Saturday, March 31, 2018

EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE Cover Galllery

From 1946 through 1949, Dell produced an annual Easter with Mother Goose...
...with all-new stories and art by Walt (Pogo) Kelly!
We've presented a number of the stories (most never-reprinted since the 1940s) HERE.

Friday, March 30, 2018

Friday Fun JETTA OF THE 21st CENTURY "Hot Rod Rocket"

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 #6 (1953) would've made a pretty good comic story.
Perhaps it was scripted by Dan DeCarlo?
The artist, who used a more "realistic" style than Dan DeCarlo or Fred Eng, is unknown!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...
Dan DeCarlo's Jetta

Thursday, March 29, 2018

Reading Room WEIRD ADVENTURES "Dome of Death"

Reading this blog,  you might think that "sci-fi" just means "space opera" or "futuristic"...
...but it can be set on present-day Earth, as well!
This never-reprinted tale from the Ziff-Davis one-shot Weird Adventures #10 (1951) reads like the script for an anthology tv show or a b-movie.
It's mostly character interaction and a crime/thriller plot with some easily-done (even for the 1950s) sfx!
Illustrated by John Giunta, whose long career spans both the Golden and Silver Ages with work for literally every company in every genre!
However, Giunta may be best-known to today's audiences as the artist who gave the legendary Frank Frazetta his first job, when he hired the talented teen as a studio assistant!
The writer of this unusual tale is unknown, but could be Giunta himself!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...
(which contains only a couple of stories from this previously-listed volume)

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder CARSON OF VENUS "Mars--or Bust!"

Starting this week, we're presenting runs of short-lived series on Wednesdays...
...beginning with one of the very best from two future comic legends!
When Gold Key lost the license to Edgar Rice Burroughs properties in 1971, DC snapped it up right away!
The then-new Conan the Barbarian title had proven pulp characters had viability as comics and both DC and Marvel were grabbing up pulp properties currently in paperback reprints to adapt.
While Marvel was concentrating on Robert E Howard's characters (and other barbarians) along with Doc Savage, DC got Doc's stablemates The Shadow and The Avenger as well as Burroughs' lineup.
Besides continuing the Tarzan and Korak titles (from their Gold Key numbering), DC decided to re-launch John Carter along with previously-unadapted series Pellucidar and Carson of Venus as back-ups!
Note: While Gold Key's Tarzan had visited Pellucidar in several multi-issue tales, the underground world and it's inhabitants never had stand-alone stories!
There was no shortage of eager creatives to handle the new series!
Writer Len Wein and illustrator Michael Kaluta got the nod for Carson and ran with it, as you can see in this premiere story just dripping with both period mood and pulp-style high adventure from DC's Korak: Son of Tarzan #46 (1972)!
The team adapts ERB's introductory Carson novel Pirates of Venus in a multi-issue arc.
Oddly, they leave out one of the more interesting aspects of the book...a number of references to other Burroughs characters including Tarzan, David Innes, Captain Zuppner, Abner Perry and Jason Gridley!
Whether this was DC's or the Burroughs Estates' decision is unknown, but I find it hard to believe serious fans like Wein and Kaluta would deliberately leave out the references...
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...
The Complete Ace Books Carson of Venus Series

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

How Do You Handle a Humongous Movie Cast on Posters?

Easy!
Do a Bunch Of Posters!
Apparently color-coded to the Infinity Stones everybody is trying to protect/steal/recover...
...the posters each give an Avenger a starring spot...
...with allies dynamically-filling out the designs.
Yes, I note neither the Hulk nor the Vision get "star' status...
...but neither does the Black Panther, though I'm not certain if he's "officially" an Avenger or not!
And where the hell are Ant-Man/Giant-Man and Hawkeye?
Will Clint Barton follow his Silver Age comics story arc and become Giant-Man/Goliath?
Or will he skip that incarnation and go directly to Ronin?
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...

Monday, March 26, 2018

Reading Room NORGE BENSON "Kaws of the Lost Planetoid"

One thing you have to say about Pluto in Golden Age comic books...
...it certainly wasn't a dull place to live, or visit!
Is it just me or is Frosting getting even smaller than before?
Initially, he was the size of an adult bear, then he became the size of a chimpanzee!
Now he's small enough to sit on Norge's head like a hat!
Lily Renee continues the illustrating chores in this tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #30 (1944), handling spacecraft, criminals, and beautiful women with equal aplomb!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order...
Planet Comics
Vol. 8

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Holiday Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Hot Cross Buns"...Two Ways!

Sometimes Walt Kelly liked a nursery rhyme so much...he used it twice!
Such is the case with this one...from Dell's Four Color Comics: Easter with Mother Goose #103 (1946), and then, with an extra rhyme, in Easter with Mother Goose #220 (1949)
You gotta admit, if there's anyone who can do a classic nursery rhyme and make it appear fresh both times, it's Walt!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics