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Fleetway Picture Library Classics
Rick Random
A thrilling collection of four complete Rick Random stories
Originally published in Super Detective Library issues 79, 101, 111 and 115 in the late 1950s, these four tales feature Rick Random, “the first detective of the space age”. Set in the 21st century, Random, as the Head of the Interplanetary Bureau of Investigation, is called upon to solve mysteries that can take him all over the universe. Along the way he encounters amazing alien races and their fantastic technologies as he seeks truth and justice.
These four stories also chart Ron Turner's development into one of Britain's greatest science fiction comic artists. His incredible designs and renderings of aliens, spacecraft and equipment can easily stand shoulder to shoulder with his American contemporaries, Wally Wood and Jack Kirby and, on occasion, even surpass them. So, let's blast off with Rick and Ron to a stunning future.
The Planet of Lost Men
Super Detective Library #79 published June 1956
Art by Ron Turner, cover art by Arnold Beauvais
Written by Conrad Frost
The Riddle of the Vanishing People
Super Detective Library #101 published March 1957
Art by Ron Turner, cover art by Arnold Beauvais
Written by Bob Keston
Sabotage From Space
Super Detective Library #111 published September 1957
Art by Ron Turner, cover art by James McConnell
Written by Bob Keston
S.O.S. From Space
Super Detective Library #115 published ?October 1957
Art by Ron Turner, cover art by James McConnell
Written by Bob Keston
Originally published in Super Detective Library issues 79, 101, 111 and 115 in the late 1950s, these four tales feature Rick Random, “the first detective of the space age”. Set in the 21st century, Random, as the Head of the Interplanetary Bureau of Investigation, is called upon to solve mysteries that can take him all over the universe. Along the way he encounters amazing alien races and their fantastic technologies as he seeks truth and justice.
These four stories also chart Ron Turner's development into one of Britain's greatest science fiction comic artists. His incredible designs and renderings of aliens, spacecraft and equipment can easily stand shoulder to shoulder with his American contemporaries, Wally Wood and Jack Kirby and, on occasion, even surpass them. So, let's blast off with Rick and Ron to a stunning future.
The Planet of Lost Men
Super Detective Library #79 published June 1956
Art by Ron Turner, cover art by Arnold Beauvais
Written by Conrad Frost
The Riddle of the Vanishing People
Super Detective Library #101 published March 1957
Art by Ron Turner, cover art by Arnold Beauvais
Written by Bob Keston
Sabotage From Space
Super Detective Library #111 published September 1957
Art by Ron Turner, cover art by James McConnell
Written by Bob Keston
S.O.S. From Space
Super Detective Library #115 published ?October 1957
Art by Ron Turner, cover art by James McConnell
Written by Bob Keston
- GenresComics
272 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2021
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July 4, 2022
In the far future of the 2040s, Earth belongs to the Interplanetary Board, a coalition of worlds both in the Sol System and beyond. As it just so happens, it’s headquartered in what used to be the country of Great Britain. The investigative body of the Board is the Interplanetary Bureau of Investigation, the lead agent of which is “the first detective of the space age”, Rick Random. Whenever inexplicable mysteries occur, he’s the man called.
The Rick Random stories ran in the Super Detective Library comic book series published in Britain in the 1950s. Artist Ron Turner, known for his excellent spaceship and alien designs, was paired with various writers. This volume reprints four representative stories, the first written by Conrad Frost, and the remainder by Bob Kesten. (Sadly, none of the ones by famed SF writer Harry Harrison.)
“The Planet of Lost Men” starts us off with a series of disappearances all over Earth, all of miners or mining engineers. Each of the men had been alone out in the open at the time of the disappearance, and no trace can be found of struggle or how they were removed. So it may seem odd at first that Rick Random is spending his time on a tennis date with pretty Jo Hauser, daughter of mining magnate Joshua Hauser. But we swiftly learn that Mr. Hauser is in fact behind the disappearances, all of men who work for one of his companies, either directly or through a shell.
Not making any direct headway there, Rick investigates a disappearance on the Cumberland moors, eventually working out how the abductions are done. But now he needs to find out why, so he allows himself to be disappeared.
After meeting up with Texan miner Ronnel aboard the freighter that’s been arranging the abductions, Rick is transported to the isolated planet Garganta. It seems that a massive vein of gold that nearly circles the planet has been discovered there, and Hauser is desperate to get it into his hands as he’s got a cash flow problem. The gold’s got to be dug up before the next Interplanetary Board inspection of the world in eighteen months. The rush timing and illegality of the maneuver is why the secrecy and abductions.
