Showing posts with label serial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label serial. Show all posts

Saturday, November 12, 2022

Space Hero Saturdays BRICK BRADFORD "Action on Pura"

Meet a "space hero" who travels with a companion in a time machine which also moves through space!
No, not that one!
We're talking about the one who did it a generation before that one...
This never-reprinted short story from King's The Phantom #28 (1967) was by Paul Norris, who was also doing the newspaper strip!
Premiering in 1933, Brick Bradford started out as a high-adventure strip starring a daredevil aircraft pilot who encountered lost civilizations, dinosaurs and other fantastical situations.
In 1935, the strip's resident scientist, Professor Southern, created the "Time Top" which could travel through time and through space!
From then on, the strip was more or less a standard space opera with occasional journeys into the past and future.
Though it never achieved the level of popularity of Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers in the US, there were a couple of spin-offs including a series of Big Little Books and a movie serial starring Kane Richmond, who had also played Spy Smasher and The Shadow on the silver screen!
Though it lost American newspapers from the 1950s onward, the strip remained popular in Europe, Asia and Australia, where it continued until the retirement of the strip's current writer-artist, Paul Norris, in 1987...
Want to see more?
Let us know...

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Noel Neill (1920-2016)

She was a newspaperman's daughter in real life...
Kirk Alyn (Clark Kent/Superman) and Noel Neill (Lois Lane) in Superman (1948)
...and she ended up playing the most famous newspaperwoman in fiction on both the movie and TV screens!
Noel Neill (Lois Lane) and George Reeeves (Clark Kent/Superman) in The Adventures of Superman (1950s)
I had the pleasure of meeting Ms Neill in Cleveland, at the 1988 International Superman Expo (celebrating Superman's 50th Anniversary), and she was absolutely delightful and gracious, the very model of what we used to call, in the pre-PC days, a "classy lady".
Trivia: Noel and Phyllis Coates (who was the first TV Lois Lane, both appeared in in the B-movie Rocket Attack U.S.A. (1952), but had no scenes together.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Reading Room CLIFF HANGER "Chapter Six: Blazing End"

...It's the big finale!
All will be explained as we go!
Get your popcorn and soda and ride along...
Don't ya love a happy ending?
Writer Bruce Jones and artist Al Williamson end their tribute to 1930s-50s movie serials in Eclipse's Somerset Holmes #6 (1984) in grand style with the hero getting the girl, the villain's base destroyed (with the chance the villain might have escaped), and the possibility of a sequel, which unfortunately, never appeared!

Friday, June 24, 2016

Reading Room CLIFF HANGER "Chapter Five: Slaves to the Fiend"

Take a deep breath and dive in, fans...
Next Week:
The Thrill-Packed FINALE!
This penultimate chapter of the serial appeared in Eclipse's Somerset Holmes #5 (1984), written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by Al Williamson.
BTW, notice something different about the above description of the comic?
Between issues #4 and #5, Pacific Comics shut down due to cash-flow problems.
Eclipse Comics picked up a number of properties from their creators who were left high and dry by the shutdown, including Somerset Holmes and Cliff Hanger.
Besides finishing the 6-issue series, Eclipse also published a tpb collection of the Holmes (but not the Hanger) tales...

Friday, June 17, 2016

Reading Room CLIFF HANGER "Chapter Four: Madman's Holiday"

..and now, on with the show...
Can Cliff Outrun a Wall of Water?
What is the Secret Behind The Tunnel Between Florida and South America?
Does Quint Have a Fate Worse than Death in Store For Jill?
The Answers to These and Other Questions Will be Found...Next Week!
Written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by Al Williamson, this backup strip from Pacific Comics' Somerset Holmes #4 (1983) keeps the excitement of 1930s-40s movie serials going at a maniac pace!

Friday, June 3, 2016

Reading Room CLIFF HANGER "Chapter Three: Voice of Doom"

...ok, that covers it!
Let's continue...
Is Cliff Doomed?
What Will Become of Jill?
Does the Madman Have a Fate Worse than Death in Store For Her?
Written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by Al Williamson, this backup strip from Pacific Comics' Somerset Holmes #3 (1983) perfectly conveys the fun and excitement of 1930s-40s movie serials!

Friday, May 27, 2016

Reading Room CLIFF HANGER "Chapter Two: Claws of Death"

...on with the show!
Be Here...NEXT WEEK!
Written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by Al Williamson, this backup strip from Pacific Comics' Somerset Holmes #2 (1983) perfectly conveys the fun and excitement of 1930s-40s movie serials!
Jones and Williamson worked on a couple of other projects together, including a short story for the Alien Worlds anthology series and the comic adaptation of the 1980 Flash Gordon movie!

Friday, May 20, 2016

Reading Room CLIFF HANGER "Chapter One: Jungle Peril"

It's the weekend, so, since comic book heroes will dominate the cinemas for most of the summer...
...let's revive the tradition of movie serials, but in comic book form!
Written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by Al Williamson, this backup strip from Pacific Comics' Somerset Holmes #1 (1983) perfectly conveys the fun and excitement of 1930s-40s movie serials!
Note: this chapter was reprinted (in b/w) in Insight Studios' Al Williamson Adventures (2003), but it's not listed on GCD, nor can I find a copy to check if the remainder of the series was reprinted in that volume.
Bonus: a photo feature about the creatives working on both the lead Somerset Holmes tale and Cliff Hanger!
As we said, be here next Friday...