Gee whiz, Aliens ARE jerks!

 

cover art by George Wilson

Space Family Robinson #21 (April 1967) brings the "medieval" story arc to an end. The issue, though, starts out with writer Gaylord Du Bois and artist Dan Spiegle bringing the Robinsons and the medieval refugees new troubles.

They are boarded by an alien race called the Xotalec, who are-- well, they are jerks. A lot of aliens in this series are jerks, but these guys are particularly obnoxious.

They decide to take the space station for study and strand the humans on a nearby planet, stating that microbes found on board might be a threat to the Xotalec. Tim sneaks away to hide, but the other humans are forced aboard the Xotalec ship and brought to the planet.

Fortunately, the planet is a nice place. The humans explore, finding eatable flora and fauna, a goat-like creature to provide milk, a wheat-like plant that can be cultivated, and a strategic spot to build a defensive wall. They seen nothing threatening yet, but better safe than sorry.

Spiegle's depiction of the planet, by the way, is perfect. There's enough slightly-odd plants and animals to remind us its an alien environment, but it also looks beautiful. It's BOTH alien and inviting.

The defensive wall does prove to be a good idea. They are spotted by a tribe of savage humans (or humanoids--this is never made clear), who soon attack, bringing us a superbly depicted battle scene. The Robinsons and their allies are outnumbered, but have better weapons and a good defensive position. They push back the savages. When a leader of the enemy demands the issue be settled by a context of champions (Craig has a small language translator to understand what he's saying), Sir Gilbert rises to the challenge. He knocks out the enemy chief with the flat of his sword and wins final victory.

The enemy chief is given a translator and soon the two sides make peace. The savages thought the humans were working with the Xotalec, who come by to snatch a few of them for unknown reasons every so often.

In fact, that happens now. A small Xotalec craft lands, shooting out metal tentacles to grab Sir Gilbert and Tam.

Fortunately, Tim has been busy. After the space station had been put into orbit around a frozen planet, the Xotalec had left it. Tim comes out of hiding and uses a spacemobile to travel to the planet on which his family had been stranded. He shows up in the nick of time, using the spacemobile jets to cut the tentacles holding Gilbert and Tam. A side effect of this is it causes the Xotalec ship to blow up. Those guys really were jerks--so its difficult to mourn their loss.

The medievals decide to stay on this planet. Craig leaves them an industrial laser to both cut rocks to build a castle and defend against any future Xotalec incursions. The Robinsons then return to the space station. When the Xotalec are about to catch them, they use the broken phase-shift device to teleport to another part of the galaxy. They still have no idea where they are, but at least they got away from their rather unpleasant persecutors. 

That ends the four-issue story arc, with the Robinsons' friends happy building a new civilization on another planet, but with the Robinsons themselves still lost in space. It brings an end to an intelligently-written, suspenseful, action-packed, and beautifully illustrated Space Opera. There's a few minor glitches--peace with the savages comes conveniently quickly after a brutal battle, but that's probably a reflection of having to tell the story within a set page count. And this is indeed a minor glitch. I still love this story.

For next week--we haven't visited the Looney Tunes comic universe in a while, so let's do that.

I Didn't Know It Was a Time Machine!

 

cover art by George Wilson

Space Family Robinson #20 (February 1967) is the penultimate chapter in the "medieval" story arc--with writer Gaylord Du Bois and artist Dan Spiegle literally taking the characters back in time to mediveval Earth.

The story begins with the crew using a new gadget installed on the space station to bring them through a wormhole back to their home galaxy. (By the way, the script does not use the term wormhole, but it is so obviously the go-to term that a modern writer would use, I think it's a pretty accurate description.) This works, bringing them to the Milky Way galaxy. 

The next step is homing in on Earth. This is the dangerous part, as even a slight miscalculation could plunge them into a star. Craig elects to try a test run in one of the spacemobiles, taking only his son Tim and Sir Thomas with him.

The test flight seems to work great, with a jump to Alpha Centauri followed by a jump to Earth. But when Sir Thomas bumps against the controls, they also travel back in time. You would think the aliens who gave them this tech in the last issue might have casually mentioned "By the way, it's also a time machine." But they didn't. Sometimes, aliens are just jerks.

