Space...Hero?...Saturdays STRANGE JOURNEY "Captain Kiddeo Space Bum"

Is it humor?

Is it serious?

I can't decide...

...read the tale and judge for yourself!

The title is a variation of "Captain Video", a tv show which had been cancelled three years earlier when this never-reprinted tale appeared in Ajax-Farrell's Strange Journey #3 (1958).

Yet the story itself has nothing to do with Captain Video, not even as a spoof of it, like MAD's superb Captain Tvideo which you can read HERE!

The attempts at humor and wit are lacking in both, and the illustrations have none of the wonderful background detail (Called "chicken fat" by artist Will Elder) MAD's artists were famous for!

Plus, the art is so jammed-up, I have the impression the original (perhaps unpublished) story was longer, and re-edited to fit into the 5 page slot in an otherwise average sci-fi anthology.

We do know it's a product of the S M Iger Studio which packaged Ajax-Farrell's books, but not who the particular creatives were...

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Tales Twice Told STRANGE FANTASY "Monster in the Building!"

Remember this mellow little tale, which we presented HERE?

Well, hang on to your hats, because this is what it originally appeared as...

Was the Comics Code Authority justified in ordering the extensive changes to this tale from Ajax/Farrell's Strange Fantasy #14 (1954) we saw HERE?
What do you think?

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Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s

Tales Twice Told STRANGE JOURNEY "Hole in the Sky!"

At first glance, this looks like a typical 1950s sci-fi comics tale...

...flying saucers, aliens, and a misunderstanding between humans and "invaders".

A rather typical 1950s tale of a "misunderstood mellow alien".

Note: the cover features a uniformed policeman, rather than the plainclothes detective, confronting the alien!
This was the Comics Code-approved version.
For the original, uncensored, horror comics-era story, you'll have to come back on Thursday!

Art for both the story and cover for this tale from Ajax/Farrell's Strange Journey #2 (1957) by Ken Battefield and the Iger Studios staff.
The scripter is unknown.

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Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s

Friday Fun MADHOUSE "Going-Going-Real Gone!"

What if Casper the Friendly Ghost was a middle-aged specter...

 ...encountering live teen "hep cats"?

This tale takes the concept to a literally-surreal level!

BTW, see how many pop-culture references you can understand without Googling them!

The Iger Comics Studio produced this tale for Ajax-Farrell's MadHouse V1N4 (1954), showing teen/young adult hipsters/hepcats encountering ghosts (apparently of middle-aged/older people) who didn't realize their attempts at creating ugly art and terrifying music resulted in cutting-edge popular culture!

When MAD became a surprise hit in 1953 (after the early issues lost money!) other comics publishers were quick to jump onto the bandwagon, eventually bringing out more than a dozen imitations with titles like FLIP, WHACK!, NUTS, EH!, UNSANE!, MADHOUSE/BUGHOUSE, and GET LOST!

These copiers realized that Will Elder’s cluttered “chicken fat” layouts were a major part of MAD’s success, and their pages were also densely-packed with all sorts of outlandish and bizarre gags!

Trivia: While most companies (like Ajax/Farrell) published just a single MAD imitation title, Atlas (the predecessor to Marvel) dove head-first into the fad, with no less than four titles, Snafu, WILD, RIOT, and Crazy!

These “parody comics” are uniquely 1950s catching the popular culture zeitgeist through a dual lens: not only reflecting '50s culture through parody but also being typical examples of that culture...ironically, in a way that MAD wasn't!

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The Best 1950s MAD-Inspired Satirical Comics

Reading Room VOODOO "Goodbye...World!"

Tuesday we presented an odder (than usual) Silver Age tale...

 ...with a cover that seemed as if was from another story entirely.

Well, it was...sort of.

The story in Ajax's Midnight #4 (1957) was a reprint of a tale from Ajax's Voodoo #7 (1953), which was published during the height of the horror comics boom!

And, let's just say that Ajax's editorial packager, the Iger Studio, was not noted for its' subtle (or even tasteful) stories.

The heavy hand of the Comics Code Authority forced quite a few changes from this wild original version, as you will see from the splash panel onward...

Beyond little things like making the duo who are sent into space to spawn the new human race a married couple instead of a pair of unmarried co-workers, the harpies were redrawn as insect-like humanoids (which made a certain amount of sense), and the ending was totally-redone as a happy ending with humanity surviving the alien onslaught!
Personally, I prefer the original!

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Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s

Reading Room MIDNIGHT "Project Final X"

Will the world end in an ecological disaster...

...or will it be something much more sinister?

Now that you've read this story from Ajax's Midnight #4 (1957), you might be asking yourself if it seems like it was a tad...disjointed, and that it didn't make much sense at a couple of points.
There's actually a good reason for thinking that.
The clues are in the cover for that issue...

Look carefully at the differences between the alien you see on the cover and the ones in the story itself.

There is a reason behind it all!

Be here Thursday for the surprising, shocking explanation!
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Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s

Reading Room STRANGE JOURNEY "Space is a Secret"

Before you read this tale, go HERE...

..because this is the second version of this story!

Like almost all other comics publishers, Ajax/Farrell was hit hard by the Seduction of the Innocent witch-hunt of the 1950s.

They survived where many others didn't by kow-towing to the sometimes inane restrictions placed on them by the censor agency created by the industry itself...the Comics Code Authority!

This story, from Ajax/Farrell's Strange Journey #2 (1957) is a classic example of how extreme the Code took matters.

Every page has alterations, including changing the ending (in the original version, the Earthmen never escape)!

The final version, taken back to it's original level of horror...and beyond...can be found on our "brother" RetroBlog, Seduction of the Innocent!

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Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s