Monday Mecha Madness FANTASTIC "Thinking Machine"

During the Golden Age of Comics, Writers and Artists Sometimes Came Up with Rather...Unique Portrayals of Mechanical Beings...

...as you'll see in this never-reprinted tale from Youthful's Fantastic #8 (1952)!

Illustrated by Vince Napoli and scripted by a writer whose identity is lost to the mists of time, this reads more like a Frankenstein-type horror tale than a sci-fi story about a robot!

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Science Fiction Comics
Taylor History of Comics
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Holiday Reading Room EVERY DAY'S A HOLLY DAY "Thrilling Story Behind Old Glory: Flag Day"

Learn About...

...and try to forget it is also (ironically) the 80th birthday of disgraced, twice-impeached, President Don (the Con) Trump, the Oldest President in American History!

Coloring goof: the Union soldiers in panel 5 are wearing Confederate gray!

Why is this 1955 comic entitled "Every Day's a Holly Day" instead of "Every Day's a Holiday"?

Because it was given away to kids by grocers who sold Holly Sugar!

Illustrated by John Rosenberger, it's a unique pamphlet covering a number of American holidays, including both Lincoln and Washington's Birthdays (before they were combined into "Presidents' Day" in 1962), Mothers' Day (though not Fathers' Day), Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and a couple of holidays we've largely abandoned...Pan-American Day and American Indian Day!
Note: We're gearing up for our traditional multi-blog Summer Blogathons which we'll announce the week before the 4th of July weekend and begin the week after!

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Cartoon History of the United States
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Space Hero Saturdays SPACE MOUSE "Master Mind" & "Believe It or Not"

This short-lived, but entertaining, series was uneven...

...with some stories, like this one from the back cover of Avon's Space Mouse #1 (1953) featuring the heroic character as a thief, obviously adapted from a different strip...

...and this one, from the inside cover of Avon's Space Mouse #3 (1953) showing him both in "hero mode" and cleverly breaking the "fourth wall"!

Writer/artist Frank Carin was an experienced pro who started as an animator the Fleischer Brothers and TerryToons, then moved over to comics in the early, writing and/or illustrating several hundred stories and covers for everybody from Timely/Atlas to Magazine Enterprises, to Nation-Wide, to Harvey, to, of course, Avon, and finally, to Gold Key!

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Fleischer Story

A History of the Cartoon Studio in the Golden Age of Film Animation

(covering the studio where Frank Carin got his start)
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Friday Fun KOOKIE "Bongo & Bop 'Cats in the Attic' "

 Before Slackers!
Before Hipsters!
Even Before Hippies!
There were Beatniks!

Here's a tale about a pair of them that could easily be updated and re-told today!

This never-reprinted story from Dell's Kookie #2 (1962) by writer John Stanley and artist Bill Williams was part of an attempt to produce an on-going series featuring young adults in a (then) contemporary setting.

Bongo and Bop were the slackers of the ensemble, like Dobie Gillis' Maynard G Krebs amped up to 11!
Sadly the title only lasted two issues!

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Beatniks

Guide to an American Subculture
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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

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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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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
the Complete Comic Book Series
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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!