They figure out the time frame and discover that they are on Earth only four years after Sir Thomas and his fellow kidnappees were taken from Earth by the Iklatalians. Eager to see his wife and young son, he asks to be taken to his castle.

There's a neat bit here when they fly over a medieval village--Spiegle adds a nice touch of realism by showing us a muddy street, chickens, a dog and a few other touches that make the environment look real.

They discover Sir Thomas' castle is besieged by brigands. Sir Thomas charges across the field and gets inside. Craig and Tim are chased by the bad guys, but get back to the spacemobile and scare the brigands off by buzzing them with the craft. They then fly off, leaving a happy Sir Thomas behind, standing next to his wife and holding his young son.

It's human elements like this that add a lot to the story. The way the Robinsons worry about each other when they are seperated is another aspect of this. We are presented with people who care about each other and, thus, make us care about them.

But the heck with human touches. There is still cool science fiction stuff that has to happen. 

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The space station had landed on a planet to wait for the return of the spacemobile. They are forced to take off when the weather turns violent. The spacemobile finds its way back to that planet, but has to perform several time jumps and a tense search before finally finding its way home. 

BUT, the space-phasing device has broken down. A key element has gone kla-blooie, which prevents them from easily locating Earth again. The Robinson family (and the 13 remaining refugees from the 12th Century) are still lost in space.

Once again, I'm very impressed with Spiegle's dynamic art, but perhaps even more impressed with Du Bois' skilled plot contruction. As I said last week, if this had been a prose story, I can easily imagine it as the cover story in an old issue of Amazing Stories. It is intelligent, imaginative Space Opera.

Next week, we'll look at the final chapter in this saga.

Never Bring a Sword to a Laser Fight

 

cover art by George Wilson

Space Family Robinson #19 (December 1966) picks up right where the previous issue left off, with Gaylord Du Bois' intelligent script still highlighted by Dan Spiegle's dynamic art.  But before we dive into this issue, I have a confession to make, by golly.  I left off an important plot point in my review last week! I shall report to the closest Agony Booth for punishment.

Kor, the alien, had explained that there are "holes" (a modern story would probably say "wormhole") in space and the Robinson family's space station had travelled through one of these and is in a different galaxy. But before he can give any concrete navigation advice, he keels over with a high fever.

So this issue picks up with the Robinson family and their 14 guests from medieval Earth believing that Kor is probably doomed. Kor believes it as well, asking the humans not to revive the other Iklatalians and expose them to the same disease. 

Knowing they might be stuck on this planet, the humans decide to explore. They divide into two teams and take the two spacemobiles, with Craig flying one of them and Tim flying the other.

One of the many smart elements of the script is that Du Bois never forgets that all this technology is brand new to the medieval guys and gals. They adapt quickly, but are continually surprised or intrigued by each knew thing. 

One of those things is a shower. This leads to a  very human touch when one of the men going with Tim is delayed because he's enjoying taking a shower for the first time in his life. I love it.

An impish young lady named Elaine puts on the guy's armor and thus tricks her way onto Tim's spacemobile.

She soon has reason to regret her impishness. When investigating yet another set of ruins, Tim's crew encounter some ancient and ill-tempered robots. Tim's laser pistol helps even the odds, though he temporarily loses the pistol in the struggle and has to use a sword to deactivate one of the robots.

Soon after, Tim's spacemobile gets targeted by a missile:

There's no radio contact with Tim after this happens, which understandably worries Craig and June. In the meantime, though, Kor recovers. He uses antibodies from his blood to give the other Iklatalians immunity to the disease, then the lot of them form a telepathic ring to contact Tim. He and his crew were okay, but the blast knocked out radio and radar, so he was trying to fly home by dead reckoning. The aliens guide him home telepathically.

Both the alien ship and the space station are repaired. Kor is able to give directions to a wormhole that will take the Robinsons and their friends back to the Milky Way, but he can't direct them to their specific sun. Still, it's a start. The four Robinsons and the 14 medieval people take off for (hopefully) home.

Like the previous issue, this chapter in the 4-issue story arc is solid science fiction in the Space Opera vein. Had this been a prose story written in the '30s or '40s, I could easily see it being the cover story in an issue of Amazing Stories.

We'll check back in next week to see how they're doing.

Medieval Times Meets the Space Age

 

cover art by George Wilson

Space Family Robinson: Lost in Space #18 (October 1966) begins a four-issue story arc in which the Robinson family is accompanied by men and women from 12th Century Europe.

