Monday Mecha Madness BATTLESTAR GALACTICA "Berserker" Part 1

After Adapting the Pilot Movie and the First Two-Part Episode...

...Marvel's Battlestar Galactica comic began doing original stories with a hot new talent illustrating them, including this one about a Cylon cyberseries never seen on TV!

To Be Continued, Tomorrow!

And, since you haven't seen the Cylon itself yet, here's the cover featuring it, which will be the header pic on tomorrow's post!

Written by Roger McKenzie and penciled/inked/colored by Walt Simonson, Marvel's Battlestar Galactica #16 (1980), is the only time a Cylon not seen in the TV show appears in the comic...the reason for which the robot itself explains in the conclusion!

Note that, continuing in the TV series' format of utilizing names from ancient mythology and the Judeo/Christian Bible, McKenzie & Simonson introduced several new ongoing characters including the Galactica's Chief Engineer, Master-Tech Shadrack, named after the Biblical figure Shadrach!

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Battlestar Galactica: the Definitive Collection

The Original Series

Galactica: 1980

Original Feature Film

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Because Tomorrow is Dr Martin Luther King Jr Day...MAD "Stokley and Bess"

Before we begin the re-presentation of this never-reprinted tale adapting...

...I sincerely suggest anybody under 45 check out the links to these people...

Stokely Carmichael

Dick Gregory

Adam Clayton Powell

and this musical...

Porgy & Bess

...before proceeding.

I'll take it as given that even the youngest among you know who Malcolm X, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr and Muhammad Ali/Cassius Clay are...

Is there a reason this particular tale by writer Larry Siegel and illustrator Mort Drucker from MAD #111 (1967) has never been reprinted?

Was it controversial?

Did it generate too much negative reader response?

One thing's for sure...it wouldn't be done in today's cultural climate!

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Porgy and Bess

(note: requires region-free DVD player since it's an import disc)

The movie's NEVER been released in the US on DVD or BluRay!
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Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN SCIENCE "Tracking the Flying Saucers"

A dying alien gives a human without fear the ability to defend Earth...

...nope, it ain't the Silver Age Green Lantern!

It's Captain Science!

Appearing full-blown in the first issue of his own title in 1950, Captain Science was a bold attempt at a Captain Video-type comics hero, one more dependent on brains and technology than brawn.

Unlike Captain Video, who created advanced technology simply because he was really smart,  Gordon Dane was shown to be smart and had the advantage of possessing alien knowledge he could use in adapting and improving present-day tech to serve new uses as the situation required.

Visually, the art on his never-reprinted premiere appearance by Gustav Schrotter is adequate, but hardly distinctive.

Captain Science Will Return!

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Friday Femme Fun MODELING WITH MILLIE "Mille the Marvel"

If you think Marvel and DC are rebooting their characters more frequently than ever...

...you've never followed the many incarnations of Millie the Model from 1945 to the present!

This particular story is from the early Silver Age "romance comic" phase of her career.

This never-reprinted story from Marvel's Modeling with Millie #54 (1967); written by Gary Friedrich, penciled by Odgen Whitney, and inked (uncredited) by Frank Giacoia; was Millie the Marvel's only appearance.

It was also the final issue of this particular title.

Over at her ongoing "sister" title, Millie the Model, the character returned to her previous Archie Comics-influenced format, once more becoming a teen-humor title without ongoing storylines.

Trivia: From 1945 to 1973, there was always at least one Millie title from Atlas/Marvel, for a total of five different series, plus annuals, a couple of one-shots, an ongoing series in Comedy Comics, and a spin-off series for her rival, Chili!
Her main title ran for 207 issues, and was, until Fantastic Four #207 came out in 1979, Marvel's longest-running character-named book!
(Books with longer runs like Mighty Thor, Incredible Hulk, and Captain America had different names [Journey into Mystery, Tales to Astonish, and Tales of Suspense, respectively] before becoming "character" titles.
Millie's flagship title was always Millie the Model!)
Millie was rebooted several times going from a romance/humor hybrid to Archie-style humor to romance/soap opera and finally back to Archie-style humor with changes to the characters' ages, professions, and relationships at each stage.
Millie Collins, despite being shown as outside the Marvel Multiverse in this tale, has appeared as part of the mainstream Marvel Universe in several titles, including the "Wedding of Reed and Sue" in Fantastic Four Annual #3 (along with Marvels #2), Dazzler #34, Sensational She-Hulk #60, and the Models, Inc mini-series.
In the 1980s, a middle-aged Millie appeared in the Star Comics mini-series Misty, about the teen-age daughter of Millie's brother!
(The best thing about this Trina Robbins-produced mini-series was the retro look and use of readers' designs for the characters' clothes.)
Millie was scheduled to be rebooted in 2003 as a teen-age tennis player in a manga-style mini-series called 15-Love.
When the project was finally published in 2011 (yeah, eight years later), the lead character was Millie's teen-age niece (though Millie herself did appear briefly)!
In 2009, Millie and her Silver Age supporting cast were the 20-something title characters in the mini-series Models, Inc.
The series also features Johnny (Human Torch) Storm, Spider-Man, Dr Strange, Patsy (HellCat) Walker, Tigra, Night Nurse, Mary Jane Watson, and real-life fashion expert Tim Gunn, re-establishing the Mille characters in the Marvel Multiverse...but nothing's been done with them since!

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15-Love
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Models, Inc
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Reading Room EERIE ADVENTURES "Vampires from Venus!"

 It's Freezing, Windy, and Snowy Outside...

...perfect weather for a tale about an invasion by aliens from a hot and steamy planet!

This 1951 tale combining mobila, lethal plants (based on the Triffids from the novel Day of the Triffids which had just been published) and vampires (with their classic weakness, sunlight) from the Ziff-Davis one-shot Eerie Adventures was illustrated by Bob Powell and Howard Nostrand.

The writer is unknown.

Eerie Adventures used leftover material from the recently-cancelled Amazing Adventures with an attempt to market it as horror rather than sci-fi/fantasy.

Only one issue was published as the title was dropped by Ziff-Davis to avoid legal action by Avon who already had an ongoing Eerie comics title.

ZD then did a Weird Adventures one-shot, which sold well, but discovered there was already a title with the same name from PL Publishing which debuted the month before!

So ZD retitled their book Weird Thrillers, before PL could take legal action.

The series ran five more issues before the Dr Wertham-led Seduction of the Innocent witch-hunt forced the cancellation of all horror-related comic books.

(Ironically, the PL series only ran two more issues before the entire company folded.)

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3
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