The world of The Lost World series in Planet Comic is our own but transformed by the Volta Men conquest.
Mankind is mostly exterminated and his works lie in ruins. Nature has retaken the cities and strange vicious beasts have evolved. A handful of backward human survivors scratch out a living among the ruins, dodging beasts and Voltan patrols.
As they travel North America and Europe, laboring to unite these survivors against the enemy, Lyssa and Hunt encounter some familiar locations.
The villains of The Lost World series in Planet Comics are a militaristic alien race called the Volta Men.
The wicked Volta Men launched a surprise attack that destroyed Earth’s cities and annihilated its population. Now, they patrol its blasted surface, seeking to eliminate survivors. Earth is only one in a long line of worlds the cruel Volta Men have subdued.
The Volta Men are an amalgam of mid-20th Century bad guys. They look like a cross between goblins and zombies, They dress like the Wehrmacht. They live in a totalitarian society like Hitler’s Germany or Stalin’s Russia. They enjoy torture and bloodsports like Imperial Romans. There’s also a hint of Ming the Merciless and other Yellow Peril villains about them.
Oh, and speech theirs Yoda anticipates does.
Lyssa is Hunt Bowman’s companion / comrade / mate in The Lost World series in Planet Comics.
She meets Hunt when both are captured by The Volta Men and must work together to escape. Lyssa was queen of a remnant human population on Mars, descended from Earth space explorers, but gives that up to join Hunt.
Her intelligence and abilities vary from story to story. In some tales she is smart and clever and explains the world to the isolated Bowman. In other stories, she is silly and empty-headed—a 1940s caricature of a woman. Throughout the series, she is a stalwart fighter and saves the day at least as often as Hunt.
And she doesn’t wear a whole lot.
Hunt Bowman is the hero of The Lost World series in Planet Comics.
Hunt grew up on the devastated Earth. His parents and their tribe were destroyed by Volta Men, leaving the boy to fend for himself. Until he met Lyssa, Hunt believed himself to be the Last Man on Earth.
Not a lot to say about Hunt. He’s heroic. He’s strong and good with a bow. Hunt loves Lyssa. Hunt wants to unite the human survivors and forge an army to drive the Volta Men from earth. Hunt travels the world fighting Volta Men, mutants, monsters, and aliens and organizing humans.
Pulp Saturday has been reading his way through The Lost World serial which ran for 49 installments in Planet Comics from 1942-52.
Lost World follows protagonists Hunt Bowman and Lyssa as they battle their way across a post-apocalyptic world trying to build a resistance force against Earth’s conquerors, the evil Volta Men.
On the cover of Planet Comics #30 (May 1944), Hunt slays a Voltaman attacking Lyssa in the ruins of Paris.
Pulp Saturday is getting out his funny books today!
The pulps gave birth to the comics. In the beginning was Superman, created by two sci fi-loving, pulp-devouring Cleveland teens and published by the group behind the notorious Spicy line of pulps.
And Superman made money. Lots of money. A fortune.
Soon all the pulp publishers were trying their hand at comics…
Planet Stories, May 1951, and Planet Comics #67, Summer 1952.
Eighty-four years ago tomorrow, one-armed, one-legged daredevil Capt. Smiles O’Timmons opened Olentangy Park for the 1929 season with a stunt much like this one.
Evelyn Nesbit
Tragic beauty Evelyn Nesbit.
I was at Madison Square Garden over the weekend and reminded of the slaying of architect Stanford White there in 1906 by Henry Thaw, Nesbit’s insane husband who claimed to be defending his wife’s honor..
(via sydneyflapper)
Know Your Cosmic Horrors by Jess Bradley
Happy Cthulhu Cthursday, errybody! Prints available for purchase at bigcartel.
Since I’m up in Massachusetts this week…
(via eroticmadsci)
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