The script by Gaylord Du Bois gives us a strong and intelligent science fiction tale, with Dan Spiegle's excellent art bringing the story to life.

By the way, Gold Key's Space Family Robinson predates TV's Lost in Space by three years. Both series were based on the idea of moving The Swiss Family Robinson into space. Normally, Gold Key would have been the go-to company for a comic book adaptation of the TV series--they did comic adaptations of other Irwin Allen-produced series. But the existence of another Robinson family beating the Lost in Space crew into the cosmos prevented this. Instead, the comic book was renamed Space Family Robinson: Lost in Space starting with its 15th issue, but kept the comic book characters/continuity. 

The story we're looking at begins with the Robinson family's lost space station suffering from life support issues. They need to find a planet to land on to make repairs. The two kids, Tim and Tam, take the scout ship down to a planet with a breathable atmosphere. They find a city destroyed by nuclear war centuries ago, radiation levels down to acceptable levels, and a damaged space ship parked amidst it all.

As I said, Du Bois' script is intelligent. One thing he does is introduce new information, characters and plot information gradually, keeping our interest and building up suspense. The book is packed with a lost of nifty details, but its never overstuffed. It's really an excellent example of world-building.

 

My summary probably won't do justice to Du Bois' skill as a writer. Craig and June--the parents--eventually join the kids on the planet's surface. Dangerous and probably mutated animals are encountered. A search of the damaged space ship produces images of the giant crew. Then, hidden in the city, the Robinsons find suspended animation capsules. One of them contains one of the giant aliens. The others are humans dressed in 12th Century clothing. Helpful name tags (a little bit of a cheat--there's no logical reason for name tags--especially written in English) identifies one of the humans as Sir Thomas Maldane--an ancestor of June.

Sir Thomas is awakened. In another minor by acceptable cheat, he doesn't speak historically-accurate Middle English or Old French, but rather Elizabethan style English, so he and the Robinson's understand each other. He explains that the alien ship landed on Earth during a tournament. There was a flash of light and now--from Sir Thomas' point-of-view--he was suddenly somewhere else.

The alien also wakes up. His name is Kor and he's kind of a jerk. Having learned English, he explains that he plans to add the Robinson's to his collection of humans for scientific study.

He then gives the job of space janitors to Tim and Sir Thomas, cleaning out his spaceship. I love what happens next--the cloud of dust raised up while the two humans sweep gives Kor a sneezing fit, giving Tim a chance to grab his weapon.

The other humans are awakened and help deal with various dangerous animals. The issue ends with Kor and the Robinsons cutting a deal--the humans will help repair Kor's ship and he will help them get back to Earth.

As I said, Du Bois' script unfolds the story much more effectively than I do in my summary. Even taking the minor cheats about language into consideration, it really is good science fiction. 

We'll find out how helpful Kor is next week, when we look at the next issue. 

Cover Cavalcade

 

October is George Wilson month. Here's a cover from 1964.

Cover Cavalcade

 

February is George Wilson Month. This cover is from 1965.

Metal Eating Monsters, Hijackers and Meteors!

cover art by George Wilson

 Space Family Robinson #15 (January 1966) was the first issue to carry the "Lost in Space" sub-title, tying it in with the then-current TV series while still retaining its own original cast of characters.

The series was usually written by Gaylord Du Bois, one of a number of excellent and extraordinarily prolific writers who worked for Gold Key. But this particular issue is tentativly credited to Del Connell, the original creator of the series. The art is by Dan Spiegle.

It begins with the older Robinsons--married couple Craig and June--using spectrographic scans in an attempt to find our sun and get back home. But the pets are getting bored and restless, so the parents allow their children, Tim and Tam, to take the pets down to a nearby planet for some exercise.

It does seem a bit irresponsible for parents to allow their kids to fly down unsupervised to an unexplored planet. To be fair, though, Tim and Tam are veteran explorers by this point. And no one could have predicted that they would run into a giant monster that is both made of metal and eats metal.

The beast chews on the spacemobile long enough to jam the main hatch open. Before Tim can make repairs, some local natives show up. As was usual with much non-prose science fiction of that decade, language issues are ignored for the sake of moving the story along. The natives simply speak English.

