Saturday, February 13, 2021

Tracking The Menace from the Stars!

Panic in the Sky is the title of the 38th episode of the tv series Adventures of Superman, originally airing 30 November 1953. The key plot element involves Superman losing his memory after ramming into an asteroid which is on a collision course with Earth. It's one of my favourite episodes and it's "Superman at his very best", according to Michael Bifulco in Superman on Television (1998 edition).

Bifulco doesn't mention that this episode bears plot similarities to The Menace from the Stars!, a contemporaneous Superman story originally published in World's Finest Comics #68, cover-dated January-February 1954. Some sources claim the television episode adapts the comic book, whilst others credit the tv show as influencing the comic book. It is also apparent that some elements of Panic in the Sky and The Menace from the Stars! are indebted to an earlier Superman comic book story, When Stars Collide! from Action Comics #63, August 1943.

I first read The Menace from the Stars! in K.G. Murray's Colossal Comic #43, published c.November 1967. This printing of the story is likely recycled from an earlier K.G. Murray Australian publication, but I haven't yet identified the source. However, I'm pretty sure there is an Australian printing of this story from the 1950's, not only because the Colossal Comic series was a repository of such recycled material, but because it does appear in the UK edition Superman Annual 1963-64, which was licensed to Atlas Publishing and Distribution Co. Ltd by K.G. Murray. Indeed, the story is referenced on the cover of the book:


The cover artist is not credited, but the image is based on a panel from The Menace from the Stars!:


This pic is from the UK Superman Annual, as evidenced by the two-tone colouring. 

This edition of the story has some modifications on the last two pages, whereas the version in Colossal Comic #43 appears to be intact.

Menace from the Stars! was recoloured and reprinted by DC Comics in Superman in the Fifties, 2002.

I look forward to identifying the other publication of Menace from the Stars! in a K.G. Murray issue.


1 comment:

James Zanotto said...

'Menace from the Stars' is in Super Adventure Comic (KGM, 1950 series) #54.