Strange Adventures #229

Strange Adventures #229 (On Sale: January 14, 1971), has a cover by Murphy Anderson.

We start this issue with "The Last Mile of Space" by John Broome and Murphy Anderson and reprinted from Mystery in Space #17 (1953).

Next is Adam Strange in "Menace of the Aqua-Ray Weapon" by Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino, and Murphy Anderson and reprinted from Mystery in Space #69 (1961). While catching the Zeta Beam that will return him to Rann, Adam Strange rescues a dog, Chunky, from an avalanche. Adam arrives with the dog on Rann and finds that Alanna has been turned into a puddle of water along with the other Ranagarans.

A race known as the Kirri are responsible for Alanna’s condition, using an Aqua-Ray weapon. They wish to replace the humans as the dominant species on Rann. They liquify Adam as well and take him to the planet’s polar region where they restore his body, but he is frozen in ice with the other humans, including Alanna.

Chunky, having followed the Kirri, manages to free Adam from his ice prison. Adam then constructs an ice duplicate of himself to distract the Kirri, while he gains control of the Aqua-Ray. He liquifies the Kirri and frees the Ranagarans, before he and Chunky are returned to Earth by the Zeta Beam.

That is followed by "The Day Science Ran Wild" by Otto Binder, Sid Greene, and Joe Giella and reprinted from Strange Adventures #82 (1957).

Next, we have "The Electric Man" by John Broome and Sy Barry and reprinted from Strange Adventures #54 (1955).

The next story is the real gem of the issue, "The Mad Planet" by Sid Gerson and drawn by American pulp fantasy, science fiction, and horror illustrator, Virgil Finlay and reprinted from Mystery in Space #19 (1954). Our story takes place in the far future, 1989 to be exact, "when tourists travel to the stars for sightseeing thrills..." and Harry and Doris find an uncharted planet that is inhabitable. Upon entering orbit they find they are flying over New York City and land in what appears to be Central Park. 

The people of the city pay them no attention and so they stroll down Fifth Avenue, but this street soon ends and they find a small shack where Saks should be. Inside they find a man who says he crashed on the planet years ago and became ruler of the inhabitants and had them make this duplicate of New York so he would not feel lonely. In the end, they discover that the man was an escaped criminal from 1954 who found a flying saucer and flew to this barren world, where a mysterious gem gave him the power to create from his thoughts. Eventually, they wrest control of the gem from him and his illusions evaporate. 

Finley is mainly known for his numerous pulp science-fiction illustrations. His highly detailed style was perfect for the black and white illustrations that littered the pulps. His first work appeared in the  December 1935 issue of Weird Tales and he continued doing illustrations for them through 1954. Vinley won the 1953 Hugo Award for Best Artist. He did very little work in comics, as his style was better suited for black and white illustrations, but he did do 13 stories for DC, most for Real Fact Comics between 1946 and 1948, and this single story for Mystery In Space. Finley was a giant in his field and passed away from cancer in 1971, three days after this reprint hit the stands. 

Next is "The Hands from Nowhere" by Walter B. Gibson, Bob Oksner, and Bernard Sachs and reprinted from Strange Adventures #22 (1952). Walter Gibson was best known under his pen-name, Maxwell Grant, where he wrote more than 300 novel-length Shadow stories. A magician himself, Gibson wrote more than a hundred books on magic, psychic phenomena, true crime, mysteries, rope knots, yoga, hypnotism, and games. He served as a ghostwriter for books on magic and spiritualism by Harry Houdini, Howard Thurston, Harry Blackstone, Sr., and Joseph Dunninger. 

Gibson wrote the comic books and radio drama Blackstone, the Magic Detective. starring a fictionalized version of Harry Blackstone. Gibson introduced the "Chinese linking rings" trick in America and invented the "Nickels to Dimes" trick that is still sold in magic stores to this day. He "wrote extensively on Houdini and his escape tricks and sleight-of-hand," and became involved after Houdini's death with Houdini seances. Houdini was known as much for his investigations into – and exposure of – false mediums, and after his death, his wife Bess held seances for ten years in an attempt to contact the deceased magician. She then passed this role on to Gibson, who for many years helped preside over the Houdini Seances in the 1970s and 1980s at New York's Magic Towne House with such well-known magicians as Milbourne Christopher, Dorothy Dietrich, Bobby Baxter, and Dick Brooks. Before Gibson died, he passed on the responsibility of doing the Houdini Seances to Dorothy Dietrich of the Houdini Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

In 1952 Gibson wrote two Batman stories and the story presented here. His final work in comics was for Detective #500 in 1981. Gibson is a featured character in the Paul Malmont novel The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril, which was published in 2006, and in the sequel The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown. In addition, Gibson is the protagonist, along with Orson Welles, in a historical mystery by Max Allan Collins, The War of the Worlds Murder, published in 2005. Gibson died in 1985.

 

We end with the Atomic Knights in "Danger in Detroit" by John Broome and Murphy Anderson and reprinted from Strange Adventures #153 (1963). The Atomic Knights travel to Detroit where Abner Henderson has created a factory. Inside the factory, Henderson and his plant workers have built the first post-war automobile. While showing the car to the Knights, a tyrant group called the Blue Belts and led by Organizer Kadey, try to take the vehicle. The Knights fight them off.

Henderson explains that the Blue Belts have set themselves up as tyrants and have atomic weapons. The Knights assault their headquarters. When Kadey uses the atomic pistols against the Knights, their armor protects them. Kadey and his group are deposed, and the people are released from tyranny. Henderson gives the car to the Knights, who then return to Durvale.

Edited by Julius Schwartz.