Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction

Let’s be honest. Most Science Fiction comics don’t rise above the level of the rickety Space Opera. Planet Comics was an old comic that tried to do a four-color version of their Pulp. This is pretty typical. Most of the SF writers who penned comics were hired off to write Superman and Batman superhero stuff. No one really tried to let the Science Fiction writers do the work by adapting classic SF stories. (The exception here is Jack Williamson, an SF pro who got to try writing a newspaper strip called “Beyond Mars”.)

Marvel tested the waters with their color comic, Worlds Unknown (8 issues between May 1973 and August 1974), which did SF stories including Fredrick Pohl’s “The Day After the Day the Martians Came”, Edmond Hamilton’s “He That Hath Wings”, L, Sprague de Camp’s “A Gun For Dinosaur”, Harry Bates’ “Farewell to the Master”, Fredric Brown’s “Arena”, A. E. van Vogt’s “Black Destroyer” and Theodore Sturgeon’s “Kill-Dozer!” The last two issues adapted the film, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad.

But it was the black & white magazine, Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction that finally rose to the level of a real magazine for fans of Science Fiction. The title is a bit of a hint. Take the Unknown Worlds of John W. Campbell and add “of Science Fiction” and you have it. This isn’t that Buck Rogers stuff. It’s John W. Campbell stuff. (The majority of Worlds Unknown stories appeared in John W. Campbell’s Astounding Science Fiction.) But it isn’t all 1940s Golden Age stories. Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, Bob Shaw and Frank Herbert represented a more current crew of SF scribes. The stories were supported with new comics as well as articles and interviews. 

Roy Thomas the editor begins the first issue with a bit of a mission statement. After his personal account of finding SF:

Somehow, though, the rest of the world never quite caught up with us, did it? For various reasons, science fiction has never really quite taken hold of a mass audience– at least, not till recently. The story was always that the genre was Certain Death–in comics, in movies, on TV, anywhere. It’s a small select market, you were told when you tried to sell a publisher or a producer on an SF theme–a market big enough maybe to sustain a few low-print run digest-size magazines, a far number of paperbacks, but that about it.

Roy goes on to say how glad he is that a real SF magazine is now doable. I laughed my ass off when I read this part:

A word about that last one [Frank Brunner’s “Smash Gordon’]: We published it mainly because we think it makes a point about what kind of SF we don’t intend to carry. We think the straight “space opera” has rather run its course–and unless you tell us differently in over-whelming droves, we intend to steer clear of it.

In the final issue, the Giant Special of 1976, Roy’s final message “An Editorial Last Hurrah: Interrupted Journey” is:

I myself, due to my move to the West Coast plus the press of other work (lots of special projects both in and out of comics, including Marvel’s adaptation of STAR WARS, a multi-million-dollar movie by writer/director George Lucas…

Yup, that “space opera” has rather run its course…

Roy got flak when Star Trek fans identified themselves as “space opera” types. He clarified, not that kind of Space Opera. (I poke a little fun at Roy here, but nobody knew how big Star Trek or Star Wars would be in the long run. If you had asked me back in the Logan’s Run days, I would have said similarly silly things. I was 12 though.)

Issue 1 (January 1975)

This first issue sets up a framing device based on Bob Shaw’s Slow Glass concept. I liked this. It worked well in all six issues. The first one was drawn by Gene Colan and Tom Palmer. Colan would draw the intro and epilogue for each issue with different inkers.

Day of the Triffids (Part 1) by John Wyndham is well-drawn but the adaptation by Gerry Conway does horrible things to one of my favorite novels. It updates the setting to a weird version of the present. Worse, it cuts out a big chunk of the book to fit it into two pieces. Three would have been much fairer. The first half was drawn by Ross Andru and Ernie Chan and the second by Rico Rival.

The issue has two interviews, one with Ray Bradbury and a second with Frank Kelly Freas, the cover artist.

“Light of Other Days” by Bob Shaw was adapted by Tony Isabella and drawn by Gene Colan and Mike Esposito. A thinker of a piece with no real action, this was going to be a conundrum for the series. How do you make intellectual ideas interesting to look at on a comic book page?

The majority of the rest of issue came from reprints taken from independent or underground comics. “A View From Without” by Neal Adams reprinted from Phase (1971), “Smash Gordon” by Frank Brunner, “Savage World” by Wally Wood and Al Williamson reprinted from Witzend #1 (Summer 1966), “Hey Buddy, Can You Lend me a …” by Mike Kaluta reprinted from Scream Door (1971).

In the first issue editorial Roy promises that the magazine won’t carry a lot of non-fiction since you can read that in most SF magazines but as the issues go on the usual amount of filler appears, articles on SFWA, the Hugos and Nebulas and such, usually written by Don Thompson.

 

Issue 2 (March 1975)

The second issue opens with a story written around the cover. When Mike Kaluta asked to do a robot cover the editors were smart enough to say “Yes, please”. “War Toy” was written by Tony Isabella, and drawn by George Perez and Rico Rival.

“Adam and No Eve” by Alfred Bester was adapted by Denny O’Neil. It was drawn by Frank Robbins and Jim Mooney. The Interview that followed was with Alfred Bester.

