy spotting the Alex Raymond swipes.

Mars, God of War, was a strange series. Mars acted sort of like The Green Glob in late-period ACG comics. He appears at the beginning to provide an excuse for characters to start beating on each other, then mostly disappears until the last few panels. He always vows to drench the universe in blood. Spoiler: he doesn't. Joe Doolin has a solid style with John Celardo-like inks. I rather like him.

Reef Ryan boasts the least comprehensible story in this issue. Isip's art is serviceable although several times he chooses not to draw the most important part of the action, leading to confusion. An example is on (book) pages 14 and 15 when the jester pokes a slave in the ass and somehow upsets the Tab of Xalan's throne.

Gale Allen is always about lots of women in scanty outfits. This story delivers plenty of them, including one who appears topless in the big battle scene. From behind, alas. Gale's ethics are a bit strange. She gets the entire native population stoned on sugar so the miner's son can enslave them (or rather, "bribe them to work for you'). But then the same kid shoots his unarmed rival and no one seems to mind that, either.

The feature story, Auro, is Tarzan in Space. It bugs me when stories like this drop critical story points (in this case the whole business of the misty valley being the only source of Aquas) into the middle of the story almost as an afterthought. I think of the Gardner Fox / John Broome space stories. Though equally farfetched and frequently overwritten, their premises were always clearly spelt out in the first page or two and their conclusions remained consistent with their setups. This was not the Fiction House way of writing. The art by Astarita is okay but I've seen better. He seems to be still working on his drawing skills.

It's interesting to see the origin of Hunt Bowman and the Lost World. When reading later episodes I'd always assumed Hunt was on Earth. I've never been a fan of Rudy Palais' hysterical art style, but I grant him points for coming up with unique spacecraft designs instead of using the pulp magazine or Flash Gordon ships that everyone else used.

Norge Benson is the best thing in the issue. I've seen other Norge episodes and all have loony stories full of funny throw-aways, and inventive artwork. Al Walker is known mostly for his "Greasemonkey Griffin" stories, but Norge Benson is just as good. I'd like to see a compilation sometime.

Star Pirate finally exhausted my patience. I didn't finish it nor did I read Flint Baker. I did pause to appreciate Art Saaf developing his drawing chops on the latter.

Overall I find this sort of space opera fun in small doses. I'm quickly overwhelmed by space-happy gobbledygook like thargs and xalanites and radvivas. It's also annoying that the stories don't give the slightest nod to scientific knowledge. As a kid it used to drive me crazy when a comic would set two stories on the same planet but the planet's concept was entirely different in each story. We see that here in the two stories set on Jupiter. Charlton space comics used to do that all the time. Better to set your story on Planet Buggaboodoo.

[MarkWarner]

I rather liked the art in the first story, Mars God of War, especially the 10 foot high mushrooms that appeared in quite a few frames. Captain Jim Defi spent a lot of his time "chinning" the mate. But he and the crew deserved whatever was coming their way, if only for being so stupid as to drink the knockout brew.

The Reef Ryan Story that follows, I found rather annoying. I couldn't work out the ruler's title. It starts with an I with the bottom missing but it is not Tab, or is it? I also found some of the language tiresome "They go to their death!  I've spoken on the Radviva to the Tab of Guirtha. He'll take care of them!" So saying, I will certainly start using the phrase "Surprised, but undismayed ..."  wherever possible. It is definitely the best bit of this story.

Oh, BTW if you are ever bidding for them in an auction Reef Ryan sold for 5,000 RADS and Vara 50,000 RADS. Mind you a different auction clientele could reverse those figures .. um ... moving swiftly on ...

Gale Allen and her Girl Squadron I think should be renamed The Babe Squadron. It is silliness in the extreme, and to be honest I quite enjoyed it. Reminded me a bit of Destiny Angel and her pilots in Captain Scarlet, but with considerably less clothes.

Ok, now for our selected story Auro, Lord of Jupiter. I liked the word "Jupiterian" and another phrase that caught my eye (or is it ear) "Oh tragic woe!".  Tona's outfit was really camp .. reminiscent of those in Buster Crabbe's Flash Gordon. I think it was very rash of Auro to throw away the Radium Stone. What if those air densifying machines are rebuilt? If they are, the Sun People are soon going to become Extinct Sun People.

