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Above: obviously, a mint collector's edition, huh? This well loved comic with an anthropomorphic Empire State Building was one of the first comics I bought. I got rid of it in 1986 when I sold a lot of my comics and, seeing it for sale years later, bought it back again for 2 1/2 times its 20 cents cover price at a NYC comic book store.
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This is STRANGE ADVENTURES No. 237, July-August, 1972. It's copyright 1972 by National Periodical Publications. Now, this story, "The Skyscraper That Came to Life!" by John Broome, is by no means a classic in literature, but it had a unique take on alien invasion.
The 7 page story is actually a rerun, having been originally published in STRANGE ADVENTURES #72 in September 1956.
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So, here's the "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" moment: the invading aliens have CGI (or, at best, really, really good PowerPoint animations). 1950s Earth does not!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisOdiSLDx0s4KcbkYJnNIB8cQ9vOvgLWcUOYEIs8XZvKstHjIFdMpMR2LxjxKXq1AdYpF3h8ZprhzdiMOhAA99Iv7_jCew4R2wDlmVJ7rh053JwSqZZS7XSyVXRqimEZC5gbxegQ/s400/005.jpg)
After seeing that uninvited couple crash the White House event last week, the idea that any slob (human or alien) can walk into a movie producer's office and get a Hollywood deal is more believable.
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All of the aliens look like they work at Sterling Cooper.
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"The invasion of Earth is cancelled!" Well, there you have it. 7 pages of fun and, for me, happy memories.
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I wonder if this "Cartoon for Money" correspondence school ever had any famous grads?
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeBX3TgoR5E1qaR7LMdz9eb3Az8zke9UeaTKBDsMhyphenhyphenZZPVgvFWhm8cWNjdoaTHTZA6cWPjr_m8FqBc54oK-eTdkWptPsmK7mscTm9zsn7RIAVX0acXG2aXguCv_yS3CoCjNQAG6Q/s400/comicon.jpg)
Oh, and it looks like there's this little convention in San Diego. Might be worth going to. Hmm.
Postscript: Reading this comic in Lawrence, Kansas, I never thought that one day I would actually know one of the guys who drew it. I'm glad to say that I've known Joe Giella, who now draws MARY WORTH, for years now -- having first met him at a Long Island Chapter National Cartoonists Society lunch -- and many lunches and get togethers since!
Small cartoony world! I think I'm growing to love and admire this planet!
1 comment:
This was one of those titles I remember seeing but missed getting a chance to read; thanks for allowing me to make up for lost time...
A few observations:
* So how the heck does animating a skyscraper make it a threat? Assuming you can get over the whole structural instability issue (the fact that such shocks the structure would take might make it shake apart every time it took a step), there's the whole problem of just how far you can make a building run on such legs.
* Yeah, I know, during the 50s you had artistes like Herschell Gordon Lewis and Roger Corman releasing films, but that had to be a ridiculously easy pitch meeting...
* The story was not half as exciting as the add for the first ComicCon; now THAT was a find!
Thanks again for this piece.
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