Saturday, August 31, 2013

Joe Worker and the Story of Labor

Because it is Labor Day weekend...
...we thought it would be worthwhile to re-present a comic about the labor movement!
It's not "light" reading, but we think it's a worthwhile way to spend a half-hour (or less) on a day commemorating the labor movement!

Friday, August 30, 2013

Reading Room: BLAST-OFF! 3 Rocketeers "Great Moon Mystery"

Three-day weekend coming up.
Let's blow your mind...
Art by Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, and Al Williamson.
...with a tale that starts with finding an unconscious TV star on the Moon and gets wilder and wilder...
IIRC, Carl Sagan postulated a similar concept decades later about wormhole travel in the novel Cosmos...
Intended for the never-published Race for the Moon #4 (1960), this Jack Kirby/Al Williamson collaboration finally saw print in Harvey's Blast-Off #1 (1965), long after Kirby, along with Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and others began the amazing resurrection of the almost-defunct Atlas Comics line into Marvel Comics!

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Reading Room: UNEARTHLY SPECTACULARS "Hidden World"

"Men in Black" were here long before the movie and comic...
...as this never-reprinted story from Harvey's Unearthly Spectaculars #1 (1965) by Doug (Jonny Quest) Wildey shows!
The story was probably part of the inventory of material left over by the cancellation of Race for the Moon in 1960.
In 1965, Wildey was too busy working in California on Jonny Quest, and then, the Marvel Super-Heroes animated series to do comic book work in NYC.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Reading Room: BLAST-OFF! 3 Rocketeers "Lunar Goliaths"

On his 96th birthday, we see that Jack Kirby could produce astounding work on a daily basis...
...that other artists would take weeks to conceive and create!
This was literally a day's work (two if Kirby was doing full pencils) for the King.
Can you name any other artist who could do quality art like this, five to six days a week?
Intended for the never-published Race for the Moon #4 (1960), this Jack Kirby/Al Williamson collaboration finally saw print in Harvey's Blast-Off #1 (1965), long after Kirby, along with Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and others began the amazing resurrection of the almost-defunct Atlas Comics line into Marvel Comics!
Happy Birthday, Jack!
And thanks for the memories!

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Technical Difficulties...

Since today was the hottest day of the year, we had a blackout...
...until power was restored about a half-hour ago.
The feature for today, The 3 Rocketeers, has been postponed, but only until tomorrow!

Monday, August 26, 2013

Reading Room:: BLAST-OFF! "Danger! Atoms!"

Some stories need little extrapolation...
...such as this never-reprinted short by writer/artist Howard Nostrand from Harvey's Blast-Off! #1 (1965)
Cute, eh?

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Happy Birthday, Mr Bond! Now Die...

It's Sean Connery's 83rd Birthday...
Inside cover of Showcase #43
Before you say "But, that's a reprint of the Classics Illustrated version available only in England!", I'll point out that numerous changes (which are compared in the blog posts) were made by DC in both text and art!
And, while the Classics Illustrated version has been translated and printed all over the world, the DC version has never been reprinted!
Because Showcase #43 came out months before the movie debuted in America, it sold poorly, and DC didn't exercise their 10-year option to do more James Bond tie-ins!
Ironically, in 1972, DC realized they were about to lose the rights to do 007 comics and considered doing an entire series of one-shot movie adaptations up to, and including, the current film, but Sean Connery's announcement that Diamonds are Forever would be his last film in Bondage (ouch) put the kibosh on those plans!
That's why there were no comic adaptations from Gold Key or Dell (who were doing comics based on every movie and TV show they could get their hands on) during the height of '60s Bond-mania!