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Saturday, March 24, 2018

Reading Room GET LOST "Circle, the Triangle and the Square"

Sometimes, a comic tale doesn't need perspective, anatomy, or even characters to tell a story...
...as this classic bit of storytelling from Mikeross' Get Lost #3 (1954) proves!
The graphics are simple, but effective...but the key is the captions and their use of slang to deliver the punchline!
Though it only lasted three issues, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito's Get Lost was one of the best of the MAD comic knock-offs, never quite hitting the heights of Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder's lunacy, but coming close with several tales, including this one!
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Friday, March 23, 2018

Friday Fun JETTA OF THE 21st CENTURY "Jet-Heeled Prom" and "Zingbats"

Like most comics of the era, Jetta of the 21st Century had text stories...
...to qualify for second-class (magazine) mailing rates!
The text stories featured other characters from the "Jetta-verse"!
Written by "Dixon Wells" (a pen-name used only for Jetta text stories), this never-reprinted piece from Standard's Jetta of the 21st Century #7 (1953) would've made a pretty good comic story.
Perhaps it was scripted by Dan DeCarlo?
Also included in this final issue of the series was this one-pager totally-unrelated to the "Jetta-verse"...
No credits are available for this short, which probably was meant for one of Standard's sci-fi comics, Lost Worlds or Fantastic Worlds!
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Dan DeCarlo's Jetta

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "Man-Eating Lizards"

It's fun to see early work by a talent who would become one of the all-time greats...
...like this rarely-seen work by a then-teenaged Joe Kubert!
Note: may be NSFW due to racial stereotypes common to the era.
Oddly, the Pacific Islanders are colored green in this tale from Avon's Out of This World (1950) one-shot.
But when this story appeared several years earlier in Avon's Eerie Comics #1 (1947), they were various shades of brown and tan...
There's no explanation for the change to the coloring, especially since all the other color elements remained the same in both versions!
While artist Joe Kubert went on to become one of the icons of graphic storytelling, writer Edward Bellin disappeared from comics after scripting just this and one other story...which also appeared in that issue of Eerie Comics.
But that's not the end of the story!
Bellin (actually "Edward J Bellin") was an early pen-name for a writer already well-established in science-fiction/fantasy...Cyril M. Kornbluth...who was looking to expand beyond the prose market into other media, including comics, radio, and television.
Kornbluth had used the name on one of his earliest short stories, "No Place to Go", and decided to reuse it years later for his comics work.
Who sez comics ain't educational?
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Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Empire Magazine REALLY "Covers" Avengers: Infinity War!

England's Empire Magazine has a half-dozen covers...
...featuring an exclusive photoshoot with the Avengers: Infinity War cast as well as the kool illustrated cover (above) sent to subscribers!
Thanos gets a solo cover (you going to argue with him? I'm not!), then the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and various allies share the remainder.
What I find interesting is that all the masked heroes pose without masks, emphasizing the performers, not the characters, per se!
You can get the magazine at most major brick and mortar bookstores (like Barnes & Noble) that carry magazines.
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Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Reading Room REALITY "Quasar!"

Long before the internet and DeviantArt, up-and-coming artists were published in fanzines...
...to get their work in front of an audience, receive feedback, and make a few bucks!
Originally-drawn for Web of Horror, this early tale by Steve Hickman ended up in the first issue of Reality, a fanzine published in 1970 by 15-year old Robert Gerson.
When Web died after only three issues, a number of writers and artists had no market for their material without losing all the rights to it, so, in order to get it published to make a few bucks for their labor (and retain the copyrights), they let a young entepreneur use the stories in his fanzine, which was sold at conventions and in used book stores and head shops alongside underground comics.
(There were no comic book shops back then.)
Hickman spent a few years working in the comics field before moving on to commercial art, particularly sci-fi/fantasy book covers, with over 400 titles to his credit!
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Monday, March 19, 2018

Reading Room NORGE BENSON "Dragons of Diablo"

One thing I've noticed about this strip...
...is that there seem to be a lot of alien worlds easily-accessible with a quick trip from Pluto!
This never-reprinted story from Fiction House's Planet Comics #29 (1944) showed the versatility of Iger Studios newcomer Lily Renee, who was already handling Ranger Comics' Werewolf Hunter and Wings Comics' Jane Martin with the best yet to come!
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Sunday, March 18, 2018

Easter Egg-citement with Walt Kelly!

...but we don't believe in playing April Fools Day tricks on you!
So we've brought you some classic Walt Kelly tales and features from the annual Easter with Mother Goose issues of Dell's Four Color Comics, many of which have never been reprinted!
This centerfold from Four Color Comics: Easter with Mother Goose #103 (1946) is a splendid example.
Can you find the bunnies, chicks, and eggs hidden in the art?
And, after you've done that, click HERE to read some kool stories!
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