Number 2418: The dark side of Captain Video

Captain Video and his ranger pal known only as Ranger take their rocketship to the moon, tracking a flying saucer which has left radiation on Earth. On the moon the intrepid earthmen meet little green men from the flying saucers.

Back here in the real world, on January 3, 2019 the Chinese landed a Chang’e spacecraft on the far side (commonly called the "dark side") of the moon. You can read about it in an article from Cosmos magazine online. There are no little green men, or none the Chinese have revealed yet to the rest of the world.

Art by George Evans and Martin Thall. From Captain Video #5 (1951).

Number 2394: Captain Video vs A.I.

Growing up in the fifties, besides comic books I read a lot of science fiction. Some of that science fiction (as well as comic books) used robots. Sometimes the robots were smarter than the people in the story. Sometimes they wanted to take over from humans. I was able to assure myself that it was all just fiction. Nowadays I worry about the near-future when robot cars share the road. The funny thing about fiction is that sometimes it turns into fact.

Captain Video and his ranger meet up with some smart robots who have killed their creator, and are in the process of taking over. Since comic books are produced by humans and not robots the prejudice is for the flesh and blood guys and not the artificial guys.

The television program, Captain Video, was on the air for a few years from the now long defunct Du Mont Network. Du Mont also manufactured televisions, as you can see here with this luxurious 1951 model.

Because of their money problems the television productions were low budget, including Captain Video, where it would be obvious when they were cutting corners with the futuristic stuff, like space helmets. The satire from Mad #15, “Captain TVideo,” drawn by Jack Davis, points out some of the cheap props. Did they actually use shirt cardboard cut to look like a space helmet? I don’t know, but it’s a funny idea.

At least the story I am showing today is free from budget constraints. No budget for props in a comic book. Whatever a writer can think up and an artist can draw costs the same as any other comic book. “Island of Conquerors” is the last Captain Video story from Fawcett, after six issues in 1951. It is from issue #6 (1951), no writer credited, but drawn by George Evans and Martin Thall.

Number 1728: You want to sacrifice, leave me out of it

Captain Video was an early TV show from the now-defunct Dumont Network. YouTube videos show it was low budget. That must have extended to photos provided by the network to Fawcett Publications, who did five issues of a tie-in Captain Video comic book in 1951. The heavily doctored photos of the actors on both front and back covers of issue #3 are the same.

The best thing about comic books is there is no need for for props or locations. The artist can furnish it all, and the scriptwriter is not impeded by budgets. So it was for the Captain Video comic, which had some fairly grandiose plots. In this story, “The X Project,” drawn by George Evans and inked by Martin Thall, there is a plot of building bridges from America over both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans (literal, not figurative, bridges). There is a villain with the fabulous name of Bundello Britt. There is also a moment between Captain Video and the Ranger that got my special attention. Faced with the destruction of the bridge, Captain Video asks his young pal, “Would you be willing to sacrifice your life to make the dream of the bridge a reality? Tell me quickly!”

The Ranger, bravely...stupidly...says, “I would, Captain! What is one life compared to the benefits of all mankind?”

Okay, CUT! Stop rolling film. Were I the young Ranger, I would say to Captain Video: “Are you out of your freakin' mind!? You want to crash the Whirlojet, you drop me off first, and then you can crash away!“ If I was in the Ranger’s place I would mention to Captain Video about my plan to retire someday on a government pension, have a nice, placid life with my wife, kids and grandkids. Nowhere in the plan is deliberate sacrifice.

Luckily, plot twists intervene and the sacrifice is unnecessary. Whew.

From Captain Video #3 (1951).

Here is another Captain Video story. No self-sacrifice is necessary. Just click on the thumbnail.