Starman the Libertarian is a South American superhero from the 80s, who will be familiar to Colombians of a certain age. You could usually find him on most news stands.
Created by Rafael Curtberto Navarro - who also created Kalimán: El Hombre Incredible - Starman was first published in 1980 by Editora Cinco and ran for over 100 issues.
Set in the futuristic world of 2005 Earth has suffered a huge nuclear war where most of the population has mutated into creatures called Tarhumans.
Not only that but Earth is now ruled by the evil space tyrant Moloch, who destroyed the rebel forces of Liberio, Starman's father.
Libero's army retreats to the moons of Jupiter where his son Starman is given amazing super powers, courtesy of the solar wind.
However Starman's powers depend on the sun and rapidly wane if he is ever cold.
Aided by his robot cat Gatonico, Starman returns to earth to do battle with the evil Moloch and his army of Tarhumans.
Dr. Hana also helps Starman in his battle against Moloch, though she does get captured a lot.
Once Earth is freed of tyranny Starman, Dr. Hana and Gatonico continue their mission to spread justice and freedom across the galaxy.
It's a great space opera and copies are still.available on ebay if you search for them.
The series certainly takes a few liberties with copyright: Dr. Hana has a very Princess Leia vibe and some of the spaceships are clearly copied from Chris Foss illustrations.
However for lovers of liberty and fans of epic space opera Starman El Libertario is certainly a hero to celebrate!
More forgotten pulp heroes another time...
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Today in pulp I try to discover what the Bra Of The Future will look like... courtesy of Thrilling Wonder Stories!
Ever since the dawn of time Man has pondered the bra. What will it be like in the future? Will it even be needed?
And one magazine did more pondering than most. Thrilling Wonder Stories not only probed the mysteries of the future, it also tried to guess the evolution of the humble brassiere.
"The gun is GOOD! The Penis is EVIL!" bellows a huge stone head floating over the Irish countryside. It's quite a strange start to any film, but it's about to get even stranger.
This is the story of John Boorman's 1974 sci-fi spectacular Zardoz...
In 1970 director John Boorman began work on a Lord Of The Rings film for United Artists. It would be an unusual adaption; The Beatles would be the Hobbits and Kabuki theatre would open the movie. Alas the studio said 'No', but the idea of making a fantasy film stuck with Boorman.
So in 1972, following the commercial success of Deliverance, John Boorman started work on Zardoz - a fantasy film into which he would cram many unorthodox ideas. Initially Burt Reynolds was to play the lead role of Zed, but pulled out citing other filming commitments.
"Fear is the mind-killer," but movie production is a close second. As Denis Villeneuve's epic movie adaptations of Dune pull in audiences worldwide, I look back at an earlier struggle to bring that story to the silver screen.
This is the story of David Lynch's Dune...
Dune is an epic story: conceived by Frank Herbert after studying the Oregon Dunes in 1957 he spent five years researching, writing, and revising it before publication. He would go on to write a further five sequels.
Dune is a multi-layered story and a hugely immersive novel. It's about a future where the mind rather the computer is king, aided by the mysterious spice melange. It also has more feuding houses than Game of Thrones.
Detective stories have always been a staple of young adult fiction. I guess every young person wants to be a crime fighter at heart.
The Hardy Boys (Frank and Joe Hardy) are possibly the longest-serving teenage detectives. Their first adventures began in 1927, published by the Stratemeyer Syndicate and they've been in print pretty much ever since.