Saturday, March 19, 2022

Space Hero Saturdays THE SPACEHAWK "Perilous Portable Planetoid Peril"

The opening caption of the story promises something that a reader who just bought the comic off the newsstand in 1940 already knew!
How?
You'll find out at the end of the tale...

Note: SpaceHawk had rescued this unnamed woman in his premiere appearance...as shown HERE!
But don't worry that she'll become a "Lois Lane" type, always getting into danger and requiring rescue...since she'll never be seen again!
BTW, the reason a 1940s reader knew about SpaceHawk's unmasking before reading the story was...
...he was unmasked on the cover!!!
(Ironically, the only Target Comics cover he ever appeared on!)
In the meantime, a different Space Hero will thrill you with an astounding astral adventure...
NEXT WEEK

Friday, March 18, 2022

Friday Holiday Fun EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Humpty Dumpty"

An Easter-themed combination of a pair of classic nursery rhymes...
... courtesy of legendary writer/artist Walt (Pogo) Kelly...who really knew how to freshen up an old concept!

This never-reprinted short from Dell's Four Color Comics: Easter with Mother Goose (1948) expands on the nursery rhyme with a new adventure of the accident-prone ovum!Walt Kelly also used Humpty in other Mother Goose comic stories.
Oddly, the cover, also by Walt Kelly, features a radically-different version of Humpty...

Weird, eh?

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Thursday, March 17, 2022

Holiday Reading Room MARVEL TALES "Louie's Leprechaun!"

A never-reprinted tale about a leprechaun on St Patrick's Day?
Talk about yer pot o' gold, and the "Luck 'O the Irish", eh?
Written by Carl Wessler, and illustrated either by Vic Carabotta or the team of Arthur Peddy and Bernie Sachs (experts disagree on who did it), this story from Atlas' Marvel Tales #143 (1956) hasn't seen print in 66 years!
Considering the numerous illogical aspects to this tale (not the least of which was how the leprechaun mailed a letter minutes after he was sealed back in the ground, but before Louie got home only minutes later), it's not a bad story...if you don't think too hard about it.
And after several pints of Guinness to celebrate the day, most of us won't...

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ATARI FORCE Part Two "Chapter Two: UNMASKED"

When Last We Left the Heavily-Guarded Atari Institute in Post-Five-Day War 2005...

...I couldn't have synopsized it better myself!
Let's see what they see...

As much as we hate to interrupt a fascinating tale by a charming (and extremely-lethal) Irish lass on the day before St Patrick's Day, the fact the chapter ends here compels us to do so!
But, when you return next Wednesday, we'll finish her tale, as well as reveal the details about the top-secret mission!
(BTW, you did notice the ship is basically a giant Atari logo, right?)

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Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Reading Room ROCKET SHIP X "Our Atomic Future"

Remember when we thought the Day After Tomorrow would be...
...and all the world's woes could be solved with nuclear power?
If you're an older Baby Boomer, or one of the Greatest Generation, you might remember this tale from Fox's one-shot Rocket Ship X (1951) or something similar to it, since the unhindered (but safe) use of atomic power was being promoted as the ultimate solution to the world's oil/gasoline problems!
Oddly, when it was reprinted in Charlton's Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #5 (1956), only the first page was shown!
Sadly, no records exist to identify the writer and artist (or writer/artist) of this unfulfilled prophecy.
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Monday, March 14, 2022

Monday Madness AMAZING ADULT FANTASY "Ultimate Weapon"

Who, in 1962, could believe that we'd still be on the brink of nuclear war with the Russkies...in 1970?
Stan Lee and Steve Ditko thought so...and offered a potential solution...
Clever.
Would the solution proposed in Atlas' Amazing Adult Fantasy #13 (1962) work in reality, 60 years later?
Russia and China both have the capability to reach geostationary orbit (22,236 miles)., but would they try to use it?
Think about it...
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Sunday, March 13, 2022

Coming Sunday...the ULTIMATE RUSSKIE SMASHER!

There's an interesting sub-genre of superheroes, known as the "inspired-bys".

These are characters who are inspired by other characters to take up the mask and seek justice.
Usually they're family members who take up the same identity as their predecessor (The PhantomBlack CanarySilk Spectre of The Watchmen, The Black HoodHourMan, etc.)
Sometimes, as in this case, they're inspired by an unrelated hero who just happened to be published by the same company!
The best-known example is DC Comics' WildCat, inspired by the Golden Age Green Lantern to become a crimefighter.

Magazine Enterprises' The Avenger had a similar origin.
When his brother is taken hostage by Communist spies who wanted the prototype StarJet aircraft, inventor Roger Wright is inspired by remembering stories of the Original Ghost Rider (also published by Magazine Enterprises) to take up a masked identity to rescue his captive sibling!
Proclaiming himself "an Avenger against the evils of Communism",  Roger dons a red costume in defiance (Communists were often described as "the Red Menace" because their flags were predominiantly red) and uses his StarJet to attempt a rescue.
Unfortunately, his brother, who had attempted to escape, was already dead! The Commies were dealing, of course, in bad faith!
Roger captured the spies, and declaring "No man can be complacent while such as you are bent on enslaving all Mankind", began a one-man war against Communists everywhere!

The war lasted only four bi-monthly issues from 1954-55.
The Avenger, like Nature Boy and several other mid-1950s heroes came along just before the audience was ready for the return of superheroes, who had all but disappeared from comics in 1949!
It wasn't until an updated version of The Flash appeared in Showcase #4 (a year after the last issue of The Avenger) that the Silver Age of Comics, and the resulting explosion of superhero books that continues to this day, got going!


BTW, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have digitally-restored and remastered what we believe to be his first and best cover appearance by Golden Age great Bob Powell, on an assortment of pop-culture collectibles, including t-shirts, messenger bags, mugs and other goodies!

Show you believe in capitalism and buy an Classic Avenger goodie or two.
You don't want him thinking you're a Communist, do you? ;-)

Note: this character is in no way related to the earlier pulp/comic character The Avenger published by the same company as Doc Savage and The Shadow, and currently being revived by Dynsmite Publishing