ᴛᴛɴ ᴘʀᴇşᴇɴᴛş ᴀ ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟᴇᴛᴇ şᴛᴏʀʏ In  the  Worlds  of  Time by  Eando  Binder (1939)

August 2019, Issue No. 11  TIME TRAVEL NEXUS PRESENTS . . .

In the Worlds of Time
by Eando Binder
scanned from Top-Notch Comics #1, December 1939

—Have you even run into the oddly named and extremely prolific Eando Binder in your travels through time-travel literature? The name was used for significant pulp fiction by Otto Binder and his brother Earl, and also—as in the story below—by Otto and his artist brother Jack. Otto was the only one of the six Binder children to be born (in 1911) on American soil, shortly after his soon-to-be father sent word to Austria-Hungary for Otto’s soon-to-be mother and the rest of the family (including Jack and Earl) to join him on Michigan’s upper peninsula. From there they moved to Randolph, Nebraska. I wonder whether there was any hint then that Otto, with his brothers beside him, would grow up to be a prolific writer of science fiction and one of the most prolific comic book writers ever? And it all started with this story . . .

By Odin! please let me know what you liked and what surprised you in this early time-travel comic book story. Scott Rand isn’t the earliest four-color time traveler, but he’s the first one in which time travel is the focus and the stories are aimed more at the pulp reading audience than at young children.

[Please see https://www.storypilot.com/time-travel-comics.html for my complete list of Golden and Silver Age comic book time travelers.]

I’d also like to insert another  plug for the wonderful biography, Words of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder by Bill Schelly. Well worth it for the romp through 20th-century speculative fiction. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to leave you this month with an image from that book to verify the notion that writing time travel is indeed a relaxing activity.

Keep on travelin’!

—Michael

[story images from the Digital Comic Museum]