Altron-Boy, Pt. 7

(Continued from Altron-Boy, Pt. 6)

Larry Ivie's MONSTERS & HEROES 7
"THE JOURNEY BEGINS"

This was the 3rd of the 3 issues (#4, 5 & 7) that I ordered from Mile High Comics back in 2006.

I didn't know what to expect, and I have to say, I was rather disappointed.  Following the escape from Voltar's fortress, the 2nd part of "The Crusade Against Voltar" began with the 3 friends starting to make their way thru a heat-infested, dinosaur-filled jungle... and then, it just fizzled out.  And there was no 8th issue of the magazine.

Is there anything sadder than an unfinished story?  Maybe, maybe not.  I have no idea what Larry Ivie did after MONSTERS & HEROES came to an abrupt (and, apparently, unexpected) end.  But it baffles me that, in all the years that followed, he somehow NEVER manages to finish this story.  Oh well.

From the start, I knew I wanted to make this project more "personal" than those I'd seen other fans do on Ivie & Altron-Boy. 

I think I've succeeded beyond my wildest expectations.

This blog page finished on 4-1-2021.

ENJOY!

Larry Ivie's MONSTERS & HEROES  7
cover by LARRY IVIE   (M & H Publications  /  May 1970)

ALTRON-BOY on the ISLAND OF PERIL  /  Chapter One
"THE JOURNEY BEGINS!"
Story & Art by LARRY IVIE  /  Page 16

Page 17

Page 18

Page 19

Page 20

Back Cover  /  The Warlord Of Mars

Decades after I discovered Altron-Boy, I got my hands on Golden Age STARMAN Archive, Vol.1, which contained the first 16 episodes of the Ted Knight STARMAN character.  I could not get over the similarities between the origin story and Ivie's Altron-Boy story.  Both characters flew via anti-gravity devices, did not hide their faces with masks, both stories involved scientists kidnapped by villains with mountain-top headquarters and lightning-bolt icons:  Dr. Doog and Voltar.  Considering how big of a Golden Age fan Larry Ivie was, it sure seems possible that Altron-Boy was at least partly a tribute.  Witness:

ADVENTURE COMICS  #61
Cover by JACK BURNLEY   (National Comics  /  April 1941)

I found scans of the original comic at the Read Comics Online site, but they were of such TERRIBLE quality, I decided instead to use scans from the 2000 Archive book reprint.  These were slightly fuzzy, and on closer inspection, were missing a LOT of line detail, and the coloring had been DRASTICALLY simplified, and changed RADICALLY.  But, for the purposes of this blog page, they STILL look better than those online scans were.  (Sheesh.  Why the HELL can't DC Comics do better with such EXPENSIVE hardbound reprint collections?)

Page 4  /  Anti-Gravity!

Page 5  /  Lightning Bolt Hideout!

Page 7  /  the kidnapped scientist & the villain!

But, there's more!  I can't recall if I saw this when it was first-run or later in syndication, but there's a 2nd-season SPIDER-MAN cartoon by Ralph Bakshi & Gray Morrow that ALSO has several similarities: 

"SPIDERMAN MEETS SKYBOY". 

Once again, you have a young hero with an insulated suit, an anti-gravity device (controlled by the belt buckle), a kidnapped scientist held prisoner in a mountain-top hideout, by a villain named "Dr. Zapp"!  As it happens, the cartoon aired on January 4, 1969, around the same time that MONSTERS & HEROES #4 was published.  And something I never realized until recently, Ivie & Gray Morrow collaborated on at least one story for Warren's CREEPY magazine a few years earlier.  Was Morrow's "Skyboy" a tribute to Ivie's "Altron-Boy", or Burnley's "Starman"-- or BOTH?

I should also mention that Ivie himself did an earlier, similar character also named "Skyboy", in a 1965 fanzine I have not yet identified.  The helmet here looks even more like Starman's!

Images from "SPIDERMAN MEETS SKYBOY"  /  Art by GRAY MORROW.
Jan Caldwell & the insulated suit.

