Friday, July 17, 2020

Friday Fun HARRY HOT DOG "Peevy Over TV"

He's not a dachshund, but a generic canine with no self-control...
...who just can't understand what's going on with the then-"newfangled" tech known as "television"!
For those under 60, when TV was introduced to the American public in the early 1950s, it featured news, old movies, and low-budget original programming which this never-reprinted story from Magazine Enterprises' Hot Dog #1 (1954) aka A-1 #107 satirizes!
If you're wondering why the comic has two titles and numberings, let me explain...
Like Dell's Four Color Comics, A-1 was an anthology title which served as a tryout platform for various concepts, so it had both the strip's numbering and the title's numbering.
That way, if the strip didn't sell well, the publisher wouldn't have to pay for another second-class mailing permit (which was required for each title published) for a new series!
Numerous ME series were published this way, including Cave Girl, I Am a Cop, Trail Colt, Manhunt, Ghost Rider, and Thun'da!
This issue was the first of four Harry Hotdog-starring issues!
Writer/Artist George Crenshaw began as an animator for Walt Disney, then MGM before going to comic strips and books.
Besides being a longtime "ghost" on Dennis the Menace, he created his own long-running strip, Belevdere, about (surprise) a dog...but not an anthropomorphic one like Harry!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Thursday, July 16, 2020

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO UNKNOWN WORLDS "Devil's Day Off!"

Here's a never-reprinted tale that's really a product of its' time...
...the 1950s, when paranoia and fear ruled the USA!
You know you're evil when Satan admires to your skillsat torture!
Written by Stan Lee and beautifully-illustrated by Joe Maneely, this story from Atlas' Journey into Unknown Worlds #22 (1953) is good clean fun (not gory, like so much of the material at the time) for the entire family!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder HARSH REALM "Hazards" Part 1

...now that was exactly what we needed after a several-month break due to CoronaVirus!
From here on, it's nonstop Harsh Realm RPG action to the end of the series...
Is he an obvious ally...or secret enemy?
Be Here Next Wednesday!
Please note: Harris' Harsh Realm #3 (1994) was published over 25 years ago, when online gaming, virtual reality, and many technical aspects of the story were vastly-different than they are today.
Younger readers, in particular, might find things a little...weird, but at the time, they were considered visionary!
The legendary Jack Kirby did a combination superhero amusement park/virtual reality plotline even earlier in Marvel's 2001: a Space Odyssey #5 (1977)!
Like Harsh Realm's creators, he got some elements amazingly-correct...and some parts startlingly-wrong!
But give him credit, it was far more correct than incorrect!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Reading Room DRACULA "Story of the Stars"

A surreal 1970s sci-fi tale in a magazine called "Dracula"?
BTW, despite the magazine being called "Dracula", the legendary vampire only appears in one-page humor strips on the back cover!
The tale, written and illustrated by Jose M Bea was originally published in England in Dracula #11 (1972), a partworks magazine* by New English Library.
Some of the stories from this project made their American debut in Warren Publishing's HTF Dracula TPB in 1972 which reprinted #1-#6 of the British Dracula's run.
The remaining tales from #7-#12 (including this one) have never been published in the US.
*Partworks magazines are a limited series issued weekly, fortnightly, or monthly.
They usually run 12-24 issues for each volume.
When the final issue in a volume is published, the publishers offer a wraparound cover to make the complete set into a hardbound book. 
The buyer is offered the option to bind the magazines themselves or send the set to the publisher who professionally-binds the mags and sends the bound volume back to the customer.
This concept is extremely popular in Europe, but has never caught on in America, despite numerous attempts.

Monday, July 13, 2020

CoronaVirus Comics / Monday Madness GRIMM TALES OF TERROR "Red World" Part 1

With Covid-19 spreading after people failed to follow procedures during America's reopening...
...on Memorial Day Weekend, it's time for another tale (based on an Edgar Allan Poe classic) of malaise and mayhem...this time set in a post-apocalyptic future!

Be Back Next Monday to See What Happens...
Plotted by Joe Brusha and Ralph Tedesco, scripted by Shane McKenzie, and illustrated by Antonio Bifilco, this take on Poe's "Masque of the Red Death" from Zenescope's Grimm Tales of Terror #4 (2014) is one of the wilder "re-interpretations" of the legendary horror tale.
But then, that's the sort of thing they do so well...

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...
(containing this tale, plus issues 1-3 and 5-13)