ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 047

It's more of those dastardly (and not-so-dastardly) aliens!

Zutarians:

One day while on a trip to visit his magic brother in-law who lives on the sun, the Golden Knight and Alice are thrown off course and crash on planet Zutarn, where they are picked up by some friendly-yet-threatening Zutarians. As is often the case in Golden Age comics, the exact location of Zutarn is not stated - for bookkeeping reasons I'm going to say it's in an unspecified star system, but it's equally likely to have been intended to be somewhere within our own.

The dichotomy inherent in the friendly nature of the Zutarians versus the fact that they take our heroes away at gunpoint is soon explained when it is revealed that their leader Tyrno is an Earthling and a real underhanded creep tyrant. Just how did a 12th Century human get to another planet, let alone take it over? Did one of his siblings marry a magic spaceman as well?

Just how or why Tyrno is King of Zutarn becomes moot, because he attempts to murder the Golden Knight and marry Alice against her will, and in the process finally pushes the Zutarians a bit too far and so they murder him. I imagine that they must have been pretty close to doing so already, but their naturally hospitable natures finally had too much as Tyrno proved himself a bad host in addition to a tyrant. (Fantastic Comics 020, 1941)

In Amazing Mystery Funnies 022 (aka Amazing Mystery Funnies v3 006 for all those who like their issue numbering to be consistent), Nick Nelson of the Space Patrol infiltrates a seedy space casino in order to get the goods on its owner's misdeeds. As is only appropriate, the place is jam-packed with criminal types from across the Solar System, including:

Jovians: 

We have actually seen these fellows before, in the previous issue of Amazing Mystery Funnies and also about 37 instalments of "Aliens and So Forth" ago, in the person of the Haggur. I am strangely proud of Basil Wolverton for remaining so consistent with an alien design, even if it was from just one issue earlier.

Martians: 

Case in point: these two Martian space bandits. Just how are they related to the Martian species that Nelson's partner Kodi (who was in this comic not two pages earlier) belongs to, you reckon? I am very intrigues by this disc game that they are playing - do you reckon that it is closer to cards or dominoes?

Mercurians: 

And then by contrast with the Martians, we have the Mercurians, who absolutely look like they are part of the same species as the one who we met last time, but who are members of a different regional phenotype.

Saturnians: 

I am not fond of just how lumpy this guy is. Maybe it's a side effect of the drug smuggling and all Saturnians don't have to deal with this much texture in their lives.

Venusians:

We don't get a good look at these Venusians. They kind of look like smoother Mercurians - perhaps the two species are related somehow. 

Plutonians:

The owner of the casino is a fellow named Jol the Plutonian, and while he is a dirtbag of the highest order he doesn't handle Nelson as well as he could. Rather than merely kick the Space Patrolman out of his establishment (he literally has no evidence), he attempts to have him killed, fails and gets into a high-speed space chase that ends with him crashing into the Moon and dying. Very uncool.

Like many Wolverton aliens, Plutonians are just kind of lizardy humanoids with weird facial features, but I must say I enjoy the tentacle arms.

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 046

Good lord! Aliens!

Mupha's Species:

Mupha, ruler of the undersea Land of Peril, is the kind of creep who sends his subjects to kidnap women to become his queen. This eventually brings him into conflict with underwater adventurer Sub Saunders -not because Sub is looking for kidnappees but because he happens to pass by the Land of Peril and makes Mupha nervous enough to open fire on his submarine.

As Mupha appears to have only two subjects we must assume that either a) his species is nearly extinct (which explains his quest for a mate but does not excuse it) or b) the Land of Peril is a breakaway group from a larger population somewhere, political exiles, perhaps, because of their pro-kidnapping policies. In either case, the group does not survive its encounter with Sub Saunders. 

Also please note their stylish hooves, a very unusual feature in an aquatic species. (Fantastic Comics 018, 1941)

Martians:

The only example of this particular Martian species who we meet is Kodi, partner to Nick Nelson in the Space Patrol. At least, I think so. See, much like the adventures of Spacehawk, "Space Patrol" is a Basil Wolverton comic, and one thing that Basil Wolverton liked was drawing all kinds of different weird-looking aliens. So while Kodi is the only big-headed orange Martian who we see in the course of the series, there are also a variety of other Martians in a range of colours and shapes and who's to say whether they aren't all the same species? (Amazing Mystery Funnies v2 012, 1939)

Spider Men:

While there are also a variety of different Venusians depicted in the pages of "Space Patrol," I am pretty confident in my assessment that they are unrelated to the Venusian Spider Men. Encountered by Nick and Kodi as they pursue a fugitive into the deep jungles of Venus (Tropical Jungle Planet being one of the old sci-fi paradigms for the planet), the Spider Men are presented as relentless predators of intelligent humanoids. They also look great, even better than my beloved Martian Spider-Men. Imagine: a whole species of balding men with unkempt beards!

