[Robb_K]

Being that we have just reviewed two early 1950s American Science Fiction Comic Books, I thought it might be interesting to compare and contrast them with two early 1950s British Science Fiction comics.  These two British produced books are extremely well drawn, as are the American stories from Review #275.  But, in this case, bad colouring cannot get in the way, as these are, of course, black and whites.  SuperDetective Library is such a great series, with such great artwork and solid, interesting, well-written stories, that I thought you all wouldnt mind having two fortnights in a row reviewing Sci-Fi stories.

The Men From The Stars -




You can find it here: https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=71619


Kidnapped By Martians




You can find it here:  https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=77206


I hope you will enjoy reading them, and look forward to reading your comparing and contrasting the British and American early 1950s drawing, writing and production styles.

[Captain Audio]

I read the first and found it reminded me of the best of Japanese sci fi films of the 60's onwards.
There was a bit of Brainiac thrown in as well.

[SuperScrounge]

Super Detective Library #14

The Men From The Stars

Did they really need to sacrifice the plane? Couldn't they have mounted a camera to a weather balloon?

If the space ship can affect Earth's tides and cause earthquakes, what must it be doing to the moon's orbit?

So South America (the continent or some country within it?) has sent a fleet of planes to bomb a spacecraft that landed in England?
You'd think they'd be more worried about the occasional landing of Predators. 

Water... simple water defeats them? Why on Earth did they even come to a planet that's three-quarters poison to them?

Rod thinks, "They didn't start any trouble until that water business..."
Excuse me??? What about the destruction of the hamlet, the stealing of the train, and the attempted theft of the ship? The "water business" started while that final one was happening.

So the aliens are basically Brainiac (about five years before Otto Binder created him).

"I am a prisoner on the invaders' planet!"
Ship, not planet.

Soooooo... the aliens are basically the equivalent of British archeologists going to other countries and 'nicking their stuff' to display in British museums??? Hmmm... 

[Robb_K]

Super Detective Library #14

The Men From The Stars

Soooooo... the aliens are basically the equivalent of British archeologists going to other countries and 'nicking their stuff' to display in British museums??? Hmmm... 

Ha! Ha!  Maybe The British publishers bought the printing plates for this comic book in a distress sale from an old warehouse, formerly owned by The Indian National Congress, and it was a never published giveaway comic book whose original purpose was to point out the evils of The British Empires uncaring and deleterious treatment of its subject colonial indigenous populations?   

[The Australian Panther]

British archeologists going to other countries and 'nicking their stuff' 

Not to specifically defend the British, but 'nicking their stuff' is a universal trend of powerful nations or political entities who conquer or have power over another group.
The Romans used to parade the loot through the streets, And erect arches commemorating the theft.The French started the modern 'archaeological' trend when Napoleon's boys left graffiti on the pyramids.
The United states took sacred objects from Indian nations, the Vikings looted Europe, Saddam's boys looted Kuwait, for a modern example. Everybody does it to somebody else. Human nature, unfortunately.We are aware of the European examples,because they preserved precious examples of culture which may [who knows] have disappeared if left in their original countries at the same time.
There have also been for centuries, and still are today, private collectors who illegally collect 'artifacts' and keep them in secret. A huge industry even today. As a consequence many precious objects that may tell us much about our history are unknown and if eventually found in private collections,are lacking context.
End of sermon.

[SuperScrounge]

My use of 'nicking their stuff' was meant tongue-in-cheek. I'd been watching videos where people have used phrases like that to describe once accepted archeological practices.

Heck, there were even instances where archeologists paid people for artifacts (whether the people who were paid owned the stuff originally? Ehhh...)

But you can make the argument that a number of archeological treasures were seen as junk by the originating countries people & governments until being displayed in British (and other) museums made them famous and then the various governments that hadn't cared now saw value in what had been previously considered junk.

[Captain Audio]

But you can make the argument that a number of archeological treasures were seen as junk by the originating countries people & governments until being displayed in British (and other) museums made them famous and then the various governments that hadn't cared now saw value in what had been previously considered junk.

