Rocketman
Entry updated 13 May 2024. Tagged: Character, Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1952). One issue. Farrell Comics Inc. Artists include Iger Shop, Henry Kiefer and Charles Quinlan Jr. 36 pages: four long strips (three featuring Rocketman), two short humorous strips and a two-page text story. This comic is an interesting example of a publisher reworking older material: except for the cover and perhaps the text story, the contents are refurbished from 1940s comics (discussed below).
Rocketman is "a young, American space pilot [who] in the year 25,000, flies the stratosphere lanes between the Earth and other planets". In his first story, "Wings of Evil", the inhabitants of Mercury – wearers of artificial wings (see Flying) – set up "moveable, space islands" (essentially, Space Stations) on the planetary trade routes, to impose tolls and take hostage those who will not pay. Rocketman is sent to Venus to investigate, accompanied by Janis, the daughter of the terrestrial consul there: their Spaceship is launched from the barrel of a giant mechanism, the "atomic catapult". Duly captured by the Mercurians, they refuse to pay the toll, so are put on a Prison ship: Janis is sent to the lecherous (see Sex) captain's cabin but manages to knock him out, steal his keys and free Rocketman and the other prisoners. They use the prison ship's weapons to destroy the Mercurian's space islands.
"Venus Afire" has Rocketman leading a rescue fleet from Earth to evacuate the population of Venus when it is suddenly covered in flames. The xenophobic rulers of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto (see Outer Planets) refuse to help, but Mars then decides to have the Venusians as slaves (see Slavery), hijacking the returning Earth ships. Rocketman avoids capture and manages to free one of the Venusians, who tells him of a Monster on Venus that can defeat the Martians. It is carried to Mars dangling from Rocketman's spaceship and on arrival eats the planet's ruler. A treaty is signed and Mars becomes a democracy (see Politics). In "Panic on Pluto" Satius, Saturn's benevolent ruler has vanished: apparently a great mind from the planet disappears once a decade. Rocketman suspects Pluto might be responsible and pays a visit. It is "inhabited by a race of idiots": the ruler admits to the kidnapping and takes Rocketman to his laboratory to show him a wired-up Satius: "having no brains, we use the brains of others! This mind will suffice us for ten years ... this device crystallizes thought energy and stores it in a reservoir. From there it is transferred to us through helmets, like the one I wear" (see Vampires, Intelligence). Rocketman is to be imprisoned for ten years to be the next victim, but our hero escapes. By destroying this Technology, the Plutonians are rendered harmless; the freed Satius declaring, "Poor devils! I shall have my scientists devise a way of giving them real brains."
The comic's fourth story "The Invisible Terror" is unrelated: the protagonist is named Cosmo and has a large "K" on his chest (it was an "R" in the original version – see below). He and his two friends crash on the planet Manon and the despotic ruler Molak orders them fed to his monstrous pets when they refuse to be his slaves. However the trio are rescued by a freedom fighter and they help overthrow Molak.
All the long strips have plot gaps and inconsistencies, whilst Rocketman is indistinguishable from any other space pilot hero of the era; but "Wings of Evil" and "Panic on Pluto" are fun stories with some nice clunky technology, though the other two are forgettable. Page 33 advertises the Televiewer ("needs no screen ... no batteries ... no electricity") that came with five 16mm films (with "over 100 different pictures") of Rocketman adventures, including "Beauties of Planet Land" where our hero rescues "Queen Merca in the halflight of twi-light territory". This is clearly a reference to the Rock Raymond story in Captain Flight Comics #10; the ad also says that Rocketman's real name is Rock Raymond, a reference to the hero in earlier versions of these stories (see below for discussion of the reuse of stories): Rocketman's costume in this ad and on the comic's cover incorporates a red deep-sea diver's helmet, rather than the one resembling a glass bell-jar in the strips.
As mentioned, the strips are stories from the 1940s, previously untitled: all have been re-coloured, with some new artwork and the text changed to reflect the new names (a not uncommon practice). "Wings of Evil" first appeared in Planet Comics #4 (1940) as a Spurt Hammond Planet Flyer tale, to be revamped in 1944 as a Rock Raymond story in Captain Flight Comics #4 before being altered again to appear here. The same happened with "Venus Afire", first published as the Spurt Hammond story in Planet Comics #8 and then the Rock Raymond story in Captain Flight Comics. "Panic on Pluto" is a Rock Raymond story, from Captain Flight Comics #5. The non-Rocketman strip "The Invisible Terror" was a reworking of a Red Rocket story from Captain Flight Comics #9 (though a Red Rocket story in Captain Flight Comics #8 would be turned into a one-off Rocketman tale in 1953, for Strange Fantasy #8). The revised versions of the Planet Comics tales look much better than their garish originals. This Rocketman should not be confused with the one that appeared in Scoop Comics and Punch Comics, who also had one-off appearances in Hello Pal Comics and Red Seal Comics (all 1940s). [SP]
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