Number 1616: Joy buzzers in space

We begin another theme week. Our three postings this week will be what I call Spacey Stories. That is, stories which take place in space, and also have a degree of spaciness (as in off-the-wall) in the storytelling, deliberately or not.

Gardner Fox wrote and Fred Guardineer drew this spacey tale of Space Ace, from the ME one-shot, Space Ace #5 (1952). The stories are all reprints from Manhunt. This particular story is originally from Manhunt #6 (1948). Space Ace (Jet Black) and his young crew member, Jak Tal are in orbit doing their Space Patrol duties when they encounter an alien spaceship. The story’s title calls the aliens men, but they look more like something out of H. P. Lovecraft. That isn’t enough to make it oddball...it’s the use of a common novelty item, a joy buzzer, called a handshake buzzer here, to help defeat the invasion-minded aliens.

Here is another posting with Space Ace. Just click on the thumbnail.