[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.

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).

There were a few, like the couple who woke up after a bender and found the house they were in was a doll house and they were the playthings of a giant little girl.
Roddy McDowell played an astronaut rescued from his crashed ship by martians. He soon found the nice home they gave him was a cage in a zoo.

[crashryan]

I like pocket libraries. They offered more room for the story than US comics did. The panels were larger, since there were seldom more than two on a page. Though there were exceptions, in general the standard of draughtsmanship was higher than in American comics of the time. Of course there were many talented American comics artists, but many more were mediocre or just plain bad.

I don't know why British artists drew better than their US counterparts. I used to think they must have been paid better. However I've read that British publishers paid poorly just like their American counterparts. British publishers also imported art from Spain and Italy. Both countries had plenty of good artists to choose from. (They also had lots of lousy artists, as a glance at Italian pocket libraries will tell you.)

The downside was that British artists' layouts were quite conservative, even stodgy. Some of the blame goes to the way the stories were broken down. It hadn't been that long ago that all British comics were in text-strip form, a sequence of narrative paragraphs underneath panels which often merely illustrated the text. The pocket library stories, especially those adapted from novels, relied heavily on captions.

Captions served a double purpose. Primarily they advanced the story by describing the action. They also added "window dressing" (my term)--descriptions of expressions and actions not covered by the drawing, intended to add drama. Stuff like: "Smith's steel-grey eyes scanned the room until they found Jones. His jaw tightened as long-repressed resentment bubbled up, threatening to crack his impassive facade."  This sort of caption was commonplace in British comics (especially war comics, it seems). Everyone has their opinion of captions; personally I think they're often helpful. I have a problem with pocket library captions when the writer crams four or five scenes into one caption in order to fit a complicated plot into 64 pages. This often happened in novel adaptations.

Happily these two books aren't novel adaptations and don't suffer excessive-caption abuse.

Super Detective Library 14: Men from the Stars

Is it just me, or did British comics and story papers have a thing for War of the Worlds scale mayhem? They really seemed to like global destruction...tidal waves, crumbling cities, massive loss of life. This story follows in that grand tradition. We've discussed the collectors from space and what makes them tick. It all makes sense if you picture the collectors as humans in some distant locale, the Amazon jungle let's say, and the earthlings are the insect pests that annoy them. Most of the time the collectors walk around doing their thing, not even paying attention to the "bugs." When they become annoying (atom bombs) the collectors swat them. To the collectors the bugs with water guns are especially annoying pests because they're poisonous. So they use their cosmic DDT to wipe them out. Until the humans came up with the radio wave fix, I doubt the collectors ever thought of them as intelligent beings. I think the writer missed a beat by not having one of the characters figure this out.

One thing puzzles me, and that's the South American bombers. Future world or not, a nation would not send aircraft halfway around the world, without warning, to drop bombs on another country. That's an act of war! Good thing the atom bombs were the safe, non-lethal kind. I'd almost swear this was originally the old monster movie trope, with a hotheaded general screwing things up by prematurely calling in a strike while the scientists look up and say, "The fool! The fool!" Could the editor have decided at the last moment not to impugn the honor of the Armed Forces and instead turned British pilots into excitable Latins?

Very nice artwork by Bill Lacey. I love the flying wing design. I also like the way he inked the metal surfaces of the planes and the flying saucers...a technique well worth stealing. Bill was never one to cut corners. If the script says "a ship" he gives them the whole danged ship. From several different angles, to boot.

Gotta go now; the other book tomorrow.

[SuperScrounge]

Is it just me, or did British comics and story papers have a thing for War of the Worlds scale mayhem?

Well, remember that ten years earlier England was involved in some kind of fracas involving gunfire. What did they call it again? Oh, yeah! World War II. Might have affected their sense of proportion? 

[crashryan]

True, Supes, but the British story papers' fascination with global mayhem goes back at least to the 1930s. WWI influence? Possibly.

[SuperScrounge]

Could be. What was England's death toll in WWI? I think I heard it was something insanely high like one-quarter of all English men. So if you want to indicate a more powerful threat, the bar is pretty darn high.

