Rick Random was created by writer Conrad Frost and artist Bill Lacey for The Amalgamated Press comic book Super-Detective Library #37 adventure "Crime Rides the Spaceways" (September 2, 1954). Random was a soldier in the Cosmic War who later became an operative of the Interplanetary Bureau of Investigation, which allowed him to investigate crimes in many of Earth's off-world colonies. Random would be featured in 27 issues of Super-Detective Library from 1954 to 1959, many of them from the team of Harry Harrison and Ron Turner, who had quickly replaced Frost and Lacy. (The art in this issue [which is superb] is by Turner, and it is probable that Harrison wrote the story.)
Many of Rick Random's adventure were reprinted in the Sixties, with Random's name sometimes being changed to Dick Brando or to Nick Martin; in a couple of reprints in the early Eighties, the name was altered to Dair Avalon. [Why? Although I admit Rick Random is a mighty poor name for a hero, but at leasst it fit the mid-Fifties comic book vibe.]
Rick Random has no superpowers, which may be why he was considered to be one of the least popular strips to run in 2000A. D.
In 2034, a new planet had mysteriously entered the solar system. Could this strange object end up colliding with one of the worlds in the solar system, or even with Earth itself? And are there inhabitants on this planet? And, if so, are they friendly? Rick determines that it is no freak of nature that brought the strange planet here. "Some manmade means must have been discovered to make the planet break away from its predestined course." Who could do such a thing? Why, Adolph Guildholme, of course -- a power-crazy scientist who wants to be the first dictator of the world! But Guildholme is at as much as loss as Rick is about what is happening. Strange disasters start happening -- a ship is crushed by by ice near a tropical island, the outer wall of a skyscraper burst into flames, the water in the River Thames suddenly dries up.
Rick goes to the rogue planer, now called Hesperides, to investigate. There he finds a highly advanced civilization, but no people. What had happened? Then. while Guildholme and his equally mad, equally evil, crony Feldich plot to use the situation to their best advantage, a strange spaceship lands containing a group of native Hesperidians, a peace-loving, telepathic race powerless to stop Guildholme's machinations...
There's a lot to unpack her, and much time and space is used to cover the backstory. Still, the art work is super, the villains truly villainous, Rick Random truly heroic, and Random's unrequited love interest -- the telepathic Dinna -- adds a good girl art feel to the story.
Check it out.
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=95765&comicpage=&b=i
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