Belt-buckle control.

Skyboy over Manhattan.  (What a RIDICULOUS-looking helmet!)

Lightning Mountain.

Dr. Zapp reads the news.

Dr. Caldwell, prisoner.

Dr. Zapp gloats.

Dr. Zapp shows off.

Watch "SPIDERMAN MEETS SKYBOY" at Dailymotion!

ALTRON-BOY pin-up by MIKE HOFFMAN.

Finally... it seems someone has reprinted the ALTRON-BOY series in a "standard trade paperback" format (I'm guessing that means magazine-size, so the art isn't shrunk).  It's available at the IndyPlanet site.  I can't attest to the quality of the line reproduction, as I don't have a copy myself.  But if you'd like to get one, it's available as either a "print on demand" copy or as a digital download.  Or, if you'd like the original issues of MONSTERS & HEROES, all 7 are wildely available from a lot of different online sellers, for what I think are reasonable prices, for magazines from the late 60s.

Whoever put this out, they definitely picked the right cover painting for it.  But I can't help but think if I'd done it, I would have come up with a much-better logo for the book.

Larry Ivie.

MONSTERS & HEROES  Copyright (C) LARRY IVIE.
STARMAN  Copyright (C) DC Comics, Inc.
SPIDER-MAN tv series Copyright (C) Krantz Films.

Scans from MY collection!
     with special thanks to Mile High Comics.

ADVENTURE COMICS #61 (1941) cover scan from the Heritage Auctions site.
GOLDEN AGE STARMAN ARCHIVE VOL.1 (2000) interiors from MY collection!
     with special thanks to Fred Marcus at A Time Lost.....And Found.
SKYBOY (1965) pages from COMIC BOOK ARTIST magazine.
SPIDERMAN MEETS SKYBOY (1968) images from MY video collection!
     with special thanks to Paul Ettinger via the Spidey-Jazz Yahoo Group.
Mike Hoffman pin-up from the Comic Art Fans site
     with special thanks to Arthur Chertowsky.
Larry Ivie photo from the Wikipedia site.

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa.

For more:
See more Larry Ivie art at the ERBzine site.
See the Gods Of Mars gallery at the ERBzine site.
Read the obituary/tribute to Larry Ivie at Buzz Dixon's site.
Read Sandy Plunkett's article about Larry Ivie in ALTER EGO 152.

See the Larry Ivie Gallery of Illustrations!
Read CAPTIVE BRIDE OF THE APE MEN!
Read THE LAST WAR!
Read SKY BOY!   (Coming soon!)
Read the entire ALTRON-BOY series!

(Continued on Larry Ivie)

Altron-Boy, Pt. 6

 (Continued from Altron-Boy, Pt. 5)

Larry Ivie's MONSTERS & HEROES 6
"ALTRON-BOY AND THE FUMES OF TERROR!"

THIS is where I came in originally.  Mom was getting into the "monsters" fad, and this was one of the random magazines she picked up.  I'm not sure what caught her attention.  I suspect, apart from the word "monsters" in the title, it was the blurb advertising "FLASH GORDON".  The thing is, that's not Flash Gordon on the cover-- it's "JOHN CARTER OF MARS"!

I gotta say, looking back... I'd never seen anything like this.  How can I put this?  Well... I'd say this was the SEXIEST magazine I'd ever laid eyes on at age 10. 
I mean, look at it.  You've got a half-naked man on the cover.  Inside, there's a NAKED drawing of John Carter.  In the "Altron-Boy" story, there's a big panel of a naked girl with long blonde hair.  On the last page of the story, we see a blonde guy naked from the waist up.  And on the back cover, there's a painting showing John Carter & Dejah Thoris, both of who are wearing rather skimpy clothing.

And to think... it was my MOM who bought this.  Way to go, Mom!

It's bizarre (and more than a little sad) that it took me THIS long to get my hands on all 7 issues.  But I have 'em now.

