Space Force Saturdays SPACE SQUADRON "Menace of the Martians"

What happens when a strip ignores it's own backstory...

...and changes an alien race's entire history...for no reason at all?

This never-reprinted story from Atlas' Space Squadron #4 (1951) contradicted the Space Squadron #1 tale that introduced Max in several ways!

Notably, that Martians, who were as scientifically and intellectually-advanced as Earthers (though with extremely-short tempers), are now simply savage beings who wish to slay anything living that's not them!
There's no reason I can think of, except that it's likely the anonymous writer of this particular tale was new and unfamiliar with the series!

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Mysteries in Space

The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics

Friday Fun CRAZY "Robert the Robot!"

Here's a long-lost tale from the era when MAD comic clones filled America's newsstands!

(Which bring up the question...does anybody under 30 even know what a "newsstand" is?)

While the story's not a classic, it's not bad, either!

The amazingly versatile Joe Maneely handled the art for this never-reprinted tale from this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Crazy V1N7 (1954), but the script is not nu Stan Lee...who would've had his name on it if he had penned the story!

Maneely could do anything; sci-fi, horror, war, romance, western, even humor, as this story demonstrates!

If not for his tragic death falling from a New York suburban commuter train, he would have been one of the major talents of Marvel Comics in the 1960s.

Atlas had no less than three MAD clones going at once; Crazy, Wild, and Riot!

MAD themselves commented on the proliferation of clones, not only from Atlas, but virtually every other publisher with this opener for their spoof of the 1950s movie Julius Ceasar by Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood...

When MAD converted to a b/w magazine, Atlas dropped the three color comics and launched the b/w Snafu,which only lasted three issues!

Atlas/Marvel would revive Crazy twice more!

First, in early 1973 as a reprint book of Not Brand Echh stories.

Then, in late 1973 as a b/w magazine going head-to-head with MAD, and surviving until 1983 for 96 issues!

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Sincerest Form of Parody

Reading Room WORLDS UNKNOWN "Doorstep"

We've been showing aliens who dare to land on Earth "who's the boss" for centuries...

...but this is one time that may not have been the best approach!

Adapted from a short story by Keith Laumer, this tale from Marvel's Worlds Unknown #2 (1973) has a kool "Twilight Zone" twist ending, but couldn't have been adapted for the show due to the crudeness of tv special effects work at the time.

OTOH, writer Gerry Conway, penciler Gil Kane, and inker Tom Sutton had no such constraints, and they do EC Comics' writers and artists proud with a tale that would have fit right in with Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, or the merged Weird Science-Fantasy books!

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A Plague of Demons

and Other Stories

(featuring "Doorstep")

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder LOST WORLD "Fake News!"

We Have Already Seen...

..."HAPPEN DID NOT!

FORGET IT, YOU MUST!"

Is Don da Con...a VoltaMan?

Repugs talk incessantly about Washington insiders being VoltaMan-like "lizard people"!

Could they be referring to themselves?

Did writer "Thorncliff Herrick" and artist Lily Renee know something in the 1940s that the rest of us didn't?

Discover MORE Amazing Factoids...

Next Wednesday!

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Lily Renee, Escape Artist

by

Trina Robbins

Reading Room STRANGE ADVENTURES "Secret of the Cosmic Bullet!"

"Golden Gladiator"?
"Star Amazon"?

You'd think this story should be in our brother RetroBlog, Hero Histories!

But...you'd be wrong...

This never-reprinted tale from DC's Strange Adventures #119 (1960) by writer Gardner Fox and artist Sid Greene plays on the concept that beings from other worlds could take our writings, both fictional and non-fictional, and implement them in "real life"!
BTW, note the house ad at the end for three other sci-fi anthologies!
Man, those were the good old days...

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Showcase presents Strange Adventures Volume 1

Showcase presents Strange Adventures Volume 2

Monday Mars Madness WILD! "Menace from Mars"

Most of the time, a Martian invasion story should be taken seriously!

This never-reprinted tale from one of Atlas' many MAD! comic clones, WILD! #2 (1954) is not one of those tales!

Though we know the talented and versatile Howie Post illustrated the story, nobody knows who wrote it!

But it reads a lot like Stan Lee...

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Sincerest Form of Parody

Reading Room HOME RUN "Little Leagues"

With the return of fans worshipping at the temples of the National Pastime (aka "baseball stadiums")...

...we thought we'd look at the origin of how many of us (myself included) first experienced organized baseball!

There was a short-lived surge in sports-themed comic books from 1949 to 1952.

This particular one-shot from Magazine Enterprises, produced in 1952 (but published in '53), was the last gasp of that cycle.

Produced/packaged by writer/artist Bob Powell's studio, this non-fiction historical piece was typical of the high-quality material he supplied to numerous publishers including Magazine Enterprises, Street & Smith, Prize Comics, and Harvey Comics, from the mid-1940s to the early 1960s.