Reading Room: UFO FLYING SAUCERS "Read the Real Story of the UFOs and Flying Saucers!"

As we mentioned in an earlier post, Dell and Gold Key published anthology comics about UFOs..

Here's the intro story from Gold Key's UFO Flying Saucers #1 (1968)

Written by long-time sci-fi/fantasy comics scripter Leo Dorfman and illustrated by Golden and Silver Age artist Joe Certa (best known as the co-creator of another alien series; J'onn J'onnz, Manhunter from Mars), the story set the rather straightforward tone for the book, which would run for 13 issues from 1968 to 1977 before changing its' title to UFO & Outer Space and continuing for another 12 issues combining reprints and new material until cancellation in 1980.

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3

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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder THE ODYSSEY "Part1"

With a New Big-Budget Film Adaptation Coming Out This Month...

...we thought "let's go back to the original story"...but told the Marvel way!

To Be Continued, Next Wednesday!

Based on the classic story by Homer, this adaptation, scripted by Bill Mantlo and penciled/inked by Jess Jodloman appeared in Marvel Classic Comics #18 (1977).
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Homer's The Odyssey
Newly-Translated/Annotated/Illustrated
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Reading Room VENUS COMICS "Strange Rocket!"

Here's a tale combining sci-fi with the "present day" West...

 ...from the back of Atlas' Venus Comics featuring the art of a future major Silver Age Marvel artist!

The parents weren't questioned as to where their son went after he failed to show up for school...ever again?

"Well, officer, Toby went into space with a bunch of extraterrestrials, but they promised they'd bring him back.

It's OK!
We gave him permission..."

The writer of this somewhat silly story from Atlas' Venus #12 (1951) is unknown, but the artist is Gene Colan, best known to Marvel fans as one of the definitive artists on Silver and Bronze Age titles like Daredevil, Iron Man, and Dracula!

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Secrets in the Shadows

Art & Life of Gene Colan
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Monday Mecha Madness: Before ULTRON...there was MAKINO!

Who created Ultron, the Ultimate Evil AI?

If you go with the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron...Tony Stark aka Iron Man. and Bruce Banner aka The Hulk!

If you go with Marvel Comics history...Henry Pym aka Ant-Man/Giant-Man/Goliath/Yellowjacket/Wasp/etc (Don't ask. It's too long a story...).

In reality, it was writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema in Marvel's Avengers V1 #54 (1967).

But where did Roy come up with the idea?

Well, he "borrowed" it from Captain Video!

Yep!

In #3 of Captain Video's short-lived 1950s Fawcett Comics title, he faced a robot named Makino who killed his scientist creator and then threatened all mankind!

The story left such an impression on the young Roy Thomas that, almost two decades later, he adapted elements of that story into the long-running saga of Ultron!

Roy explained how it came about in TwoMorrows' Alter Ego #114.

You can read the actual comic story on our "brother" RetroBlog Secret Sanctum of Captain Video HERE and HERE!

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Captain Video
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The Past is Present at SECRET SANCTUM OF CAPTAIN VIDEO with Masters of the Universe & Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Currently, at Our 'Brother" RetroBlog...

...we celebrate the new Masters of the Universe movie with a re-presentation of the never-reprinted comic adaptation of the 40-year old first live-action movie based on the animated series and toy line!
Click HERE to read the first three parts, and catch the final chapter tomorrow!
(Note: they're in reverse order, most recent post first!)
And, starting Tuesday, in tribute to Stephen Spielberg's new movie about alien visitation, Disclosure Day,,,
...the Secret Sanctum re-presents the comic adaptation of the director's first film about alien visitation from almost a half-century ago...

...by Archie Goodwin, Walt Simonson and Klaus Janson!
And to think I saw the flick in the movie theatres when it opened!
Lord, I feel old!

Bonus:

Here's the original version of Bob Larkin's painted cover, showing Roy Neary and Jillian Guller running away from the alien ship!

(I've never seen it anywhere in color...)
And here's Simonson & Janson's cover for the tabloid-sized Treasury Edition reprint...

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Secret Sanctum of Captain Video

the only blog devoted to comics based on or adapted into radio/tv/movie/video games!

Space Hero Saturdays: The Comic Book Trade Paperback You SHOULD have Bought in 1980...but DIDN'T!

Remember this spectacular wraparound cover?

This superb, never-reprinted Murphy Anderson illustration encapsulates what made DC's science fiction line in the 1950s and 60s so entertaining!

• Adam Strange and Alanna! (DC's premiere Silver Age space-going heroes!)
• Winged Apes! (DC was famous for using apes almost anywhere you could think of!)
• A ridiculous, physically-impossible image (giant arrow thrown by aforementioned winged [but normal-sized] ape through the Earth) that you just must know the story behind! (Though, sadly, in this case, there's no actual story behind this particular piece!)

Fireside's Mysteries in Space (1980), a $7.95 trade paperback reprint compiled from Strange Adventures, Mystery in Space, Tales of the Unexpected, and From Beyond the Unknown came and went quickly through bookstores.

Sadly, it didn't sell well, and many copies were returned to the publisher and pulped!

It's not available in e-book form, and a different 1999 trade paperback, Mystery in Space, doesn't reprint any of the stories featured in this compilation!

When you can find a copy now, it runs from $30 to $100, depending on condition!

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Mysteries in Space

The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics
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Friday Fun RIOT "Advertisements"

Several people have complained my post about Bill Everett's Marvin the Mouse was too harsh...

...but I submit these never-reprinted pages from Atlas' Riot #5 & #6 (1956) demonstrate Everett could do humor...and in a variety of styles!

Spoofing actual ads from Kleenex, Wildroot Cream Oil, Ford Motors, Westinghouse Electronics and TWA (I have no idea what the bike ad relates to), artist Bill Everett demonstrates his mastery of the page, even imitating the art style of Little Lulu's creator Marjorie Henderson Buell!
The mystery of why his work on Marvin Mouse was, to put it mildly, substandard may never be discovered!
Trivia: Atlas was a bit of a trend-follower, rather than a trend setter, as it became in the Silver Age as Marvel!
Trying to capitalize on EC's success with MAD, Atlas launched four different satire/parody anthologies...Crazy, Riot, Snafu, and Wild, only one of which lasted to seven issues!

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Fire & Water

Bill Everett, the Sub-Mariner, and the Birth of Marvel Comics
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Reading Room MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN COMICS "Doorway to the Future!"

Is this a "lost" Kirby Klassic from the 1950s?

Read this never-reprinted tale from Prize Comics' Monster of Frankenstein #33 (1954) and judge for yourself...

When Prize Comics' Monster of Frankenstein title was revived during the horror comic boom of the early 1950s, besides a wonderfully-gruesome version of Dick Briefer's Monster, it featured a number of two to four page "fillers".

Most of these tales appear to be, at the very least, laid-out by Jack Kirby.

This story is a prime example.

The figure poses, faces, machinery, even the futuristic buildings all but scream "KIRBY"!

The Grand Comics Database lists the story's artist as Marvin Stein with a "?", but considering the volume of work Simon & Kirby did for Prize before leaving to form their own company, Mainline, and the fact Stein worked primarily for their studio, it's not unlikely this was an "inventory" story meant for insertion wherever editorial material page count came up short.

Sadly, the writer of the story is, as in so many cases, unknown, but it might also be Kirby...

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Simon & Kirby Library
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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder 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")
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