Also, looking back...it strikes me that the "Altron-Boy" story may have actually had an influence on my own work.  You've got a young hero with a short cape who flies via anti-gravity.  There's 2 girls in the story, one of whom he's friends with, the other of whom doesn't wear very much at all.  And then there's his blonde musician friend who he winds up rescuing.  While quite different, it's just too easy for me to see parallels between them and Pete, Billie, Kyrene & Jay in my STORMBOY comic.  Why not?  I've often thought the best form of influence is the kind that gets into your head so deep you're not even aware of it until after-the-fact.

6 down, 1 more to go!

This blog page finished on 3-20-2021.

ENJOY!

Larry Ivie's MONSTERS & HEROES  6
cover by LARRY IVIE   (M & H Publications  /  October 1969)

Page 7  /  John Carter & Thark

"ALTRON-BOY AND THE FUMES OF TERROR!"
Story & Art by LARRY IVIE  /  Page 8

Page 9

Page 10

Page 11

Page 12

Back Cover  /  A Princess Of Mars

MONSTERS & HEROES  Copyright (C) LARRY IVIE.

Scans from MY collection!
     with special thanks to Agnes J. Kujawa.

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa.

For more:
See more Larry Ivie art at the ERBzine site.
See the Gods Of Mars gallery at the ERBzine site.
Read the obituary/tribute to Larry Ivie at Buzz Dixon's site.
Read Sandy Plunkett's article about Larry Ivie in ALTER EGO 152.

See the Larry Ivie Gallery of Illustrations!
Read CAPTIVE BRIDE OF THE APE MEN!
Read THE LAST WAR!
Read SKY BOY!   (Coming soon!)
Read the entire ALTRON-BOY series!

(Continued in Altron-Boy, Pt. 7)

Altron-Boy, Pt. 5

(Continued from Altron-Boy, Pt. 4)

Larry Ivie's MONSTERS & HEROES 5
"ALTRON-BOY TRAPPED"

This was the 2nd of the 3 issues (#4, 5 & 7) that I ordered from Mile High Comics back in 2006.

As I said last time, I can't believe that Larry Ivie ended the previous episode by having the Altron-Belt DAMAGED and inoperable.   The ONLY "super-power" this young hero had, and suddenly he was stuck in the villain's lair without it.  What was he thinking?

I can only speculate, but it seems to me, as a writer, this is the sort of thing one might do as a reflection of behind-the-scenes problems with the production of the series, and the magazine in general.  There had been an entire year between issues #3 & 4, and that had to hurt any kind of "momentum" he was hoping to build up with sales.  Knowing as I do now, that the last issue was #7 make it all the more unfortunate, as we never got to see the thing repaired and back in use again.

On top of all that, this installment had to be the strangest yet in what was already an unusual series.  Ivie took several  pages to focus on a philsophical discussion about the generation conflict, in which the older one was obsessed with uniformity of thought and behavior, while the younger was obsessed with individuality... or, WAS it?  An interesting question posed by the villain.

I think it may have been a mistake to have 2 "brown" cover paintings back-to-back.  I have a feeling the painting of Altron-Boy holding the sword-- reproduced in B&W-- might have made a better cover for either this issue, or the previous one.  Of course, this one does reflect the bleakness of the current situation.  Oh well!

This blog page finished on 3-16-2021.

ENJOY!

Larry Ivie's MONSTERS & HEROES  5
cover by LARRY IVIE   (M & H Publications  /  July 1969)

Page 1

"ALTRON-BOY TRAPPED"
Story & Art by LARRY IVIE  /  Page 30

Page 31

Page 32

Page 33

Page 34

Back Cover  /  At The Earth's Core

MONSTERS & HEROES  Copyright (C) LARRY IVIE.

Scans from MY collection!
     with special thanks to Mile High Star Comics.

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa.

For more:
See more Larry Ivie art at the ERBzine site.
See the Gods Of Mars gallery at the ERBzine site.
Read the obituary/tribute to Larry Ivie at Buzz Dixon's site.
Read Sandy Plunkett's article about Larry Ivie in ALTER EGO 152.

