Captain's Library: MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER "Secret Mission"

Though his radio show had been off the air for several years...

...the name-value of the Mysterious Traveler had enough cachet to keep this comic book series going for several years.

This story from Tales of the Mysterious Traveler #3 (1957) was illustrated by the legendary Steve Ditko, who would later create or co-create Spider-Man, Dr Strange, The Question, The Creeper, and a number of other unusual characters.

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Captain's Library: CAPTAIN VIDEO "Dark Side of the Moon" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Heroes...

Aliens operating on the Dark Side of the Moon plan to attack Earth, and only Captain Video (with the Video Ranger) can stop them...

Due to it's low-budget nature, the Captain Video TV series and movie serial usually showed aliens who looked like this...

The "alien invasion force" from Captain Video; the Serial. Note Captain Video (Judd Holdren) and the Ranger on the left in clever disguises.

Only in the comic, unencumbered by financial or special effect restrictions, was the full, unfettered potential of the show realized.
This story from Fawcett Comics' Captain Video #5 (1951) was penciled by George Evans and inked by Martin Thal.

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Captain's Library: CAPTAIN VIDEO "Dark Side of the Moon" Part 1

Yes, Ed Norton's idol, TV's first space commander, takes a major turn with this story as he now looks like Al Hodge, the actor who played him on the show.

 Now this is an alien invasion on a level the tv show simply didn't have the budget to present!
To be continued, tomorrow!

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Captain's Library: CAPTAIN NICE "Fowl Play"

Created by Buck (Get Smart) Henry in 1967, this show was NBC's answer to ABC's Batman...

...but neither the show nor spin-off comic lasted very long!

William Daniels as the wimpy-in-either-identity Carter Nash/Captain Nice was quite good, but the supporting cast lacked the finesse and panache that the second banana performers on Get Smart had.

There was, for example, no villain on a par with Bernie Kopell's merrily-manical Siegfried!

Another problem was doing convincing super-hero-style special effects work on a tv budget.

The scripts called for a lot of elaborate slapstick stunts, but the wires were constantly-showing.
This tale from the one-shot Captain Nice (1967) from Gold Key was illustrated by Joe Certa and Mike Roy.
Unfortunately, Certa is not very good at likenesses (besides William Daniels' visage), and is totally-unsuited to doing humor.
Like the tv series, it's a misfire, but an interesting curiosity of the Swingin' 60s!

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Captain's Library: ROCKY JONES: SPACE RANGER "Velocity X"

"Warp drive" didn't begin with Star Trek...

but lightspeed (or faster) travel was a rarity in 1950s' tv science fiction, where rockets dominated the skies!

Of all the 1950s Space Heroes we present here, Rocky Jones seems closest to the most famous tv Space Hero of all--Capt James T Kirk!

While the credits for this story from Charlton's Space Adventures #15 (1955) list Ted Galindo and Vince Alascia as the artists, there's enough difference from the other stories credited to them for me to believe it's actually Alden McWilliams.

Almost all of the Rocky Jones tv episode-compilation movies are available on DVD and two of them Crash of the Moons and Manhunt in Space were roasted on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Rocky Jones will return in the near future... 

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Captain's Library: VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA "Green Monsters of the Deep"

Return to the 1960s, when super-subs prowled the oceans...

...at least on TV and in the pages of one of England's comic weeklies, TV Tornado!

Actually, shark with chips (or fries, to us Americans) and tartar sauce is delicious!

While the artist swipes shots from the Gold Key comic book version, this is a new story written for the English audience, including British phrases like "I wouldn't fancy it..."!

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