Captain's 50th Anniversary Theatre & Library SPACE: 1999 "Breakaway" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

It's the year 1999, and Commander John Koenig has just assumed command of Moonbase Alpha!

His assignment: prepare the Meta Probe crew, who will launch shortly to explore a rogue planet that's entered the Solar System.
But something...not disease nor radiation...is crippling and killing the Meta Probe crew, as well as other Moonbase personnel!
Koenig, Medical officer Dr Helena Russell, and renowned scientist Professor Victor Bergman figure out that magnetic radiation from Nuclear Waste Disposal Area #1 all the affected people worked near caused their physical decay and deaths.
Shortly after they've implemented safeguards, Waste Dump #1's contents combust, destroying the site.
The much larger Nuclear Waste Disposal Area #2, which had been showing similar readings, now begins the same progression towards fission/fusion.
To forestall that, the entire base's staff begin trying to extract and spread out the nuclear waste over the surface of the Moon...

As we continue, you can listen to the audio by clicking HERE 

(The audio will open in a new window and you'll have to set the playback at 7:20 to continue from where it left off yesterday.) and read the comic!

Think of it as a podcast...with visuals!

Penciled by Russ Heath & Rich Buckler and inked by Dick Giordano & Terry Austin, this original-material comic was one of two produced by Power Records in 1975.

The scripter of the adaptation of the pilot episode is unknown.

The other comic/record, "Return to the Beginning" wasn't an adaptation of a TV episode, but a new story by an unknown writer.
Here's a kool bonus for you...audio from all seven of Power Records' Space: 1999 episodes!
Just click on the ep's title and the audio will open up in a new window.
"Breakaway" (without the comic book), along with "Death's Other Dominion" and "Mission of the Darians" were released on a 33 1/3 LP record album.
"Return to the Beginning" (also without the comic book), along with another original story, "It Played So Softly On the Ear" and adaptations of episodes "End of Eternity" and "Dragon's Domain"were on a second 33 13 LP record album.

Enjoy!

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Captain's 50th Anniversary Theatre & Library SPACE: 1999 "Breakaway" Part 1

You Saw the "Semi-Animated Comic" of This Tale HERE.

Now you can listen to the audio by clicking HERE (The audio will open in a new window.) and read it as a comic!
Think of it as a podcast...with visuals!

Pause the audio, since the story will continue...tomorrow!

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The Complete Series

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Captain's 50th Anniversary Theatre SPACE: 1999 "Breakaway"

 

Space: 1999 debuted in 1975 with a major licensing push, including audio adventures, novelizations (along with original novels), and both comic books and b/w magazines.
Power Records, the premier children's audio line of the era did two lp record albums and two comic book/45 record adventures, including the pilot episode "Breakaway".
Charlton Comics published two different series, one as a standard four-color comic, the other a b/w magazine, both of which adapted the pilot episode with far different results.
With three different graphic adaptations (not including the prose novelization from Pocket Books), "Breakaway" was the single most adapted sci-fi movie or tv show in history, until Battlestar Galactica came along in 1979.
To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Space: 1999, on Wednesdays though October, we're going to present all three adaptations of "Breakaway", plus the prose short story from the rarely-seen-in-America hardcover Space: 1999 Annual published in England!
First up, the Power Records version, complete with soundtrack!
(After all, it was meant as a read-along adventure!)


The writer who adapted the screenplay is unknown, but the art is by Rich Buckler, Dick Giordano, Frank McLaughlin, and Neal Adams' Continuity Studios crew.
Trivia: While the various American licensors had the rights to use the likenesses of most of the cast, for some reason recently-deceased actor Prentis Hancock couldn't be used as Paul Morrow!

In all the American comics (including the two Power Records stories), artist/art director Gray Morrow served as the visual model for Paul Morrow!
However, the British comic strips in the Annuals and Look-In Magazine did use Prentiss' mustachioed visage as the stalwart Main Mission Controller!

Next Wednesday, the b/w magazine version.

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Hollywood Halloween / Captain's Library BURKE'S LAW "Who Killed the Hollywood Hopefuls? The Fatal Attempt"

Before we begin, a brief primer on Hollywood makeup techniques...

...as they were in the 1960s, courtesy of writer Paul S Newman (again...not the actor) and artists Frank McLaughlin & Vince Colletta from the inside back cover of Burke's Law #3!

That's why it's b/w instead of color!

Now, with that out of the way, let's continue...

We Have Already Seen...

...several Hollywood actors killed by what appeared to be classic movie monsters come to horrifying life!

Captain of Detectives Amos Burke and his aides traced the creatures back to Gerald Grant, the now-retired actor who first portrayed all of them, and discover their primary suspect has an unbreakable alibi...

Written by Paul S Newman (for the final time...NOT the actor!) and illustrated by penciler Frank McLaughlin along with inkers Dick Giordano, Sal Trapani, and Vince Colletta, this never-reprinted tale from Dell's Burke's Law #3 (1965) followed the format of the TV show pretty closely, including the title character's continual reference to non-existent "Burke's Laws" to cryptically-explain his deductions.

Happy Halloween!

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Hollywood Halloween / Captain's Library BURKE'S LAW "Who Killed the Hollywood Hopefuls?: Third Victim"

When Last We Left Our Millionare Crime Solver...

Movie actors are being killed by...something...resembling famous cinematic monsters.

Los Angeles Captain of Detectives Amos Burke and his aides follow a trail of clues leading to the film studio that made the movies the creatures originally appeared in....

Well, this looks like another dead end...or is it?

You'll discover the astounding answer tomorrow as the story concludes on

Halloween!

Writer Paul S Newman (again, not the actor) and artists Frank McLaughlin (penciler) along with Dick Giordano, Sal Trapani & Vince Colletta (inkers) will keep you guessing as they finish this tale from Dell's Burke's Law #3 (1965).

Burke's Law (1963-1966) was produced by Aaron Spelling, who later did such genre series as Charlie's Angels, TJ Hooker, Matt Houston, Hart to Hart, Starsky and Hutch, The Rookies, SWAT, Mod Squad, and Honey West (a spinoff from Burke's Law we've featured HERE.)

While it was a cop show, the plot was often secondary to the parade of high-profile guest stars playing victims and suspects, making it "CSI meets Love Boat".

Classic movie stars like Buster Keaton, Don Ameche, Basil Rathbone, Dorothy Lamour, and Broderick Crawford joined up-and-comers like William Shatner, Barbara Eden, Tab Hunter, Annette Funicello, and Telly Savalas as the weirdest grouping of West Coast eccentrics outside of San Diego ComicCon!

As you can see, translating it to the comic page proved difficult, since the editors felt the guest star aspect couldn't be carried out in a licensed comic.

Trivia: Every episode's title was "Who Killed (Insert Noun)?", much as Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s titles were "The (Insert Noun) Affair" and Wild, Wild West's episodes all had a "Night of the (Insert Noun)" title...even if they took place in broad daylight!

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