Number 1793: Spacy Stories Week: Joe Kubert’s Star Pirate

To end September and welcome October, we have another theme week, to wit, Spacy Stories Week, where each story will take place in that fictional space of the imagination. First up is Star Pirate, a Planet Comics strip that featured some great artists, including young Joe Kubert, whose familiar style is evident here.

Ever notice something about this style of science fiction? It is a pirate story, transplanted from Earth’s seas into outer space. One of the tricks used to make it sound more spacy is to insert the word space: space billiards, space coppers, space racketeer. Here's my friendly advice to would-be science fiction writers: do not emulate that outdated and cornball technique.

From Planet Comics #32 (1944):

Number 1250: The visible Invisibility Helmet

This episode of Star Pirate immediately got my attention with that startling splash panel. Girl with open shirt and white bra being crucified! Yow. That's eye-catching. But nothing of the sort happens in the story.

The next thing that got my attention was the Invisibility Helmet. The idea is for the user to put on the helmet and disappear from human eyes. The problem is the helmet stays visible, so the wearer can be easily spotted. If I were the inventor of this device I wouldn't think it was quite ready for marketing.

Despite those observations I like this strip; Star Pirate is a fun feature that appeared in Planet Comics, and other episodes I have seen have early work by Murphy Anderson. Here Maurice Whitman is credited with the art. Whitman was one of those top notch art talents that Fiction House was blessed with.* The art usually made the book, because as is shown with this example, some of the stories have holes big enough to fly a spaceship through.

From Planet Comics #53 (1948):

*Go back to Sunday's posting of Pappy's #1248 for some great Fiction House art by Joe Doolin.

Number 613

Star Pirate


I love Star Pirate, a regular series from Planet Comics, drawn by Murphy Anderson.

I first saw Anderson's work in the late '50s in DC's Mystery in Space and Strange Adventures. I love his clean artwork, his well drawn characters, muscular guys, beautiful girls. Murphy was young, in his late teens and early twenties, when he drew episodes of Star Pirate. But he was thoroughly professional, as he continued to be throughout his career.

Many times I've written of the journeymen in comics, the guys who went in and slogged it out for low page rates and gave it the best they could, month after month, year after year. Anderson drew syndicated strips (most notably stints on Buck Rogers). He drew many comic books, and though he could draw anything, I remember him best for science fiction and super-heroes. Star Pirate is in the best Planet Comics tradition: sexy girls, action heroes, rocket ships and ray guns. It's obvious from looking at this that he had a lot of fun doing it.

This Star Pirate episode is from Planet Comics #46, January 1947. I showed another in Pappy's #409.

Number 409


Murphy Anderson's Star Pirate


Murphy Anderson has long been one of my favorite DC artists. I loved his work in the '60s, from the Atomic Knights in Strange Adventures to Hawkman, to his many inking jobs done over the pencils of other artists. I always thought any artist looked better when inked by Murphy.

Star Pirate is a swashbuckling s-f series from Planet Comics. This particular episode is from Planet #41, March 1946. Since Anderson was born in 1926, he was 19 or 20 when he drew this, and it shows a lot of sophistication for such a young artist. His inspiration from Lou Fine is apparent, too.

In 1948 Anderson drew Buck Rogers.

In 1987 Dragon Lady Press reprinted an episode in Classic Adventure Strips #10. As good as this is for a youngster, with age he only got better.