Beyond Mars: The Complete Series

by Jack Williamson, Lee Elias, Dean Mullaney (Editor)

Written by renowned science fiction author Jack Williamson and superbly drawn by Lee Elias, Beyond Mars is one of the rarest Sunday strips it only appeared in a single newspaper, The New York Sunday News. This oversized book presents the complete series all 161 strips from 1952 to 1955 in their original color!"

Genres: Comic Strips, Science Fiction

160 pages, Hardcover

First published November 10, 2015

About the author

John Stewart Williamson who wrote as Jack Williamson (and occasionally under the pseudonym Will Stewart) was a U.S. writer often referred to as the "Dean of Science Fiction".

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very good collection of an obscure comic strip. If you like this type of thing than this would be a 4 or 5 stars without question. For me personally, I just don't like this style of comic. I love the art, it gorgeous and the 50s style is crisp and now just retro cool. That being said the story is the old school cliff hanger style pulp with the dashing hero saving the gutsy heroine all with at lest one kid and a sidekick and its neither deep nor insightful which to be fair is what you would expect from a Sunday strip but I want more depth when reading or more over the top if I want junk food.

If you like the Sunday morning style this is a beautiful, well done book and very much worth checking out, if you are not a fan the art is still enough for me to recommend but with the caveat that the story is very much secondary to the art.

[Dominick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Archival collection of this odd strip, which only ever appeared in one paper. Surprising for hiring an actual established SF writer to script, though the introduction makes clear that Williamson's scripts were continually messed with, which might explain why the stories so rarely do anything that is really interesting. The art is lovely, but Elias wears his Caniff influence on his sleeve; an early villainess is even a virtual carbon copy of the Dragon Lady (that she is called the Cobra makes the link even more overt). Anyway, the stories are mostly more or less westerns in space, with flat characters and uninspired plots, albeit impressively rendered visually, at least early on. For its last several weeks, the strip was reduced to a half page from its original full page, so the art becomes more cramped. It also looks like Elias's heart went out of it somewhat, as generally the care with design and detail fades more than the size reduction would seem to warrant. Anyway, worth reading as an interesting oddity, but not the peak of either artist's career.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read some of Jack Williamson's shorter fiction, and don't like it all that much. This peculiar comic strip, set 200 years into the future, is a bit better, but it's mostly B-move 1950s sci-fi stuff. Not bad by any means, but not all that moving, either. Other than the main protagonist, we get a Venusian life form who speaks with a lisp as the primary character. There's a different love interest every story, and they are all rather stereotypical cut outs.

The art, though, by Lee Elias, makes this a four star book. His layouts and designs are great, and even though his women's fashions of 2194 are still those of 1954, it's ok, because he draws some great space ships and background scenes.

This is an archival edition collecting the entirety of the Beyond Mars strip. Nice to have, but better for the art than story.

[ISMOTU · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully drawn 1950's sci-fi adventure strip that borrows heavily from the tropes of certain Western stories without being a full-blown "Space Western." Jack Williamson delivers exciting plots providing Mike Flint and his Venusian pal Sam (or "Tham" as he would say) with plenty of action as they travel around the asteroid Brooklyn Rock and encounter numerous bad guys and beauties gorgeously rendered by Lee Elias. I found it interesting for its use of the term "contraterrene" or "seetee" for what we now call anti-matter. An obscure little dip into 1950's comic strip history.

[Dan Schul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collection of a 1950's comic strip written by Jack Williamson with wonderful art by Lee Elias. A must for Sci-Fi fans and collectors. I think this is a beautiful book published by IDW. I love the story and the art.