[Morgus]

I think you?re on to something, Crash'. Shucks. WAR OF THE WORLDS was a trail blazer tapping into a big fear they had. That one goes back to the late 1800's, right? And Gramp used to tell me that there were non-science fiction versions of Britain getting invaded...usually by the Germans, but sometimes by the French if they were hacking folks off that year in the news.
Its only a step from there to world wide invasion...Wells gave them THAT in "A Story of Things to Come" pretty much from the same time. And the Empire was big enough then to GIVE them world wide worry in real life. India, the China coast...Canada was probably one of the few outposts that DIDN'T give them trouble.
Yeah, us and Australia.
So then you got the movie version of THINGS TO COME and those world-wide 'going to hell in a hand car' serials like THE LOST CITY that had tidal waves and all sorts of gnarly cool disaster. You would just about HAVE TO have that sort of mayhem on board. The cities in KIDNAPPED look pretty much the same to me as the sets from THINGS TO COME, with outfits a bit sexier.
I just wonder when the first ray gun that stunned people and wore off gradually came from....

[K1ngcat]

I don't know why British artists drew better than their US counterparts.
The downside was that British artists' layouts were quite conservative, even stodgy.

One thing puzzles me, and that's the South American bombers. Future world or not, a nation would not send aircraft halfway around the world, without warning, to drop bombs on another country. That's an act of war! Good thing the atom bombs were the safe, non-lethal kind.

I think one of the things is that UK comics were policed by fierce editors who insisted that everything looked like what it was, and even the imaginative strips (we did have some) still looked fairly realistic or your art would be sent back for correction, and no-one wanted that.

The first job I ever had was as a trainee artist at a London studio conveniently positioned between Fleetway and DC Thompson, until I discovered that trainee artist was a polite term for gopher. At best they'd let me do some single colour overlays for Marvel reprints, the rest was running around with parcels or picking up lunch orders.

The artists who came into the studio to work turned out the usual old stuff, war strips, football strips, cartoon strips, schoolgirl adventures, it was all pretty stodgy and predictable apart from one guy who did a semi-sci-fi strip called Brian's Brain about a kid with an AI of some sort, and even then everything looked 'realistic.' They were all smart-arse bastards who treated trainees like crap so I had no respect for them. But there was a Scots guy, a left-hander, who did Jet Ace Logan and he sent his stuff into the studio by post and when it came in they would all crowd around to admire his left-handed cross hatching. It was fun but I had to quit for a job in advertising that actually paid.

Anyway all that aside it did occur to me that the South American air force bombers violated UK airspace without any RAF squadrons being sent out to stop them. Did we really have such poor early warning systems then that they could've got through to nuke the aliens without being challenged? Just a thought.

[The Australian Panther]

Super Detective Library 023 - Kidnapped by Martians
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=77206

First Panel " ... but now extinction threatened the race" ".. Governor-General of Mars called a conference of the governors of the few remaining inhabited areas. One after another they arrived in their personal rocket ships at the ariport outside the the capital city..."
Change Mars for Earth and Rocket ships for Jet planes and didn't we just do this in Scotland?   
Even more precinct, to many of us, is, " In another century our planet will never support civilized life. We, the brains, the leaders ..... will have gone! All that remains will be the serfs, the kroons! [Or as the Romans called us, the plebs]" So,we know what really scares them!   
So, what will we do about it?
"We will invade another planet with greater resources and subdue its people to our will!"
Well, that's survival of the fittest in practice and the way of the world, so fair enough.
However, exactly how does it solve the actual problem, if in fact it was a problem for all and not just the 'Brains' ?
Do we get the possibility that the writer of this wasn't just writing an entertainment but trying to make valid points?
The writer didn't forsee that increasing mechanization and computerization would create larger and independent machines and thus eliminate a great deal of the need for physical labour.
Oh, and the possibility of sending that kind of work off-planet for someone else to do it more cheaply.
So, the nuts and bolts of the story.
The king and his sister are the only ones who can pass for 'earthlings'. And in which country? Why? Curiously they are drawn taller than 'Brains' but shorter than 'Kroons'. Are there actually 3 species? And immediately something smells. We don't trust Kurkil.
Hugh Harkness.
What-ever happened to stoic pipe-smoking British heroes?
Question - can a diver with that kind of gear go down 20O fathoms?
200 fathoms is 365.8 metres or 1200 feet. Is there a lake that deep in Scotland?
He would have to have been thinking of Loch Ness?   
So, they were aiming for Canada, but had to settle for Scotland? Anyhoo,
The full-page panel on page 23 is excellent.
Just why they need to kidnap people to solve the original problem, I don't get.
The idea was to subdue the planet 'to our will.'
Is the writer trying to also make a point about slavery?
The princess, up to now has come across as quite decent, but the cold-blooded way she plans to enslave children, is disturbing to say the least.
Presumably they did repairs on the space-ship. Why didn't government impound it?
So, why must Hugh be condemned to death? Because he destroyed the illusion of superiority. There is no all-powerful wizard, just a little man hiding behind a curtain.
The ending is unsatisfactory, appears tacked on. Or as if the writer ran out of space.
Yes, the Villain got his, but go back and look at that cover. That situation remains unresolved.     
Betty is clearly interested in Hugh as more than a friend.  [Page #15] and gets the short end of the stick.   
Noting my original comments on the art, the artist is very economical, his technique looks like sketching in places. But he is also a superior if not spectacular draftsman.
So, to sum up. i definitely think the writer was using the opportunity to make some valid political or social points, and probably just as valid in that time period as now.
I appreciate the opportunity to look again at a book i have enjoyed before, and this time in greater detail.
Thank you Robb.                   

