The Outliers of the Golden Age (A Listers Not Welcome!) 0

[N e r V]

I thought I’d try a thread on some of the non A listers of the Golden Age of Comics that I find more interesting. First up being a pretty big Basil Wolverton fan I thought I might share one of the Spacehawk stories he did. It’s so un-Flash Gordon and so un-Alex Raymond art but works so perfectly before the forced change in direction later. But first an introduction:

The Spacehawk

The Spacehawk was a super-hero who patrolled the Solar System. The tales mixed super-hero elements, science fiction, and horror aspects in the sinister villains. The science fiction ideas here are fairly advanced for the Golden Age of comics. This series takes place in outer space, and frequently shows us astronomical features of other planets. It is full of alien beings and robots.

It is NOT in the tradition of the influential 1930's comic strip Flash Gordon, which tended to treat other planets as backdrops for tales of exotic adventure in fabulous kingdoms with glamorous royalty. Instead, the sf elements in The Spacehawk are valued for their own sake, as part of genuine science fiction adventures. Basil Wolverton's art style does not seem to be influenced by Flash Gordon's creator Alex Raymond either, also a rarity in an era when comic book artists tended to regard Raymond as their ideal and model. 

The series also avoids that other paradigm of 1930's comics, the "modern-day scientists from Earth who build a rocket, and who have adventures on other planets they visit for the first time". This was the paradigm used in 1939 by the comic book series Adventures in the Unknown; it also shows up in the 1930's comic strip Brick Bradford. By contrast, The Spacehawk takes place in a future era, one in which space travel around the Solar System is almost routine.

The Spacehawk ran in Target Comics, from #5 (Vol. 1 #5) (June 1940), through #34 (Vol. 3 #10) (December 1942). All of the stories were written and drawn by Basil Wolverton. A small collection of Spacehawk tales, reproduced in black and white, was published in the 1970's. It has a highly informative introduction by Ron Goulart.

 

So from Target Comics V1 #5 comes...

 

 

 

 

[porcupine48]

Love me some Spacehawk.Recently read Target vol.2 #11!

[Tri-Color Brian]

Here's a Target with a Spacehawk story in it...

[adamstrange]

This edition contains all the Space Hawk, oversize and in color faithful to the original printings.  It's stunning though appears to be out of print.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Spacehawk-Wolverton-Basil-first-2012/dp/B00CAYK270/ref=sr_1_52?ie=UTF8&qid=1519951813&sr=8-52&keywords=basil+wolvert

[N e r V]

This is the solo Spacehawk Target cover...

 

[Mmehdy]

great read thank you very much

[OtherEric]

1 hour ago, N e r V said:

This is the solo Spacehawk Target cover...

 

Solo solo Spacehawk cover, or solo Wolverton Spacehawk cover.  But Spacehawk is also on v2n1 and v3n10.

 

[N e r V]

7 minutes ago, OtherEric said:

Solo solo Spacehawk cover, or solo Wolverton Spacehawk cover.  But Spacehawk is also on v2n1 and v3n10.

 

Sorry, Wolverton of coarse. Although the 2 cover appearances you mentioned are slight and unimpressive as he’s tiny and part of a cast of characters promoting the titles features.

The Wolverton cover is as you put it the solo solo cover and solo Wolverton cover. I think it’s pretty iconic too.

[N e r V]

It’s up there with this one by Wolverton for me...  

 

For everyone who was ever nervous about going out on a blind date....

[OtherEric]

7 minutes ago, N e r V said:

Sorry, Wolverton of coarse. Although the 2 cover appearances you mentioned are slight and unimpressive as he’s tiny and part of a cast of characters promoting the titles features.

The Wolverton cover is as you put it the solo solo cover and solo Wolverton cover. I think it’s pretty iconic too.

Agreed on pretty much every point.  I can be a pedantic twit on occasion, sorry.

[Tri-Color Brian]

So, what other B-list books are we going to see here? 

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

Why is it so hard to find a high grade Brain Bats of Venus?  Or am I looking in all the wrong places?

[N e r V]

52 minutes ago, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

Why is it so hard to find a high grade Brain Bats of Venus?  Or am I looking in all the wrong places?

Um, because it’s one of the best horror/sci-fi stories of that era?

 

[N e r V]

1 hour ago, Tri-ColorBrian said:

So, what other B-list books are we going to see here? 

I have a few ideas of where to go next  if anyone’s interested in the trip...

Edited March 2, 2018 by N e r V

[jimjum12]

9 hours ago, N e r V said:

I have a few ideas of where to go next  if anyone’s interested in the trip...

No disrespect Brett..... but surely you don't plan to leave Wolverton without sharing "The Eye Of Doom " ? GOD BLESS....

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

 

[N e r V]

2 hours ago, jimjum12 said:

No disrespect Brett..... but surely you don't plan to leave Wolverton without sharing "The Eye Of Doom " ? GOD BLESS....

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

 

Jimjum, I actually had in mind another eye story from a different company but I can put that on the back burner for now just for you.

So the story Jimjum is talking about here is from the second series of Mystic done by Atlas comics in issue #6. 

[N e r V]

For those of you that wish to find fault with comics logic at times a giant eye might be the most realistic part of that story because this is what it would be like on Venus....

 

Venus is the hottest world in the solar system. Although Venus is not the planet closest to the sun, its dense atmosphere traps heat in a runaway version of the greenhouse effect that warms Earth. As a result, temperatures on Venus reach 870 degrees Fahrenheit (465 degrees Celsius), more than hot enough to melt lead. Probes that scientists have landed there have survived only a few hours before being destroyed.

Venus has a hellish atmosphere as well, consisting mainly of carbon dioxide with clouds of sulfuric acid, and scientists have only detected trace amounts of water in the atmosphere. The atmosphere is heavier than that of any other planet, leading to a surface pressure 90 times that of Earth. Incredibly, however, early in Venus' history the planet may have been habitable, according to models from NASA researchers at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. 

The surface of Venus is extremely dry. During its evolution, ultraviolet rays from the sun evaporated water quickly, keeping it in a prolonged molten state. There is no liquid water on its surface today because the scorching heat created by its ozone-filled atmosphere would cause any to boil away. Roughly two-thirds of the Venusian surface is covered by flat, smooth plains that are marred by thousands of volcanoes, some which are still active today, ranging from about 0.5 to 150 miles (0.8 to 240 kilometers) wide, with lava flows carving long, winding canals up to more than 3,000 miles (5,000 km) in length, longer than on any other planet.

 

[goldust40]

Wolverton's  space horror was unique in its remorseless bleakness and was way ahead of its time. Awesome stories.

[Flex Mentallo]

54 minutes ago, goldust40 said:

remorseless bleakness

[goldust40]

3 minutes ago, Flex Mentallo said:

58 minutes ago, goldust40 said:

remorseless bleakness

The endless void is pretty fab, it has to be said.