I most of the middle east Ancient artwork is often destroyed by mobs. Grave robbers and smugglers probably saved much of history from destruction by finding buyers that appreciated these works for what they are.

[Robb_K]

But you can make the argument that a number of archeological treasures were seen as junk by the originating countries people & governments until being displayed in British (and other) museums made them famous and then the various governments that hadn't cared now saw value in what had been previously considered junk.

I most of the middle east Ancient artwork is often destroyed by mobs. Grave robbers and smugglers probably saved much of history from destruction by finding buyers that appreciated these works for what they are.

Thank goodness the French, German and Italian archaeologists found historical treasures in Syria, and sent them to Musea in Europe or Damascus before the radical warring factions soldiers could deliberately destroy them, as was done in Palmyra and Ebla, and was done by The Iraqi soldiers in parts of Iraq.  I have no love for the scavengers selling artifacts to illegal traders, who resell them to private collectors, that end up unavailable to be seen by the public, or assessed by archaeologists and historians to increase our understanding of what actually happened in the distant past.

[K1ngcat]

The Men From The Stars

The art is typical Bill Lacey, everything is fairly life-like and the style is very clean and straightforward. My only criticism is the aliens themselves. The aliens on the (uncredited) cover seem a little more successful.  Inside the comic they seem half finished, the faces on their egg shaped heads striking me as almost cartoonish, and their thin toes and fingers look ridiculously unlikely. UK sci fi of this era boasts some artists who can knock out a convincing alien with ease- Frank Hampson, Sydney Jordan and Ron Turner spring immediately to mind. Bill Lacey sadly doesn't, bless him.

Other than that it all goes swimmingly. No one can complain that there aren't enough pages to develop the story, though the characters are as drab as you might expect from the grey old days of Blighty in the Fifties. The concept of the aliens as collectors rather than invaders is fairly novel for the time, and there's plenty of excitement for the kiddies. South Americans with atom bombs? Whatever next?

An enjoyable romp, if only the aliens weren't so clunky!
More later
All the best
K1ngcat

[Captain Audio]

The Men From The Stars


South Americans with atom bombs? Whatever next?

Even after the Cuban missile crisis it took till the fall of the Soviet Union before we found out Cuba did indeed have nuclear weapons. The Russians left the Cubans over 160 medium range nuclear missiles that required no firing codes to activate.
The Russians were also trying to build secret airbases in several South American locations.

I suspect the authur was thinking more along the lines of French Airforce bombers, but to avoid insulting a some times ally he switched to non specific South Americans.

[Robb_K]

The Men From The Stars

The art is typical Bill Lacey, everything is fairly life-like and the style is very clean and straightforward. My only criticism is the aliens themselves. The aliens on the (uncredited) cover seem a little more successful.  Inside the comic they seem half finished, the faces on their egg shaped heads striking me as almost cartoonish, and their thin toes and fingers look ridiculously unlikely. UK sci fi of this era boasts some artists who can knock out a convincing alien with ease- Frank Hampson, Sydney Jordan and Ron Turner spring immediately to mind. Bill Lacey sadly doesn't, bless him.

Other than that it all goes swimmingly. No one can complain that there aren't enough pages to develop the story, though the characters are as drab as you might expect from the grey old days of Blighty in the Fifties. The concept of the aliens as collectors rather than invaders is fairly novel for the time, and there's plenty of excitement for the kiddies. South Americans with atom bombs? Whatever next?

An enjoyable romp, if only the aliens weren't so clunky!
More later
All the best
K1ngcat

The aliens looked to me like they are made of metal.  Maybe they are robot shells over smaller, live beings inside them?  Perhaps that is why they all look so alike.  Live animals and sentient beings all risk physical dangers in the womb, at birth, and in young childhood that change where things are located on their bodies, which leads to their not having everything in the perfectly symmetrical position, and makes virtually everyone different,- even identical twins (from the same egg).  Lacey made all his aliens too similar to have been live beings, and their lack of features and shading, makes them look as if they are made of metal or plastic (which was not much known by the average person when these stories were drawn).  Personally, I think many (if not the majority) of the young storywriters and artists had too little knowledge of The World, science, and Human psychology to write and draw really excellent stories.  So, it was really good when those who did, took the extra time to research what they didn't really feel comfortable writing about or drawing, without that guiding hand. 