Day of the Triffids (Part 2) by John Wyndham. The editor explains that Rico rival drew the second half because Ross Andru was too busy with other commitments.

Other strips included “The Hunter and the Hunted” by Mike Kaluta, and “Specimen” by Bruce Jones, both reprinted from Abyss #1 (1970). This was Kaluta’s last appearance but Jones would become a regular. Jones would collect all these random strips in the 1980s with a different publisher.

 

Issue 3 (May 1975)

“Occupation Force” by Frank Herbert was adapted by Gerry Conway and drawn by George Perez and Klaus Janson. The Interview that followed was with Frank Herbert.

“Not Long Before the End” by Larry Niven is one of my favorite comics of all-time. The first story in Larry Niven’s Warlock series, it features art by Vincente Alcazar. The adaptation was done by Doug Moench. Despite the Sword & Sorcery heritage of this story, Niven has always insisted it was Science Fiction.

“Repent Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman” by Harlan Ellison and illustrated by the mind-bending Alex Nino was worth the wait. Originally meant for Issue 2, Roy explains it had to be delayed because Nino was dealing with something between the States and the Philippines. This eye-popping style of Nino art is a look ahead to the 1980s when he would draw for the Warren magazine 1984.

The only other strip in the issue was “Gestation” by Bruce Jones.

 

Issue 4 (July 1975)

“The Enchanted Village” by A. E. van Vogt was adapted by Don and Maggie Thompson and drawn by Dick Giordano. It was followed by an interview with A. E. van Vogt.

“A Vision of Venus” by Otis Adelbert Kline was accompanied by an article of introduction by David Anthony Kroft. (That right. DAK did a piece on OAK.) After Roy’s declaration on “No Space Opera” he felt that he needed to preface this one so he didn’t get complaints. The adaptation and pencils were by Tim Conrad with inks by Conrad and Pete Iro. This piece was the high-light of the issue.

“Good News From the Vatican” by Robert Silverberg was adapted by Gerry Conway. Art was by Adrian Gonzales. This religious parable was good preparation for the Michael Moorcock stunner in Issue #6.

Other strips included “Encounter at War” by Jan Strnad and Richard Corben. Pretty sedate for Corben.  (These two worked together more in the 1980s.) “Kick the Can” by Bruce Jones.

 

Issue 5 (September 1975)

“Paradise Found” opens the issue, with Bruce Jones writing the story and Gray Morrow illustrating. Morrow had been spending most of 1975 drawing Space 1999 for Charlton’s black & white magazine.

An interview with Larry Niven was followed by his story “All the Myriad Ways”. Howard Chaykin adapted and drew the strip. This is a side you don’t often see of early Chaykin. It would serve him well when he did his later SF graphic novels.

The other strips in this issue included “Addict’ by Don F. Glut, drawn by Virgilio Redondo and “Half Life” written and drawn by John Allison. “Half Life” was reprinted from Orb #3 (1974).

 

Issue 6 (November 1975)

“Behold the Man!” by Michael Moorcock is a daring choice. Roy tries to mitigate any irate religious complaints with an actual editorial. Alex Nino again. A nice warm up for his even bigger adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon’s More Than Human.

“Thru a Glass Slowly” was an article by Bob Shaw explaining how Slow Glass worked.

Other strips included “Old Soldier” by Bruce Jones, “Mind Games” by John Allison, “Visitation” written by Don F. Glut and drawn by Ruben Yandoc. This last comic sets up a classic Gothic situation but ends with a Science Fiction ending.

A letter of explanation and apology ends the final issue, but oddly, it wasn’t the last issue…

 

Giant Special (1976)

This issue was the one I owned as a kid so it is special to me, though it actually contains many strips not by professional SF writers. But the two it does adapt are masterpieces. It is called “Giant Size Issue”, which meant 100 pages instead of the usual 84.

“A Martian Odyssey” by Stanley G. Weinbaum was adapted by Don F. Glut and drawn by Jess Jodloman. Seeing this artwork again just reminds me how good Jess Jodloman was.

There was an interview with Theodore Sturgeon but no Sturgeon story.

“Arena” by Fredric Brown was reprinted from Worlds Unknown #4. The story was adapted by Gerry Conway. Art was by John Buscema and Dick Giordano. This story was made famous by being adapted for Star Trek. You know the episode. The one with the Gorn. This comic version is better.

Other strips included “Journey’s End”, written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by Alex Nino, “The Forest For the Trees”, written by Jones again, and drawn by Vicente Alcazar, “Clete” written and drawn by Jones, “Preservation of the Species” written by Jones and drawn by Ruben Yandoc, “Sinner” written and drawn by Archie Goodwin, reprinted from Witzend #1 (1966), and “Threads” written by Mat Warrick and drawn by Adrian Gonzales. I can remember this last one getting to me, with its bleak ending. (I had yet to read any Warren comics.)

 

Man-God by Philip Wylie (Marvel Preview #9, Winter 1976) was originally intended for UWOSF but appeared on its own in MP#9. This novel by Philip Wylie is an important stepping stone for superhero and Doc Savage fans.

And that was it. No more black & white Science Fiction unless you consider Marvel had The Planet of the Apes mag that ran until 1977, as well as the Doc Savage mag (also until 1977). Hey, wait, Heavy Metal was only a few years away…