Despite the forced labor, the pay is good (even if the only place to spend it is the company stores) and miners are used to twelve-hour shifts. However, any slacking or dissent is met with exile to the forest with its monstrous wildlife and hostile natives with killer robots. After a few weeks on the road crew, Rick works out that the natives aren’t killing wounded and abandoned miners, so fakes his own death in a raid so he can be captured and brought before Princess Alona.
A world-building detail here is that most beings in the galaxy communicate telepathically so there isn’t a language barrier. Earthmen have learned how to do this, but prefer to speak aloud (and aliens living on Earth are expected to learn how to do that.)
Rick is able to convince the princess and her people that he’s on their side against the invaders, and is able to give them tips that make them more effective, but there’s still some wrinkles in the story.
The ending is a bit disappointing, as the baddies seem about to get away clean, even if they won’t meet all their goals, only to dispose of themselves due to an offscreen coincidence. And of course we also learn that if Hauser hadn’t been so greedy and rushed, he could have had everything he wanted without resorting to illegal means.
“The Riddle of the Vanishing People” starts with more disappearances, this time of scientists. This time there’s a witness, who crashes her car when a scientist vanishes while crossing the street in front of her. Even Dr. Fisher, the brilliant scientist who is the head of the Interplanetary Board, vanishes! Rick teams up with intrepid reporter Nora Eldra to investigate.
Good: There’s a diversity of male and female scientists involved, not just Western Europeans and Americans. “Great Negro scientist” M’bwango even gets to reappear in a later story. Admittedly, the foreign Earth scientists have stereotypical outfits and facial hair, but baby steps. In story the one bit of racism is fantastic racism as a loutish drunk Brit named Biff Kelly attacks Jupiterian scientist Mank Blorg for being a “bug-eyed monster” only to have his target vanish in the middle of their fist fight.
Less good: The story ends with a “the world is not yet ready” decision without resolving the fact that right up to just before the reveal, reporter Nora Eldra was helping Rick with the investigation, and certainly will want an explanation so she can make her own mind up about how to write her story.
“Sabotage from Space” switches from mysterious disappearances to people mysteriously suffering “the Madness” which causes them to do things that defy common sense and their training, often with fatal results. Rick works with psychologist Dr. Altha Bekins to investigate, eventually proving that this is the work of invisible aliens!
This one really emphasizes Rick’s work as a detective, working out bit by bit how to mitigate the effects of the Madness, what causes it, and how to contact the aliens that are causing it. And the ending is the most satisfying in the volume, not about punishing the hostile aliens, but removing the reason for their hostility to benefit all involved.
“S.O.S. From Space” concerns a mysterious object found near Sirius. It turns out to be the last message from an alien race wiped out by the Ebloni ten thousand years before. The Ebloni are a menace to the civilized worlds of the galaxy even now, so it’s a matter of great interest when the message reveals that the vanished race had developed weaponry that could be used against the Ebloni but pressed for time, had put themselves into cold storage instead.
Now Rick must infiltrate the Ebloni homeworld (actually the vanished race’s homeworld which was more desirable) with the help of horned Qonti Myla-Orst who clearly has more than a collegial interest in Rick. Can they find the resting place of the Gyzmanians? It’s a good thing that the Ebloni were already at war with the rest of the galaxy, as that ending would otherwise have been a causus belli deluxe.
It’s noted that the Ebloni are not very bright, and their brains aren’t developed enough for telepathy; it’s discovered they stole spaceflight technology from the vanished race before attacking them.
There’s also an introduction by John Lawrence that talks about Mr. Turner’s career, including a lucrative time making box cover art for model kits. And a list of everything Mr. Turner did for Fleetway if you’re the collecting type.
The art is sometimes betrayed by the fact that it’s had to be taken from the finished magazines, printing errors and all, but yes, Mr. Turner could indeed draw some fine machinery and nifty-looking aliens. Plus some fine women.
The writing is pretty good, though you can tell it’s for younger boys. While the treatment of women is reasonably good for the time period (the fourth story has a female starship pilot who is competent throughout), Rick Random is not interested in doing anything more than mild flirting. The first sign that a woman is really interested, and he’s out the door.
Content note: Most of the human characters smoke. If Rick’s not in action, he normally has a cigarette in hand. This is in keeping with habits during the time period the stories were written, but might be worrisome for today’s parents.
Overall: Primarily for collectors of British comics, but of special interest to science fiction fans (Ron Turn also did many classic Vargo Stratten covers.)