For me, my comic book production (both writing and drawing was a second career, started when I started attending art school part-time at age 38, and full-time for a few years, at age 40.  In the time after high school, I learned a lot of science during 7 years of university, and almost 20 years in my science-related first career.  I also read many novels and a lot of non fiction (related to geography, climatology archaeology and history between age 17 (high school graduation) and 40 years old, when I started writing and drawing comic book stories.  I know for a fact that had I attempted to get into the comic book production field right after high school, like many of the late 30s and 1940s creators did, I probably would have failed, or my work would have been terribly inferior, because I knew probably less than a tenth about life, the Human character, history, science, psychology, and just about everything else at that time.  I would have tried to copy Barks, Gottfredson, Wells, Stevenson, Eisner, Hultgren, Kelly, Poe, Verne, Defoe, Swift, Doyle,etc., without appreciating many of the things that made their stories or artwork for storytelling, work best.

[Captain Audio]

The worst case of European vandalism of ancient structures was likely when Napoleans troops stripped away the rose quartz sheathing from the Great Pyramid of Giza and shot the nose off the Sphinx with a small cannon on a bet.
The Great Pyramid must have been a glorious sight before it was vandalized. Especially at sunrise and sunset, with the gold sheathed capstone blazing in reflected sunlight as your first then last sight of it.

I've read an account by a French officer of how while he was there the Red Sea fell to its rocky bottom in places and on a bet a whole regiment marched across it without getting their boots wet.

If not for all the mass murder going on that would have been a great time to be alive to see such sights.

The aliens looked to me like they are made of metal.

Actually I asumed they were androids of some sort. Being shorted out by an electrical discharge pretty much clinched it.
As for melting away when struck by a stream of water no way of knowing just what they were made of. Some alloys burn underwater while some metalic elements explode on contact with water.

PS
There was a sci fi movie several years back (Mel Gibson?) where Alien invaders melted or exploded when doused with water.
Reviewers at the time also wondered why creatures so easily destroyed by water would come to a planet that is 78% water.

[K1ngcat]

The Men From The Stars

South Americans with atom bombs? Whatever next?

Even after the Cuban missile crisis it took till the fall of the Soviet Union before we found out Cuba did indeed have nuclear weapons. The Russians left the Cubans over 160 medium range nuclear missiles that required no firing codes to activate.

I stand corrected, Captain, thanks for the perspective on that. History's not my strong point.
All the best
K1ngcat

[Morgus]

I liked KIDNAPPED BY THE MARTIANS the best because the cover reminded me of those photos of British Beatlemania.
I was impressed by how close the plot elements resembled DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS. I?m not saying it was an outright rip off...these were time honoured elements probably before either...the sets took me back to THINGS TO COME. The art work was good, and had certain angles that reminded me of those British domestic dramas my gramma was addicted to.

Lots of fun and a nice read.

[K1ngcat]

Kidnapped by the Martians.

I don't mind the art but I don't like the Martians much. They have a slave class because they're think they're too clever to work, and the minute they hit a snag they realise their slaves will revolt against them. So their answer is to invade and conquer us?  Well, screw you, Martians, I'm glad you crashed!  Even when we're trying to rescue them they're still planning to steal our children and set their slaves on us. What a bunch of bastards. If Karil hadn't had the hots for Mr Harkness we'd all be toast. They've had seventy years to plan and prepare now. For God's sake don't trust them!!!

Th-th-that's all folks.
K1ngcat

[Morgus]

Good one, KingCat.
Of course, a lady turning up in a Grace Kelly style cocktail dress in post War England followed around by big Pallookas should have sent off every ?Danger Will Robinson? signal they had, but...

Hey, always wanted to know; was the 'black and white with no coloring' in British comics some sort of enforced law, or just a custom?

[K1ngcat]

As far as I know (paw broon might contradict me) black and white with a colour cover was pretty standard. A few of the high end weekly mags like Eagle would have colour back & front covers and usually a four page colour centre spread or something of that nature. I think we were generally pretty poor post-war! Full colour comics were strictly an American thing which is why they were so exciting.

