Strange Adventures #244

The publication date for this issue is November, 1973. But it's a dupe. Nothing in this book is new for that time period! It's all reprints from the 50s and 60s. 

Now look, it's not like I despise silver age DC Comics. I cut my teeth on Superman, Jimmy Olsen, and Justice League of America tales from the 1960s as a part of my dad's collection. So I have no qualms with the material inside. It's just that I bought this book with the intention of getting some DC sci-fi from the bronze age and instead got reprints; of which I already own the Adam Strange tale! 

See I paid $4.80 for the book. It's a weird price, I know. But blame the used book store I got this from. However, I am a bargain hunter and if I had known that I already had half of the material contained within this issue, I would have passed. Maybe if the book was $2 I might have bought it if I knew. This is what you get for not busting tags to check the insides. 

The cover story, 'The Prisoner of the Parakeets', was originally published in a 1955 issue of Strange Adventures. Written by John Broome, it tells the story of scientist Atomic scientist John Walden, who's experiments with nuclear weapons accidentally engulfs a flock of tropical parakeets with some of the fallout from a recent test of nukes. The radiation advances the development of the birds exponentially. They become gigantic and they turn into geniuses, even to the point of developing human speech! After centuries of being suppressed by the human race, the parakeets are ready to take over the earth!

The Adam Strange story comes from a 1963 issue of Mystery in Space. Gardner Fox pens a tale that sees Adam Strange rendered impotent by his old enemy Jakarta the Dust Devil. Everything the earthling fires at the terror from planet Rann, the Dust Devil takes and neutralizes it. Now Jakarta is free on planet Earth and unless Adam Strange can find a weapon to destroy his foe, the Dust Devil will become the conqueror of 2 worlds!

The story about the parakeets was very well thought out. It does end of extremely abruptly. But it's a good read. As for the Adam Strange episode, I have just one question: where in the heck is the Justice League? They must be off planet (or visiting Earth-2) because if Jakarta was really such a global menace, they would be called in for assistance. That's a plausible explanation that I could explain. Only why didn't Gardner Fox think to put that explanation for the JLA's absence?! It's a simple plot device that only takes a sentence to establish, that without its presence makes me wonder why Adam Strange goes it alone in this adventure!

This was a good issue. It just wasn't what I was expecting. Even the cover was taken from that 1955 issue. But somebody gave Murphy Anderson's pencils a modern day look to it. with some slick inking. I think I'm going have to find out when Strange Adventures becomes a reprint only title, because I would love to have more of this series (I've got a couple of Showcase Presents in my collection), but I want the first runs with material that I don't have elsewhere.

Note: This would be the last issue of Strange Adventures, capping a 23 year run for the fanciful anthology series.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Showcase Presents Strange Adventures, Volume 2

A great time capsule of the late 1950s science fiction. 9 out of 10 stories are about aliens from another world. Some of them are benevolent. Most want to take over the Earth or destroy it outright. The other 10 percent of stories involved inter-dimensional travel, attempts to prevent the destruction of the planet (usually thanks to time travel), or some strange new invention that goes horribly wrong.

DC was able to capture the fears of a nation in the pages of Strange Adventures. The red scare. The cold war. Nuclear war. 

But DC was also able to latch upon the wonder of the nuclear age. Space travel. The automation of industry. Hope that one day, universal peace could be achieved. 

Legends of not just the publishing company but the golden and silver age of comics worked on this volume. Gil Kane, Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino and many more. This was a beautiful collection of sci-fi comics.

But there was one trope that got old and it got old pretty quick. The main way that the aliens are able to communicate with earthlings is thanks to telepathy. If it wasn't for mind reading, the different races wouldn't be able to interact. There'd be no story. Thankfully, DC Comics understood this as one of their tales actually asked the question: how could humans and alien species interact without the use of mental telepathy? 

After that story, you'd think that telepathy tales would be considered off limits by the editors. Unfortunately, that same old tired plot device was continuously used. OVER and OVER...

Okay, so Strange Adventures wasn't perfect. But it was a perfect representation of an imperfect time in American history. Communism made us crazy. But the hope of a better tomorrow showed a light at the end of the tunnel.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Strange Adventures #79

I just couldn't wait for December 1st. I've been in a festive mood and wanted to read a holiday comic so bad! So I compromised with this issue of DC's Strange Adventures from 1957!

The cover was the reason for the readings! It depicts a pair of snowmen (who look a lot like Frosty!) laying waste to the Earth with laser beams that emit from their dead coal eyes! If this image does not scream weird and wild Christmas, I don't know what does!

The story takes place during the summer. The snowmen are actually energy beings from another planet. They hope to freeze the Earth in order to make it ripe for invasion since they come from a planet far away from the sun. As their actions cause it to snow, a pair of boys end up doing what any kid would if it were to snow during a hot July day: they build snowmen. 

The entities enter the snowmen and terrorize the American countryside by using their eye beams to freeze all the vegetation to death! When heat and even an Atomic bomb ends up not being able to stop these frigid fiends, what can the people of earth do to prevent mass global cooling?

The opening story was quite interesting. It had a segment based on factual science as a lot of DC sci-fi stories from this era did. Basically, everything that the writers says was responsible for global warming in 1957 is the complete opposite of what scientists say is causing the global issue now. 

And yes- this 62 year old comic really does claim that the earth of 1957 was suffering from global warming! 

There were 3 other stories in this book. They weren't exactly memorable to me. In fact, I had to look them back up to recall what I read. The stories involve a group of human time travelers from 1 billion years in the past, a human from the future who offers to trade spaces with a 1950s criminal and a mysterious car with a mind of it's own. Of these extra stories, the middle tale was probably the best as that one had a twist ending which was what made me such a fan of sci-fi and horror stories of the 1950s. 

I enjoyed getting to cheat on my holiday comic diet. This vintage book allowed me to get in the Christmas spirit without breaking my personal rule of no holiday comics until December 1st!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.