SPACE PATROL Comics, issue 2, Oct-Nov, 1952:

     Part of the Space Patrol merchandising blitz in the early 50s included Space Patrol comics.   I picked up a copy of SPACE PATROL comics #2 at a convention recently, and thought it would make a good subject for our first feature article:

Published 1952, copyright Space Patrol Enterprises. 

     Great cover art, a full painting of Buzz Corry slugging an alien in the breadbasket while Cadet Happy (complete with his Space Patrol cap!) gets captured like a good sidekick should.  The insides of note are as follows:

ROBBER BARON OF DEIMOS - 

'Space Patrol Commander-in-chief Buzz Corry and his cadet, Happy, have faced interplanetary outlaws before.  But never have they met a maverick as rough, tough and terrifying as Basto, the...Robber Baron of Deimos"

The Space Patrol comes up against Basto, a gangster operating a criminal extortion racket on the Martian moon--Basto charges a 1000-credit fee for spaceship repairs, along with 400,000 for 'protection.'  Corry soon shows him up in a fistfight by using his judo skills, so impressing the robber baron that he agrees to stop extorting money from passing spaceships if Corry will return weekly to Deimos to tutor the gangster in judo. (!)

The artwork is reasonable for the time, looking quite a bit like the work of Milton Caniff on Steve Canyon. The likenesses are only fair, looking enough like the characters in question to pass most of the time--Oddly enough, throughout the Space Patrol stories, Robbie is blond.

THE FREE STATE OF HECUBA  (credited to a 'B. Krigstein')

'Space Patrol Commander Buzz Corry and his cadet, Happy, come face to face with the barbarous past when they try to being the planetoid Hecuba into the United Planets of the Universe.  But the perverse and primitive planetoid prefers to remain...THE FREE STATE OF HECUBA!'

     Corry and Happy are sent on a mission to open diplomatic relations with the planetoid Hecuba, also known as 'the hermit planet.'  Following an interplanetary war, Hecuba closed itself off from the rest of the planets, 'mired in the backwawrd twentieth century while the other planets moved forward' (conveniently allowing the artist to draw pictures of contemporary soldiers and munitions).  Upon landing, the local soldier move to shoot them on sight--Corry, however, invokes 'a tradition thousands of years older than ourselves' (that of the kinship of fellow officers) and asks to be taken to the leader of Hecuba.  Upon being introduced to the planet's president, the leader is inconsolable;  his daughter is extremely ill with what Corry recognizes as tuberculosis--a disease that has been cured in the United Planets. Corry administers a drug that, at first, sends the girl into a coma--then, as they are put before the firing squad, she recovers, saving Corry and Happy's lives and bringing the planet out of its isolation and into dominion status in the United Planets.  Everybody's happy.  (And speaking of Happy, for the last three pages of this seven page story, he doesn't get a single line...not even a 'jumpin' jets!')

Special section:  Space Spasms - space related humorous cartoons, fairly standard gags by an artist signed 'Vic Martin.'  Probably stock stuff used as filler.

Two page text story about H.G. Wells, 'A Giant of Prophecy' -  A fairly informative article about the famed science-fiction writer, touching on most of his major works and tying them in to the larger genre of science-fiction.  A very nice article, probably inserted as an easy filler, plus to satisfy the adult demand that such comic books have some 'educational' value...

TREASON IN SPACE 

'They called Lance Gregg a space tramp...A drifter, a man who'd do anything for a laugh!  But Lance's laughter was bitter when he came to grips with...TREASON IN SPACE!'

A non-SP story, evidently used as filler, since it is by a different artist.

SLAVE KING OF PLUTO 

'When a power-mad monarch tries to enslave the free people of the universe, Commander Buzz Corry and the Space Patrol match wits with courage against the evil...SLAVE KING OF PLUTO!!'

Probably the best story in the book, Happy and Corry accompany a squad of Space Patrol shock troops to the planet Pluto to put an end to the raids of Plutonian space pirates.  Along the way, they free the daughter of the leader of Mimas and Happy gets a kiss in the last panel.  Smokin' rockets!

Testtube Tyler - one-page comic feature, a little strangely dark, perhaps done to order, as the joke is a little strong for a child's comic of the time.

BACK COVER  

'Smoking Rockets!  Boys...Girls...Send now for your official...SPACE PATROL BELT!'  

      A large color ad for the Space Patrol Belt, only $1.00.  What would that be worth today, hmmm?