[The Australian Panther]

Crash wrote,

Is it just me, or did British comics and story papers have a thing for War of the Worlds scale mayhem? They really seemed to like global destruction...tidal waves, crumbling cities, massive loss of life. This story follows in that grand tradition. 

That is very interesting and deserves more space.
What sticks out to me is that in both stories we have aliens descending on, and massive destruction occurring in, the environment of cosy, comfortable idyllic villages.  Wells used that too, and more than once. The invisible man puts a bizarre and frightening situation in that environment as does 'Food of the Gods'. Obviously that kind of juxtaposition heightens the fear and audience involvement. The US equivalent is Invasion of the Body Snatchers or the Blob.
Fear of invasion from 'outside' is a phobia for the Island nation that goes back to the Romans, if not before.
Then the Vikings, the Normans, the Spanish, Napoleon, and two world wars.
Australia has traditionally been concerned about outsiders, also an Island nation and the closest neighbours are culturally very different.
I don't think that, until recently, that the idea of a physical invasion has seemed to be a viable threat  to most Americans.
Until recently. I'm thinking, Independence Day, but Roland Emmerich is Deutsch. And then there was V and The Invaders, but those are post- 70's.  But most are 'Trojan Horse' invasions, not
"global destruction...tidal waves, crumbling cities, massive loss of life. "
These things, for the American audience have to be natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, comets, not man- made.
I'm watching a lot of Euro-Spy movies currently and the two most prevalent things to prevent in those films are Atomic or Biological warfare.
Anyway,
something new tomorrow. Haven't decided yet.                 

[Captain Audio]

Two invasion/mass destruction of London films stand out for me. The first is "Five Million Years to Earth", the second is "Lifeforce".
In both the level of destruction is much like that of the WW2 London Blitz by German bombers.
Perhaps that level of national trauma is embedded deep in the mind of UK citizens.

In the USA massive destruction generally came through natural disaster, with a diversion into the "we did it to ourselves" territory.

[The Australian Panther]

the level of destruction is much like that of the WW2 London Blitz by German bombers.

Good point.

In the USA massive destruction generally came through natural disaster, with a diversion into the "we did it to ourselves" territory. 

Exactly.

[Robb_K]

And now for my review of the second book:
Super Detective Library 23 - Kidnapped by Martians
This story is the inferior of the two.  Its premise and scenario give it great possibilities, especially in this 68-page format.  It is a shame that it used a lot of panels for not-very-important scenes that really were not necessary to move the story along, when they, instead, could have been used to include another background thread, which would have made the story more interesting, entertaining, and satisfying to the reader.  The artwork by Selby Donnison was excellent.  But the story had an abrupt, ending that was not earned by the protagonists, and the would-be "villains" were only half-hearted in their coldhearted selfishness, and their uncaring lack of empathy for their potential victims.  Thus, there was no real protagonist for whom to root, and no real villain to hate, and not nearly enough suspense, not much action, and no real climax.  I think I would have been sent the old "Sorry, but we no longer have need for your services" letter from my publisher, IF I had turned in such a story! 

