Space kingley

Space Kingley, often vaguely remembered as "Space Kingsley" appeared in one 1953 annual by Sampson Low, Marston & Co Ltd (25 Gilbert Street, London, W.1.).
It was a hard cover annual with a dust jacket. The dust jacket and cover featured a green helicopter and red rocket and the main characters. Cost was five shillings (25 pence) and the standard of stories (by Ernest A. Player) and artwork mostly in B&W by (R. W. Jobson) in the text stories was high, being made to look like B&W photos in style. The comic artwork in two stories was of a lower standard. The annual totaled 88 pages including covers. Inside the front cover featured a battle with the Venusian lava machines and the back inside featured a battle against the robot machines on the Venus moon landscape.
The main character was Captain Robert "Space" kingley, Senior Field Officer of the Interplanetary Rangers and his faithful aide "Shorty" Rowe and their (further) exploits in the 22nd century, with their spaceship, the "Comet". The seven main chapters of the annual follow one story.
Contents
Page 4 with: Illustration for Mission Four, robots and Kingley in a temple with The Man from Beyond.
Page 5 with: Contents page.
* Pages 6-18. Mission One (text story with some pictures): The Strange Moon of Venus. The year 2130 and Venus has acquired a new moon which has come from outside the Solar System and the people of the four continents of Venus are fighting over whether to colonise it or not. Kingley braves the steamy world of lava seas to try and stop all out war.
* Pages 19-23. Mission Two (text story with some pictures) : The Robots Attack. Strange robots immune to disintegrating guns attack using paralyzing green vapour but are beaten with the help of the Chief Scientist on Space Station X5.
* Pages 24-32. Mission Three (text story with some pictures): The Shrinking Seas of Neptune. Neptune is a water world peopled by amphibians. Kingley visits the depths and talks with them in a transparent cosmium craft with legs because the people are angry, thinking Earth people are drying up their seas. The villains are strange aliens covered in scales but looking sufficiently human to fool the Neptunians. After a brave battle, Kingley triumphs and the villains escape into space.
Page with: Colour plate of Rocket docked at orbiting space station for repairs.
Page with: The Space Station, with details and cut-away views.
Page with: Colour plate of two men in control room of I.P.R. rocket looking at their scanner.
Page with: The I.P.R rocket Mk IV, details and cut-away
* Pages 33-40. Space Kingley and the Hurricane Mystery. B&W comic story. The evil Professor Tranton has a machine which makes hurricanes which causes devastation. Kingley is caught, marooned and meets some natives and befriends them. Helped by a native boy he manages to thwart and capture Tranton and his men.
* Pages 41-48. Space Kingley and the Neptunian Mystery. B&W comic story. Vacationing on Neptune with Shorty, Kingley comes up against space pirates who are hijacking space freighters full of Duradium ore, bound for Earth.
Page with: Information and drawings about the Inter-Planetary Rangers.
Page with: Colour Plate of main hall at the I.P.R HQ with 100 foot scanner screen.
Page with: Information and drawings of standard space suit, as worn by Rangers.
Page with: Colour plate showing Rangers in space suits helping stranded comrades.
* Pages 49-56. Mission Four (text story with some pictures) : The Great Armada. The Lemasians on the new moon of Venus (which had been thought lifeless) are revealed as being behind the troubles in the previous adventures. Most of them have died and their planet has lost most of it's air. Kingley and others including the black captain of the Florence Nightingale (mentioned in earlier adventures) an ambulance ship are captured by "The Man from Beyond" in the city Sombista. Air is delivered to the new moon and a battle is fought but the bad guys escape again.
* Pages 57-64. Mission Five (text story with some pictures) : Assignment to Lemas. The World Federation has debated the new moon and decided that if the robots are destroyed, it will no longer be a danger. But how to destroy the ultra-tough metal they are made from? Also the robots are self-repairing. Kingley and Shorty go on a mission to Lemas to steal a robot and find out how it works but have to cope with Venusian treachery too.
* Pages 65-69. Mission Six (text story with some pictures) : The Moon Gun. Vacationing on the Moon, Kingley finds the Lemas robots are building a huge gun there so they can bombard the Earth. After a battle, Kingley triumphs but The Man from Beyond escapes again.
* Pages 70-77. Mission Seven (text story with some pictures) : The Last Encounter. Lemas robots are landing on Earth and Kingley decides that the only way to stop them is to go after The Man from Beyond, who turns out to be a gifted alien scientist named Zondar who works with the treacherous Venusians, Generals Morach and Tantin. His plan is to conquer first the Earth then the rest of the Solar System. There are a number of battles between man and machine, between the good guys and the bad guys but Kingley and Shorty finally trick Zondar who escapes in cargo spaceship F2, but despite radio warnings from Kingley he overtaxes the rocket engines and the ship blows up, killing him and ending the Lemas menace.
The annual was made and printed in Great Britain by L. T. A Robinson Limited, London, S.W.9.
Reference
The annual itself.

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