Wow, I am full of New Year cheer, aren’t I? So much so I thought I would share this comic book adaptation of George Pal’s movie, When Worlds Collide, which is about the end of the world. I have not seen the movie, but I read the 1933 book of the same name by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer when I was 12. Until then my nightmares were about an atom bomb being dropped on my city. I might survive that, I thought. But this was about Earth being destroyed by another planet! Wasn’t the threat of nuclear annihilation bad enough?
The comic book version of the movie adaptation is credited by the Grand Comics Database as written by Leo Dorfman, and drawn by George Evans, with a guess at inking by Al Williamson. The original Fawcett Comics edition was Motion Picture Comics #110 (1952). What I am presenting is the UK version, published the same year by L. Miller.
7 comments:
What I remember best about the movie is that Frank Cady, Mr Drucker on Green Acres, played the wheelchair pushing stooge who finally asserts himself. He pops up in lots of bit parts if you look for him.
A lovely art job by one of my favorite artists, George Evans. Note that George appears as a cop on story page four, lower left panel. Evans often drew himself into his stories...I especially enjoyed his cameo in Dell's The Underwater City adaptation. Evans portrays himself raiding the buffet while everyone else in the panel is listening to a presentation. Extra points to George for including a 1950 Studebaker in the same panel!
The When Worlds Collide movie is a mixed bag. Underlying the plot is the message that those who will be saved from destruction are those rich enough to build their personal rocket ship and to pay the private army that fights off the panicked masses who storm the ship. Of course that army will also perish, but, well, it''s a living. Sort of.
The movie features plenty of impressive special effects, but the ending is a groaner. The ship sets down on barren, forbidding terrain and the survivors fear they've come to an uninhabitable world...until the camera pans over to reveal a splendid Chesley Bonestell painting in the distance. I know it's just me, but what made it most difficult to get into the movie was the lead actor, Richard Derr. For some reason he reminded me of Danny Kaye! I couldn't take him seriously, expecting him at any moment to do a comedy routine.
Bookmarking this one, Pappy!
I heartily recommend George Pal's film, except for the last 5 minutes. The story I heard was the production ran out of funds so they had to use the storyboards for the final scene, instead of creating real matte paintings. Other than that, it's probably his masterpiece.
The ending of the movie is rather a disappointment. Ray Harryhausen produced a painting, for approval, of how he envisioned the landscape of the new planet should be made to appear. Someone made the decision — surely to save money — to use that painting, rather than to build the model. Harryhausen was a talented painter, but the painting was certainly not photo-realistic.
Although one can understand the marketing, I still find it a bit perverse that the comic book is an adaptation of the movie, rather more directly of the novel. (Of course, there was a novelization of Blade Runner, and it wasn't even a faithful novelization, in-so-far as in the novelization J.F. Sebastian was spared by Roy Batty. Perhaps someday someone will make an anime adaptation of that novelization.) About ten years earlier, there was a comic strip, Speed Spaulding, that was effectively an adaptation of the novel, and this strip was reprinted (with some changes) in Famous Funnies. And, of course, Flash Gordon had borrowed very heavily from When Worlds Collide.
Wow, three comments on that ending...I am glad I haven't seen it. I am surprised that it was released with what the three of you (Smurfswacker, Darci and Daniel) have described.
I saw Forbidden Planet within the past couple of years, and was reminded again of a major studio using fake-looking and painted backgrounds. Oh well, it looked great to me when I was 9 years old, but as a crotchety geezer made me hit the off button on my remote (after seeing Anne Francis, that is.)
Great post, Pappy - thanks! I remember the movie 's finale looking shockingly lame even to my 11 year old's eyes back in the day.
I concur on the Williamson inks theory, bolstered by his apparent cameo in panel 6 of page 4!
And if you're looking for a related treat, check out Joseph Franke's pulp illustrations from the original Blue Book publication:
https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1249378
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