Number 1911: Britain’s most wanted

Charley (or Charlie, or more properly Charles) Peace was a real-life criminal in Victorian England. The Daily Mail has this interesting short article with illustrations about Peace, who was a murderer and all around bounder, villain and miscreant in his day. He was also, as the article is headlined, “...the son of a one-legged lion tamer.” (The effect of his father on his later criminal career can only be guessed at.)

The description of Peace in the splash panel, “England’s worst murderer of the 19th century, and perhaps of all time . . . the acme of evil in all lands, in all times!” is pure hyperbole. When the story was published originally in 1948 there were a lot of war criminals of the late world war whose zeal for mass murder was much more the worst “in all lands, in all times.”

I give credit to Sid Greene, the artist, for doing a good job on the period atmospherics of this ripping yarn from Crime Must Pay the Penalty #3. My scans are from a reprint in issue #36 (1954).

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.

Number 685


The Hot Flame Goddess!


Until I saw this story, attributed by the Grand Comics Database to Sid Greene, I didn't realize Sid could draw such great-looking babes.

My familiarity with Greene, besides one Target story I showed in Pappy's #540, is from the Silver Age science fiction he did at DC, like this story from Pappy's #527, and for various inking jobs which I thought were very distinctive.

Shelia is a sexy chick in a pin-up fan's delight of a story. From Avon's Strange Worlds #3, 1951.

Number 540


Target


The Target and Targeteers lasted through the 1940s. Created in 1940 by cartoonist Dick (Frankenstein) Briefer, using the name Dick Hamilton, the Target was a metallurgist who wore a costume made of metallic fibers that bullets bounced off. His two business partners joined him as the Targeteers.

This episode is fromTarget Comics Volume 3 Number 12, February 1943. By this time the Target and Targeteers were servicemen, and this particular story uses only one Targeteer. Maybe the other guy was on KP peeling spuds.

Sid Greene did the artwork along with somebody named Ryan. Greene was another of the comic book journeymen I'm always glad to feature. He's probably best known to modern comics fans for the work he did during the '60s at DC, where I saw him first as an inker. He was hired to replace the retired Bernard Sachs. I saw Greene's pencils and inks in various places. I showed a story of his from Mystery in Space a couple of weeks ago. Sid Greene died in 1972.

Number 527


Mail Rider to the Stars!


I get a kick out of this short story from Mystery in Space #42, Feb.-Mar. 1958. It fits my observation that most science fiction I grew up with was an extrapolation on what was then current. If we got daily mail delivery to our homes, then by golly in the far future they'd have mailmen who'd go to other planets. Maybe they couldn't get interplanetary Internet.

I also love the hallucinations in this story. Giant gorillas with antennas coming in the window of the craft, yow. If I saw that I'd wonder if I got slipped some bad acid.

According to the GCD, which in turn depended on MIS editor Julius Schwartz' editorial records, the story was written by John Broome, the artwork by Sid Greene and John Giunta.