Given the 68 pages with which to work, and keeping the basic story premise and structure, I'd have made the following changes:

1)  I would have made the danger to The Martians more imminent, to make them more desperate, which, in turn, would make their villainy (needed to provide more suspense, action, and someone to root against) more believable.  For example, The Martian climate is getting ever colder, and the people are running out of resources to keep it warm enough to grow enough food for themselves.  They are dying of malnutrition due to their food lacking the levels of the vitamins and minerals they need to sustain decent health.  They must relocate to a more viable planet fairly soon, or die out as a people.

2) The differences between The Kroons and the other Martians are not explained enough, and not really exploited in the story.  Carl Barks (and all editors) Rule #1: NEVER introduce something into a story that you do not use in a meaningful way, unless it is used as a "red herring" (to deflect the readers attention from evidence that could allow them to make a connection earlier than you want).  The larger size of The Kroons, and their servile status could have been used to foster a rivalry between those two Martian peoples, that could have been used as a way to have one of the two groups take the part of the villains (e.g. danger to Earths Humans), and the other could be the helpers who help the hero/protagonist (Hugh Harkness), succeed at saving the Human captives, and stopping the dangerous villains (either of the two Martian races) from invading or conquering Earth.

I would have had the smaller, but dominant Martians planning to invade Earth, using their technological advantages to take over, and have the larger, but less knowledgeable, Kroons, hating their overseers, ally together with Harkness, to stop their invasion of Earth.

3) Adding action - I would add more of a battle scene early in the story, while on Earth, when The Martians kidnap the children, with The Kroons later having qualms about having killed several Humans, while doing the bidding of their seemingly unfeeling masters, in separating an entire (fairly large) schoolsworth of children from their parents.  One class is not enough scale to elicit feelings of enough danger to produce the desired level of suspense.  One class is the level of one Human madman.  A large-looking school, of indeterminate number of classrooms is enough to be thought of as a crisis.  The artist would not need to show all 500 students in any single scene.  Then, on Mars, I would show action scenes with Harkness and his Kroon allies fighting the smaller Martians, after scenes showing The Kroons, Harkness, and perhaps even a select, brave schoolboy, or two, sneaking weapons away from their small martian owners, leading to a battle, in which Harkness and The Krowns capture The Martian ,(or Metropola) King, and his main underlings, free the children, and dictate to those previous leaders what now will be done.  Perhaps I would have The Kroons (who are better adapted to survive in the bitter cold, and thinner atmosphere) threaten to destroy The smaller Martians Atmospheric Pump (which provides air to breathe and hold more heat inside their domed city), unless they come to their sense, stop fighting, and dump their Earth Invasion Plan.  A few Kroons, and a few (reasonably thinking) small Martians would accompany Harkness and the children back to Earth, as a peaceful legation, to ask The Earths leaders to accept their dying people as immigrants.  I am not sure whether or not I would end the story with the Kroon and non-Kroon Martian representatives, with Harkness and the children flying in the spaceship back towards Earth, or having them arrive to Earth, and having a splash panel ending showing a United Nations meeting, with Harkness pleading the case for the pitiable endangered Martians to be taken in by the reasonably well-to-do nations.  A nice unexpected twist, turning it into a tragic story would be the UN vote turning down his pleas, and voting to spend trillions on space war technology and plan to invade Mars and destroy the Martians, to avoid being beat to the punch.   

4) My scenes in which Queen Karil feels empathy and pity for The Human children and The People of Earth, and progressively moves towards being an ally of Harkness would be much more emotional and convincing, IF I would want to change her over to the sympathetic side.  Then, I could have a sappy ending in which Harkness marries her in a symbolic second wedding on Earth, as a symbol of uniting The Peoples of Earth and Mars.  .  But, I prefer the ending in which The UN votes to Nuke The Martian civilization into oblivion.  Unfortunately, it is the more realistic.

These improvements would still have the story feeling a bit like a moralistic lecture. 

And, I also admit that to include all the improvements I would want, I would have to divide the 68 pages into at least 4 to 5 panels per page.  That would make it more like a US/Canadian-style comic book than British, and requiring many more drawings made, might make British artists balk at the job, or ask for more money that the publisher would not want to pay.