The kids soon learn that the planet's population is doomed. Food sources are dwindling and the Metal Eaters are magnifying the problem by... well, eating metal. This is putting a crimp in the plans of the natives to build a working spaceship.

The people here are mostly friendly, but one group decides to take matters into their own hands. They take Tam hostage, forcing Tim to call his dad for help. Their plan is to eventually hijack the Robinson's space station so they can escape the doomed planet.

Up in the space station, Craig and June had identified the sun, but lose track of it again when a meteor storm hits.

This incident highlights a weakness in the script. There are three plot threads in the story--the spectrographic search for the sun, the hijacking attempt, and the metal eating monsters. Those last two are tentatively linked, but not very strongly. None of the plot threads are ever solidly connected or interwoven, either in terms of plot or theme. Stuff is just happening haphazardly. It's as if Del Connell had several story ideas that did not by themselves fill an entire issue, so he simply mashed them together willy-nilly.

But even with this weakness in the story structure, the issue is a fun one. Dan Spiegle's fun and imaginative art saves the day. His design for both the metal monsters and the planet's natives are original and visually cool, giving the story an appear that lifts it above its weak script.

Anyway, Craig comes to the planet and soon uses a little judo to take care of the hijackers. End of that problem.

But the Metal Eaters have begun rampaging through the native city. I love the panel just below. This is exactly what I mean when I say the Spiegle's art saves a story. Who wouldn't shell out twelve cents for that panel alone?

Craig uses water vapor to take out the monsters, and gives both metal and plans for a space ship to the natives, giving them the means to eventually find a better home. The poor Robinsons have lost track of their home star again, so they're still lost in space. So their own adventure continues.

Next week, we'll re-visit with Daredevil for his rematch against Stilt-Man.

If your name is Robinson, DON'T GO INTO SPACE!

There were actually two different families named Robinson that got lost in space during the 1960s.

The story as to why a Lost in Space comic book featured a family named Robinson but NOT the family featured in the concurrent TV series is an interesting one. I covered this as part of the video I made at work covering the history of Dell and Gold Key comics, which I'll put at the bottom of this post for anyone interested.

Gold Key's Space Family Robinson (eventually subtitled Lost in Space) featured scientists Craig and June Robinson and their teenage kids Tim and Tam. They wandered about the galaxy in a pretty cool looking space station, trying to find their way back to Earth after getting caught in a cosmic storm.

S.F.R. #34 (June 1969) is a typical example from the series. Tim and Tam are scouting a planet in the station's spacemobile. They find the remnants of a human civilization, but no living beings. It eventually unfolds that the surviving humans from this planet fled from a war against a neighboring world, with the

survivors hiding in suspended animation in a nearby asteroid. All this happened 8000 years ago.

The aliens from the other planets apparently hold grudges for a really, really long time, because they launch missiles at the spacemobile. Tim and Tam take refuge in the same asteroid as the surviving humans, who wake from their long sleep. When the aliens begin ripping apart the asteroid with anti-matter missiles, everyone (including Tim and Tam) escape in an invisible space ship. But when the ship's pilot is incapacitated, Tim has to pilot the craft to safety.

It's a simple and straightforward story, well-constructed but not particularly memorable. What makes it really work is Dan Spiegle's art. Spiegle had a talent for unique space ship, alien, planet-scape and space-scape designs, infusing the fairly average stories with a real sense of fun. The space station that the Robinsons called home is a great design, while this story also includes a creepy alien species and a pretty impressive looking spacecraft used by the escaping humans.

I don't think this version of the Robinson family ever made it back to Earth, just as the TV version of the family is apparently still wandering around among the stars. There's a lesson to be learned there--if your name is Robinson, just get a job at the local 7/11. DON'T apply to NASA for a job. That won't end well.

Cover Cavalcade

 Before and After. Gold Key was producing the comic Space Family Robinson, basically the Swiss Family Robinson in space.  Then CBS debuted Lost in Space in 1965, which was basically the Swiss Family Robinson in space. Gold Key started putting Lost in Space on the covers of its comic, even though it still used its own characters and vehicle designs rather than those from the TV show. Irwin Allen, the TV show's producer, didn't seem to mind and in fact Gold Key later put out comic adaptations of other Allen SF shows. Consequently, the TV version of Lost in Space never got a comic book adaptation while the show was first airing. (I believe it did some years later.)