Number 2554: Having the time of his life...or death

I like stories about time travel, aliens from other planets, dinosaurs, and Murphy Anderson’s artwork. So we have all of those elements in “The Cycle of Time.” A driver hits and kills a man with his car, some alien scientists land and claim they are from Alpha Centauri. The aliens and the hit-and-run driver then all go back in time.

Those alien “scientists” say that Alpha Centauri is “a solar system trillions of light years away from the Earth and the sun.” I looked it up: Alpha Centauri is a galaxy, not a solar system, and it is 4.367 light years away, not trillions. Some scientists, eh? At least they have a time machine. (Note: I neglected my homework. Go to the comments below and read the corrections for my errors about Alpha Centauri. Chagrined, but glad to be set straight. Pappy)

Artist Murphy Anderson was one of my favorite artists in DC Comics, and I liked his work on the series, Atomic Knights, in early '60s issues of DC’s Strange Adventures. During his career Anderson did a lot of science fiction, including a couple of stints as the “Buck Rogers” artist in newspapers.

There are no writing credits for “The Cycle of Time,” but Jerry Siegel was the editor, and a guess would be that he may have written some of the stories.

From Weird Thrillers #2 (1951):

Number 2016: Hairy shadows

DC’s supernatural comics had a habit of turning what looked supernatural into something more down-to-earth, but this is different. The hairy shadows may not be supernatural, but they're not of this earth. Manly Wade Wellman is credited by Grand Comics Database as writer, with Murphy Anderson (pencils) and Joe Giella (inks) as artists.

From Phantom Stranger #4 (1953):

Number 1786: The visibly invisible dinosaur

I read “The Invisible Dinosaur” in its first appearance in Strange Adventures #133 (1961). At the time I didn’t think there was anything unusual about this totally screwball story. Wristwatches that cause vibrations that negate the effects of aliens with whips who control humans. Intelligent dinosaurs, descended from Earth dinosaurs of 175 million years ago, captured for an interplanetary zoo. And said dinosaurs are invisible on Earth. I did not think any of that was extraordinary, nor did I question how something invisible could cast a shadow. My critical thinking skills were yet to develop, I guess.

In those days I was more interested in looking at the Murphy Anderson art. Murphy was one of my favorite artists from the Julius Schwartz editorial stable. What I see now when I look at this story is another immaculately drawn tale with an absurd plot, rendered completely straight-faced. I guess that came from Anderson’s time in the comic book trenches, drawing science fiction for Fiction House (Star Pirate), and later the Buck Rogers newspaper comic strip. He had such a solid, appealing art style, I might not have even noticed the Gardner Fox story was, well..spacey.

I scanned this from the reprint in From Beyond the Unknown #15 (1972).

More of the visibly invisible from Murphy Anderson. Just click on the thumbnail:

Number 1668: Time capsule from 1,000,000 B.C.

We continue our Strange Robot Adventures theme week with yet another continuing character who appeared in the early issues of Strange Adventures, Captain Comet. Created by John Broome using a pen-name, and drawn by Murphy Anderson and Joe Giella, Captain Comet is a mutant with the body of a man 100,000 years in the future. He would have to be extra sharp to pick up all of the incredible stuff he has to figure out in this story, [SPOILER ALERT] especially when the incredible stuff turn out to be some dirty doin's by a scientist’s free-thinking robots. Because of the red herring of the so-called time capsule from 1,000,000 B.C. we don’t get to see the robots until page 4.[END OF SPOILER]

It is of its era...I like the panel on page 6 where Captain Comet clobbers the robot, knocking out some springs and at least one vacuum tube. From Strange Adventures #29 (1953):

The two-part origin of Captain Comet! Click on the thumbnail.

Number 1610: Flying gorillas from outer space!

Last week I showed some gorilla horror stories, and now a gorilla science fiction tale from DC. Flying monkeys have been around since the Wizard of Oz, but flying King Kong-sized gorillas, well, that's new.

Not only are they flying giant gorillas, they come from a planetoid which has parked itself in Earth’s sky so the flying giant gorillas can steal our atmosphere. Atom bombs can’t stop them, so our scientists use fear gas* on them. What a crazy plot.

Script is by Gardner Fox. Fox wrote it for editor Julius Schwartz, who used high concepts when planning out stories for his magazines. It’s drawn by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson, and it appeared originally in Strange Adventures #125 (1961). The striking cover is by Sid Greene.

I bought this issue of Strange Adventures when it came out. As goofy as the story is, and despite my love for gorilla-fiction, what I remember most about the comic were the full page ads that heralded Joe Kubert’s Hawkman and the first full-length Aquaman comic.

*There really is such a thing as fear gas, although that name implies that is the gas’s sole effect. It does a lot more damage than that. You can read about it here.

UPDATE: I found this incredible Chinese fireworks package  on the Design/Destroy website a few days after posting the story. I love a coincidence.