Monday, December 29, 2008

Out of Focus

Ahhh, the disasters of the ‘ol matter transmitter machine… fans of a certain George Langelaan story will undoubtedly enjoy this similarly plotted though very different and somber tale which saw print in the March 1953 issue of Weird Mysteries #9, (three years before the timeless classic “The Fly” short story was published in Playboy Magazine.)

So who invented the concept of teleportation in an S/F tale?







TOMORROW: A Double Shot of WTF??!

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Vintage ADs




PS: The Comic Book Catacombs promises that The Killer from Saturn story should be posted there sometime today…check it out by clicking HERE, it’s another Web of Evil classic from the Karswell S/F Archives. Thanks for hosting Chuck!
Even Pappy is in sci-fi mode today, click HERE!

22 comments:

  1. Anonymous12/29/2008

    Pettroe Lee M.???. rearrange his name and yes, that's what his name is. Van Pyre too?. These are either the best or worst puns i've ever seen in comics(barring Eisner femme fatales and Edward Nygma.).

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  2. Poor hamster. Not only did it go insane, it appears to have turned into a rat. Dud zoology aside, a good story with an excellently queasy tragicomic ending.

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  3. Hey Karswell, got another Picture Puzzle coming up Dec. 31.
    Your site is such a neat idea, wish my brother would get Internet and join the 19th century, he would love your blog.
    Alan

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  4. "There must be a severe NERVE SHOCK in the INTERIM of the DIFUSION:. Love that line, but duh, anyone reading the comic could see there was a severe nerve shock in the interim of the difusion. Tim's right too, that is a ratty looking hamster. DOn't forget Tim, they misset one dial for a simpler molecular structure.
    Great story, after work I will be back to read more.
    So which do you prefer if any- The Fly of old or the Goldblum remake. I think the old one is awesome.
    Alan

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  5. Not quite, Alan: a *simplier* molecular structure! Loses something with only one weird mistake.

    All right, Mr. Karswell, I'm ready for my double shot.

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  6. Anonymous12/29/2008

    QUATERMASS, ALIEN, AND NOW THE FLY...... DESPITE WHAT YOU SAID YESTERDAY I'M STARTING TO THINK WHAT I SAID ABOUT MOVIE TIE INS THIS WEEK MIGHT ACTUALLY BE FACT. BUT IF THIS IS THE FLY THEN THE WEIRD LAST PANEL IS MORE LIKE THE 80'S REMAKE VERSION. COOL STORY.

    I LIKE THE HELMET AD TOO, MADE ME LAUGH TO THINK OF SOME KID IN THE 50'S WAKING AROUND WITH THAT TRASH CAN ON HIS HEAD.

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  7. Karswell

    This is Bill (Uraniumwilly) from Necrotic Cinema. I most certainly added to to my "blogger brothers" section. I love old comic books and while I will not do any posting of that stuff at Necrotic please drop my other blog The Uranium Cafe at

    http://uraniumcafe-the.com

    as I do older movies and comics and music there. I certainly love your selection of pages. Good job

    Bill

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  8. I LOVE this blog! Great for whiling away the hours between the start of the working day and home-time...

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  9. And just how does he convince the capable and efficient Wes Kelley to work with him while two corpses lay as a result of the last experiment!?

    I also felt sorry for the hamster/rat.

    Digging the sci-fi/horror theme this week, Karswell. I think pre-code sci-fi in the EC tradition is totally valid for this site.

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  10. Anonymous12/29/2008

    I don't know who came up with the term "teleportation" in a sci-fi story, though plenty of 1920s and 30s pulps had characters using devices to travel across vast dimensions. However, the BUCK ROGERS serial of 1940 definitely had a teleportation device that beamed Buck & co. from one point on Saturn to another, and the ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN show had a crazy inventor who tried to send Jimmy and Lois to Alaska phone lines, which I guess would be a case of "telephoneportaion".

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  11. Ooh, sci-fi/horror week is definitely a winner for me and "Them!" is also playing on TCM on New Years Eve.

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  12. Another great find that appears to pre-date a short story or film script. Great story in it's own right, too. Terrific ending, certainly could have inspired "The Fly."

    Nice job of foreshadowing on the first page; I just KNEW someone was going out that window.

    "Simplier molecular structure," indeed.

    And don't forget "This MONK is as sane and sound as the day he was born." [p. 4]

    What fun. Thanks.

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  13. Anonymous12/29/2008

    totally cool story, when you said sci fi last week it was like oh no but everything so far has been great

    thanks

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  14. so he wound up being turned into Dust Bunny Man? he won't make much of an impact when he lands...

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  15. Hey everyone... thanks for stopping by today, and it's always nice to see some new faces around here too!

    As mentioned, we've got a Science Fiction Double Feature lined up for tomorrow, and today don't forget to hit the Comic Book Catacombs for The Killer From Saturn too!

    http://comicbookcatacombs.blogspot.com/2008/12/killer-from-saturn-web-of-evil-3.html

    Also, as Chuck mentioned above, THEM! ('54) is indeed on TCM this week but it's on Jan 1st (Thursday night) which is of course NOT New Years Eve. Oops! Also on TCM that same night is King Kong ('33), The Killer That Stalked NY ('50) and the excellent The Satan Bug ('65.)

    MORE required viewing: TCM has Spiderbaby ('68) on this Friday night, and Saturday they're showing Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('56), Poltergeist ('82), and The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T ('53) a strange and surreal Dr. Seuss film about a boy who thinks his piano teacher is a super villian!

    Not enough S/F film for you? Complete your THOIA Sci Fi Week tomorrow night, Tues Dec 30th, with From the Earth to the Moon ('58) and Soylent Green ('73.) As usual check www.tcm.com for more info and showtimes in your area.

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  16. hi, Karswell!
    Happy Holydays!!!
    i love these vintage ads...great stuff!!!
    happy New Year!
    ivan
    p.s. i've drawned a new horror comix story...you can see some preview in my blog! ciao!

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  17. Anonymous12/29/2008

    r these pages from Marvel?

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  18. >So which do you prefer if any- The Fly of old or the Goldblum remake.

    Definitely the original... in fact, I don't think I've ever even watched the remake all the way through.

    >r these pages from Marvel?

    Nope... click the Weird Mysteries link in the post intro above for the publisher info.

    >"telephoneportaion".

    haha!

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  19. Nice to see that Tom Corbett space helmet ad! I had one of those about 15 years ago when I got it in a trade. Used it for a Halloween costume back then too!

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  20. Anonymous12/30/2008

    Original Fly.

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  21. I really enjoy your blog and hope that you continue to keep it fresh with content and new material.

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  22. I think n it was probably Lord Dunsany who wrote the earliest transmission tale I read, though it was consciousness transmission (by looking into a crystal, and seeing out of it into an alien planet through another such crystal). I don't know if he was the first to write such a story though. About this one, rat hamster and the fact that a plant is apparently not life aside, it is pretty good. The scientists actually ran tests instead of putting themselves through the damn thing right away. And instead of the ending involving some alien monster or other standard trope coming through, it was effective and genuinely fairly horrifying.

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