Holiday Reading Room SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "Christmas Carols"

The very first Santa Claus Funnies featured these cool illustrated Christmas carols...

...combining both religious chants...

...traditional folk tunes...

...and contemporary songs!

The artist(s) of these never-reprinted shorts from Dell's Santa Claus Funnies #1 (1942) are unknown.
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Great Treasury of
Christmas Comic Book Stories

Friday Fun SPACE MOUSE "Beauty Contest"

In the 1950s, both funny animals and sci-fi were popular comics genres...

...so, it was inevitable that someone would combine the two!

Though it's the cover-featured story in Avon's Space Mouse #1 (1954), "Beauty Contest" is not the origin of the Rocketing Rodent.

That tale, "Atomic Attack", comes later in the book.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Fleischer Story

A history of the Cartoon Studio in the Golden Age of Film Animation

(covering the studio where Frank Carin got his start)

Holiday Reading Rom HUMBUG! "Voyage of the Mayflower II"

Here's a look from Humbug #3  (1957) at how a trend begins...

...which writer/artist R. O. Blechman derived from the real-life adventure of the Mayflower II, which apparently made a boodle of cash and inspired construction (and exploitation) of replicas of other famous sailing vessels!

Utilizing reconstructed ship blueprints held by the American museum Plimoth Plantation, and hand-built by English shipbuilders using traditional methods, the sea-worthy vessel actually sailed the Atlantic from England to Plymouth Rock, Mass, where it's been a tourist attraction ever since.

The Mayflower II is currently drydocked and undergoing restoration.

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder FIST OF GOD "Chapter One" Part 1

"High Adventure" encompasses many different genres, exotic locales, as well as past, present and future eras...

...including the Middle East of the early 20th Century!

He does, indeed, as you'll see next Wednesday!

Co-creators writer RA Jones and artist Butch Burcham go for a "working class Indiana Jones/Doc Savage" feel with their anti-hero Mick Taggert in Eternity's Fist of God #1 (1988).

As to the exact inspiration for the series,  that's detailed in a behind-the-scenes piece from the same issue...

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

The Mucker

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Reading Room MYSTERY IN SPACE "Singling"

A well-done graphic story can be understood without captions or word balloons...

...as this never-reprinted tale from DC's Mystery in Space #111 (1980) demonstrates!

Scripter Gerald J Brown penned only a few stories before disappearing from comics.
He was also a writer/editor of the prozine Night Voyages. which ran for 10 issues between 1977 and 1984.
This issue of Mystery in Space was the first issue of a revival of the legendary anthology which was cancelled in 1966.
Sadly, the book only lasted for seven issues before being cancelled again...

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Mysteries in Space

The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics

Monday Madness ALICE "Topsy Turvy"

Alice shared her book with one other feature, Tweedledum and Tweedledee...

...featuring characters made famous by Lewis Carroll, but actually the subjects of a poem by John Byrom (not "Byron") a century earlier!

Besides this one-pager with Alice, written and drawn by Dave Berg, they appear in their own strip in this issue (#10) of Ziff-Davis' Alice! and guest-star with her in the next one!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Alice in ComicLand

Featuring various comics incarnations of the Lewis Carroll character!

Stan Lee's SECRETS BEHIND THE COMICS "A Great Surprise for You from Stan Lee!"

The book ends with the ultimate opportunity to learn from Stan the Man himself...

...an opportunity which no True Believer could possibly pass up, right?

Mind you, it's $1 if he's reviewing just a single page, a book-length (about 64 page) story, or a mini-series!

Wotta deal!
(Plus it was, in fact, his home address!)

I wonder how many would-be writers and artists took advantage of the offer?

At any rate, it's a classic example of Stan Lee's hyperbolic selling style that he'd utilize to great advantage in the Silver Age and beyond as he became the "Face of Marvel" to the world at large!
The back cover ends the tale in equally-enthusiastic fashion...

Excelsior!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Secrets Behind the Comics

by Stan Lee

The Long Out of Print How-To Book, Digitally Remastered