Space Ghost #1
Space Ghost #1 (Gold Key, 1967) stands as the first comic book appearance of Space Ghost, Jan, Jace, Blip, Dino Boy, and Todd — transplanting Alex Toth's groundbreaking Hanna-Barbera character designs onto the printed page less than six months after the TV series debuted. As a one-shot, it captures the full anthology format of the show — two Space Ghost adventures flanking a Dino Boy segment — making it a direct time-capsule artifact of the Saturday morning superhero boom that Space Ghost itself helped ignite. The cartoon had already proven it could displace The Beatles in the ratings, and this issue cemented the property as one worthy of the licensed-comics treatment Gold Key had built its identity on. Decades of Space Ghost comics publishing — from Comico through DC and on to Dynamite — trace their lineage back to this single issue.
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The Space Ghost animated series premiered on CBS on September 10, 1966, designed by acclaimed animation artist Alex Toth at the direction of CBS programming chief Fred Silverman, who wanted a superhero-driven Saturday morning lineup built around the cultural energy of the Space Age. Gold Key — the imprint of Western Publishing — held the Hanna-Barbera comics license and moved quickly, releasing this one-shot with a cover date of March 1967 and an internal production code suggesting a December 1966 release. Notably, Toth himself was not involved in the comic; instead, veteran Gold Key artist Dan Spiegle handled all interior and cover art, with Don R. Christensen writing the scripts (the Grand Comics Database notes that Christensen's working title for the lead story was 'Tazang's Revenge,' later published as 'Zorak's Revenge,' and for the third story the original title was 'Raft of Trouble').
Trivia · 7 facts
- First comic book appearances of Space Ghost, Jan, Jace, and Blip — all characters designed by Alex Toth for the 1966 Hanna-Barbera CBS animated series.
- First comic book appearance of Dino Boy (Todd) and his supporting cast (Ugh, Bronty), whose separate TV segments shared airtime with Space Ghost.
- Published as a one-shot by Gold Key (indicia publisher: K.K. Publications Inc.), cover-dated March 1967; an internal production code places the actual release in December 1966.
- All art — interior and cover — is by Dan Spiegle; scripts are by Don R. Christensen. Alex Toth, the character's TV designer, had no involvement in this comic.
- Three stories mirror the TV show's anthology format: 'Zorak's Revenge' (Space Ghost/Jace/Jan/Blip, 11 pages), 'The Raiders of Ra' (Dino Boy, 6 pages — centerfold), and 'The Space Outcast' (Space Ghost/Blip/Jace/Jan, 15 pages).
- The issue includes character profile illustrations on the inside front cover and a full-page Space Ghost pin-up on the back cover.
- Space Ghost's subsequent comic appearances followed in Hanna-Barbera Super TV Heroes (Gold Key, 1968–1969), Golden Comics Digest #2 (1969), Marvel's TV Stars #3 (1978, with art by Alex Toth), and a Comico one-shot (1987) by Mark Evanier and Steve Rude — all downstream of this foundational issue.
Cast · 6 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Introduction of the characters.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).
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