The Rick Random stories ran in the Super Detective Library comic book series published in Britain in the 1950s. Artist Ron Turner, known for his excellent spaceship and alien designs, was paired with various writers. This volume reprints four representative stories, the first written by Conrad Frost, and the remainder by Bob Kesten. (Sadly, none of the ones by famed SF writer Harry Harrison.)
“The Planet of Lost Men” starts us off with a series of disappearances all over Earth, all of miners or mining engineers. Each of the men had been alone out in the open at the time of the disappearance, and no trace can be found of struggle or how they were removed. So it may seem odd at first that Rick Random is spending his time on a tennis date with pretty Jo Hauser, daughter of mining magnate Joshua Hauser. But we swiftly learn that Mr. Hauser is in fact behind the disappearances, all of men who work for one of his companies, either directly or through a shell.
Not making any direct headway there, Rick investigates a disappearance on the Cumberland moors, eventually working out how the abductions are done. But now he needs to find out why, so he allows himself to be disappeared.
After meeting up with Texan miner Ronnel aboard the freighter that’s been arranging the abductions, Rick is transported to the isolated planet Garganta. It seems that a massive vein of gold that nearly circles the planet has been discovered there, and Hauser is desperate to get it into his hands as he’s got a cash flow problem. The gold’s got to be dug up before the next Interplanetary Board inspection of the world in eighteen months. The rush timing and illegality of the maneuver is why the secrecy and abductions.
Despite the forced labor, the pay is good (even if the only place to spend it is the company stores) and miners are used to twelve-hour shifts. However, any slacking or dissent is met with exile to the forest with its monstrous wildlife and hostile natives with killer robots. After a few weeks on the road crew, Rick works out that the natives aren’t killing wounded and abandoned miners, so fakes his own death in a raid so he can be captured and brought before Princess Alona.
A world-building detail here is that most beings in the galaxy communicate telepathically so there isn’t a language barrier. Earthmen have learned how to do this, but prefer to speak aloud (and aliens living on Earth are expected to learn how to do that.)
Rick is able to convince the princess and her people that he’s on their side against the invaders, and is able to give them tips that make them more effective, but there’s still some wrinkles in the story.
The ending is a bit disappointing, as the baddies seem about to get away clean, even if they won’t meet all their goals, only to dispose of themselves due to an offscreen coincidence. And of course we also learn that if Hauser hadn’t been so greedy and rushed, he could have had everything he wanted without resorting to illegal means.
“The Riddle of the Vanishing People” starts with more disappearances, this time of scientists. This time there’s a witness, who crashes her car when a scientist vanishes while crossing the street in front of her. Even Dr. Fisher, the brilliant scientist who is the head of the Interplanetary Board, vanishes! Rick teams up with intrepid reporter Nora Eldra to investigate.
Good: There’s a diversity of male and female scientists involved, not just Western Europeans and Americans. “Great Negro scientist” M’bwango even gets to reappear in a later story. Admittedly, the foreign Earth scientists have stereotypical outfits and facial hair, but baby steps. In story the one bit of racism is fantastic racism as a loutish drunk Brit named Biff Kelly attacks Jupiterian scientist Mank Blorg for being a “bug-eyed monster” only to have his target vanish in the middle of their fist fight.
Less good: The story ends with a “the world is not yet ready” decision without resolving the fact that right up to just before the reveal, reporter Nora Eldra was helping Rick with the investigation, and certainly will want an explanation so she can make her own mind up about how to write her story.
“Sabotage from Space” switches from mysterious disappearances to people mysteriously suffering “the Madness” which causes them to do things that defy common sense and their training, often with fatal results. Rick works with psychologist Dr. Altha Bekins to investigate, eventually proving that this is the work of invisible aliens!
This one really emphasizes Rick’s work as a detective, working out bit by bit how to mitigate the effects of the Madness, what causes it, and how to contact the aliens that are causing it. And the ending is the most satisfying in the volume, not about punishing the hostile aliens, but removing the reason for their hostility to benefit all involved.
“S.O.S. From Space” concerns a mysterious object found near Sirius. It turns out to be the last message from an alien race wiped out by the Ebloni ten thousand years before. The Ebloni are a menace to the civilized worlds of the galaxy even now, so it’s a matter of great interest when the message reveals that the vanished race had developed weaponry that could be used against the Ebloni but pressed for time, had put themselves into cold storage instead.