All the best
K1ngcat

[Robb_K]

Hey, always wanted to know; was the 'black and white with no coloring' in British comics some sort of enforced law, or just a custom?

I guess I should wait for a British expert on the subject to answer, but I would guess that because most countries did not have the gigantic market size That USA had, the full-colour printing process would have been too costly to make decent profits.  That was the case for much of the time for Canada, and why lots of comic books in Europe, that didn't have translated versions in other European countries, were black and white (or single colour and white), or, when lucky, 2-colour process (red & yellow, mixed with printing black makes brown, as well).  Most of the countries, worldwide, can benefit by getting franchises to print US comics, with translated text, and, therefore, afford to use colour, as they get the colour plates or setup from The USA publisher headquarters.  For example, all European publishers of Disney Comics received either their colourising setups, or their printed comics pages, other than advertising pages(printed locally) from their Disney regional comics publishing franchise, such as Italy(for Italy, Greece, parts of The Balkans, Egmont(Denmark) for Scaninavia, Germany, Eastern Europe, Egypt, Morocco, Russia & much of Asia, Hachette in France(France, some publications in French Canada, French Belgium, former French colonies, Margriet, Geillustreerde Pers,VNU,Sanoma (The Netherlands, Flemish Belgium, South Africa, Dutch West Indies, etc.

The same was true for the big media conglomerates major animation studios, like Warner Brothers, MGM, and Walter Lantz characters, for the non-US publishers who obtained the franchises to publish those properties.  They were all in colour, as well, while locally produced (non-exported) productions had too small revenue production related to the similar production cost to the American product, to produce a large enough margin pay for the much higher cost of full colour printing.

Just like "underground comics in most countries, comics printed for only local or national markets were almost always black and white, white with another colour, or white, black and one other colour (at most), such as the Dutch "De Tweede Pimpernel" (B&W), Sjors van de Rebellenclub" (Black, White & Red), and "Bob Crack" (B,W, & R).  In general, local comic books cannot compete with the flood of colour American books (mainly because of printing costs).

Maybe The British publishers had enough circulation to make it profitable after the 1960s. And by then as it was proven that readers would buy them even if they were just black and white, they stuck with it.  But I doubt that.  I've been with several publishers for which the profit margins are extremely thin.  And we have been cutting down on our lower-selling books for the past 25+ years.  So, I think it is purely due to the high cost of colour printing.

[Robb_K]

Time to start my reviews:
Super Detective Library 14 - Men From The Stars. Drawn by Arnold Beauvais
This is an extremely well-drawn and well staged story, with a decent, interesting, plot with suspense that carries a good way through the story.  It is reasonably realistic, as 1950s science fiction comic book stories go, although the plot could have been a little better thought out. 

I like the use of The Flying Wing, based on the early 1950s US experimentation, and refinement of The German World War II experimental designs and built version.  It has a very aerodynamic design, but getting from the European side of The Atlantic to central North America in less than 1.5 hours was much, much faster than the fastest air vehicle could possibly have done in 1953.  We are supposed to believe that nuclear fuel achieved that speed.  He meets with The Prime Minister of The UK(drawn to imply Winston Churchill), and The US President (could be anyone (other than Truman, or Eisenhower (who may not have been elected when these panels were drawn). The protagonist, experimental plane pilot, Rod Collins, is ordered to fly above most of Earths atmosphere, to film a fast approaching comet. 

As the expected comet approaches, it turns out to be a large alien space vehicle, which sends out a much smaller scout vehicle, which left the much more highly popularlated area over London, flying over to a rural small town, and seemingly destroyed it completely.  The British forces were stallion hold, watching South American bombers fire at it with nuclear bombs. Defensive weapons of the aliens destroy the bombs in mid air, which set them off and they destroy The South American planes.  No mushroom clouds, no nuclear fallout is mentioned.  The aliens debarked from an egg-shaped scout vehicle in a petroleum refinery in The Middle East.  As stated above, they look too similar to be alive, but rather like metal robots.  Bullets went right through them, harmlessly.  But, one of them was killed by a large surge of electricity. Collins was sent to the refinery to examine the alien.  The other aliens land at London and revive their unconscious colleague, and take him and their vehicle away. They have stolen a village, a trainer, and a large ocean-going ship.  Clearly, they are collecting exhibits for a museum display of Earths creatures and their civilizations works.

