It's time once again to blast-off into the deepest, battiest parts of ominous outer space with a fun sci-fi / horror hybrid from Charlton's short-lived, oddball, final issue of Space Western Comics #45, via August 1953. Artist credits go to Stan Campbell who also appears to have illustrated every story in this ish, as well as that great cover! And what a wildly smart mix of cowboys, science, monsters --and mmm-mmm-mini-skirts on the moon! Plus, a very funny final panel that left even cranky 'ol Mr. Karswell a'howlin' out loud!
And it started off so well, too! Space station, a space telescope, turning off the engine because there's no drag from atmosphere in space...even written science fiction in the 1950s didn't usually have any, let alone all, of that.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone who has had the chance to read (or hear via youtube) the sci fi stories found between the pages of Weird Tales magazine and the like, this tale is a cousin to such tales. Maybe it was lifted or 'inspired by' such a tale.
ReplyDeleteSpace and western stories combined in a comic book, sounds like they were trying to blend the two genres together, later attempted by Filmation in its last cartoon Bravestarr and the cartoon Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa. I think there was an Archie story featuring the Archie gang of the future on a distant planet with a space cowboy setting.
Its a pleasant surprise to see a Charlton tale so clear and clean. The printing press Charlton relied on was driven into the ground after so many decades of use and abuse, which is why their comics of the seventies and eighties look the way they do.
Neat sci fi cowboy tale, the jumbo bat was impressive, reminiscent of Lugosi's film the Devil Bat. Nice addition to THOIA's archive of tales.
I remember when I was a kid and all the ex-hippies in my parents' peer group disparaged Star Wars as a mere "space western." Not real sci-fi, they told me. They acted as if something legit had been diluted for modern children; but looking back, It seems to me that all the pop culture space stuff from the fifties on were pretty much based on Little House on the Prairie or Wagon Train. Sheesh. These genres were made for each other.
ReplyDeleteJust had to get that off my chest.
Man, I love these kind of space costumes so much. It's always a delight to see them in use by artists who weren't Fleagles. I mean, it all evolves straight from Raymond (though plenty of other hands too), but I never really thought of it as western wear before. But here Stan Campbell's muted dude ranch futurism looks straight outta the Flash Gordon playbook. Only browner.
I dig this story. After fifty years of the Bat Signal and other kinds of gothic horror illustration shorthand, I feel like the genesis of this one had to be something along the lines of "hey guys, ever notice that every full moon in comics has a bat silhouette on it?" Then story writes itself. And as a person who has set in countless theaters identifying the everyday objects being used as space props, I'm delighted to see they've built their space station with a spatula in the splash. Say that three times fast.
Last note: I assume that when Dr. Marlin says, in the fifth panel of page three, that "the expeditions so far have all been to the right side" of the moon, it's just a typo. Just missing the B, yeah? And yet... I'm a little bit delighted that the story suggests there's a wrong side of the moon. And it kind of backs the notion up, too. For a second there, it seemed like it was going all Bone Tomahawk on us. Space western horror!?! The boomers wouldn't know what the heck to make of that one.
Your mention of space western reminded me of the movie Outland (1981). You're right, wild west and outer space are two sides of the same coin, or adventure genre.
DeleteA more recent space western that I highly recommend is Prospect (2018) starring Pedro Pascal and Sophie Thatcher, per wiki is about a teenage girl and her father who land on a poisonous forest moon to mine for valuable gems. A series of betrayals, alliances, and conflicts with mercenaries and rival prospectors make their quest increasingly perilous
ReplyDeleteSeconded. Prospect is excellent. Hmm... I'll toss my two cents in for Alien Resurrection. Whaat? For three reasons, actually: It's basically The Hateful Eight in space, it showcases prototype versions of all the characters from Joss Whedon's later space western masterpiece Firefly, and it gets almost zero love if I don't do it.
DeleteAgree ‘bout Outland and Alien Rez!
ReplyDeleteI've read a decent number of Victorian SF stories, and this reminds me of them, because so many of those have civilians making their own rockets and blasting off from their back yards.
ReplyDelete(I don't know if you'd call them Steampunk stories, since I don't know the exact definition of that, but this is like a much later answer to them.)
I'm late on this one so everything has been covered but I want to say I felt really sorry for the bat. Sure, people were being sacrificed to it but that was probably other people chaining them up, not the bat. The bat seemed -- well -- just being a bat. And he gets a grenade in the face for his trouble!
ReplyDeleteI like the art, there's a lot of Buck Rogers type art in here. It's a really fabulous job in a number of ways. Layout is a little confusing but figure work, space ships, action, all top notch.
Yes, they all survive, but one of them talks about coming back and hunting down the bat anyway. That's the one downside.
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