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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Mars and Beyond! (Disney - Four Color Comics, 1957)


Four Color #866, Dec. 1957. Dell Comics. Script: Don Christensen; Art: Tony Sgroi

This Dell comic came out about the same time as the "Mars and Beyond" episode of Disneyland that aired on December 4, 1957. Like the comic, the TV show discussed the possibility of life on Mars and how would man would conquer and colonize the Red Planet. This was, of course, back when we actually thought that there would be a future.


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Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Monsters of The Moho! (Voyage To The Bottom of The Sea, 1965)

The composition of the Earth's core remains a mystery. However, new research shows that oxygen does not have a major presence in the outer core. This has major implications for our understanding of the period when the Earth formed through the accretion of dust and clumps of matter.


With increasing depth inside the Earth, the pressure and heat also increase. As a result, materials act differently than they do on the surface. At Earth's center are a liquid outer core and a solid inner core. The light elements are thought to play an important role in driving the convection of the liquid outer core, which generates the Earth's magnetic field.


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High-speed impacts can generate shock waves that raise the temperature and pressure of materials simultaneously, leading to melting of materials at pressures corresponding to those in the outer core. The team carried out shock-wave experiments on core materials, mixtures of iron, sulfur, and oxygen. They shocked these materials to the liquid state and measured their density and speed of sound traveling through them under conditions directly comparable to those of the liquid outer core.

They conclude that oxygen cannot be a major light element component of the Earth's outer core, because experiments on oxygen-rich materials do not align with geophysical observations. This supports recent models of core differentiation in early Earth under more 'reduced' (less oxidized) environments, leading to a core that is poor in oxygen. link




Ref.: Evidence for an oxygen-depleted liquid outer core of the Earth. 2011. H. Huang, et al. Nature 479: 513-516.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Race Wilkins (Part 2) - Meteor Comics, 1945


Art by August Froehlich. Rural Home, November 1945
Part 2 of what appears to be the final episode of Race Wilkins' adventures at the bottom of the ocean was published in the only issue of Meteor Comics (#1). We present here the atomically enhanced story from a slightly better scan than was available for part 1.


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Friday, November 18, 2011

Race Wilkins in "Ride That Nightmare" (August Froehlich, 1945)


Red Band Comics #3 (Rural Home, 1945)
Art by August Froehlich

Froehlich moved from illustrating film posters and magazines to comic books in the 1940's. A polished artist out of the Alex Raymond school he is best noted for drawing The Ghost in Thrilling Comics, Firehair in Rangers Comics, Auro, Lord of Jupiter in Planet Comics, and Simba in Jungle Comics. More info on him at Lambiek.net

Race Wilkins only made two appearances that I'm aware of in what was set up to be an on-going epic adventure. These stories could easily be the plot for the next Brandon Frasier movie.


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Part 2 will be posted very soon.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Black Venus by Harvey Kurtzman (1945)


Contact Comics #6 (May, 1945), Aviation Press
Art by Harvey Kurtzman
A salute to all the Veterans and others touched by war on this Remembrance Day (Canada)/Veterans Day (US) with a Black Venus story from a 20-year old Harvey Kurtzman freelancing way back in 1945. Atomically enhanced for your reading pleasure!


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Read another Kurtzman story HERE

Read another Black Venus story HERE