Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn Ken Bald. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn Ken Bald. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng

Number 1275: Time Travelers in Camelot

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Tư, 5 tháng 12, 2012

 This is the third of four “silly science” postings this week.

“Time Travelers” was a feature in ACG's Operation: Peril for the first twelve issues. The comic, which co-featured Danny Danger and Typhoon Tyler, then became a war comic. “Time Travelers” was a fun strip, even if its version of history was a bit screwy. For instance, in this episode from Operation: Peril #3 (1951), they go to the sixth century to find King Arthur's sword, Excalibur, so a college donor will make a $10 million donation. I know a little bit about history, and there's always been a disagreement about whether there was such a king as Arthur, and when he lived. Not to mention someone called Merlin.

But this is science fiction and comic book SF at that, so we don't want to think too much about it. Like when hero Tom Redfield says they're going to the sixth century to find King Arthur, he doesn't say exactly when in the sixth century. Like every other century, unless you've got an exact date, 100 years is a big span of time in which to look. Lucky Tom and girlfriend Peggy found King Arthur right off!

I have shown other stories from this entertaining series in the past (you'll excuse the expression). The first two Time Travelers' stories are from Operation: Peril  issues #1 and #2, in Pappy's #836 and Pappy's #840. The adventure from issue #4 is found in Pappy's #1001. In Pappy's #399 I featured the story from issue #11.

Grand Comics Database gives Ken Bald artist credit. Thanks to reader Scott Pell, who says the GCD is in error, that the art is actually that of Lin Streeter. After a second look I'm in agreement with Scott.













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Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Tư, 10 tháng 11, 2010


Number 840


Tom and Peggy go to Venus


You've been on tenterhooks waiting for the conclusion to this Time Travelers opus after reading part one last week, haven't you? Operation: Peril #2, from 1951, picks up the story, crazy as it is.

Speaking of crazy stories, if you haven't had your fill, you can read another Time Travelers story from Operation: Peril #11 that I posted just over two years ago in Pappy's #399. In that posting I also answered a reader's query as to why I call some stories screwball. That story certainly qualified as screwball, as this does.












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Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Tư, 3 tháng 11, 2010


Number 836


The Time Travelers


"The Time Travelers" was a feature of ACG's Operation: Peril, appearing in issues #1-12. Like most of ACG's supernatural/science fiction the Time Travelers stories are equal parts extraordinary events, outrageous hokum and cornball dialogue. In this introduction story, from Operation: Peril #1, 1950, Peggy and Tom, the main characters, outbid some foreign agents for some papers of Nostradamus, which eventually lead to a working time machine.

I did a little reading on Nostradamus, and know he made his "prophecies" in quatrains, and did not deal in explicit events and dates as the Nostradamus of this story does. But this is a comic book, and they get away with the most outrageous plot devices.

The story is drawn by Ken Bald, who went on to a career as a syndicated cartoonist, doing comic strips like Dr. Kildare. He drew the syndicated Dark Shadows, using the pseudonym K. Bruce.

Part two of this story will be available here next Wednesday in Pappy's #840. You'll want to see Tom and Peggy go to Venus in their time machine and Tom get hustled by a beautiful Venusian princess! What did I say about outrageous plot devices?













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Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Sáu, 7 tháng 5, 2010


Number 732


Your kitty can bite


"Vampire Cat" is from Forbidden Worlds #15, 1953, by way of Chilling Tales of Horror Volume 2 Number 4, 1971. Chilling Tales was published by Stanley Publications, founded by Stanley Morse, who in the 1950s published such off-the-wall horror comics as Weird Tales Of The Future and Mister Mystery. As far as I know he had no connection to ACG, which published Forbidden Worlds, unless he went in after the company shut down in 1967 and bought up original art. (That's sheer speculation, of course, and take it for what it's worth.)

The Grand Comics Database gives Ken Bald credit for the original cover, above, and has a question mark after Art Gates' name for the story artwork, so they aren't sure. If you want to see the color version of the story, go to Karswell's The Horrors Of It All blog, which showed it in 2007.

Meow!









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Bill DuBay 1948-2010

I first saw Bill DuBay's work in fanzines in the mid-1960s. He was above average as an amateur, had a lot of talent even as a teenager. He went on to become an artist, writer, and editor, among other jobs in the comic book industry. Here's the Wikipedia bio of Bill DuBay.

This is a strip he did for Creepy #41, in 1971. He went on to become editor for Warren, more than once, and he created one of my favorite characters, The Rook.

Bill died April 15, age 62.








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