SILVER AGE CLASSICS: KONA VOLUME TWO
Collecting Kona, Monarch of Monster Isle #5-8 (Oct/Dec 62-Oct/Dec 63), Reptilicus #2 (Oct 61)
I don’t remember Kona Volume One being as bonkers as this one. Kona may be “Monarch of Monster Isle,” but this book’s reprints take Kona and his sidekicks all over the (unexplored) world, where they invariably deal with monsters and ape-men.
Since that’s exactly what was happening on Monster Isle in the first four issues, I wonder why they started moving around. My guess is the writer was influenced by the 1959 Journey to the Center of the Earth, where a family and a strongman had adventures in different subterranean locales before being tossed to the surface by a volcano and miraculously surviving. (The latter happens here as well.)
Anyway, the adventures are preposterous. Mostly they’re just nuts, like all of them hanging on to a giant bird who flies halfway around the world for no discernible reason, using a giant insect wing as a boat, plus giant ants, ape-men and other lifts from Edgar Rice Burroughs. But also that they survive any of them, even though two of the group are literally children.
But what really sets Kona apart from the other IP it’s swiping from is the writing. Attributed to Don Segall (I know nothing about him), it’s so over the top that calling it purple prose is an understatement. I’d give an example, but each caption is as bizarre as the next, so I can’t choose. Besides, it’s the cascade of bizarre captions, the sheer amount of bombastic logorrhea, that gives the impact. Honestly, it wears this reader out, like reading all caps texts.
This is echoed in the dialogue, where Kona, Dr. Dodds, his daughter Susan, and her kids, boy something and girl something, have philosophical exchanges about life and death, and whether ‘tis 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them (there is absolutely nothing original anywhere in here), and so forth. All of which is patent nonsense, sheer blither, which couldn’t possibly happen while everyone is fighting for their lives. Nor should it! Focus, kids!
So while Kona (a caveman, remember) and the erudite Dr. Dodds discuss philosophy, Sam Glanzman is doing earnest artwork, drawing dinosaurs and action scenes that the “U.S.S. Stevens” artist is ill-suited for. The art certainly doesn’t match the strange, hifalutin dialogue.
I’m not saying I enjoyed Kona — it kinda gives me a headache — but it’s a very odd book. With 12 issues left in the series, I may as well stock up on Advil.
Meanwhile, there’s a continuing backup in each issue of Kona, beginning with issue #4, about a boy named Anak being raised in the jungle by an ape and a cobra. It’s very Jungle Book. Again, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything original from front cover to back.
For some reason, Reptilicus #2 (and last) is included in this book. I don’t remember if I’ve read Reptilicus #1, which adapts the 1961 movie, but Charlton immediately came out with a second issue, resurrecting the beast for one more go-round. They did the same with Konga and Gorgo, but with more success than here. The story and Bill Molno’s art are pretty forgettable, and the saga of Reptilicus ends here.
CLASSIC SCI-FI COMICS VOLUME THREE
Collects Destination Moon (Fawcett, 1950), Vic Torry and His Flying Saucer (Fawcett, 1950), Motion Picture Comics #110 (Fawcett, 1950), Fawcett Movie Comic #15 (Fawcett, 1952) and The Green Planet (Charlton, 1962).
Destination Moon is an adaptation of the 1950 movie, and I have no doubt a fairly faithful one. It’s written by Otto Binder and drawn by two journeymen (who occasionally draw like John Forte), but you can practically see the movie in your head as you go. (I may have seen the movie, but I’m not sure.) There’s a comedy relief character named Joe Sweeney, who is also the viewer POV in that he’s there for the other three crewmen to explain scientific concepts like “zero G” to (so the audience understands). The science is so outdated and the script so painfully earnest that the movie has probably already been MST3K’d.
Vic Torry and His Flying Saucer is just “Vic Torry” in the indicia, but who am I to argue with GCD? Besides, I want to stop talking about the name “Vic Torry,” because it makes me sad that someone thought that was clever. (Presumably writer Roy Ald, whoever he is.)
Torry, as drawn by Bob Powell, is a typical square-jawed, broken-nosed, ruffled-hair, jodhpurs-wearing, American flyboy he-man type who manages to steal a flying saucer, take it back to its home world (Mercury), and stop an invasion. (With his gal, Laura, which at least gives us somebody else to look at.) Dopey, yes, but at least we get 32 pages of Bob Powell.