After being captured by the aliens when approaching their space vehicle (artificial mini-planet), Collins sees they wanted total a sample of Earth creatures as a museum exhibit. He aims to free the captured people, and discovers, by accident, the electric ray that kills the aliens. He finds the control for opening the Earthmens dome, opens it, freeing them to join him in his plane, which he pilots safely out of their planetoid.  Once near Earth, Collins radios the specifics of the radio wave that kills the aliens. Soon the rays force the attacking aliens back into their mother ship, which then heads away from Earth, back towards its own planet.

This story has a decent plot, but we have very little character development - especially for what is needed for a protagonist, for readers to identify with him.  He risks his life to save fellow Humans who he does not know, personally.  So we know he is brave and heroic, and has a strong sense of morals.  We also know that he might be a little too cock-sure of himself, given that he is absolutely positive that The Earths leaders have nothing to fear from these particular aliens, and their kinsmen returning to conquer Earth.  He cannot really know that for sure.  It is only his blind guess (especially after they returned for retribution after Collins rescued The Human captives. 

But we do not know anything about his weaknesses or foibles.Being only a superhero, it is too difficult to identify with him, and root for him to succeed, over and above anyone of the other Humans.  And they had 68 pages, some of which could have contained a parallel storyline showing his relationship with his wife and children.  Perhaps it would focus on his wife wanting him to stop risking his life, so he can still be around to help raise his children and be around for her sake, too.  He has already paid his dues.  That other story thread, and his own situation, would allow us to see more about his character, humanizing him a little bit.

Like Kingcat, I dislike the uncaring space aliens, who kill Humans indiscriminately, just to obtain a museum exhibit, and that does not affect them in the slightest.  Only THEIR lives matter, and WE are jetsam.

[paw broon]

Re. B&W in British comics. Colour in our comics was relatively sparse.  Micky Mouse Weekly which started in 1936 had 4 pages in full photgravure colour - fc; bc; centre spread.
Most comics and story papers had  coloured covers with most of the interiors in b&w.  Often though there was spot colour added in strips.  Don't ask me about details as I don't see colours that well.
But pocket libraries were almost all in that b&w interior format.  As K1ngcat says, the country post war was poor.  There were a few exceptions and one really odd one was the alternate page (or 2 pages) in colour, next page(or 2) in b&w versions. Radar, which reprinted the Italian title, later reprinted here as Wonderman, and other titles from the same publishers. I know I was completely happy with the look of the comics we had.   
Eagle was a high point, not only for colour Dan Dare but the quality of printing and the sheer class of the art on many strips.
Dandy, Beano, Topper, Beezer from DC Thomson had a fair amount of colour pages with some seriously good art on display.
CB+ has examples of those British titles that tried to fool readers into thinking they were getting an American comic.  But behind that colour cover, it was all, or nearly all, b&w.
So not an enforced policy, simply an economic solution.

[Robb_K]

Re. B&W in British comics. Colour in our comics was relatively sparse.  Micky Mouse Weekly which started in 1936 had 4 pages in full photgravure colour - fc; bc; centre spread.
Most comics and story papers had  coloured covers with most of the interiors in b&w.  Often though there was spot colour added in strips.  Don't ask me about details as I don't see colours that well.
But pocket libraries were almost all in that b&w interior format.  As K1ngcat says, the country post war was poor.  There were a few exceptions and one really odd one was the alternate page (or 2 pages) in colour, next page(or 2) in b&w versions. Radar, which reprinted the Italian title, later reprinted here as Wonderman, and other titles from the same publishers. I know I was completely happy with the look of the comics we had.   
Eagle was a high point, not only for colour Dan Dare but the quality of printing and the sheer class of the art on many strips.
Dandy, Beano, Topper, Beezer from DC Thomson had a fair amount of colour pages with some seriously good art on display.
CB+ has examples of those British titles that tried to fool readers into thinking they were getting an American comic.  But behind that colour cover, it was all, or nearly all, b&w.
So not an enforced policy, simply an economic solution. 

