Space Patrol [comic]
Entry updated 1 April 2024. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1952). Two issues. Approved Comics, Inc (see Ziff-Davis). A spin-off from the tv series Space Patrol (1950-1955). Artists include Clarence Doore, Bernie Krigstein and Norman Saunders. Three Space Patrol and one other strip per issue. #2 also has an unsigned two-page article on H G Wells entitled "A Giant of Prophecy" (see Prediction).
Buzz Corry is Commander in Chief of the Space Patrol (see Crime and Punishment), whose HQ is on the artificial planet of Terra (see World Ships), capital of the United Planets of the Universe; he is accompanied in his adventures by teenaged cadet Hap (short for Happy). In #1 the antagonists are Tonga, "The Lady of Diamonds", who plots to rule the Universe from her position as assistant to Secretary-General of the United Planets; the Swamp Queen, ruler of the outlaws of Vesta (see Asteroids), who has a lens "that throws light capable of paralysing the entire Universe for 48 hours" and space pirates led by Margo, wife of a meek physicist (see Scientists) whom she bullies into using his giant super-Magnet to capture space freighters. #2 has an "uncouth" robber baron of Deimos (see Mars) who demands protection money from refuelling Spaceships – but who has a swift change of heart, in return for weekly judo lessons from Buzz. "The Free State of Hecuba" concerns a planet that was a major battleground in a past interplanetary War, chose to isolate itself, and refuses to join the United Planets (presumably an analogy is intended): Buzz arrives to persuade them otherwise, managing to cure the President's daughter's tuberculosis – so saving himself and Hap from a firing squad. Slave raiders (see Slavery) from Pluto (see Outer Planets) are also fought.
Each issue has a non-series strip: one, set in 2067 with the Cold War still raging, is about a Eurasian senior military advisor who gets to experience how the poor live, but learns nothing and is killed in an uprising. The other concerns an ace space pilot who loses his job through his flippant attitude and becomes a smuggler – but refuses to aid murderous pirates and so becomes a better man. [SP]
further reading
- Space Busters (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2017) [graph: includes both issues of Space Patrol, among others: illus/various: hb/Allen Anderson]
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