Future Comics’ Disney Dictator from Saturn, Up for Auction

Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: disney, Future Comics, golden age

The obscure character Rebo from “Saturn Against Earth” published in the U.S. in Future Comics was eventually used in Donald Duck adventures.

The short-lived and obscure title Future Comics may be one of the weirdest comic book series of the Golden Age — and that’s saying something.  Best known for its covers that include a strange-looking science fiction character named Rebo wearing bizarre headgear, the story behind that imagery may be even stranger than the covers implies.  David McKay Publications often licensed comic strip material to publish in comic book form (Future Comics also contained a collection of the Lone Ranger comic strip, interestingly enough), but in this case, the publisher licensed material from another country.  The lead feature of Future Comics, Saturno contro la Terra (Saturn against the Earth) is the first comic book material from Italy to be translated and published in the United States.   An obscure series with a fascinating origin, there are three issues of Future Comics up for auction in the 2024 May 30 Adventures in the Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction #40261 at Heritage Auctions.

Saturno contro la Terra was created by Cesare Zavatinni, Federico Pedrocchi and Giovanni Scolari, and published by Mondadori beginning in 1937 in I tre porcellini (The Three Little Pigs) which was later merged into Topolino (also the Italian name for Mickey Mouse), and in the title Paperino e altre adventure (Donald Duck and Other Adventures). All of these titles also featured Disney material.  The main character of the saga is Rebo, the dictator of Saturn whose forces mount an invasion of Earth, creating an interplanetary war.

In addition to Saturno contro la Terra and the Lone Ranger, Future Comics included reprints of newspaper strips The Phantom by Lee Falk and Ray Moore and Family Portraits by J. Norman Lynd. But the original, non-reprint feature that helped put the future into Future Comics was Rush Newton of the Newsreels, a science fiction story by Ralph Carlson.

The original Saturno contro la Terra continued through 1946, and interestingly the character Rebo was revived in 1960 and again in 1995 to take part in Disney comics Donald Duck adventures published in Italy.  You can get the early part of this saga that was published in the U.S. up for auction in the 2024 May 30 Adventures in the Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction #40261 at Heritage Auctions.

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