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Saturday, May 3, 2025
Friday, May 2, 2025
Friday Fun FAIRY TALES "Belling the Cat" "Boy Who Cried Wolf!" "Lion and the Mouse"
Here's trio of never-reprinted one-pagers from Ziff-Davis' short-lived Fairy Tales!
A short based on the classic folktale rendered in a very Walt Kelly-esque style from Ziff-Davis' Fairy Tales #11 (1951)!
Short but effective, this re-telling of the parable/fable, also from Fairy Tales #11, was the inside back cover feature, which is why it's b/w instead of four-color!
The inside front cover of Fairy Tales #10 (which is actually the first issue) presents an adaption of one of Aesop's Fables, not a "fairy tale", per se!
We don't know who the creatives are, but we're willing to bet the writer/adapter is the comic's editor, Jerry (Superman) Siegel!
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Thursday, May 1, 2025
Reading Room BLACK CAT MYSTIC "MysteryVision!"
Here's a tale that could've inspired the movie They Live! as well as several Twilight Zone eps...
...plus it has a rather unique aspect we'll explain at the conclusion...
"We take our leave of Herman Scudder, who discovered that "reading" people can be as easy as reading an eye-chart...in the Twilight Zone..."
(Sorry, instinctively channeled Rod Serling for a moment...)
Pencils and inks for this never-reprinted story from Harvey's Black Cat Mystic #57 (1956) are by Jack Kirby, who rarely inked his own work since editors felt his time was better-spent penciling at a rate of up to four pages per day!
(Yes, I said per day!)
Probably written by either Kirby himself, or studio co-owner/creative partner Joe Simon.
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Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Wednesday Worlds of Wonder STAR RAIDERS "Beginning...the Saga of the Star Raiders!" Conclusion
...if you can't tell from the montage above, to coin a phrase..."Things are about to get busy!"
This particular concept/plotline didn't advance any further.
But it wasn't contradicted or retconned either!
Instead, DC decided to launch an ongoing regular comic-format series as more of a direct sequel to the original mini-comics, featuring original series character Martin Champion, his son, and a new assortment of supporting characters battling original series villain Dark Destroyer!
Elliot S! Maggin wasn't the writer of this version.
Gerry Conway (who co-wrote the mini-comics) returned as writer, but Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez remained as penciler for the first story arc, then contributed covers sporadically over the series' 21-issue run!
Elliot S! Maggin wasn't the writer of this version.
Gerry Conway (who co-wrote the mini-comics) returned as writer, but Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez remained as penciler for the first story arc, then contributed covers sporadically over the series' 21-issue run!
Next Week:
A New World of Wonder!
A New World of Wonder!
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Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Reading Room CAPTAIN 3-D "Man From the World of 'D'" IN COLOR!
You won't need a pair of red/blue 3-D glasses to read this version of...
...as presented in the hardcover anthology Simon & Kirby SuperHeroes from Titan Books, restored from scans of both the original art and first-generation photostats used in the original book's production in 1953.
...and here's the original text intro to the character...
(For this you will need 3-D glasses.)
BTW, if you want to see the original 3-D version of this tale, click HERE!
Script by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Art by Jack Kirby (pencils) and Joe Simon, Mort Meskin and Steve Ditko (inks).
Taking comic book line art and modifying it to produce a 3-D effect with red and blue colored art was technically simple, so almost every company attempted at least one 3-D book between 1952-55.
Most were 3-D versions of existing comics including Superman, Batman, Tales from the Crypt, even Katy Keene.
However, Captain 3-D was the Simon & Kirby team's attempt to jump on the 3-D bandwagon with NEW material.
As you've just read, Captain 3-D had both a cool premise and nice set-up, playing up the use of glasses to both empower the hero and perceive villains. (The John Carpenter movie They Live! used a similar gimmick)
Unfortunately, a legal battle involving the 3-D process all but killed the financial viability of producing 3-D books, and, though material was already finished, there was never a second issue of Captain 3-D!
Taking comic book line art and modifying it to produce a 3-D effect with red and blue colored art was technically simple, so almost every company attempted at least one 3-D book between 1952-55.
Most were 3-D versions of existing comics including Superman, Batman, Tales from the Crypt, even Katy Keene.
However, Captain 3-D was the Simon & Kirby team's attempt to jump on the 3-D bandwagon with NEW material.
As you've just read, Captain 3-D had both a cool premise and nice set-up, playing up the use of glasses to both empower the hero and perceive villains. (The John Carpenter movie They Live! used a similar gimmick)
Unfortunately, a legal battle involving the 3-D process all but killed the financial viability of producing 3-D books, and, though material was already finished, there was never a second issue of Captain 3-D!
Monday, April 28, 2025
Monday Madness LEFTY FLYNN "and the Diamond Death"
Take me out at the ball game...
Who knew baseball could be such a violent sport?
No, you won't!
This never-reprinted story from S&S's Doc Savage Comics V1N4 (1941) was Lefty's first, last, and only appearance anywhere!
Both the writer and artist of this one-shot strip are unknown.
Sunday, April 27, 2025
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.
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