The Spider Men manage to drag Nick Nelson back to their cave home (where we learn that they are tool users!) but are ultimately no match for the Space Patrol's various beams and rays. (Amazing Mystery Funnies v2 012, 1939)

Mercurians:

While looking into the disappearance of a space freighter and its cargo of green diamonds, Nick and Kodi track its location to a volcanic crater on Mercury, where the ship's pilot has murdered the rest of the crew, stolen the diamonds and dumped the ship itself into a lava pit, with the aid of a crew of Mercurian Mole-Men. As is so often the case in a sci-fi story, our impression of an entire species must be formed by the actions of one of its worst members, and we simply must assume that this kind of theft and murder is atypical, or however would our nameless villain have gotten his job in the first place?

As for the Mole-Men, they don't get a lot of characterization beyond the fact that they are "the savage inhabitants of the underground regions," but as always I do enjoy Wolverton's use of morphological similarities (specifically the ears, nose and especially feet and legs) to show that they and our Mercurian friend evolved from some common ancestor. Plus it's hard not to love a cave-full of little glaring goblin-men. 

The Mercurian gets a bit to smug about the fact that he has Nick and Kodi at his mercy and manages to nearly blow his own head off with a phenomenally bad shot. I do not like his knees, but I do like that horde of rampaging Mole-Men.

Having made their way back to their ship, Nick and Kodi decide to just skip the tedious parts of the legal system (arrest, trial, state-mandated punishments, etc) and skip straight to the execution. A few well-placed atom bombs and the volcano takes care of both the Mercurian and the Mole-Men for them. (Amazing Mystery Funnies v3 003, 1940)

(very similar Mercurians are featured in Amazing Mystery Funnies v3 006, 1940)

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 010

Oh those rascally aliens.

the Grey Hordes from the Center of the Earth: 

The Grey Hordes from the Center of the Earth, aka the Grey Men, have been bombing London for unclear reasons using hard-to-see transparent planes. War correspondent Danny Dash and his associate Shamrock "Mac" McGlynn (!) stumble upon a group of them in the English countryside after their car is wrecked by a mysterious bomb-throwing glowing limousine, but since the "Danny Dash" feature never concluded we never really learn the answers to the reasons behind any of this, including why they are making war on the British or why they have corkscrews on top of their hats. (War Comics 001, 1940)

the Jovian Mountain People:

The Jovian Mountain People live a simple life that revolves around the harvesting and processing of native jurta berries into a potent drug. They call in the heroic Space Patrol after a rash of murder and robberies (sixty!) point to an organized jurta drug ring in the area.

Basil Wolverton's knack for alien design was remarkable not just for its inventiveness but for the fact that he could make such sympathetic alien characters who weren't just humans with blue skin, and the Jovian Mountain Folk might just be the greatest example of this, with their little round bodies and concerned expressions. The above image of the jurta harvester carefully processing his crop is one of my favourite in all of comics, and it's a shame that the poor guy is about to be tossed off of a mountain by one of...

the Balloon Men: 

The Balloon Men showcase another of Wolverton's strengths: creating aliens that are simultaneously goofy yet believably threatening. A big orb-shaped dude with little fluttering wings is undeniably a silly-looking fellow, but just scroll back up to that image of the attack on the jurta-man and picture one of these guys silently descending on you with murderous intent. Eerie. Plus I really appreciate the clear distinction between the inflated and deflated states of the Balloon Men, 

The Balloon Men are not, however, the ultimate architects of the jurta thefts. No, it turns out that they are working for...

the Haggur: 

The Haggur are identified as a "cruel and crafty tribe of South Jupiter" and if this is an accurate description then this otherwise-unnamed Haggur is an exemplar of his kind. He and his imported Balloon Men intend on plundering the entire season's jurta drug harvest no matter how many Mountain People they have to kill to do so. It's only being totally exploded by the Space Patrol that stops this dastardly plan. 

Design-wise, the Haggur is a pretty standard big alien bruiser, though I do really like the huge bands of muscle attached to the jaw and of course welcome the single central Basil Wolverton nostril whenever it makes an appearance.

The comic ends with a little gag about how unattractive the Jovian Mountain Ladies are, in case you were worrying that it had no flaws. I personally think that they're cute. (Amazing Mystery Funnies v3 005, 1940)