Saturday, September 21, 2013

Reading Room: CLASSIC COMICS "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" Part 1

Though it doesn't actually take place on Halloween...
..., let's look at one of the most famous ghost tales of all, as told in Classic Comics, the predecessor to Classics Illustrated, in a story adapted by Dan Levin and illustrated by Rolland H Livingstone.
What does Brom have in mind for Ichabod?
Be here tomorrow for the answer!

Friday, September 20, 2013

Reading Room: CRUSADER FROM MARS "Night of Terror"

Ziff-Davis had two short-lived titles about visitors from the Red Planet...
...Lars of Mars (which we covered HERE) and this one, about a pair of Martian criminals sent to dispense justice on Earth.
Yeah, you read that right...
You thought maybe they were a husband-and-wife alien police officer team like Katar and Shayera Hol, the Silver Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl?
Nope!
Tarka murdered his rival for the love of a woman and committed the first felony on Mars in 50 years. The Martian government branded his arm and sentenced him to exile.
Together with his fellow criminal Zira, they were sent to Earth to rid it of crime.
If they failed, then they would be destroyed--and so would Earth.
Using their advanced technology, they battled evil both on Earth, and occasionally in outer space.
The writer for this tale from Crusader from Mars #2 (1952) is unknown, but may be the book's editor, Jerry (Superman) Siegel.
The penciler appears to be Marvin Stein, but the inker is unknown.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

MORE Technical Difficulties Thanks to Google...

Google has made another un-announced change, disabling uploading of images to Picasa/Google+ albums unless you're using Google+ instead of Google.
Last week they disabled editing in Google+ Photos unless you use the Chrome browser, and when we finally were able to access it after loading and initializing Chrome, discovered they had eliminated some features (including showing file size, resolution, and image dimensions) from the editing software!
(We worked out a new editing system and are back on track with that)
Because our albums are spread out over three different user names, only one of which is on Google +, we'll have to work out what to do.
Because moving the albums from one user name to another would break the existing links to the blogs, that option is out of the question.
Hopefully, we'll be back tomorrow...

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Reading Room: JETTA OF THE 21st CENTURY "What a Specimen"

To help ease your return to school or work...MORE fun with Dan DeCarlo's Jetta!
2013 ain't what they thought it would be in 1953...
"Leaping Electrodes!"
"Now we're cookin' with uranium!"
"Go atomize yourself!"
"This is simply electronic!"
Why aren't we all talking like this?
This tale from Jetta #6 (which was actually the second issue) was written and penciled by Dan DeCarlo, but it may not have been inked by him.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

READING ROOM: Buzzy Bean and His Flying Saucer

Here's a never-reprinted strip about a boy and his flying saucer...
...from a short-lived company that only put out two titles with a combined total of nine issues!
Artist Carl Hubbell (no relation to the Hall of Fame baseball player) illustrated over 300 tales from the late Golden Age through the Silver Age at almost every company in the business.
The writer of this premiere strip from Good Comics' Johnny Law: Sky Ranger #1 (1955).
The company name was not a boast, the publisher was Edmond Good, an artist with both newspaper and comic book credits from the beginning of the Golden Age to the end of the Bronze Age.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Reading Room: UNEARTHLY SPECTACULARS 3 Rocketeers "1...2...3...Infinity!"

Though the 3 Rocketeers were originally-set in the "day after tomorrow"...
...and based on the Moon, by the end of their too-brief run, they were traveling to other planets on a regular basis!
Written by noted sci fi novelist Otto Binder (who wrote over 3,000 comics scripts) and illustrated by Golden and Silver Age workhorse Bill Draut, the Rocketeers' final appearance in Harvey's UnEarthly Spectaculars #3 (1967) was not inventory from unpublished 1950s Race for the Moon material, but a new tale commissioned during Harvey's brief 1960s fling with non-humor comics.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Design of the Week Redux: CAMPUS ROMANCES

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another.
This week we're rerunning a design that just won't quit selling!
Vacation is over, time to get back to work or school!
But what goes on when class is not in session?
This vintage comic book cover from Avon's Campus Romances #2 (1949) gives you the answer!
NOTE: The art was originally used on an Avon paperback novel, entitled Where the Girls were Different by Erskine Caldwell [1948].
The comic does not adapt any Caldwell stories.
Available on adult t-shirts, mugs, e-reader, laptop, and phone cases, and many other goodies!