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Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Number 1668: Time capsule from 1,000,000 B.C.

We continue our Strange Robot Adventures theme week with yet another continuing character who appeared in the early issues of Strange Adventures, Captain Comet. Created by John Broome using a pen-name, and drawn by Murphy Anderson and Joe Giella, Captain Comet is a mutant with the body of a man 100,000 years in the future. He would have to be extra sharp to pick up all of the incredible stuff he has to figure out in this story, [SPOILER ALERT] especially when the incredible stuff turn out to be some dirty doin's by a scientist’s free-thinking robots. Because of the red herring of the so-called time capsule from 1,000,000 B.C. we don’t get to see the robots until page 4.[END OF SPOILER]

It is of its era...I like the panel on page 6 where Captain Comet clobbers the robot, knocking out some springs and at least one vacuum tube. From Strange Adventures #29 (1953):









The two-part origin of Captain Comet! Click on the thumbnail.


7 comments:

Unknown said...

"Captain Comet, Robot Fighter!" Cute story, well plotted. My only problem with it is: Did the robots hire an actor to play the guy from a million years ago? He must have been desperate to take a gig from those evil tin cans!

TheUUShadow said...

Great theme this week Pappy! I've always loved the futuristic look for architecture envisioned by Golden & Silver age comic book artists. Too bad modern architecture ended up being unadorned boring boxes. I think I first saw Captain Comet In Secret Society of Super-Villains. I've liked the character ever since although the "update" a few years back did a darn good job of ending that. Thank goodness for back issues and sites like yours.

J_D_La_Rue_67 said...

Some quick, on - the - spot comments:
1) Looking at the panel you mentioned I couldn't help but thinking about Manning's "Magnus the Robot Fighter". Ten years later, but...
2) I noticed the name of the scientist - confidant : Professor Zackro (=Zarkhov).
3) I like the story. Plus, it's always nice to see how sci-fi "doesn't age well" graphically. Looking at the ship's design, the robots and the "projector" device (supposed to be an hi- tech instrument) is a pleasure to me.I love "vintage future".
4) So those naughty cosmic - rays - stuffed robots invented a fake warning from a lost civilization just to draw off the hero? Who says robots are unimaginative?
Thanks for posting this!

Anonymous said...

Captain Comet —I never knew of him until now. Fairly well done space stories and fine art. Before Adam Strange —which I have heard of but little read. Thanks for the introduction, Pappy. I enjoyed the link to the good captain's origin story. Robots are, of course, a plus in science fiction stories.

Pappy said...

Guys, I took a couple of days off from blogging and didn't check on my comments. Thanks for all of your astute observations and insights, as always.

Robots...yeah, I love robots and have since I was just a wee lad. I thought by now we'd all have personal robots waiting on us and doing our heavy lifting, but no...the last two days I had to rake the leaves in the yard by myself.

Unknown said...

NICE! Do you have any Strange Science or Creepshow, any comics like that?

Pappy said...

John T, Creepshow, no. But I have other comics you'll like; just put some of the titles you want to see in the search engine, upper left corner, and see what comes up.