Now Rick must infiltrate the Ebloni homeworld (actually the vanished race’s homeworld which was more desirable) with the help of horned Qonti Myla-Orst who clearly has more than a collegial interest in Rick. Can they find the resting place of the Gyzmanians? It’s a good thing that the Ebloni were already at war with the rest of the galaxy, as that ending would otherwise have been a causus belli deluxe.
It’s noted that the Ebloni are not very bright, and their brains aren’t developed enough for telepathy; it’s discovered they stole spaceflight technology from the vanished race before attacking them.
There’s also an introduction by John Lawrence that talks about Mr. Turner’s career, including a lucrative time making box cover art for model kits. And a list of everything Mr. Turner did for Fleetway if you’re the collecting type.
The art is sometimes betrayed by the fact that it’s had to be taken from the finished magazines, printing errors and all, but yes, Mr. Turner could indeed draw some fine machinery and nifty-looking aliens. Plus some fine women.
The writing is pretty good, though you can tell it’s for younger boys. While the treatment of women is reasonably good for the time period (the fourth story has a female starship pilot who is competent throughout), Rick Random is not interested in doing anything more than mild flirting. The first sign that a woman is really interested, and he’s out the door.
Content note: Most of the human characters smoke. If Rick’s not in action, he normally has a cigarette in hand. This is in keeping with habits during the time period the stories were written, but might be worrisome for today’s parents.
Overall: Primarily for collectors of British comics, but of special interest to science fiction fans (Ron Turn also did many classic Vargo Stratten covers.)
July 14, 2021
Book Palace issued a collection of Ron Turner’s artwork in the Jet-Ace Logan volume in this series. This time we get another four adventures with gorgeous science-fiction machinery… and lovely females too, both favourites of Turner’s no doubt. John Lawrence, Turner fan second only to Phil Harbottle, does a short biography of the artist. The first story is written by Conrad Frost who scripted many newspaper strips including “George and Lynne” for the Sun newspaper.
-The Planet of Lost Men
Miners are vanishing and Rick Random eventually solves the ‘how’, but to get the ‘why’, he needs to become a victim. He is whisked off planet and taken to Garganta, named after the prehistoric animals the few inhabitants have tamed and controlled. Rick’s suspicions are soon confirmed and now he understands the ‘why’ he needs to create a plan, but how as a prisoner of the mining team. How can he convince the native human lifeforms he is who he says he is? Will he be able to stop the evil scheming gold-digger? Twists and turns on an alien planet lead to this exciting adventure.
-The Riddle of the Vanishing People
The remaining three stories in this collection are written by Bob Keston, who wrote 12 stories in the Super Detective Library series, as well single issues of Cowboy Picture Library and Thriller Picture Library. The story begins with a woman crashing her car in Trafalgar Square because she claims that a man was in front of her and suddenly vanished. More incidents take place, even one captured on film! Rick Random starts to see patterns and on a mission heads to Dr. M’Bwango’s laboratory where we see the “most efficient electronic computer analyser in the Galaxy”. “It’s almost human,” exclaims Rick, “It’s name is Charlie”. Whilst awaiting the result, Rick hears that the Prime Minister, “the most important person in the Galaxy” (things are different in the year 2040!) has disappeared on a visit to the Museum of Modern Art Hall of Statues. Nora Eldra, a reporter who has promised to keep the story a secret as long as she can accompany Rick in his investigations and can have exclusive rights, now heads with Rick down to the Museum of Modern Art. We meet the director of the Hall of Statues, one of the ant people of the Mira system. Rick and Nora begin to to solve the mystery of the vanishing people, only to encounter another conundrum…
-Sabotage From Space
In the summer of 2042, it falls to Rick to find out what was causing thousands of people all over the world to become victims of “The Madness” – nothing to do with Suggs, obviously! People appear to have gone mad: one man even striking an h-bomb with a hammer and another jumping from a helipad and another electrocuting himself. When Dr Fisher (who in the previous story, looked different from this one) disappears in a flying car and crashes they have a chance to investigate what’s going on because the doctor is still alive. The story is a series of fascinating steps that Rick takes to unearth the cause, which leads him ultimately on a mission to save a planet of warring species.
-S.O.S. From Space
A small unidentified object is found floating in space which turns out to be from the planet Gyzma, where a race is almost obliterated. Myla, a pretty alien with horns, accompanies Rick on his mission to the conqueror’s planet, Ebloni and to disguise himself as a Qonti, gets his own set of horns!
How Rick saves a near doomed race and frees many planets from slavery is a fascinating bit of space hokum, and to tell you more would spoil some of the joys along the ride!
