Rocky Jones - Space Ranger!

Rocky Jones Space Ranger was syndicated on television in 1953. Space shows were all the rage at the time, but Rocky Jones was filmed as opposed to being broadcast live, so the shows have a more refined look than most of the others of the time. I have most of these on DVD, but some I had to resort to YouTube to watch. The show stars Richard Crane in the role of Rocky Jones. Crane was a sturdy actor who I remember as the sidekick in some of the Rocketman serials. Rocky flies the "Orbit Jet" (in the second season called "The Silver Moon"), a spaceship which is part of the supposed fleet guarding Earth from stellar menaces. 

He's assisted by Winky (the excitable sidekick played by Scotty Beckett who loses the part halfway through the run when he gets into repeated trouble with the cops), Vena (the fireball chick played by Sally Mansfield), and Bobby (the young aspiring space ranger played by Robert Lydon). This team is often assisted by Professor Newton played by Maurice Cass who passed away during the season and was replaced by another actor as Professor Mayberry. It's presumed that the Rocky Jones project came Charlton's way because the producer Roland Reed was the same as My Little Margie which Charlton also produced an adaptation of. Nick Cuti details much of this history in the first of two collected volumes containing the first two issues of the run. 

Space Adventures #15 is from Charlton's first run of this title. The debut of Rocky Jones Space Ranger follows a few appearances by the newly acquired Blue Beetle. The writer of this issue is unidentified but presumed to be Joe Gill. The artist is Ted Galindo, who does an above average job rendering the characters to the printed page. The cover is by Galindo with Vince Alascia inks. There are three Rocky Jones stories in this debut issue -- "Space Infantry" which introduces us to a young Rocky Jones and details his first big victory to protect Earth, "Velocity X" which details the theft of a super-fast spacecraft and how Rocky and crew recover it, and "First Landing" which features Dick Giordano inks over Galindo's pencils. There are several text pieces and a few brief non-Rocky space tales. 

The next issue gives us two Rocky Jones stories by the same team with inks on the first by Ray Osrin and the second by Giordano. The stories are titled "The Forbidden Frequency" about a secret frequency which can control minds, and "The Petrified Man" featuring a revived Old West character named Wild Bill Jupiter who assists Rocky with some pirates. Again, there are sundry short bits by the likes of Frank Follo and Tony Tallarico. A longer story by Frank Fitch is illustrated by Bernie Krigstein. A chap named Michael Ressner runs a contest among readers for the best futuristic inventions. The cover is probably by Galindo and Giordano. 

The second Charlton Neo issue offers up the final two Rocky Jones issues from Space Adventures. The text pieces in this volume are by Greg Ward who details the history and salvaging of The Silvercup Rocket, a vehicle built by Silvercup Bakeries, the sponsor of the TV show for touring and being an attraction for the young fans of the show. There is also a history of Charlton Comics by Michael Ambrose, who is identified as a "Contributing Editor" to both issues. There is a brief into by Nick Cuti, who is identified as a "Consulting Editor". Mort Todd, the "Editor-in-Chief" of Charlton Neo also offers up an illustrated version of the cover image seen above. 

Space Adventures #17 gives the reader three Rocky Jones adventures -- "Fate of the Treasure Seekers" about unsavory types seeking a lost city gold, "The Ark" about people being fooled into thinking their world is ending, and "The Invisibles" about unseen criminals. There is an assortment of short features including one by Joe Gill and John Belfi titled "Action on Uranus". The cover is by Ted Galindo and inker Ray Orsin, who also handle the interior artwork save for one story in which Galindo inks himself. 

In the fourth and final issue of this brief Space Adventures run we get a cover by Dick Giordano and Jon D'Agostino. We get two more Rocky Jones stories titled "Gravity-Plus" about a scheme to increase Earth's gravity and hold its people for ransom, and "The Prison Planetoid" showcasing Rocky battling escaped criminals. It's possible the Giordano-D'Agostino team supplied the art to the first story. There is a third longer story titled "Two Worlds" with art by Giordano. Several assorted shorter features with one featuring art by Tony Tallarico. 

I don't have the nostalgic attraction to this TV series that Nick Cuti has, but there's no denying the show has charm and for a kids show is competently done. The same can be said for the comic, it's not the greatest, but it's great fun. 