I think that is true for all European countries from WWII until the large major magazine/comic book publishers went multi-national, the colour production cost of their books coloured were too high vs. their sales per book coloured to cover the cost of colouring and produce a profit for the publishing company.  multi-national publishers, like Denmarks Egmont(serving 2/3 of Europe and some of Asia and Africa) and Swedens Semic (Serving Scandinavia, Finland, and The Netherlands) had enough sales to eat the added cost of colour, and cover that cost in sales revenue.  Other publishers shared their colour costs with publishers in other countries, who bought and used the other publishers produced comic book stories.  For example, the Swedish publishers of Bamse, sold their Bamse stories to publishers in Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Finland and Germany(for some years). So, there were enough overall sales to allow these publishers, who shared production costs, to use colour printing.  The same was true for different publishers of the strips, or single stories of characters that appeared in books starring other countries characters, and just paid for the rights to print the foreign character, and also received the printing plates and colouring setup for the ready-to-print bought stories.  If a European publisher had to market only to buyers in his own country, his firms sales were almost always too low to allow profit using full 4 colour process (at least through the 1980s).  I am not sure about the 1990s onwards, because from then til now, I have only knowledge of the traditional funny animal comics lines outside of The Netherlands, and even only a few long-time traditional human-figure cartoony-style comedy comics there.

[SuperScrounge]

Super Detective Library #23

Kidnapped by Martians

Good story, nice art. Very little to make fun of. I do wonder at the implied rebellion now that the Kroons know it is possible to beat up their masters, but was left dangling like a potential future plotline. Also wonder what happened to the Princess when she arrived back on Earth? Kidnapping was a big crime in those days.

[The Australian Panther]

Super Detective Library 014 - Men From The Stars
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=71619
Very modern-looking plane, forshadows something like this.
A North American B-2 Spirit Stealth 
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/a-north-american-b-2-spirit-stealth-mark-stevenson.html
The story starts well, but it reads like a Radio script. The story is told through the words, the pictures just make the words come alive, but they are not necessary.
But the art is excellent, and the flying saucer is well depicted.
The landing on the English Village is reminiscent of Well's 'War of the Worlds'. 
The 'Invaders' don't look so dangerous or alien in Black and White as they do on the cover in colour. They are Green of course.
And yes, if Water makes them melt, you would think they would get as far as possible away from the ocean.
Not a good idea from the writer.
Although, if they were sensitive to electricity or radio waves, the water might have short-circuited them, so it makes logical sense.
The Aliens are collectors and put what they collect under glass. So this is a precursor to DC's Brainiac.  Written in 1953, so I think it predates Brainiac. 
You can't come up with a fictional idea that is not based on reality. Many nations did exactly this to tribes and peoples they saw as different.
   
Many Africans, American Indians, Pacific Islanders for example were taken to Europe and shown off as freaks.
in other words the aliens display very human behavior.
A well-paced bit of story-telling that is of its time.I enjoyed it.
Cheers!       
     

[Captain Audio]

One reason I figured the Aliens for androids or perhaps bioconstructs is they single minded way they went about their business, as if at the bidding of a powerful alien intelligence never shown in the book.
If expanded on I'd see the alien homeworld peopled by a race that studies all life forms and planetary conditions and sends out their collectors to bring ever more fascinating specimens in a bell jar like environment.
The Outer Limits had an episode much like that.

[Robb_K]

One reason I figured the Aliens for androids or perhaps bioconstructs is they single minded way they went about their business, as if at the bidding of a powerful alien intelligence never shown in the book.
If expanded on I'd see the alien homeworld peopled by a race that studies all life forms and planetary conditions and sends out their collectors to bring ever more fascinating specimens in a bell jar like environment.
The Outer Limits had an episode much like that.

And I seem to remember that "The Twilight Zone" had an episode in which a suburban American family found themselves to be prisoners in a space alien civilisations zoo (or museum exhibit).