Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Best of Holiday Reading Room DOCTOR STRANGE "Eternity, Eternity" Conclusion

(A New Year's Eve repost you readers demanded...)
When Last We Left the Sorcerer Supreme...
...it was the end of 1968, New Year's Eve, to be exact.
After seeing a vision of the etherial Eternity changing into his old enemy, NightmareDr Strange takes his alien love, Clea, to Times Square to experience New Year's Eve: New York City Style...where a pterodactyl crashes into the clock as it strikes midnight!
Yep, True Believer, it's another of Marvel's patented "continued stories"!
But our intent here is to present only the New Year's Eve part of the tale, since both parts have been reprinted recently.
So we're going to show you how Marvel itself got out of re-running the entire two-parter when it ran this tale from Doctor Strange #180 (1969) in Marvel Treasury Edition #8: Giant SuperHero Holiday Grab-Bag (1975)!
The editors took the Gene Colan penciled and inked presentation piece showing the finalized design for Doc's "superhero-style" costume that appeared as a pin-up in Doctor Strange #180...
...took out the final panel of the story and used the Doc figure with a new word balloon!

Sneaky, huh?
Written by Roy Thomas, penciled by Gene Colan, and inked by Tom Palmer, this tale is one of the koolest of the era's Dr Strange stories with pop culture references galore and accurate NYC locales!
The cover, btw is a combination of a Steve Ditko Eternity figure, a new Doctor Strange by Colan and Palmer and a New York City photo background (Marvel did several photo background covers during this period)
Tomorrow:
The Splash Pages that Became BlackLite Posters!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics This New Year's
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...featuring this tale and it's continuation!

Monday, December 30, 2019

Best of Holiday Reading Room DOCTOR STRANGE "Eternity, Eternity" Part 1

(By popular demand...our most-read New Year's post of all...)
The year was 1968, going into 1969...
...and the wildest New Year's Eve story in comics history is about to begin!
Yeah.
It's a heckuva point to break off our tale until tomorrow, but you'll need an incentive to get out of bed on New Year's Eve Day!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics This New Year's
Digitally-Restored and Remastered DIRECTLY From an Original Poster!

Sunday, December 29, 2019

Holiday Reading Room HUMBUG! "Humbug Award for Fake Santa Clauses"

...well, here's a far more cynical take on the matter, courtesy of artist Will Elder from the appropriately-titled Humbug #6 (1958)!
The writer is probably Elder or editorial staffers Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, Al Jaffee, or Arnold Roth.
Any guesses?

Saturday, December 28, 2019

Holiday Reading Room ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND "Man Who Didn't Believe in Christmas"

I'm not sure what to make of this story.
It's "A Christmas Carol", yet it's not!
Weird, eh?
This story appeared in Adventures in Wonderland #5 (1956), the Christmas issue, and both writer and artist are unknown.
The editor/publisher was Lev Gleason, who had also published a number of classic comic series including Crime Does Not PayDareDevil Comics, and Silver Streak Comics.
However, this was at the tail end of his career, and being constrained by the newly-implemented Comics Code Authority apparently didn't sit well with him.
Perhaps this tale was his commentary on the sort of bland material he felt the Code was limiting him to?
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Friday, December 27, 2019

Friday Fun SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "Santa's Jeep!"

One of the koolest Christmas covers ever...
...which most people don't realize is a wraparound, since they've only seen the front and, as a result, don't get the joke!
This cover for Dell's Santa Claus Funnies #1 (1942) has never been reprinted in full!
I've seen the front cover in a number of reference books, but never the back one.
BTW, the reason Santa's driving a Jeep is, well, let Santa himself explain on the inside front cover...
"Too bouncy", eh?
Though the artist is considered "unknown" by the Grand Comics Database, it looks a lot like Walt (Pogo) Kelly, who was working at Dell, and contributed a couple of stories to the book.
(Yeah, I know it's after Christmas, but it's before New Year's, so if you can leave the tree and decorations up, I can do a couple more Yuletide-themed posts!

Thursday, December 26, 2019

Little Women: the Comic Book!

...that opened Christmas Day!
But, did you know there was a comic book adaptation...done over 30 years ago?
Our "sister" RetroBlog, True Love Comics Tales, is running the story (which was actually part of a read-along book and record set) now and next Wednesday!
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Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Holiday Reading Room CHRISTMAS WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Night Before Christmas"

It's Christmas Eve, and what better way to celebrate than with...
as re-told (and enhanced) by writer/artist Walt (Pogo) Kelly?
Hard to believe this cool version of the classic tale from Dell's Four Color #126 (1946) aka Christmas with Mother Goose, has been reprinted only once, and that was 27 years ago!
I echo Santa in saying "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!"!

Monday, December 23, 2019

Monday Madness CURIOUS CASE OF SANTA CLAUS

My favorite Doctor Who is #3, played by Jon Pertwee...
Jon as The Doctor with Eizabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, his final companion
...so when this documentary about Kris Kringle, packaged as a tale featuring Pertwee as a psychiatrist with a patient (James Coco) who thinks he's Santa Claus, ran on A&E in the late 1980s, I taped it and showed it every Christmas...until the tape jammed!
Now I (and you) can enjoy it again...
Enjoy

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Design of the Month "Bah, Humbug!"

Usually, each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days...
...however, we feel that this phrase is so concise, so important, that it should remain available to our audience for the entire month!
With Christmas approaching, let's celebrate with the most famous phrase of the man who personifies the Trumpian XMas Spirit ... Ebenezer Scrooge in a kool retro Victorian-era font!
 Available in either white/silver on dark items or red/green on white or light-colored items.