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Ditko Classic Covers - The Thing #17!

It's a magic brew for the seventeenth issue of Charlton's The Thing with this wacky Ditko cover showcasing a sorcerer at work. This cover is all Ditko contributes to this particular issue.  Check out the issue at this link. 

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Ditko Classic Covers - The Thing #15!

The worm well and truly turns in the fifteenth issue of The Thing from Charlton. Ditko's image of a giant worm demolishing a town center is simultaneously offbeat and creepy.  In addition to the story "The Worm Turns", Ditko also drew "Day of Reckoning", "Comeback", "If Looks Could Kill" and "Family Mix-Up". You can read this full issue at this link. 

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Ditko Classic Covers - The Thing #14!

Here's the truly strange cover for the fourteenth issue of The Thing from Charlton. This is one of Ditko's weirdest images.  In this issue Ditko draws another perverse fairy tale titled "Rumplestiltskin" as well as the stories "The Evil Eye", "Doom in the Air", and the cover story "Inheritance". You can read the issue at this link. 

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Ditko Classic Covers - The Thing #13!

It's time for the thirteenth issue of Charlton's horror comic The Thing. There are three stories drawn by Ditko -- "Library of Horror", "Die Laughing", and "Avery and the Goblins". There is also early work in this Pre-Code comic by Chick Stone and Tony Tallarico.  Check it out at this link. 

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Ditko Classic Covers - The Thing #12!

This is Steve Ditko's first published cover art. It's for the twelfth issue of Charlton's horror comic The Thing. It illustrates the story "Cinderella", which was also drawn by Ditko. There is also early work in this Pre-Code comic by Dick Ayers, John Belfi, and Tony Tallarico.  Check it out at this link. 

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Steve Ditko - Strange Suspense!

Strange Suspense is volume one in The Steve Ditko Archives from Fantagraphics. This handsome and highly readable tome brings together in chronological order Ditko's earliest work in comics. That order is the order in which the work was produced and not necessarily when it was published, so the reader can watch Ditko's style develop over time. This is his Pre-Code work, the raw stuff which informed comics before the Comics Code was created and leveraged public opinion to make comics more palatable to the parents of the country. These stories are violent, sometimes wildly so. Steve Ditko was a young man, fresh from the military and from his training at The School of Visual Arts under comic masters such as Jerry Robinson. Bringing his adoration for Will Eisner and blending it with a palpable respect for Mort Meskin, Ditko of this early time creates stories filled with movement and vibrant realistic backgrounds. He's drawing for the most part wild stories of science fiction and horror, so his characters are outsized deformities of reality but memorable. I find Ditko's eyes are the feature that seems most dominant to me on his pages from this era. He's drawing for several folks, including briefly the Simon and Kirby studio, but most of the work in this book is from Charlton books such as This Magazine is Haunted, Strange Suspense Stories, and The Thing. (These were titles inherited by Charlton from the going-out-of-comic-book-business Fawcett folks.) The best stories in fact are from the latter, a comic for which Ditko created several very memorable covers as well. 

Now the work here will surprise folks used to classic Ditko, as in these early years he's still developing and hasn't become that distinctive talent we're accustomed to. His work is very like his teacher Robinson and his mentor Meskin. Some say he and Joe Kubert, another up and comer at the time, have very similar styles and in years past have been mistaken for one another. I like this version of Ditko. IT was not only good on horror and sci-fi tales but effective on a single romance tale and one western and a single gangster yarn from his earliest days. I find its use of detail effective for the kinds of stories being told, gothic horrors with a science fiction edge. His eyes are distinctive in particular. My favorite two stories from this period are "Cinderella" and "Rumplestiltskin", two very weird and dark interpretations of the classic fairy tales. The former in particular is a romp with twist on twist and ironically, it's also the subject of Ditko's very first cover as seen above. The story "The Worm Turns" is a ferocious tale with an amazing giant monster creation. Here are the remaining covers Ditko produced in order during this period. 

Steve Ditko had to leave comic book work for a couple of reasons. One was that the arrival of the Comics Code knocked off a lot of the work he'd been getting, and he became deathly ill. More on that next week. 

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