Planet Comics #52
Chapter 10
January 1948
This installment of the Futura Saga from Planet Comics
#52 (January 1948) continues the
"Magic Sword" story. The cover is another fine example of the Good Girl Art school of marketing so common to the pulps and other popular printed media of the time. The inclusion of the penis-dentata monster and the coloring detail highlighting the "fun zones" of the distressed damsel make the cover noteworthy above and beyond the usual Fiction House covers. Planet Comics #52 (January 1948)
While
the
Futura
story
delves
however
superficially into the complex aspect of the character as being the Resurrection and Savior of the Pan-Cosmos slaves the art is reduced to simple and uninspired 6 panel layouts. The demon-like Cymridians and their leader, Mentor are more comical than dangerous, appearing as troublesome gremlins underfoot that no one knows how to eradicate.
The "Magic Sword" story arc effectively ruined the Brain-Men of Pan-Cosmos as villains and the threat and plot impetus they once posed is left
behind
soon
enough. After
this
arc
concludes the early fantastical "Scientifiction" aspects of the serial changes to become reminiscent of a more mature mix of Robert A. Heinlein and Alex Raymond. Out of all the features in this issue of Planet Comics it is Futura that is the most disappointing and this is due mainly to the comparisons to the far more intricate story and line work of the previous and later chapters.
Planet Comics #52 (January 1948)
Planet Comics was a science fiction comic-book title produced by Fiction House and issued from Jan. 1940 (issue 1) to Winter 1953 (issue 73). Like many of Fiction House's early comics titles, Planet Comics was a spinoff of a pulp magazine, in this case Planet Stories, which featured space operatic tales of muscular, heroic space adventurers who were quick with their 'ray pistols' and always running into gorgeous females who needed rescue from bugeyed space aliens or fiendish interstellar bad guys.
Planet Comics #1 (January 1940)
Planet Comics was considered by noted fan Raymond Miller to be "perhaps the best of the Fiction House group," as well as "most collected and most valued." In Miller's opinion, it "wasn't really featuring good art or stories... in the first dozen or so issues," not gaining most of "its better known characters" until "about the 10th issue." "Only 3 of its long running strips started with the first issue... Flint Baker, Auro - Lord of Jupiter, and the Red Comet."