Number 1841: One-eyed monster men of Mars!

In late 1939, readers who picked up Planet Comics #1 were greeted by a story done by cartoonist Dick Briefer, seen in Pappy’s many times. He was creator of three incarnations of the Frankenstein comic book character, and all around illustrator, cartoonist and storyteller. He worked for several publishers in those early days.

“Flint Baker” is the character from this first issue. Flint picks up a crew of murderers, released from prison as volunteers for his Mars mission. (Of course, all three murderers are innocent, you see. They tell their stories of being misunderstood and wrongly convicted.) Briefer even works in the cliché of having a girl reporter sneak on board as a stowaway.

When on Mars Flint and his men (and woman) are in a sort of Flash Gordon world with a ruler who has a beautiful daughter...and those one-eyed monsters of the story’s title. And don’t pay any attention to that twaddle about Mars having a “dark side...” Every planet has a dark side when that side faces away from the sun. Dark side is a misnomer...our moon’s “dark side” is called that because one side is always facing us, and the other side is hidden from us looking at it from Earth. But it isn’t dark, and neither is Mars. (That will be on the test, by the way.)

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