Comic Strip History

To the nice folks who have followed Adam Chase for the last year:

Adam Chase was the result of my desire to produce a sci-fi story in comic strip form. It actually started before Star Trek and, of course, a decade or so before Star Wars. In doing the strip on a weekly basis I would usually spend a week of spare time penciling four or five panels and the next week inking them in. It was a labor of love, not for any monetary gain.

I kept tear sheets (I worked at the paper as a staff artist) and actually had the first year bound in a book, which Allan used to scan for the images you have seen. His scans were many times sharper than the original tear sheets and he deserves many kudos for doing such a great job. Unfortunately, I did save tear sheets of the second year but they have been lost or misplaced and, to my knowledge, there are none left on the planet.

Allan and I discussed the possibility of running the second year using the black and white originals. Unfortunately, again, many installments in the latter part of the adventure are missing … enough that the continuity of the story, and the ending, is greatly compromised. If those missing tear sheets surface at some point in the future, perhaps Adam can reappear.

For those who want to know how it all ends now, read on.

IN CONCLUSION
Adam, Chuck and Zonn have returned to Earth with news of an impending alien invasion.

World leaders are eventually warned and a battle plan and defense of the planet is devised. It is discovered that the Universors have been using our moon as a base of their own. Tor and the rest of the martian star fleet arrive and are met at a remote desert location by Adam, Chuck and Zonn, along with military leaders.

The location of the Universor base is discovered and successfully attacked by the Martian star fleet. The leader of the Universors, from his distant planet elsewhere in the galaxy, warns that earth will be destroyed to gain its natural resources. (They’ve done this before).

Taking the offensive, with the Martian star fleet at their command, Adam and Zonn streak across the galaxy and engage the enemy on their own turf. Unfortunately, it was a one way trip, as the only way to get rid of the Universors was to destroy their planet. Adam, Chuck and Zonn were able to sabotage their power center and destroy their world. Presumably, they lost their own lives in saving mankind, but their actual whereabouts is still unknown.
-30-

Thank you again for your interest and readership-
Russ Morgan

Adam Chase strip #52, originally published May 28 1967. For background on the strip and creator, refer to this post.

First the short version — due to circumstances beyond our control, the second year of the Adam Chase comic
strips, which complete the storyline and the run of the strip, is
unavailable to run on Stripper’s Guide. Russ and I apologize that we are
unable to bring you the conclusion of the strip. Russ will provide a
synopsis of the second year’s storyline at the conclusion of this
series, which ends with installment #52.

And here’s the long version. Before we began running Adam Chase
on the Stripper’s Guide blog, Russ sent me the first year’s worth of
strips to scan. He believed that the second year of the run was in his
attic, in the form of black and white proofs. We decided to see how
things went with the first year, see if people liked it, before
troubling Russ with the job of playing archaeologist up in his attic.
Recently Russ did go on an expedition into cobweb land to retrieve the
second year. Unfortunately to his surprise and dismay he was able to
find only a little more than half the proof sheets for year two, not
nearly enough to keep running the series.

Russ is very
unhappy that his archive turns out to be incomplete, and I’m saddened
that we can’t bring you the rest of the series. That is, barring the
miracle that someone out there has the tearsheets and is willing to lend
them to us for scanning. I considered the possibility of pulling the
missing episodes from microfilm, but then I realized that since they
were run in color, the quality coming from microfilm will be really
awful, if even legible, so that’s no solution.

I hope you
will accept the apologies of Russ and I. Having gotten you interested in
the story, we know this is a big disappointment. Please keep in mind
that I am just as disappointed as you, and Russ even more so at the loss
of his archive. I hope you’ll join me in letting Russ know that we
really enjoyed year one of his delightful strip, Adam Chase.Your feedback in the comments would be much appreciated.

PS
— On a side note, this leaves the Stripper’s Guide flat-footed as
regards the future of Sci-Friday. I had expected to have another full
year of material for it, and so have not until just now bothered to
think of what we might run instead of Adam Chase.

I
certainly don’t have a long run of any sci-fi oriented strips that come
to mind, at least nothing that suits our needs here. We need a feature
that is well and definitely out of copyright, or comes with permission
from the copyright holder. Also, it has to be something that isn’t
already readily available elsewhere on the web. Anyone have any ideas, or better yet ideas that include source material I can borrow to scan?

Adam Chase strip #51, originally published May 21 1967. For background on the strip and creator, refer to this post.

First the short version — due to circumstances beyond our control, the second year of the Adam Chase comic
strips, which complete the storyline and the run of the strip, is
unavailable to run on Stripper’s Guide. Russ and I apologize that we are
unable to bring you the conclusion of the strip. Russ will provide a
synopsis of the second year’s storyline at the conclusion of this
series, which ends with installment #52.

