Atomic Kommie Comics: 2020-02-09

Saturday, February 15, 2020

"Good Girl" Artist Bill Ward Goes Black!

Though known for his...stimulating...renditions of buxom (and usually blonde) women...

...Bill Ward was one of several well-known comic artists who provided Playboy-style cartoons featuring Black women (and men) to Duke, a 1950s magazine intended to attract the young, male, African-American audience that other male-oriented mags didn't (yet) cater to!

You'l note that while the men are clearly African-American, the women have more of a "look" like Dorothy Dandridge (here as seen in her only genre film, Tarzan's Peril).

Since some of the cartoons in the issue showed both men and women as Black...

...we're not sure if it was editorial choice or Ward's lack of ability to portray attractive Black women with more "ethnic" features...
I don't know if Ward contributed any illustrations for the remaining five issues of the mag's run.

If anybody can provide more info, please contact me!

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Wonderful World of Bill Ward

King of the Glamour Girls

Friday, February 14, 2020

Friday Fun WEIRD THRILLERS "Princess of the Sea"

Though the cover may not look like it, this is a love story...

Art by Allen Anderson

...so it's a perfect post for Valentine's Day, 2020!

Well, it sure ain't Little Mermaid, or even Splash!

Penciled by Dan Barry and inked by Frank Giacoia, the writer of this tale of love beneath the waves from Ziff-Davis' Weird Thrillers #3 (1952) is, sadly, unknown.

Note: when the story was reprinted in the Eclipse one-shot anthology Weird Romance (1988), it was again featured on the cover...

...also by an artist named "Anderson", but in this case it was Brent (no relation to Allen) Anderson!
Bonus Note: For an earlier reprinting, in St John's Nightmare #13 (1954), a new cover was provided by noted Black artist Matt Baker...

...who was best-known for his "good girl" art, but could handle any genre, including sci-fi and horror, with finesse!
❤︎HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!❤︎

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Baker Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "Xondu the Eternal"

A never-reprinted 1950s sci-fi tale by legendary Black artist Matt Baker...

..with a Twilight Zone-style twist ending!

OK, it's more a "Third from the Sun" than "To Serve Man" ending, but still, it's fairly effective!

(And kudos to those who didn't have to click on the links to understand what I was talking about!)

Penciled by Matt Baker and inked by Vince Colletta, this tale from Out of This World #15 (1959) unfortunately suffers from both Colletta's rushed inking and the poor printing Charlton was notorious for.

(Unlike other comics companies, Charlton had their own printing press, which had been designed for packaging...including breakfast cereal boxes...not newsprint!)

The writer is unknown, but many believe it to be Joe Gill, who was rapidly making a name for himself with an impressive, and varied, body of work.
Penciler Matt Baker was one of the few Black comic book artists of the Golden and Silver Ages, and was easily the most prolific of them!
Though known for his "good girl" art, including the famous (and infamous) Phantom Girl stories, he handled every genre with ease, including horror, war, sci-fi, and romance!
Sadly, though, few of his stories featured Black characters...who were rare in comics until the mid-1960s!
You can read a short, but complete bio HERE!
He'll be our featured artist this month in the Baker Reading Room at Atomic Kommie Comics, spotlighting his amazing cross-genre versatility!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder DUKE "Last White Man"

From the first issue of a long out-of-print 1950s Playboy competitor comes this Ray Bradbury tale...

...which was presented only once with this title!

Intended as one of several new stories to link previously-published Mars tales in the now-legendary anthology The Martian Chronicles (1950) as a sequel to "Way in the Middle of the Air", it was delayed due to editorial requests for revisions and ended up initially-appearing in 1951 in a non-science fiction magazine dedicated to short stories in every genre as "The Other Foot"...

...before finally making its' appearance in a later, equally-legendary Bradbury anthology in 1951...

How did this unusual retitling come about?
In 1957, with Playboy dominating the newsstands, a new publisher introduced an African-American counterpart called Duke, which featured Black creatives and cheesecake models.

(The centerfold models were called "Duchesses"!)

Along with acclaimed Black writers Langston Hughes, Erskine Caldwell, and Chester Hines, the premiere issue featured Ray Bradbury's short story "The Other Foot", now entitled "The Last White Man"!

Unlike most of Bradbury's works, this tale has, to date, never been adapted into any other media!

(Sadly, Duke only lasted six issues.)

AFAIK, the only time "The Other Foot/The Last White Man" has ever been cover-featured was in a rare, limited-run book produced by, of all companies, Xerox, in 1967!

Try finding a copy of it at a reasonable price (or even a clean scan of the cover)!

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Tomorrow Midnight

Adaptations of Ray Bradbury's sci-fi stories from EC Comics!

Plus a new cover by Frank Frazetta

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

The FIRST Black Character to Get His Own Comic was a COWBOY???

YOU BETCHA!

In 1966, the year the Black Panther debuted in Marvel's Fantastic Four...

...Dell Comics went them one better, introducing the first Black character to get his own comic!

Other Black characters had their own series in anthology titles, but Lobo was the first to have his name AS the comic's title!
Lobo combined a couple of popular plot concepts...
Man on the Run for a Crime He Did NOT Commit
Exemplified by then-hit tv series The Fugitive, Lobo was framed, but couldn't prove his innocence.
Lone Western Hero
A loner wandering the Old West, righting wrongs was an especially popular sub-genre in tv Westerns.
Variations on the theme included gamblers (Maverick) and martial-arts experts (Kung Fu)
Note: the tv series Branded also combined both the Loner and Man Framed themes!
...as well as a new concept:
Prominent Black character
Black characters (except for sterotypes like Amos 'n Andy) were few and far between on tv until the mid-1960s, and even then only as supporting characters (usually servants).
1960s urban dramas like Naked City and East Side, West Side, which dealt with current social themes had Black guest stars including James Earl Jones and Diana Sands, but no Black regulars.
Star Trek (1966) had both a Black regular character (Lt. Nyota Uhura) and Black actors in prominent roles as scientists and high-placed officers (admirals, etc,).
But, at that point, there were no tv series with a Black lead or Black title character!
(Diahann Carroll's groundbreaking series Julia didn't debut until 1968, two years later!)
So, Lobo was, to say the least, a daring experiment, albeit one with as many popular themes as possible to maximize sales potential!
Dell writer/editor Don (DJ) Arneson and artist Tony Tallarico felt the time was right, and managed to convince their publisher to take a chance.
(You can read Arneson's tale of Lobo's creation HERE.)
Unfortunately, it didn't work.
Many vendors outside of East Coast cities refused to even put a comic with a Black hero on their racks, and the book had an almost 90% return rate!
Lobo the comic only ran two issues.
It's rumored that a script and unfinished art exist for a third issue, but that's never been confirmed.
You can read both issues of Lobo HERE and HERE.

And don't forget our line of Lobo comic collectibles, including t-shirts, mugs, and other goodies at...