I didn’t forget about my pledge to share a comic book every week but I’ve been battling some nasty cold & flu bug on and off for weeks now and it’s really throwing me for a loop. I haven’t felt like spending too much time on my computer but I didn’t want to let another week go by without posting a few pages from one of my comic books so today I bring you Space Family Robinson: Lost In Space #33 published by Gold Key in 1969. It features art by Dan Spiegle and a story by Gaylord Du Bois.
Space Family Robinson debuted in 1962 and told the story of the Robinson family, which consisted of a couple of scientists (father Craig and mother June) and their two teenage children (Tam and Tim). The family lived on a large space craft called Space Station One that was “lost in space” after an enormous cosmic storm. In subsequent issues the Robinson family try to find their way back to earth and have many adventures in space along the way. Sound familiar? I bet it does! In 1965 Irwin Allen created the popular television show Lost In Space, which ran on CBS between (1965-68). It seemed to borrow many of its ideas from the Gold Key comic series but Irwin Allen claimed that he never saw the comic. Gold Key Comic publisher Western Publishing Company wasn’t buying it and they threatened legal action but a settlement was struck between CBS, Irwin Allen and the Western Publishing Company. Undisclosed amounts of money were given to the publisher and they were also allowed to add “Lost In Space” to the title of their comic so in 1966 Space Family Robinson became Space Family Robinson: Lost in Space. Both parties benefited from the name change. Gold Key got to advertise their comic book series as a tie-in with the popular television show and Lost In Space got free publicity by having the name of the show on the cover of a comic book but few people remember Gold Key’s comic today.
Lost in Space is one of my favorite television shows and I used to watch reruns of it religiously when I was a kid. It ran on KBHK-TV 44 in the San Francisco Bay Area during the ’70s and I rarely missed an episode. The comic is a fun read if you happen to be a fan of the show and I really like Dan Spiegle’s art. Below are some pages from the comic book including an advertisement for another one of my favorite TV shows, The Banana Splits (1968-70) as well as a few clips from both shows.