And here’s the long version. Before we began running Adam Chase
on the Stripper’s Guide blog, Russ sent me the first year’s worth of
strips to scan. He believed that the second year of the run was in his
attic, in the form of black and white proofs. We decided to see how
things went with the first year, see if people liked it, before
troubling Russ with the job of playing archaeologist up in his attic.
Recently Russ did go on an expedition into cobweb land to retrieve the
second year. Unfortunately to his surprise and dismay he was able to
find only a little more than half the proof sheets for year two, not
nearly enough to keep running the series.

Russ is very
unhappy that his archive turns out to be incomplete, and I’m saddened
that we can’t bring you the rest of the series. That is, barring the
miracle that someone out there has the tearsheets and is willing to lend
them to us for scanning. I considered the possibility of pulling the
missing episodes from microfilm, but then I realized that since they
were run in color, the quality coming from microfilm will be really
awful, if even legible, so that’s no solution.

I hope you
will accept the apologies of Russ and I. Having gotten you interested in
the story, we know this is a big disappointment. Please keep in mind
that I am just as disappointed as you, and Russ even more so at the loss
of his archive. I hope you’ll join me in letting Russ know that we
really enjoyed year one of his delightful strip, Adam Chase.Your feedback in the comments would be much appreciated.

PS
— On a side note, this leaves the Stripper’s Guide flat-footed as
regards the future of Sci-Friday. I had expected to have another full
year of material for it, and so have not until just now bothered to
think of what we might run instead of Adam Chase.

I
certainly don’t have a long run of any sci-fi oriented strips that come
to mind, at least nothing that suits our needs here. We need a feature
that is well and definitely out of copyright, or comes with permission
from the copyright holder. Also, it has to be something that isn’t
already readily available elsewhere on the web. Anyone have any ideas, or better yet ideas that include source material I can borrow to scan?

Adam Chase strip #50, originally published May 14 1967. For background on the strip and creator, refer to this post.

First the short version — due to circumstances beyond our control, the second year of the Adam Chase comic strips, which complete the storyline and the run of the strip, is unavailable to run on Stripper’s Guide. Russ and I apologize that we are unable to bring you the conclusion of the strip. Russ will provide a synopsis of the second year’s storyline at the conclusion of this series, which ends with installment #52.

And here’s the long version. Before we began running Adam Chase on the Stripper’s Guide blog, Russ sent me the first year’s worth of strips to scan. He believed that the second year of the run was in his attic, in the form of black and white proofs. We decided to see how things went with the first year, see if people liked it, before troubling Russ with the job of playing archaeologist up in his attic. Recently Russ did go on an expedition into cobweb land to retrieve the second year. Unfortunately to his surprise and dismay he was able to find only a little more than half the proof sheets for year two, not nearly enough to keep running the series.

Russ is very unhappy that his archive turns out to be incomplete, and I’m saddened that we can’t bring you the rest of the series. That is, barring the miracle that someone out there has the tearsheets and is willing to lend them to us for scanning. I considered the possibility of pulling the missing episodes from microfilm, but then I realized that since they were run in color, the quality coming from microfilm will be really awful, if even legible, so that’s no solution.

I hope you will accept the apologies of Russ and I. Having gotten you interested in the story, we know this is a big disappointment. Please keep in mind that I am just as disappointed as you, and Russ even more so at the loss of his archive. I hope you’ll join me in letting Russ know that we really enjoyed year one of his delightful strip, Adam Chase.Your feedback in the comments would be much appreciated.

PS — On a side note, this leaves the Stripper’s Guide flat-footed as regards the future of Sci-Friday. I had expected to have another full year of material for it, and so have not until just now bothered to think of what we might run instead of Adam Chase.

I certainly don’t have a long run of any sci-fi oriented strips that come to mind, at least nothing that suits our needs here. We need a feature that is well and definitely out of copyright, or comes with permission from the copyright holder. Also, it has to be something that isn’t already readily available elsewhere on the web. Anyone have any ideas, or better yet ideas that include source material I can borrow to scan?

Adam Chase strip #49, originally published May 7 1967. For background on the strip and creator, refer to this post.

Adam Chase strip #48, originally published April 30 1967. For background on the strip and creator, refer to this post.

Adam Chase strip #47, originally published April 23 1967. For background on the strip and creator, refer to this post.

Adam Chase strip #46, originally published April 16 1967. For background on the strip and creator, refer to this post.

Adam Chase strip #45, originally published April 9 1967. For background on the strip and creator, refer to this post.

Adam Chase strip #44, originally published April 2 1967. For background on the strip and creator, refer to this post.