It!

The great-granddaddy of all swamp monsters was brought to life--or should I say, non-life, quoting the story: "It grew but it was not alive"--by Theodore Sturgeon in John Campbell's UNKNOWN in 1940. Here is the Marvel Comics treatment, SUPERNATURAL THRILLERS #1, published in 1972, with "It" by Sturgeon its first adaptation. Roy Thomas did the writing, Marie Severin and Frank Giacoia the artwork. Cover by Steranko.

Copyright © 1972 Marvel Comics

The Death's Head Meteor

Neil R. Jones was a popular writer in the 1930s who has been mostly forgotten today. HIs most famous series was the Professor Jameson stories, about a scientist reborn in space in a metal body provided by a race called the Zoromes. The first story in the series, "The Jameson Satellite," from Amazing Stories, July 1931, is here.

"The Death's Head Meteor," scanned here from Air Wonder Stories #7, from 1930, is Jones' first published story. It's an exciting bit of early science fiction. It's also the first recorded use of the word "astronaut."

Jones did not write after 1951. He died in 1988.

Dead Game Sportsmen again

Yet another group of cartoons from DEAD GAME SPORTSMEN by Virgil Franklin Partch (VIP), published in 1954 by Duell, Sloan and Pearce.

More from this book can be found here and here.

Copyright © 1954 Virgil Franklin Partch.

Mamma Mia, that's a-some Spicy Adventure...

When I look at these covers from the old SPICY ADVENTURES magazines, I'm struck by how many of them repeat themes that would be condemned today: racism, sexism, violence against women.* (Some of the covers don't portray those themes, however. "Devil Trail," "She-Devil," etc., are probably less sexist than any women's magazine covers near the checkout in your local grocery.)

The racism is from a time when it was deemed OK to portray minority groups as inferior, swarthy or terrifying. There are covers that play to the fears of white people that black men were after white women. The covers wouldn't have the impact they do if not for the skill and artistic brilliance of the illustrators, H. J. Ward and H. L. Parkhurst.

The Spicy pulp magazine line was criticized for its sexual content, but man, did they sell a lot of magazines. Nobody ever went broke pandering to the sexual tastes of horny American males. What is more dangerous is the message of violence. Did anyone complain about that? The Spicy line was a direct ancestor of DC Comics, home of squeaky-clean heroes like Superman, Batman, the Justice Society of America, etc. By the end of the Spicy line they had become "Speed" rather than Spicy, and the writing was on the wall. Guys bought SPICY ADVENTURE, SPICY DETECTIVE, SPICY WESTERN, et al., not for literature but for titillation. Nearly 3/4 of a century ago this is what your grandfathers and great-grandfathers were hiding in their underwear drawers and reading in the outhouse.

I got these covers from Internet sites.

*At the time, "violence against women" was commonly referred to as "damsel in distress."