Harlem Heroes

Tags

2000AD, aeroball, black and white, brains, Dave Gibbons, Harlem Heroes, Indie Comics, Pat Mills, sports, sports comics, Tom Tully, UK comics

Audiences in the States may know 2000AD as the UK magazine that spawned Judge Dredd. Our readers know we love 2000AD for the dinosaur series Flesh, the violent time-traveling fantasy of writer Pat Mills. Artist Dave Gibbons may not be a household word, but the American film industry made more people aware of the most famous book he drew: Watchmen. Our gallery today features another of Pat Mills’ brilliant ideas: the Harlem Heroes.

Dave Gibbons drew the Harlem Heroes, of which we share with you the first fifty pages or so. Tom Tully’s script delivers action and heroism at a breakneck pace. The Harlem Heroes play a futuristic game called Aeroball, and the series blends an outrageous dose of science-fiction themes with sports in a barrage of non-stop conflict. When one of your team members is a brain in a vat, what else can you expect?

These second-hand scans we found years ago while looking for images from Flesh leave something to be desired, but they give a good impression of the awesomeness of this little-known series. If you want a high-quality reproduction of the complete series, you can buy the collected Harlem Heroes on Amazon. Also know that the UK’s version of Amazon has three informative reviews of Harlem Heroes that do not appear on the States’ version of Amazon.

Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s play aeroball!
 

Captain Science: The Dark O’ The Moon!

Tags

alien, brains, Captain Science, golden age, Robot Brain, The Dark O' The Moon

We discovered Captain Science in a Caliber Press reprint called Buried Treasure. They created a fine black-and-white reprint of “Captain Science and the Insidious Dr. Khartoum!” Love the Wally Wood artwork!

Like many Golden Age Comics now in the public domain, you can find Captain Science scans at the Digital Comic Museum. Or, you can collect the original issues of Captain Science.

Captain Science – The Time Door of Throm!

Tags

brains, Captain Science, golden age, Robot Brain, Time Door of Throm, Wally Wood

Besides the Wally Wood artwork, this Captain Science story has the best dialogue. The Robot Brain announces, “Danger threatens Earth from the Plutonian depths. It comes from out of the future.” The Captain replies, “What! The Future! How can we cope with that?” Hey, Captain, we know just how you feel. We’ll check the space suits while Rip prepares the flying saucer, OK?

Like many Golden Age Comics now in the public domain, you can find Captain Science scans at the Digital Comic Museum. Or, you can collect the original issues of Captain Science.

Weird War Tales: It Takes Brains to Be a Killer!

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brains, George Kashdan, It Takes Brains to Be a Killer, Weird War Tales

It takes Brains to be a killer! Script by George Kashdan.

Collector’s Guide: From Weird War Tales Vol. 1, #81.

See more of our Weird War Tales gallery.

Mystery in Space: The Billion-Year Evolution!

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Billion Year Evolution, brains, Mystery in Space

This has got to be one of the trippiest cosmic brain evolutions we’ve ever seen!

Collector’s Guide: From Mystery in Space #70; DC, 1961.

Adam Strange stars in “Vengeance of the Dust Devil!” (pencils by Carmine Infantino). Back-up stories: “The Billion-Year Evolution!” (art by Murphy Anderson) and “The Bravest Man in Space!” (art by Sid Greene?). Infantino cover pencils. Cover price $0.10.

Ego the Living Planet! John Byrne’s Fantastic Four

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brains, Ego the Living Planet, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four By John Byrne Omnibus, John Byrne, The Thing

John Byrne created some of the most memorable Fantastic Four epics during his run on Fantastic Four #232-292 and Annuals #17-19. We will share with you a few of our favorites. With five years of work to pick from, it wasn’t easy choosing just a handful!

Today’s Feature: Ego – The Living Planet! Taking the reins of the World’s Greatest Comic Magazine with #234, Byrne wasted zero time getting our adventurers into the most cosmic kinds of trouble he could imagine. Here, they take on a planet with a huge brain that’s gone horribly insane. Guess who gets stuck lugging a modified rocket engine down to the brain in the planet’s core to blow it all to smithereens? You bet your Aunt Petunia — it’s the ever-lovin’ blue eyed Thing! Whatta Revoltin’ Development!

Collector’s Guide:
– From Fantastic Four # 232-235.
– Reprinted in the Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus – Volume 1, 2011.
– Byrne’s run spans Fantastic Four #232-292 and Annuals #17-19.

There’s a Dinosaur War A-Coming!

Tags

2000AD, brains, dinosaur, dinosaur comics, Flesh, Flesh the Dino Files, Pat Mills, time travel

By the twenty-third century, most animals had been destroyed. Man survived on synthetic foods alone. But he still craved real meat. With the discovery of time travel, he was able to go in search of it — back sixty-five million years to the age of the great dinosaurs!

Here is a spash page from the original epic Flesh in 2000 AD magazine, created by Pat Mills and starring Old One Eye, the mother of Satanus! Fire up your electric whip and get ready for some major dinosaur mayhem.

Collector’s Guide: Collected in Flesh: The Dino Files TPB; Rebellion, 2011. Originally printed in 2000 AD #1-19; Fleetway, 1977.

His Brain Lived On!

Tags

brains, Murdock's Brain, Weird Wonder Tales

It just goes to show: Sometimes you can be TOO smart!

Let’s rock this jolting tale of brain power gone wrong: Murdock’s Brain!

Collector’s Guide: From Weird Wonder Tales #2; Marvel, 1974.

Captain Science and the Insidious Dr. Khartoum!

