Number 1090


"Buck Rogers-Flash Gordon stuff"


In the 2011 book, Becoming Ray Bradbury by Jonathan Eller, Bradbury described a literary party in New York in 1951, where he met members of the New York City Ballet. He said they criticized him. As he put it: "Someone said, 'You're writing what? This Buck Rogers-Flash Gordon stuff. You're a science fiction writer.'" For someone like Bradbury, attempting to make science fiction and fantasy more literate, this was a cutting remark.

Anyone looking at these 1940s stories, "Dick Devens in Futuria" and "Tara", both regular features of Wonder Comics, would see the kind of pulp science fiction those New York City Ballet members were talking about. It's entertaining, but I understand Bradbury's problem with his work being lumped in with it. I appreciate Bradbury for his literary approach to the genre, but science fiction is a pretty wide field, and there's also room for "Buck Rogers-Flash Gordon stuff."

From Wonder Comics #11, 1947, artist not known:












From Wonder Comics #18, 1948, art credited to Gene Fawcette by the Grand Comics Database, but as pointed out by Lysdexicuss (see comments for this post), it is more likely drawn by Mort Meskin. The cover is by Alex Schomburg:

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Number 158


Tara Is A Wonder


A reader has reminded me that in Pappy's #144 I promised to show stories from Wonder Comics #16, dated February, 1948. This is the lead story, "Tara," an outer space strip in the Fiction House-Planet Comics mold. The art is attributed to Gene Fawcette.

There's an old story about writers in the pulp era of the 1930s, who with a change of setting from Tortuga to Venus, cutlasses to rayguns and pirate ships to rocket ships, could turn a standard pirate tale into science fiction. That's pretty much the case with this Tara story. You don't have to use a lot of imagination to put it back on earth sailing along the bounding main in the 18th Century, especially with the stilted dialogue. Anytime a villain spouts lines like, "Swine! Ye comb the universe and bring back none but these cabbage faces…?" or a hero shouts out, "A quick death with the taste of steel in thy throat for this sacrilege, pirate cur!" you've got something entertaining on a whole other level.

I've included the two-page text story from this issue, because even though it's Tara and her pals, the dialogue is definitely more modern.

Finally, the splash panel is a classic of the type with the huge looming villainous figure, and be sure to check out the cover of Wonder Comics #16, which can found by using the link in the first paragraph.

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