The similarity between the first week of Joseph Greene's 1949 TOM RANGER strip and the published 1951 TOM CORBETT strip are interesting. References to the TOM RANGER strip will be by day and panel notation (Day 1, panel 3) and the TOM CORBETT comic strip will be by the date of the published strip. The reference strips my be viewed by clicking on the notes, USE YOUR BACK KEY TO RETURN. The full six days of the TOM RANGER strip are located as separate pages. See below for links.
THE CREW MEET:
Tom Ranger meets both of his future crew mates in an almost identical scenario, as Tom Corbett did two years later in the Field Enterprise comic strip. The cadet from Venus -Kit Kuk (future ASTRO) befriends Tom at the spaceport (day 3, panel 1). Kit had already been in space as a space sailor Kit Kuk even gives a speech about "being" in space with a space ship that is similar to a speech Astro made in an early TV show (day 4 panel 1 and 2).
In Tom Corbett, Tom Corbett and Astro would meet while trying to find their quarters at the Academy (9/11/52).
SENIOR CADET
Tom Ranger is tricked by the future "senior cadet" of the unit, when he sends Tom on a wild goose trip to the "graveyard" of space ships (day 2, panel 2 and 3). In the Tom Corbett daily strip Roger Manning would send Tom Corbett and Astro on a wide goose chase in Commander Arwright's Rotor Jet (9/12/52).
The "senior cadet" isn't named in the comic strip but is noted as Bruce Howard in the Rockhill Radio script "MEN OF THE DARKSIDE". He is the wise cracking, know-it-all who would becomes Roger Manning . Bruce Howard advises his crew mates that he would be passing the Captain's orders to the others as the SENIOR CADET(day 6 panel 4). In Tom Corbett, Roger Manning introduced himself to his crew mates as the "senior cadet" with threats of putting them on report to Commander Arkwright (9/15/52).
OATH OF ALLIANCE:
Cadet units in TOM RANGER and TOM CORBETT are made of three cadet candidates with the threat of only two of three candidates making it into Space Academy (day 5 panel 3). In Tom Corbett the threat of failure is announced during the Oath of Alliance for new cadets (9/17/52).
ARTWORK:
The first full-length comic adventure in the TOM CORBETT strip would be an adaptation by Paul S. Newman of the Men from the Darkside. His notes and the plot line comparison's will be a future page on the Tom Corbett Comic Strip page. The Tom Corbett comic strip would be drawn by Ray Bailey
The artwork for the proposed strip,looks like early Murphy Anderson graphics. However, it looks more like Murphy Anderson artwork done for the BUCK ROGERS comic strip than the later DC Science Fiction artwork.
Special Thanks to Joseph Greene's son, Paul, for forwarding copies of the first week of the proposed Tom Ranger comic strip. The week (Monday - Saturday) is broken down into two different scans. Please remember that the strip is still under copyright by the Joseph Greene family.
