Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the seven hundred and eighty-first installment where we examine three comic book legends and determine whether they are true or false.
As usual, there will be three posts, one for each of the three legends. Click here for Part 1 of this week's legends. Click here for Part 2 of this week's legends.
NOTE: If my Twitter page hits 5,000 followers, I'll do a bonus edition of Comic Book Legends Revealed that week. Great deal, right? So go follow my Twitter page, Brian_Cronin!
COMIC LEGEND:
Hugo Gernsback briefly published a comic book series
STATUS:
True
Hugo Gernsback was a famous magazine publisher...
His creation of Amazing Stories in 1926 basically launched the modern American conception of science fiction...
Heck, Gernsback literally coined the term "science fiction" (although he preferred the term "scientifiction"). After he lost control of his first science fiction magazine, he launched another major science fiction magazine, Wonder Stories, in 1929...
He was a vocal supporter of science fiction in the media, appearing in Life Magazine late in his life promoting new technologies...
Gernsback helped create science fiction fandom through the letter columns in his magazines, where he would print people's addresses and support pen pals.
The World Science Fiction Society named their annual award after him, and the Hugo Award has been awarded yearly since 1953...
Amazingly enough, though, Gernsback actually briefly got into the world of comics, as well. Comics were huge around 1940, so many pulp magazine publishers tried their hand at comics, too.
Charles Hornig was the main writer for the series, and Frank Paul and Ray Burley were notable artists on the book.
The series only lasted three issues, but I love the bit where they had a message about how this series was different from those silly superhero comics that were on the market, as this one was all based in science...
You know, Martian warlords and stuff like that. Just science...
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In the latest TV Legends Revealed - Was Nickelodeon's famous green slime created by mistake?
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Feel free to suggest ideas for future legends to me at either cronb01@aol.com or brianc@cbr.com!