Tags

brains, Caliber, Captain Science, golden age, Insidious Dr. Khartoum, Robot Brain, time travel, Wally Wood

We discovered Captain Science in a Caliber Press reprint called Buried Treasure. They created a sharp black-and-white reprint of “Captain Science and the Insidious Dr. Khartoum!” Love the Wally Wood artwork!

Like many Golden Age Comics now in the public domain, you can find Captain Science scans at the Digital Comic Museum. Or, you can collect the original issues of Captain Science.

Brain Boy Meets the Telepathic Tyrannosaurus!

Tags

Brain Boy, brains, Dell Comics, dinosaur, evil telepathic dinosaur, Frozen Monster, Gold Key Comics, golden age, telepathy, tyrannosaurus rex

Dell Comics published five issues of Brain Boy from 1962-1963. Brain Boy has a super brain that gives him control over other people and the power of flight, among other things. You’d think he would set about ruling the world, getting mega-rich, and having a harem of scantily clad hotties rubbing him down with chocolate sauce. But no, he becomes a kind of secret agent. Whatever!

Issue #6 was our favorite Brain Boy story for obvious reasons: He meets a giant dinosaur who reveals that Tyrannosaurs ruled the planet using super-intelligent telepathic control over other animals. Now, they’ve come back to life to reclaim the planet! Of course, atomic power is involved, just like with Godzilla or Reptilicus.

Collector’s Guide: From Brain Boy #6; Dell, 1963.

Inside the Twisted Mind of the Professor!

Tags

birth, brains, Frank Quitely, Grant Morrison, jean grey, phoenix, professor x, Silent Issue, X-men

Once upon a time, Marvel had all writers do a month of scripting without dialogue, letting the pictures do the work. Maybe it was because copies of the famous silent issue of G.I. Joe from the 1980s sells for hundreds of dollars now.

Luckily for you, Frank Quitely was around this time to take your brain to the birth of the most powerful brain of all: Professor X! Let’s see what happens when Jean “Phoenix” Grey takes a far-out trip to the inside.

Collector’s Guide: Published in X-Men #121; printed as New X-Men by Grant Morrison. Art by Frank Quitely.

Hormones That Will Make It Extremely Violent!

Tags

assassinate the pope, brains, brian k vaughan, evil rat brains, Ex Machina, rat, Tony Harris

Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris is so awesome we can hardly pick just one scene to share with you. How about we start with evil spies plugging wires into rat brains?! Guess what they are going to do with their evil rat brains. Assassinate the Pope! Now that’s EVIL RAT BRAINS!!

It would never happen, you say? Let’s see what the deal is in Ex Machina #31:

OMAC Gallery 5

Tags

brains, Jack Kirby, OMAC

Are you ready for the World That’s Coming?! Jack Kirby’s OMAC (One Man Army Corps) is ready! Mars Will Send No More presents a gallery of the complete splash panels and double-splash pages from Jack Kirby’s futuristic science fiction masterpiece! And that includes the cerebellum-blasting covers, too! Just joining our OMAC exhibit? Click OMAC Gallery here to see what we’ve got for you so far.

Collector’s Guide: From the original Omac #1-8; 1974, DC Comics. Reprinted in Jack Kirby’s Omac One Man Army Corps Hardcover, 2008 (176 pages, full color.)

Monster Stickers!

Tags

brains, monsters, stickers

My Paranoid Pirate Pen Pal sent me these brain-warping stickers. Nice find! Thanks to digital technology they are now in high enough resolution for you to set them as your desktop background.

His Mechanical Brain Is Charged with All Knowledge!

Tags

brains, EC Comics, golden age, Judgment Day, racism, robot

Judgment Day! Does the planet of the robots have the moral fortitude to join Earth’s Great Galactic Republic!? This is it: the famous censored sci-fi story from Weird Fantasy #18 by EC Comics.

Why was it censored? It was 1953 in the USA, and the story deals with historical racism being taught to citizens by their society. You can imagine how “The Man” had a cow over this story back then. And if you can’t, you can read all about it in the EC Comics article on Wikipedia.

The story came out uncensored in Incredible Science Fiction #33 — which is hardly ever in stock. You can find it in the Russ Cochran/Gemstone reprint series under Incredible Science Fiction and also Haunt of Fear #3. (For the sake of their profit margin, Gemstone eventually combined 1992 reprints of Haunt of Fear and Weird Fantasy into one magazine each month. That’s a lot of EC Comics inside of one cover!)

Faceless Contours Merge Over the Large Forebrain!

Tags

birth, brains, dinosaur, dinosaur comics, Steve Bissette, tyrannosaurus rex, Tyrant

Feast your eyes on the development of a fetal Tyrannosaurus, meticulously researched and rendered by Steve Bissette in Tyrant. You will also enjoy Steve’s history of dinosaur comic books!

Collector’s Guide: From Tyrant; 1994, SpiderBaby Grafix. Reprinted in Tyrant second printing.

Alex Niño’s Space Voyagers: The Delta Brain!

Tags

Alex Nino, brains, DC Comics, Delta Brain, Rima, Robert Kanigher, Space Voyagers

Are you ready for some far-out adventure? Witness the Space Voyagers encounter a giant, evil brain from another planet in this classic short! The Delta Brain is part two of a two-part adventure that started in Four Tombs. Alex Niño artwork, from a Robert Kanigher script.

We have a complete collection of Space Voyagers, and an ongoing gallery of work from Alex Niño’s out-of-print Satan’s Tears. To dig into our Alex Niño gallery, just click Alex Niño.

Collector’s Guide: From Rima The Jungle Girl #1-5; DC Comics.