Reading Room WEIRD ADVENTURES "Dome of Death"

Reading this blog,  you might think that "sci-fi" just means "space opera" or "futuristic"...

...but it can be set on present-day (meaning when the story was created) Earth, as well!

This never-reprinted tale from the Ziff-Davis one-shot Weird Adventures #10 (1951) reads like a script for an anthology tv show or a b-movie.
It's mostly character interaction and a crime/thriller plot with some easily-done (even for the 1950s) sfx!

Illustrated by John Giunta, whose long career spans both the Golden and Silver Ages with work for literally every company in every genre!
However, Giunta may be best-known to today's audiences as the artist who gave the legendary Frank Frazetta his first job, when he hired the talented teen as a studio assistant!
The writer of this unusual tale is unknown, but could be Giunta himself!

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Mystery in Space

Pulp Fiction Library

(which contains only a couple of stories from this previously-listed volume)

Reading Room / Tales Twice Told BLACK MAGIC "Flying Dutchman!"

Last Tuesday, we presented the 1970s reworked version of this tale...

...today, we show you the original, never-reprinted, 1950s story from Prize's Black Magic V4N5 (1954)!

Illustrated by Al Eadeh, this tale based on the long-established legend of the Flying Dutchman may have been written by Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, or both!

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Simon and Kirby Library

Horror!

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Space...Hero? Saturdays WEIRD TALES OF THE FUTURE "Jumpin' Jupiter 'In Space No One Can Hear You Laugh' "

If you thought Jumpin' Jupiter's first story was weird...

..his third appearance from Weird Tales of the Future #4 (1953) is gonna make you plotz!

Whether it's his ongoing SpaceHawk and Space Patrol strips or any of the numerous one-shot tales he did, Wolverton's Golden Age output was always instantly-recognizable!
The humor strip ran in #2 thru #5 of Key Publications' Weird Tales of the Future, along with several serious sci-fi/horror one-shot stories also written and illustrated by the amazing Basil!
And, yes, we'll get to the second tale, along with the fourth (and final) one...in the future! (Where else?)

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Creeping Death from Neptune

Life and Comics of Basil Woverton

Volume 1

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Friday Fun RIOT the Complete "Why Izzit?"

Appearing in Atlas' Riot #5 and #6 (1956)...

...these never-reprinted features by writer Stan Lee, penciler Dan DeCarlo, and inker Rudy Lapick...

...were designed as fillers for use at any point the book's page count came up short!

Were more created...but never used?

Or are these four pages all that exist?

I suspect we'll never know the answer...

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Sincerest Form of Parody

Reading Room STRANGE STORIES OF SUSPENSE "Man of Mystery"

Here's a never-reprinted tiny tale about a tiny man...

...specifically, a miniature man of metal, from Atlas' Strange Stories of Suspense #5 (1955)!

The illustrator of this tale of a bionic blabbermouth was highly-unappreciated Golden Age/Silver Age workhorse Sud Shores, though the teller of the tin terror's tale is, regrettably, unknown!
Trivia: Though this was #5, it was actually the first issue of Strange Stories of Suspense, since the first four issues were called Rugged Action...

...featuring manly men performing manly feats of derring-do in various venues...which apparently didn't sell well enough to keep the book going in that format!
OTOH, Strange Stories of Suspense continued though #16 until a change in newsstand distributors in 1956 reduced the amount of titles Atlas Comics could distribute per month!

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Atlas Comics Library No 1

Adventures into Terror
Volume 1

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Monday Mutant Madness MECHANIX ILLUSTRATED "How Nuclear Radiation can Change Our Race"

From Fawcett's Mechanix Illustrated V49N8 (1953)...

...a cautionary tale about mutants produced by exposure to atomic radiation...written by Otto Binder and illustrated by Kurt Schaffenberger!

Did it help inspire Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Werner Roth, and Vince Colletta in creating this sequence in Marvel's X-Men #14 (1965)?

You tell us!

Reading Room CRIME DETECTOR "Ultimate Destiny"

Some comics tales of the 1950s have a real "nightmare" feel...

...such as this rarely-seen story by an underrated master of the genre!

Note: the final page was printed sideways as a single page, but we think it works better as a two-page spread, so...

The writer for this cool comic classic from Timor's Crime Detector #5 (1954) is unknown, but the distinctive art is by Jay Disbrow, who had a long career in comics from 1948 to 2005!

His last new work was the on-line comic Aroc of Zenith, which ran for 312 pages from 2000 to 2005, and you can find HERE.

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EC Horror Library of the 1950s

(It ain't cheap,...but it's GREAT!)

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Friday Fun with SPACE MOUSE II!

He's not this rodent...

...whose strip ran through several Avon Comics funny animal titles in the early 1950s!

In 1959, a year after Avon ceased publishing comics, Dell Comics introduced a new Space Mouse...

...who was published as a Walter (Woody Woodpecker) Lantz project, though Lantz had no input into the character's creation or direction!

Note: In many cases, I'm skeptical of the accuracy of Wikipedia articles, the one about this character (click HERE) rings true, so, unless anyone can disprove it, I'm sticking with it!
Movie-tv animator/comic book artist John Carey designed the character and illustrated almost all his appearances including covers, stories, and one-page features and text pieces!
Along with the cover shown above, here's a few examples of Carey's work from Space Mouse's premiere in Dell's Four Color Comics: Space Mouse #1132 (1960)...

The b/w pages are from the inside covers of the comic, which were printed without color (or just black and one other color) to save money...a standard practice in comics until the 1970s.

Ironically, the last page would've benefitted from using color to play up the bulls-eye/target joke!

Tomorrow in
Space Hero Saturdays...
The Introductory Comic Story!
Plus
A Link to the Animated Version
(which is not available on YouTube!)
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Woody Woodpecker and Friends
Volume 2
(Which has the Space Mouse "Secret Weapon" cartoon!)
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