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[Robb_K]

When The Earth Was Young! - Okay. Plenty to nitpick, for instance, usually Eskimos in the arctic are in Alaska or Canada, so why would the Russians think they could enter someone else's country and claim the bones?

The Opal of Ali Khar! - Eh, okay, although as a rockhound calling it an opal, while not necessarily incorrect, there are jelly opals which are translucent, but generally opals tend to be opaque. A ruby or sapphire would have been a better choice. Also opals are fragile, a hammer would have reduced it to dust.     

Most comic book publishers didn't have very good research done by their writers and artists.  But ACG was lower than average, according to what I've seen.  I really doubt that Russian "archaeologists" would have entered Alaska or Canada illegally during The Cold War, just to try to grab some dinosaur bones.  What would archaeologists want with dinosaur bones, anyway???  Paleontologists are the scientists who study ancient animal life.  How could an adult who writes stories not know that?  The supposed T-Rex skeleton looked nothing like it should.  The skull was the wrong shape.  The neck was perfectly straight and way-y-y-y too long.  I would have guessed that most people during the 1950s would have known this would have looked wrong.  It was easy to just look at National Geographic Magazine at any library to find photos of T-Rex skeletons in the main lobbies of several musea around The World.  When I don't know how to draw something accurately, I get a photo of it to use as a guide to the basic shape.  I can't believe a comic book artist who needed to compete with others for jobs would not do proper research, to make sure his work would be the best it could be, so he or she could keep up a good portfolio and reputation, and issues containing his/her stories would sell better on average, than if he /she had been lax and sloppy.

Same deal with the opal vs. gemstones that are known to be translucent, and more valuable, and have a reputation for being connected to magic and curses in ancient lore.  A special diamond, ruby, star sapphire, or emerald would have been a better choice.

Also, What's the point of choosing an unimpressive recent, 300 years of entrapment for the Jinn, when the author doesn't give any details of the owner(Maharajah, Pasha, or whatever type of ruler, or band of robbers).  A 3,000 year entrapment connected to a curse, desire for vengeance, from ancient Egypt, or Sumeria, or Akkad, would be more impressive.  But, of course, being restricted to only a handful of pages allows no room to tell such a story, and also show some action.  I would have hated to be stuck with such debilitating restrictions when I had such a good idea for a story with such a good setting and plot.

[crashryan]

I'm sure that the fact that Richard Hughes wrote all the stories and handled the ACG editorial duties as well was a factor in these stories being under-researched and often repetitive. That's a heckuva workload for one person. As for the art, for many years the same small group of artists--Ogden Whitney, John Rosenberger, Paul Reinman, Pete Costanza, Dick Beck, John Forte, Chic Stone--illustrated the overwhelming majority of the stories. It could be that Hughes considered this loyal bunch "family" and regularly fed them work without demanding much of them. This is utter speculation, of course.

[lyons]

Alan Class reprints of stories from publishers ACG, Archie, Charlton, Timely, Atlas, Marvel, Red Circle, M.L.J., Fawcett, King Features, Lev Gleason and Sterling introduced a generation of British children to American horror, mystery, monster and superhero stories.  An interesting read - but my perusals will remain with the original color versions.  Thanks Andrew.   

[Johnny L. Wilson]

Thank you, Andrew for this entertaining journey. I notice that one of the posters didn't feel like this was Johnny Craig's best work, but I was thrilled to see it -- panoramic view of the four smokestacks or not.

Overall, I had to suspend a lot of disbelief. Why didn't the dinosaur's stomach acid destroy the high-tech toys? Why couldn't the aliens have used magnetic nets to pull the metallic monster to the nets? In the hillbilly story, could a dog and a skunk who still had the "skunk works" really make friends? And, in the last story, how did those guys luck into finding Prince Jansen in a place as big as Los Angeles?

But, gee, I don't think I read material with names like Creepy Worlds for the sake of the logic. And even if the work is below par, I like the idea of reading stories by the guy who created "Doc Strange" and drawn by an artist I remember from reading EC comics at my cousin's house. I don't know where he got them and it would be cool to have them now.

[Morgus]

This one was a lot of fun for me. Twenty, thirty years ago, there were a lot of indy companies putting out soft cover black and white editions of just this sort of stuff. It was a great way to spend an afternoon. This was better because you guys are around to tell me just who the artists were. The transfers were pretty clear and the stories kept me reading until the end of each one. Now if I could just find me a Davy Crocket nuke rifle! By the way, Honey West is one of the fake names Madonna uses sometimes when she is on the road to book a room..And yeah, that was a cool series..Now to start tracking down some of the other stuff you all mentioned!!

[Andrew999]

Thanks to everyone for the usual in-depth comments and thoughtful remarks on this particular journey into the world of British comic reprints from the 1960s. What a joy it is for me to be able to relive those days here at CB+.

The Alan Class reprints were in 'crisp monochrome' which understandably didn't go down well with those of you more used to the colour originals but they were at least cheap - and in the early sixties for a boy with little access to funds, that was a positive draw-factor.

Robb, Panther and Crash's analyses of each story were spot on for me and complementary in their disparate views - I can't better that so would only refer you to them. My favourite story - for the record - was Clem Never Does Anything Big. My favourite artist - Ogden Whitney, naturally - though I still can't fathom that cover.

As an aside, I agree with Panther on monochrome movies, photography and art - it's a different genre to colour, with arguably more emphasis on composition, expression and angles. Some of those old movies from the 40s are simply electric - Scarlet Street, for example.

The diversions into Honey West and Davy Crockett's Nuke Rifle were most enjoyable - and yes, the Honey West books are great - they were reprinted about twenty years ago but I haven't seen them since. There have been many Honey West comic books over the years - Moonstone springs to mind.

As for the Nuke Rifle - new to me - extraordinary if scary:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W54

That's it from me this time - looking forward to the next reading group choice on Monday!