Motion Picture Comics #110 is an adaptation of the 1951 movie When Worlds Collide, which is an adaptation of the 1933 novel by Philip Wylie (Gladiator) and Edwin Balmer.
Our hero is another rogue aviator, who — through various heroic actions — ends up as one of the 40 people who will survive the destruction of Earth when it’s hit by rogue star Bellus, by flying a last-minute space ship to Bellus’ only planet, Zyra. (How gravitational forces don’t destroy all three celestial bodies is not explained.) This, despite an aviator being completely useless on a new planet with no more technology than what could be squeezed onto what amounts to a metal lifeboat. A mechanic would actually be more useful than a pilot, or a farmer, but let’s not think about that for now. He’s heroic, he saves the day a couple of times, and (SPOILER) he gets the girl.
Also unexplained is how 40 people can have a big enough gene pool to survive. But they didn’t know much about genetics in 1950.
The script is by Leo Dorfman, and the art by George Evans, so it’s competent throughout. If you can stretch your suspension of disbelief past the ludicrous science, then it’s a pretty suspenseful, ticking-clock, end-of-the-world thriller.
Fawcett Movie Comic #15 adapts The Man from Planet X (1951). Weirdly, Fawcett Movie Comics is a different series than Fawcett’s Motion Picture Comics, both of which adapted movies from around 1950 to 1953.
Our hero this time is John Lawrence, ace newspaper reporter, who investigates an alien landing from Planet X, a body which is wandering through our solar system. (Once again, you have to pretend that a planet that isn’t in a stable orbit in the Goldilocks zone of a life-giving star can somehow create and sustain life — and not just the plant, insect and animal life of Zyra, but hominin life capable of building space ships.)
The battle takes place on the Scottish moors because, uhhh … maybe they wanted someplace foggy so they wouldn’t have to build a lot of sets? I dunno. But there’s the standard evil scientist’s assistant who wants to steal the alien’s tech, the alien himself (who can mind-control people with “rays”) and reluctant local authorities to overcome, which our hero dutifully does. He gets the girl.
This one’s by Otto Binder and Kurt Schaffenberger, who would go on to illustrious Silver Age careers at DC. So it’s competent, anyway.
The Green Planet features some freedom fighters from Earth being banished by the worldwide fascist government to the penal planet Klornath (the “Green Planet” of the title). Upon arrival, they discover that all the previous dissidents are dead, and there is no thriving colony to greet them. Some of little band suspect the natives, who look suspiciously like Native Americans in a ‘50s Western. Amazingly, Our Hero counsels friendly relations with the locals instead of genocide. In fact, there’s a happy ending because the white people make common cause with the natives, and combine resources with them, to defeat a local problem.
GCD suspects Joe Gill wrote this, and so do I. (Having been immersed in Joe Gill-land lately.) The art is by Charles Nicholas, whose work is the very definition of generic, because without the GCD I might have guessed Bill Molno, Sal Trapani, Rocco “Rocke” Mastroserio or any number of other journeymen artists of the ’50s and early ‘60s.
PRE-CODE CLASSICS: THE BEYOND VOLUME SIX
Collects The Beyond #26-30 (Apr 54-Jan 55)
This wraps up the Ace series, just as the Code kicks in. It’s a notch above medicre, with most of the stories being well thought out, having cause and effect, having genuine characterization and sometimes including some original mythologies instead of the usual zombie/werewolf tropes. One story in particular, “The Face in the Fog,” has a very Twilight Zone feel. I’ll give the anonymous writers credit for trying.
Ditto the artwork. It’s all by journeymen I mostly know nothing about (Sy Grudko? Louis Zansky?) and generally isn’t very good, but if rendering is the measure of effort, they put in a ton. I suspect they were trying to ape EC, but just didn’t have the talent. There is one Mike Sekowsky story, which jumps out — not due to quality, but because it was the only story where I could ID the artist.
SILVER AGE CLASSICS: UNUSUAL TALES VOLUME FIVE
Collects Unusual Tales #21-25 (Mar-Dec 60)
More bad artwork, and worse, you see the difference a Comics Code makes. Most of these stories have endings so mild they make you regret having spent the time to invest in the story.
