Race for the Moon
Entry updated 19 December 2022. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1958). Harvey Comics. Three issues. Artists include Jack Kirby and Bob Powell. Some scripts by Jack Kirby. Each issue has four comic strips, plus some one-page fiction and non-fiction strips and texts.
Issue #1 opens with a non-fiction one-pager responding to the USSR's launch of Sputnik the year before: "U.S. scientists, it is claimed, are able now to send a rocket crashing into the Moon." The first story concerns a man sentenced to the Asylum, where the incurably violent are sent. This turns out to be Earth, which is a dumping ground for the unstable – but now it is strong enough to put its foot down: the original planet is not too worried by this (though there ares hints that it should be), as there are always other worlds. Next, the first man on the Moon (in 1958) concludes it is lifeless, then hears knocking on his Spaceship's door – Fredric Brown's "Knock" (December 1948 Thrilling Wonder) comes to mind. In another story a couple flee to the mountains after watching television reports about a Martian invasion, just missing the announcement that it was a drama: clearly inspired by reactions to Orson Welles 1938 radio play of H G Wells's War of the Worlds (1898).
If #1 is competent but derivative, #2 is considerably better. In "The Thing on Sputnik 4" a triangular meteor examined on a Space Station is found to contain organic material; a creature (see Aliens) arrives (perching on a Sputnik at one point) to reclaim it, then disappears; a Scientist reflects that "our real work has only begun ... making friends in a new and vaster realm". In "Lunar Trap" the Cold War on the Moon is exacerbated when Russian vehicles are destroyed; an American mineralogist is captured and blamed, until a giant fire-eyed Monster starts throwing rocks; both sides work together to see it off. "Island in the Sky" has spaceman Bill Fenner buried in space after an accident, his coffin being dragged down into Jupiter's Red Spot: shortly afterwards it returns with Bill alive and still himself; but his brain now carries a small organism from Jupiter that has protected itself by making Bill's body nearly indestructible and likely to live for a thousand years (see Parasitism and Symbiosis). #2 finishes with "The Face on Mars", about an explorer entering a giant face discovered on Mars: he immediately has a vision of the planet's history. Once a paradise it was attacked by another world; the Martians responded by shattering that world, to form the Asteroid belt, but not before the conflict had destroyed their atmosphere. The Martians built the face and the Telepathic Technology inside to tell their story. (This tale pre-dates by 18 years the "face on Mars" mountain photographed by the Viking 1 Orbiter in 1976.) The four longer strips were drawn and probably written by Jack Kirby: all are strong, the last two being particularly noteworthy.
In #3 the four longer stories were also drawn and probably written by Kirby. One introduces the Three Rocketeers – a captain, sergeant and scientist – in a story about a prisoner who escapes in a Starship, unaware that it is programmed for a fifteen year journey, ironically the length of his sentence. Another has a spaceship crashing on the Moon, the alien inside dying: a pair of Moon Scouts work – and succeed – in attracting the attention of its compatriots so they can help it. The third has a medical research team in the asteroid belt rescuing a criminal. These three tales are nicely illustrated and – in and of themselves – reasonably enjoyable, but anti-climactic after #2. The final story, "Garden of Eden", is better: three explorers land on a paradise planet but discover it is a trap: this is a Living World who wants to study these tiny creatures that can travel space. They escape, aware that humanity will eventually return, as they will find the world as worthy of study as it found them. [SP]
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