These four stories contain so much more than I have written above. The quiet predictions (created in the 1950s) for the future (2040s) are very interesting to see, as we are only 20 years away from that date. Although at no point in any of the four stories is smoking mentioned, there are so many pictures of people with cigarettes in their hands and pipes, this anomaly stuck out of mile to this non-smoker.
I’ve always been a bit ambiguous towards Ron Turner’s artwork, where I find sometimes his faces change in appearance from one frame to another, but I have to acknowledge that his space hardware is fantastic to look at and I suspect that’s why we all remember “The Daleks” from TV21 so well.
As the Book Palace blurb says, “these four stories also chart Ron Turner’s development into one of Britain’s greatest science fiction comic artists. His incredible designs and renderings of aliens, spacecraft and equipment can easily stand shoulder to shoulder with his American contemporaries, Wally Wood and Jack Kirby and, on occasion, even surpass them.” I have to agree!
-The Planet of Lost Men
Miners are vanishing and Rick Random eventually solves the ‘how’, but to get the ‘why’, he needs to become a victim. He is whisked off planet and taken to Garganta, named after the prehistoric animals the few inhabitants have tamed and controlled. Rick’s suspicions are soon confirmed and now he understands the ‘why’ he needs to create a plan, but how as a prisoner of the mining team. How can he convince the native human lifeforms he is who he says he is? Will he be able to stop the evil scheming gold-digger? Twists and turns on an alien planet lead to this exciting adventure.
-The Riddle of the Vanishing People
The remaining three stories in this collection are written by Bob Keston, who wrote 12 stories in the Super Detective Library series, as well single issues of Cowboy Picture Library and Thriller Picture Library. The story begins with a woman crashing her car in Trafalgar Square because she claims that a man was in front of her and suddenly vanished. More incidents take place, even one captured on film! Rick Random starts to see patterns and on a mission heads to Dr. M’Bwango’s laboratory where we see the “most efficient electronic computer analyser in the Galaxy”. “It’s almost human,” exclaims Rick, “It’s name is Charlie”. Whilst awaiting the result, Rick hears that the Prime Minister, “the most important person in the Galaxy” (things are different in the year 2040!) has disappeared on a visit to the Museum of Modern Art Hall of Statues. Nora Eldra, a reporter who has promised to keep the story a secret as long as she can accompany Rick in his investigations and can have exclusive rights, now heads with Rick down to the Museum of Modern Art. We meet the director of the Hall of Statues, one of the ant people of the Mira system. Rick and Nora begin to to solve the mystery of the vanishing people, only to encounter another conundrum…
-Sabotage From Space
In the summer of 2042, it falls to Rick to find out what was causing thousands of people all over the world to become victims of “The Madness” – nothing to do with Suggs, obviously! People appear to have gone mad: one man even striking an h-bomb with a hammer and another jumping from a helipad and another electrocuting himself. When Dr Fisher (who in the previous story, looked different from this one) disappears in a flying car and crashes they have a chance to investigate what’s going on because the doctor is still alive. The story is a series of fascinating steps that Rick takes to unearth the cause, which leads him ultimately on a mission to save a planet of warring species.
-S.O.S. From Space
A small unidentified object is found floating in space which turns out to be from the planet Gyzma, where a race is almost obliterated. Myla, a pretty alien with horns, accompanies Rick on his mission to the conqueror’s planet, Ebloni and to disguise himself as a Qonti, gets his own set of horns!
How Rick saves a near doomed race and frees many planets from slavery is a fascinating bit of space hokum, and to tell you more would spoil some of the joys along the ride!
These four stories contain so much more than I have written above. The quiet predictions (created in the 1950s) for the future (2040s) are very interesting to see, as we are only 20 years away from that date. Although at no point in any of the four stories is smoking mentioned, there are so many pictures of people with cigarettes in their hands and pipes, this anomaly stuck out of mile to this non-smoker.
I’ve always been a bit ambiguous towards Ron Turner’s artwork, where I find sometimes his faces change in appearance from one frame to another, but I have to acknowledge that his space hardware is fantastic to look at and I suspect that’s why we all remember “The Daleks” from TV21 so well.
As the Book Palace blurb says, “these four stories also chart Ron Turner’s development into one of Britain’s greatest science fiction comic artists. His incredible designs and renderings of aliens, spacecraft and equipment can easily stand shoulder to shoulder with his American contemporaries, Wally Wood and Jack Kirby and, on occasion, even surpass them.” I have to agree!
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