There are three or so Steve Ditko stories, which are just as lame, only with better artwork. They stand in stark contrast to how much better Ditko’s stories are the following year in Amazing Fantasy, when he’s working with Stan Lee.
There are 24 more issues in this series (through Mar/Apr 65), which I’m not thrilled about. I am mildly curious to see how often Ditko continues to appear, or if he even does, what with Spider-Man and Doctor Strange coming in 1963.
SILVER AGE CLASSICS: UNUSUAL TALES VOLUME TWO
Collects Unusual Tales #6-10 (Feb 57-Jan 58)
I’m reading these out of order! Oh noes!
This one has a lot more Ditko (and some Dick Giordano), so the milquetoast stories go down more smoothly.
SILVER AGE CLASSICS: UNUSUAL TALES VOLUME THREE
Collects Unusual Tales #11-15 (Mar 58-Feb 59)
Gah! Another one! And no more interesting than the rest. Even the Ditko stories are often just plain stupid. There is a 5-pager by Gene Colan and a 1-pager by John Severin, but both are barely recognizable.
SILVER AGE CLASSICS: STRANGE SUSPENSE STORIES VOLUME FIVE
Collecting Strange Suspense Stories #38-42 (Sept 58-Jun 59)
This book, collecting stories published a year before the one above, is far superior. There’s a lot more Steve Ditko, for one thing, and he does the entirety of issue #39. There are other familiar names, too, like (not-yet-peak) Gene Colan, Sal Trapani, (post-peak) Matt Baker and Vince Colletta (already ruining everything he inks).
Better yet, most of the stories are (probably) by Joe Gill. He’s no Shakespeare, but he’s head and shoulders above the unnamed scribes in Unusual Tales. (Geez, even the name is boring.)
There are 35 more issues of this title. Dick Giordano comes into play as editor and artist “soon,” so I’m looking forward to that.
PRE-CODE CLASSICS: STRANGE MYSTERIES VOLUME ONE
Collects Strange Mysteries #1-5 (Sep 51-May 52)
GCD has no idea who wrote or drew these stories, and neither do I. They’re not great, but they are kinda nuts.
In a lot of these stories, I’d say almost half, the ending is downbeat: Everybody dies. Sometimes the people who die deserve it, but just as often it’s someone innocent. And some stories don’t really seem to know where they’re going until they get there.
For example, here’s the GCD synopsis of the first story in the first issue:
“A wife has dreams about a man dead for 10 years. Her husband makes a deal with the devil to bring the corpse back to life. The corpse kidnaps his wife. The husband gets the wife back, but is shot by her. She then loses her soul to the devil.” Moo-hoo-ha-ha!
The other half of the stories play out as I’d usually expect, with evil people getting an ironic comeuppance, but those moo-hoo-ha-ha stories throw my expectations out the window — which increases my enjoyment somewhat.
There 18 more issues of this title, but I suspect I’ve already read some. And, sadly, I bought this one twice.
Replies
KONA: I haven't read Kona, but I use your "PS Artbooks Round-Ups" to decide which ones to read, and this one sounds worth at least a look. Hmm... I notice I have only v1 on the shelf, not v2. There's another one I probably missed.
I want to stop talking about the name “Vic Torry,” because it makes me sad that someone thought that was clever.
Ranks right up there with "King Faraday."
I liked the "themed" collections (such as "Classic Sci-Fi Comics" and "Classic Adventure Comics") although it makes it more likely that I miss a volume.
And, sadly, I bought this one twice.
D'oh!
PS Artbooks "dump week" was this week at my LCS, not last as I was expecting. (PS Artbooks are often a week behind the list you post.) This week I bought four: Ghost Rider v1, Jungle Comics v1 and Classoc Adventure Comics v6-7. You may recall last week I asked you to confirm that v6 had, indeed shipped, because I didn't have it. (It had, but sometime PS Artbooks do ship out of order.) when I inquired about it today, my LCS was able to confirm that they had one on the shelf and that I hadn't bought one. This one missed by pull & hold but was still on the shelf months later. The one thing about Jungle Comics v1 is that the comic book cover has been enlerged to fill the entire collection cover with no border. I like it! I hope this is the new normal going forward. The one thing about this volume that jumps out at me flipping through it is that it is almost entire comic strip swipes: Hal Foster, Alex Raymond, Burne Hogarth, etc. Shameless and more than a little sad.