Space Hero Saturdays AMAZING ADVENTURES OF BUSTER CRABBE "Dark of the Moon"

He was Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Tarzan, and Thun'da!

(And he would've been a helluva Doc Savage, if they had done a feature or serial in the 1940s!)

He was Larry "Buster" Crabbe, the first (and many say, the greatest) cinema action hero.

A two-time Olympian (with a swimming gold medal to his credit), Buster didn't even have to audition for Flash Gordon. (He came to support a friend who was auditioning, and the director, who had seen Crabbe's earlier work as Tarzan offered him the role on the spot!)

Art by Alex Toth

Like many other action-movie actors of the 1930s-1950s, Crabbe had his own comic book where he's shown as Buster Crabbe, not "Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon" or somesuch in the tale, and it's assumed that he's actually able to do anything he's been shown doing in his films.

Unlike most of the other matinee idols, Crabbe's comic adventures covered a variety of genres from Western to sci-fi, and even some cross-genre mashups.

(The others, except for John Wayne, were purely Western-themed series.

Wayne, because of his extensive war film work also had Korean War and present-day adventure comic stories in his comic series.)

Though the writer for this wild, never-reprinted tale from Lev Gleason's Amazing Adventures of Buster Crabbe #2 (1954) is unknown, the artists are Alex Toth (pencils), Mike Peppe (inks) and John Celardo (retouching on Buster's face in several panels).

Check out our Flash, Buck, Brick and other Space Hero goodies at...

Thrilling Fantasy Tales

Friday Fun FROM HERE TO INSANITY "Century's Most Practical Inventions"

What could be a better way to end the week...

...than a never-reprinted Basil Wolverton story?

Charlton tried several times to match the success of EC's MAD, both as a color comic and a b/w magazine!

This particular book, From Here to Insanity V3N1 (1957), was comic-book sized, but tried to look like a b/w magazine with "spot color" elements!
The remaining seven issues in the series were the same b/w magazine format as MAD.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Sincerest Form of Parody

Reading Room UNLIKELY TALES "Expedition"

Exploring jungles in "deepest, darkest Africa" was a common sci-fi/fantasy trope...

...even into 1968, when this never-reprinted story appeared in Charlton Premiere #4 an anthology under the banner Unlikely Tales.

All the stories in the issue were written by up-and-comer Steve Skeates with a different artist on each tale.

This particular one was rendered by another up-and-comer Pat Boyette with the rest of the tales illustrated by vets Steve Ditko, Rocke Mastroserio, along with another newcomer, Jim Aparo.

Trivia note: all the artists in this issue inked their own pencils, a rather uncommon occurrence in the deadline-driven comics business where the need for speed and high-volume output tended to preclude allowing artists to do both.

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder SPACE ACE "Yo, Bro!" Part 2

We Have Already Seen...

...I'll just add you'll discover why we titled this untitled tale as we did!

(It does make sense!
You'll see!)

See?

We told you the title made sense!

This was the first issue of a six-issue mini-series.

Unfortunately, publisher CrossGen went out of business after the third issue was published, leaving the story unfinished...in America!

With all six issues written and illustrated, first the series' Italian publisher Edizione Italy and then Canadian publisher Arcana eventually ran the entire storyline some years later!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Alien on Earth!"

Yesterday, we told the tale of a misunderstood alien...

...here's an earlier rendition of the oft-used concept, with one of the weirdest-looking Jack Kirby aliens I've ever seen (and that is saying something)!

Penciler Jack Kirby and inker Christopher Rule, who did the cover of the re-do, illustrated this tale from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #51 (1959).

As for who wrote it, the consensus on various sites, including the Grand Comics Database, is that it's the work of Kirby himself.

For those clever readers who noted both this story and the reworking in World of Fantasy were both published in 1959, this one came out six months earlier, and the "job number" for "Alien" (T-165) is earlier than the one on "Gargoyle" (T-345).

Usually, Stan Lee (either as editor or writer) made sure that such similar plots or reworkings were a couple of years apart.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Atlas-Era

Journey into Mystery

Volume #4

Monday Madness WORLD OF FANTASY "Gargoyle From the 5th Galaxy!"

Is this a kool cover, or what?

But, this sandals-wearing Jack Kirby-Christopher Rule scarlet alien isn't inside the comic!

Instead, we get a more humanoid, less "traditional" gargoyle-looking green alien!

To be fair, he does breathe fire, like the guy on the cover...

Plotted by Stan Lee, scripted by Larry Lieber and superbly-rendered by Don Heck, this tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #19 (1959) was actually a re-do of an earlier story (illustrated by Jack Kirby, no less), which we'll present tomorrow!

BTW, though the story was reprinted in the 1970s, the cover has never seen the light of day since its' original publication!

Pity...

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Atlas-Era Marvel Masterworks
Tales of Suspense
Volume 4