In 1945, in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction, Murray
Leinster published First Contact, a
science fiction story with a classic plot twist. He pointed out that if
spaceships representing alien civilizations were to meet in space for the first
time, neither could dare let the other learn the location of its home planet.
And 18 years later, in the back
pages of the first issue of a soon-to-be-classic comic book called Magnus, Robot Fighter, artist Russ
Manning and writers Eric Freiwald and Robert Schaefer used that plot as a
springboard for the serial Captain Johner
and the Aliens.
The solution to the dilemma? An
exchange of crew members. The journeys with the aliens — metallic-limbed,
dome-headed weirdies that seemed truly alien
— provided natural opportunities for stories that emphasized tolerance, reason
and the importance of civilized cooperation and teamwork.
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