See the Larry Ivie Gallery of Illustrations!
Read CAPTIVE BRIDE OF THE APE MEN!
Read THE LAST WAR!
Read SKY BOY!   (Coming soon!)
Read the entire ALTRON-BOY series!

(Continued in Altron-Boy, Pt. 6)

Altron-Boy, Pt. 4

 (Continued from Altron-Boy, Pt. 3)

Larry Ivie's MONSTERS & HEROES 4
"LEGENDS OF CREATION: OLYMPUS"
"SWORD OF ALTRON-BOY"

Back on October 13, 2006, I put in an order with Mile High Comics for MONSTERS & HEROES #4, 5, & 7... plus MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #2 (with Sub-Mariner, I'd been getting some Subby books from that era earlier). 

Thinking back, I'm not even sure why or what it was that inspired me, but it my have been my growing interest in fanzine characters and other obscure characters.  I was still 4-1/2 years away from starting my 1st blog, but it's pretty clear I had in mind scanning in, cleaning up and posting the entire ALTRON-BOY series.  Suffice to say, it got delayed... but NOW, after all this time, I'm finally doing it!

It turns out there was a full YEAR between #3 & #4, so delays are par for the course for this series.  This issue contains the 2nd (and final) "Legends Of Creation" episode, and a longer-than-usual "Altron-Boy" episode, preceded with a one-page recap to remind readers what went on before the long gap.

I note that the Edgar Rice Burroughs painting that Larry Ivie did, which is for the book "BARBARIAN", is very fitting, and looks like it could well have been an inspiration for this issue's "Altron-Boy" episode.

Frankly, I can't believe how Ivie ended this episode, and I find myself wondering if it was a reflection of some behind-the-scenes problems going on with the production of the magazine itself.

One thing I definitely noticed about this issue, and that was that the writing on the articles was DRASTICALLY improving over those in the 3 previous issues.  The text sections seemed far less awkward and amaturish, and more confident and professional.  Which makes it a almost a shame I'm not including those parts of the magazine in my blog project.  (But as I've discovered, they CAN be found posted on at least one other blog.  Something to search for!)

This blog page finished on 3-5-2021.

ENJOY!

Larry Ivie's MONSTERS & HEROES  4
cover by LARRY IVIE   (M & H Publications  /  March 1969)

LEGENDS OF CREATION:  "OLYMPUS"
Story & Art by LARRY IVIE  /  Page 12

Page 13

Page 14

Page 15

Page 16

THE CRUSADE AGAINST VOLTAR:  Chapter Six
"SWORD OF ALTRON-BOY"  /  Page 29

Page 30

Page 31

Page 32

Page 33

Page 34

Page 35

Page 36

Page 37

Page 38

Back Cover  /  Barbarian

An interesting bit of possibly-related trivia:  artist Gray Morrow illustrated a couple of Larry Ivie stories in early issues of Warren's CREEPY.  Morrow later did all the storyboards for the 2nd & 3rd seasons of the "SPIDER-MAN" cartoon series.  The episode "Thunder Rumble" aired on 12-28-1968.  Given how magazine cover-dates are often 2-3 months in advance, this issue's cover may have come out around the SAME time as that TV episode!

MONSTERS & HEROES  Copyright (C) LARRY IVIE.

Scans from MY collection!
     with special thanks to Mile High Star Comics.

"Thunder Rumble" screen-capture from MY collection!

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa.

For more:
See more Larry Ivie art at the ERBzine site.
See the Gods Of Mars gallery at the ERBzine site.
Read the obituary/tribute to Larry Ivie at Buzz Dixon's site.
Read Sandy Plunkett's article about Larry Ivie in ALTER EGO 152.

See the Larry Ivie Gallery of Illustrations!
Read CAPTIVE BRIDE OF THE APE MEN!
Read THE LAST WAR!
Read SKY BOY!   (Coming soon!)
Read the entire ALTRON-BOY series!

(Continued in Altron-Boy, Pt. 5)