Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn Operation Peril. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn Operation Peril. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng

Number 1275: Time Travelers in Camelot

Người đăng: Unknown on Thứ Tư, 5 tháng 12, 2012

 This is the third of four “silly science” postings this week.

“Time Travelers” was a feature in ACG's Operation: Peril for the first twelve issues. The comic, which co-featured Danny Danger and Typhoon Tyler, then became a war comic. “Time Travelers” was a fun strip, even if its version of history was a bit screwy. For instance, in this episode from Operation: Peril #3 (1951), they go to the sixth century to find King Arthur's sword, Excalibur, so a college donor will make a $10 million donation. I know a little bit about history, and there's always been a disagreement about whether there was such a king as Arthur, and when he lived. Not to mention someone called Merlin.

But this is science fiction and comic book SF at that, so we don't want to think too much about it. Like when hero Tom Redfield says they're going to the sixth century to find King Arthur, he doesn't say exactly when in the sixth century. Like every other century, unless you've got an exact date, 100 years is a big span of time in which to look. Lucky Tom and girlfriend Peggy found King Arthur right off!

I have shown other stories from this entertaining series in the past (you'll excuse the expression). The first two Time Travelers' stories are from Operation: Peril  issues #1 and #2, in Pappy's #836 and Pappy's #840. The adventure from issue #4 is found in Pappy's #1001. In Pappy's #399 I featured the story from issue #11.

Grand Comics Database gives Ken Bald artist credit. Thanks to reader Scott Pell, who says the GCD is in error, that the art is actually that of Lin Streeter. After a second look I'm in agreement with Scott.













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Người đăng: Unknown on Thứ Tư, 17 tháng 8, 2011



Number 1001





The Time Travelers and the flying saucers!





Flying saucers really captured the public imagination in the late '40s-early '50s. I've featured a few comic book stories about UFOs in the last month or so. I collect books, magazines and comic books with flying saucers on the covers. I love the imagery and fun stories, coupling them with the pleasures of such goofy comics as the Time Travelers.



The Grand Comics Database guesses at who drew the story, using their question mark technique: Ken Bald?



From Operation: Peril #4, 1951:



























This UFO story, drawn by Bob Jenney and written by editor Richard E. Hughes under one of his pen-names, Bob Standish, is from Adventures Into the Unknown #174, the final story from the last issue of that title. I love the title of this story, "U.F.O.'s....Bunk Or the Real Thing?" "Bunk" is a word my grandmother used decades ago.



The cover is by Kurt Schaffenberger, who used his sometime pseudonym, Lou Wahl, for what reason I'm not sure. His work is unmistakable, no matter what name he put on it.















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Người đăng: Unknown on Thứ Tư, 3 tháng 11, 2010


Number 836


The Time Travelers


"The Time Travelers" was a feature of ACG's Operation: Peril, appearing in issues #1-12. Like most of ACG's supernatural/science fiction the Time Travelers stories are equal parts extraordinary events, outrageous hokum and cornball dialogue. In this introduction story, from Operation: Peril #1, 1950, Peggy and Tom, the main characters, outbid some foreign agents for some papers of Nostradamus, which eventually lead to a working time machine.

I did a little reading on Nostradamus, and know he made his "prophecies" in quatrains, and did not deal in explicit events and dates as the Nostradamus of this story does. But this is a comic book, and they get away with the most outrageous plot devices.

The story is drawn by Ken Bald, who went on to a career as a syndicated cartoonist, doing comic strips like Dr. Kildare. He drew the syndicated Dark Shadows, using the pseudonym K. Bruce.

Part two of this story will be available here next Wednesday in Pappy's #840. You'll want to see Tom and Peggy go to Venus in their time machine and Tom get hustled by a beautiful Venusian princess! What did I say about outrageous plot devices?













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Người đăng: Unknown on Thứ Hai, 20 tháng 10, 2008


Number 399


The Time Travelers


A reader recently sent an e-mail:

. . . I've been reading Pappy's for about a year and have noticed at times you use the words "screwy" or "screwball" to describe a story. I think ALL comic books, especially the Golden Age . . . are screwy. The plots are inane, the artwork sometimes amateurish. But we read comic books because we like that sort of thing, apparently . . . I think "screwy" and "screwball" can't just be applied to some stories when all comics seem to fit the screwy category.

Maybe I should rename my blog Pappy's Screwball Golden Age Comics! Seriously, the reader has a point. Comic book readers really do like the oddball and offbeat. Even the most mainstream comics, like the super-heroes, are basically screwy when you get right down to it. However, those are the sorts of things that comic book readers read and don't think are screwy, because they buy into the screwball world their heroes exist in.

I just accept that as being part of the appeal of comics. So while I agree that all comic books are in their own way screwy, when I say screwy, I mean my definition of screwy, which is screwier than the screwy mainstream comics. And here's a screwy screwball story to prove it! From Operation Peril #11, 1952:








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