Even when I was 6 years old, in 1960, I was clear on the fact that Space Ranger was only the second-best spaceman in the DC universe.
Over in Mystery in Space, Adam Strange had the advantage of stories by Gardner Fox and art by Carmine Infantino (who could not only make you believe the unbelievable, but make you believe the unbelievable to be sleek, tempered and elegant).
Space Ranger, the lead feature in Tales of the Unexpected, was delivered with the workmanlike art of Bob Brown and goofy-fun stories by Arnold Drake and Bob Haney.
DC’s two spaceman superheroes — one operating in the present, the other in the future — were actually created to be rival concepts and placed with rival editorial teams.
This house ad spotlights Tales of the Unexpected 55. In The Ghost Creatures of Phobos, Allied Solar Enterprises exec Rick Starr dons his Space Ranger disguise and, with his cute shape-shifting little pal Cryll, investigates reports of ghostly menaces on the Martian moon Phobos. The phantoms of monsters and Wellsian war machines turn out to be images reflected from the moon’s past for criminal purposes.
In Mystery in Space 63’s The Weapon That Swallowed Men, the green, cube-headed alien Vantor invade Rann with a weapon that turns people into gas.
“Carmine Infantino’s art is beautiful in this tale,” observed comics historian Michael E. Grost. “An early scene shows ruins of Sumuru, the first city on Rann. The walls of the ruins are made up of numerous irregularly sized rectangular blocks... They form an imaginative and unusual variation on Infantino's Art Deco architecture.”
And in House of Mystery 104’s The Seeing-Eye Man, a scientist’s “retriever ray” pulls an alien spaceship to a crash landing on Earth. He’s pressed into service leading the temporarily blinded, telepathic alien Zod, and cleverly thwarts the alien’s plan to conquer Earth.
Don DeLuca wrote: It's amazing what a ten-year mind can absorb and remember to this day! Great sci-fi tales that thrill my imagination.
ReplyDeletePaul Zuckerman wrote: I was never a fan of Space Ranger but always loved Adam Strange. Fox's stories just seemed more adult and Infantino's art was so sleek and beautiful especially when inked by Anderson. By and large, the SF stories under Julie Schwartz were heads and shoulders above the quality under Jack Schiff and his assistants. Schwartz' stories could be as absurd as anything else published by DC-and often were!-but the polish on his books just made everything seem more interesting and mature. Just look at the difference between the aliens on the Unexpected cover and Infantino's green guys on MIS! (The alien on HOM doesn't look to silly though).
ReplyDeleteAfter Schwartz gave up MIS, Space Ranger became the more prominent character in the book and Adam took a back seat before vanishing. Those later stories were no great shakes!
Mark Amundsen wrote: I want to live in Infantino’s Central City. It was a modern cityscape with room to breathe. His version of Gotham was nice too — maybe too nice — but the buildings looked older, as would be the case with an Eastern vs. Midwestern city.
ReplyDeleteBob Bailey:
ReplyDeleteLove these Ira Schnapp-designed house ads.
Cliff Balcony:
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree; the Infantino run on Strange is one of DC’s crown jewels.
George Blake:
ReplyDeleteMy brother brought home a copy of Mystery in Space featuring Adam Strange. The books very title grabbed hold of me. Back the anything space related was interesting, but adding the word “mystery” gave me chills.
It was a great introduction to the Adam Strange series. Great stuff!
George Blake:
ReplyDeleteNeither Captain Comet nor Tommy Tomorrow fired me up. However Space Ranger and Cryll did engage me. They were fun story, as stated, not heavy science fiction like Adam Strange stories, but the Space Ranger was welcomed in our home.
A large part of it was because our dad pretty much sanctioned Tales of the Unexpected when he brought home some comics for us including that title.
It wasn’t often he brought us such “juvenile trash” so it was special and that seeped into Tales of the Unexpected.
Dan Hagen:
ReplyDeleteThe long-distance, long-suffering romance between Strange and Alanna added an adult dimension to the proceedings and such “kissy” stuff was awaking in me at the time. She became an ideal.
The Girl He Left Behind waiting patiently and faithfully for his return. Wow.
Philip Rushton:
ReplyDeleteYears later I was surprised to discover that the initial Space Ranger stories were plotted by Gardner Fox.
Philip Rushton:
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, I'd argue that it's a little unfair to dismiss Bob Brown's art as merely workmanlike: in my opinion he was easily one of DC's most effective cover artists during this period, making up for what he lacked in detail with sheer drama and dynamism.
I replied:
Nothing wrong with workmanlike, in my book. Kind of hard to keep quality consistent in the grind of midcentury comic books, I would think.
Johnny Williams:
ReplyDeleteMy initial reaction was to defend Rick because I was/am a fan of his and enjoyed his adventures but in honesty I have to agree with that “second-best spaceman” sentiment.
Typical fare for his adventures, neither earth-shattering nor lousy, a good middle-of-the-road space story, fine for a lazy Saturday afternoon read.
While I do have some agreement with Paul I have to state for the record that a pure ‘outer space heroes’ buff I found Space Ranger’s stories to be interesting too. Stylistically he and Adam were very different, but it’s sort of like how I feel about Scott McCloud/Space Angel and Space Ghost. They’re both superheroes among the stars and very different but both were/are interesting to me.
The wonderful thing about the Unexpected cover X-Tees is just how ‘bizarrely Alien’ they look. A case could be made that it’s ‘silly’ that so many aliens are drawn with so many human attributes. That’s never bothered me of course but I’m just saying that to make a point.
Philip Rushton:
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I was less impressed by Brown's later work for Marvel on titles like Daredevil and Avengers, though it was always thoroughly professional: he was just one of those artists that seemed to hit his peak for me during the 1960s. Funnily enough I felt the same way about Dick Dillin who drew the House of Mystery cover shown above. Of course, Infantino/Anderson would've been hard for anybody to beat at that time.