Monday, December 03, 2012

Number 1274: Babes, BEMs, and a butt-kickin' hero

After presenting Captain Tootsie yesterday I have a hankering for more of that old time science fiction. You know, the “crazy Buck Rogers stuff,” with rocketships, bug-eyed monsters and beautiful women. Oh yeah, mustn't forget the squarejawed, two-fisted hero.

We're having a theme week this week, “silly science stories,” of which this is the second of four.

This is from Captain Flight Comics. Rock Raymond, who looks like he just stepped out of the barber's chair (still wearing the cape around his shoulders), is from issue #10 (1945).






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8 comments:

  1. Daniel [oeconomist.com]12:24 AM

    Uhm, so Rock Raymond saved Queen Merca, but just left the other women to their fates? And what about Arco? Jeepers!

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  2. Pappy4:15 AM

    Daniel, it wouldn't have hurt the writer to insert some dialogue into the last panel: "And now let's get a rescue party and go in to rescue those other beautiful girls!"

    But then, after all, Merca is the queen, and Rock knows from whom the benefits of his rescuing will come. The other victims, well, sorry 'bout that...

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  3. Brian Barnes7:12 AM

    Now that's a comic :)

    One has to wonder if the same writers who were doing western tales were just shifted over to these. There really isn't a lot of sci-fi in them. Force fields? Ray Guns?

    There's the mutation ray, but take that out and it's basically a western. Substitute the spaceship for a horse, and we have another western hero w/o the gun motif.

    BTW, another sci-fi element they could have introduced. Flashlights!

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  4. Kirk7:36 AM

    The lobster people live on the HOT side of Mercury? The writer of Rock Raymond didn't really concern himself with Darwinian theory. Usually don't nitpick about comic book aliens, but why not scorpion people or some other desert animal?

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  5. Pappy8:31 PM

    Kirk, I assume your question is rhetorical. And I'm glad because I have no answer.

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  6. Pappy8:34 PM

    Brian, your Western/SF crossover is a good observation. You look at fiction and everything fit pretty much into a mold: good guy, bad guy, beautiful girl(s), guns. Using those elements a writer could come up with anything. It is still being done.

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  7. Chris Lanier11:50 PM

    The "hostile eyes" panel is, I think, a lift of an illustration for a pulp story called "Spotted Satan" - see here:

    http://somedieforthis.tumblr.com/post/16724533306/spotted-satan-otis-adelbert-kline-and-hoffman

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  8. Pappy9:26 AM

    Chris, I hadn't seen that illustration before. You are correct, sir, and thanks for pointing it out. (What?! A comic book artist swipe another artist's work? Horrors!)

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