The art was OK in places, as I read cover to cover everything was getting very samey. So I became  a bit bored of the repetition, and was only half-way through

The text "non-fiction" article was a welcome break. The science dubious in the extreme .. I have read that insect size is governed by surface area / (volume or is it body mass) and that is why they can't get to giant proportions. Too big and you haven't enough surface area to breathe with .. or summat like that. Locusts also seem to have become carnivores. Anyway solution seems to be set the world on fire ... lol. 

The Lost World lost me. To save you reading it .. luckily Queen Lyssa grabs the "reverse lever" and it ends with her saying  "You saved our lives Hunt! Would you like to share my reign as king". This story certainly gave me the biggest laugh, with a caveman called "Basil".

The art on Norge Benson was really rather interesting. I liked how on our page 48 Norge "Swishes" all down the page, which has a variety of different themed panels. I was a bit confused about the story,  but it has humor that was very welcome. It has a 70's  TV cartoon feeling, not in the art work, but with the main character having a goofy animal sidekick. I would guess this would be the critics choice in this book.

Star Pirate was actually not too bad, well comparatively anyway and even had a twist at the end. So Sir Gayda had a secret and it wasn't what I thought it was ..lol

I am afraid Flint Baker is the same old story, but it does appear to have been written by Robin. "Great moons! A crash landing!" and "Holy comets! I haven't a moment to spare!" But the best line is "Mimi, warm up my ship".

That just leaves me to say that the book left me surprised, but undismayed. Erp! Over and out!

[narfstar]

I enjoy reading your musing Mark. Books like this are the reason I do not read the whole book and like concentrating on one story. I can't usually make it through the whole book. While I really enjoyed Norge in this and would probably enjoy more, it would probably get old after a few.

[bowers]

I'm getting in on this one pretty late, but here goes. Fiction House and Quality are two of my favorite GA publishers- their artwork and at least some of the writing was pretty well ahead of the rest. The "Mars" story was a bit silly, but his power to possess people and cause trouble is interesting. Art for the story was pretty much par for a Fiction House story. This feature ran until issue 35, when it morphed into "Mysta of the Moon". Have to give credit to the "Reef Ryan" artist- lots of downright innovative critters in this story, and the writer did come up with some pretty original names for creatures, races and places. A nice little bit of fun. As for "Gale Allen", not much here but cheesecake! "Auro" was compared more than once to "Tarzan in space". You couldn't be more right. In issue 1, Auro's parents crashed on Jupiter, leaving the infant to be raised by something like a saber-tooth tiger. Also, several stories show him swinging through trees. Funny, though- he had black hair in the first stories and light brown later on. I have to agree with all the comments concerning the cavalier way the jewel was disposed of. What were they thinking? I did like the art, though. "Lost World" had it's moments- the Voltans and the Spirax were rendered in an interesting Golden-Agey style. Can't add anything to the "Norge Benson" comments. The best part of "Star Pirate" was the writer's name- Leonardo Vinci(?). Not much special about "Flint Baker", even if it did feature some killer locustmen. I think there is a scan of Planet 24 that also has a few pages of original art, but I'm not sure where I found it. Anyway, must go now to speak on the Radviva to the Tab of Guirtha. Cheers, Bowers 

[paw broon]

"Anyway, must go now to speak on the Radviva to the Tab of Guirtha." Bowers.  Now that's funny.
I remembered why Tab seemed funny/odd when I read it.  Mark and some of the other British might know that Viz Comic, which features grotesque characters from Newcastle, uses tab for fag (cigarette)  so a packet of tabs is a packet of fags.  See, Sid The Sexist and many more.

[mr_goldenage]

Well I liked Hunt Bowman, Gale Allen was good for the art and that was all. Auro was ok, but hated the rest of the book. That's it for me. Sorry, currently way to busy getting ready for a job interview and vacation!

RB @ Work.

[Captain Audio]

The brass bra must help in supporting the load under high gee forces, and protect from hard radiation at the same time.
Certainly no more uncomfortable than Slave Leia's brass thong.