Friday, August 11, 2023

CAPTAIN VIDEO #2 (1951)

 Captain Video and His Video Rangers was an early science fiction program that aired on the Dumont Network from 1949 to 1955 for an estimated total of 1,537 episodes.  In addition, 20 episdoes of a fortnightly Saturday morning spinoff, The Secret Files of Captain Video aired from September 1953 through May 1954.  It was the first science fiction program to air on American television and proved popular with both children and adults.

The show was set in EArth's far future and was about a goup of fighters for truth and justice known as the Videp Rangers.  Their leader was Captain Video, who was never given a first name.  The Video Rangers were headquartered in a secret mountain base, location never given.  They received their orders from the Commisioner of Public Safety; their missions could taken them anywhere in the solar system, incuding space colonies on distant planets.

In 1951, Fawcett printed six issues of the Captain Video comic book feturing the "Famous Star of the Dumont Television Network."  The issue linked below is a British reprint of the Fawcett comic, with perhaps a different cover.  The indicia in this issue noted that it was copyrighted 1949 by Fawcett Publications, Inc. -- this was most likely an error confusing the comic book with the start date of the television show.  This edition -- the British one -- has 36 pages; the U.S. edition has 52 pages.  this edition also alternates two page of color, the two pages of black and white throughout the issue; I don't think this was the case with the U.S, edition.

We have two stories featuring the electronic wizard who is known as Captain Video:  "The Time When Men Could Not Walk" and "The Legion of Evil."  Sandwiched between these to stories is a western tale featuring Rod Cameron, a popular western star of the time, "The Gun Duel."  It should be noted that the half-hour television show featured some twenty minutes of Captain Video, filling the remaining time with old western films which Dumont has purchased intending to air them in their entirity and to be hosted by Captain Video.  Instead, these seven-minute fillers were touted, without explanation, as adventures of Captain Videos "undercover agents" on Earth.  Go figure. 

Enjoy these exploits of Captain Video and his young partner, the Video Ranger. 


https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=85666&comicpage=&b=i

1 comment:

  1. And it should be noted that some good (and not so good) prose sf writers wrote CV scripts...dunno about whether the comics were so blessed.

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