In Remembrance of Comic Strips: Tom Corbett, Space Cadet

It has a claim to fame that will never be matched. It premiered first-run episodes on the primetime line-ups of the ABC, CBS, NBC, and DuMont networks. Fans of vintage TV know almost none of DuMont’s programming survived. Unfortunately, the other three networks were not much better archiving the series, despite its obvious popularity. Four national networks would not have picked-up Tom Corbett, Space Cadet if nobody was watching. Indeed, the series spawned books, merchandising, and a newspaper comic strip. That strip only lasted two years, more or less, largely due to competition from other long-running science fiction continuity franchises, but in some ways, it was superior to the TV show it tied into. This week, give a salute to Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, which ended its run on this day in 1953, almost exactly anniversarying its September 9^th premiere date.

Although Bailey had a scientific advisor, much of the science is dated, in a rather charming way. For instance, Corbett’s fellow Cadet, Astro (predating George Jetson’s dog), hails from Venus. Corbett is adventurous, but responsible, as a good cadet should be. Astro is hard-working, but a bit of meathead. Much to their frequent frustration, their assigned duty-mate, Roger Manning, is an arrogant troublemaker, who is often more trouble than he is worth.

In this idealized future, Space Academy often assigns its cadets supporting roles on active-duty Solar Guard missions. Consequently, Corbett, Astro, and Manning face danger foiling a Mercurian invasion of Venus, investigating corruption on Jupiter’s Titan Moon, and battling Martian separatists (referred to as Marsian Divisionists”), under the Command of either Captain Steve Strong or Commander Arkwright.

In fact, “Revolt of the Marsian Divisionists” is one of the best adventures written by Paul S.  Newman, who also penned Dell’s Prince Valiant comic books. While it nicely combines political intrigue with space opera, some stories, like “The Mercurian Invasion” are somewhat hampered by its kid-friendly mandate. Regardless, many fans bitterly disappointed by Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will find Newman’s Space Academy much more disciplined—and considerably more entertaining, while exploring similar themes.

The surviving TV episodes look rather crude by today’s standards. However, Bailey’s astronomical art still looks really cool. Unconstrained by budget constraints, Bailey was free to depict the grandeur of interstellar space travel and alien worlds. His years of apprenticeship under Milt Caniff also served the strip well, particularly his glamorous femme fatale characters, like the leader of the Marsian Divisonists, or Dr. Joan Dale, a scientific advisor to Solar Guard, who was rather school marmish on TV, but the caddish cadets find her far more “distracting” in the strip.

Although the Corbet strip only ran three days shot of two years, it found new readers when Eternity Comics re-ran the first four story arcs in a five-issue series, inspiring several subsequent original comics. The newspaper strip is wonderfully fun, in a nostalgic retro kind of way. This is the kind of upbeat vision of the future that TV and movie no longer present, which is a real shame. Highly recommended if you can find Eternity’s reprints (which are not prohibitively scarce), Newman & Bailey’s Tom Corbett, Space Cadet is highly recommended for fans of the “Golden Age of Science Fiction.”