[Captain Audio]

I'm watching a lot of Euro-Spy movies currently and the two most prevalent things to prevent in those films are Atomic or Biological warfare.
Anyway,

Best film along those lines (biological) is "the Satan Bug", though a war isn't the problem its a individual pychopath with the resources to accomplish his personal agenda.
A notable bit of casting was his goons, Ed Asner and Frank Sutton. Two of the most likeable actors ever on TV. Both played the roles of heartless killers to the hilt.
I remember a few well done if low budget B&W spy films of the late 50's and early 60's that were A-bomb conspiracy stories but nione since then have been memorable for me.
Its been so long since I've seen these looking them up will be a chore.

[crashryan]

Super Detective Library 23--Kidnapped by Martians

This story did not satisfy me. There's the skeleton of a good story here, but I believe the writer failed to think his premise through. Robb's comment covers several of the points. To that I will add:

(1) The Martians are a parasite race. They style themselves as superior beings. They justify enslaving the Kroons by arguing that the Kroons are inferior creatures whose sole purpose is to support the Martians' lavish lifestyle. In reality the Martians owe their very lives to the Kroons. The Martians couldn't survive on the planet's surface so they moved into an enclosed city. The Martians designed that city but the Kroons built it and the Kroons maintain it.  No wonder the Martians view even their extinction in terms of the Kroons. They fret that one day there won't be enough Martians left to control the inferior race, and all hell will break loose. All this certainly qualifies the Martians as Bad Guys. The trouble is, the writer doesn't address this issue. He just assumes "that's how Mars is." How could an author writing less than ten years after WWII even use the phrase "Master Race" without associating it with the Nazis, much less give the concept tacit acceptance? The author devotes his energy instead to the kidnapping storyline. That's the wrong choice.

(2) The real story is the Kroons. We've established that The Martians would die without the enclosed city maintained by the Kroons. The Kroons have no trouble surviving on the surface of Mars. When the Martians leave for Earth they could turn Mars over to the Kroons. It'd be a win-win! However that would mean the Martians would henceforth have to do their own labor. They're having none of that. Page 59, panel 1 should be what this story is about. Two Kroons watch awestruck as Hugh punches one of the Master Race. "He struck Kurkil--one of THEM. It is proof. One day--" In the next caption the writer acknowledges that Hugh's action had aroused "dangers." And that's the last we hear of it. As I see it the central conflict in the story is how the Kroons, dominated for centuries by fear and false beliefs, come to realize that the Martian invasion of Earth could rearrange the the balance of power between the "inferiors" and their "masters."

(3) The telepathy conundrum. According to the author the Martians dominate the Kroons not only with psychology and tradition, but also by their "stronger wills" and "more powerful brains." This suggests that the Martians have mental powers that they use to compel others to do their bidding. These powers are apparently teachable, since Kurkil intends to give them to the brainwashed Earth children. Here's the hitch: on page 61, when Karil hatches the plan to marry Hugh, we're told:

"His mind under the sway of the two powerful Martian intellects, Harkness could do nothing but obey."

Harkness doesn't marry of his own free will! Even after her supposed change of heart, Karil remains a manipulative little creep.

(4) Who are all these people? Selby Donninson lacks Bill Lacey's panache, but he's a solid artist and his drawings serve the story well. I'm confused about the Martians' sizes. All the "governors" seem to be barely more than half Hugh's height. However Karil and her brother, "the last of the Martian royal line," are approximately earthman-size. How come? How tall is an average Martian? It's impossible to tell from the crowd scenes. Are everyday Martians shrimps like the governors? Do the royals belong to a line of unusually-tall Martians? Or is the other way round--the governors are a line of unusually-short Martians who are all the same size because they're inbred, passing along their scientific knowledge on a hereditary basis? Finally, when Karil and Betty are drawn in the same panel, Karil appears to be several inches shorter than Betty. This would mean even tall Martians are shorter than average Earthlings. You could line them up by size from governors to royal Martians to Earthmen to Kroons, like the Dalton Brothers.

That's my take on things. I enjoyed reading these books and admiring Bill Lacey's art. Two fine choices, say I.