Friday Fun RIOT "Mother Goosepimple's Nursery Rhymes" Parts 1 & 2

Atlas Comics' numerous 1950s MAD comic clones...

...gave the company's creatives a chance to flex their artistic muscles in ways rarely-seen by their readers!

This never-reprinted short from Atlas RIOT #5 (1956) gave amazingly-versatile artist Joe Maneely a chance to show his rarely-seen humorous side.

The second, final, also never-reprinted installment in this series features an artist who already had a rep doing humor, John Severin, best known for his serious Western and War comics work at Harvey and EC!

He was also brother of EC Comics colorist Marie Severin, who later became Marvel's resident caricaturist (among her many other talents)!
I suspect this was going to be an ongoing series featuring rotating illustrators, but since Riot was cancelled as of this issue (6) in 1956, we'll never know!
BTW, if the writing style for both stories feels "familiar", that's because it was by snarky Stan (the Man) Lee!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Sincerest Form of Parody

Space Hero Saturdays LARS OF MARS "Secret Origin"

What if 1950s sci-fi shows like Captain Video or Space Patrol were real?

Or if the aliens shown on the screen were real aliens?

And what if the alien was the Space Hero???

As you've just read, that was the premise of the short-lived (two issues) Ziff-Davis series Lars of Mars!

Created by Jerry (Superman) Siegel and Murphy (Buck Rogers) Anderson, this premiere story from the first issue of his own title (which, oddly enough,  was #10!) established the somewhat-silly premise.

During his run, Lars battled Commies, crooks, and other interplanetary aliens while protecting his "secret identity" from his nosy producer (who bore a disturbing resemblance to Lois Lane).

You'll be seeing all of Lars' stories here (including his final tale from the 1980s (in 3-D, no less) over the next six months.

Watch for them!

Trivia:

The cover paintings for both issues of Lars of Mars were painted by Allen Anderson...who was not related to interior artist Murphy Anderson!

Here's a "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon"-style factoid (done in only four degrees)...

• 1) Ziff-Davis also published a short-lived adaptation of an actual 1950s sci-fi tv series, Space Patrol, illustrated by Bernie Krigstein.
• 2) Krigstein illustrated the first issue of another Ziff-Davis sci-fi series: Space Busters!
• 3) Bernie was replaced on interior art for the second (and final) issue of Space Busters by...Murphy Anderson!
• 4) Allen Anderson did the painted cover for the Space Busters issue (#2) illustrated by Murphy! (Norm Saunders had painted #1's cover!)

Visit our

MARTIANS! MARTIANS! MARTIANS!

Comic Collectibles Shop

featuring the covers of both issues of Lars of Mars!

Friday Fun CRAZY "Hollywood Extra"

With the movie industry retrenching as audiences continue to not return to theaters...

...let's take a satirical look at how the film industry reacted the first time that phenomenon happened!

Writer Stan Lee and illustrator Russ Heath show, in this never-reprinted story from Atlas' MAD comic clone Crazy V1N7 (1954), that the movie business was losing customers to the then-new entertainment technology of television...and that was with TVs that had 15 inch (or less) screens and had only black-and-white transmissions (even when they broadcast color movies)!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Sincerest Form of Parody

Monday Madness CRAZY, MAN, CRAZY "Pocket Book Covers"

How do we get today's would-be readers to actually read the "classics"?

Do what artist Vince Fodera and an unknown writer suggest in this never-reprinted two-page spread from Charlton's MAD Magazine clone Crazy Man Crazy V2N2 (1956)...

BTW, "pocket books" were how what we now call mass-market paperbacks were referred to until the 1960s!

In fact, the first American mass-market publisher to use the format (in 1939) was named "Pocket Books"...a name they utilize to this day!

Who says comics ain't educational???

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Sincerest Form of Parody

Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN KEN BRADY: ROCKET PILOT "Boy Who Wasn't There!"

We met Captain Ken Brady and his co-pilot-sidekick Buzzy HERE...

...in his premiere appearance, conceived and produced by the co-creator of Superman and the definitive Bronze Age artist of Dracula!

This tale from Ziff-Davis' Lars of Mars #11 (1951) was written by Jerry Siegel and illustrated by Gene Colan.
It's both the character's second (and last) appearance and the second (and last issue) of the comic!
While the series isn't anything particularly innovative, it's a classic example of 1950s-style sci-fi.
And Gene, who was doing a little of everything from horror to romance to Westerns, showed his versatility with this too-brief strip's run.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Buy...
Secrets in the Shadows
Art and Life of Gene Colan
Trade PaperBack Edition
Paid Link

Friday Fun ZANY "Li'l Abnrr"

Unseen since 1959, a look at how comics...

...and by extension, media in general, change to reflect pop culture trends!

Comics, in particular, jump on the latest fad, sometimes revamping the book or strip almost beyond recognition!
The classic example was the mid-1960s "New Blackhawk era", when the middle-aged WWII veteran flyers, published continuously since 1942, became superhero/spies...because the two hottest pop culture trendsetters at the time were Batman and Bond!
(Think I'm joking?
You can read the transition story beginning HERE!)
BTW, both the artist who did a dead-on imitation of Al Capp's style and the scripter for this never-reprinted Li'l Abner spoof (with a cameo by creator Al Capp himself) from Candar's Zany #4 (1959) are unknown!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Li'l Abner: the Frazetta Years Vol 1

Legendary artist Frank Frazetta ghost-illustrated the Sunday strip from 1954 to 1961!

Reading Room THIS MAGAZINE IS HAUNTED "Secret of the Walking Dead"

With the return of AMC's The Walking Dead...

...we thought we'd present a shocker involving someone deliberately creating a scientific zombie!

Could this be similar to how the walkers on AMC's Walking Dead came to be?

This tale from Fawcett's This Magazine is Haunted #6 (1952) was illustrated by Ed Waldman who worked on-and-off in comics from 1941 to 1954.

The tale's writer is sadly, unknown!
However, the cover artist is Sheldon Moldoff!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Buy...

EC Horror Library of the 1950s

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

Paid Link

Monday Madness LUNATICKLE "Horrible Comic Story Behind the Horror Story Comic Books!"

I'll let the original editors introduce you to today's Monday Madness...

"This, then, is the true tale of the Comic Book Industry’s brief but shocking plunge into the Witches Brew of gore and bloodshed.

Presented herewith is an authentic documentary of how it came about and how it ended—And how it ended!
The names, dates, and places given are all factual and for real! Any reference to certain persons is strictly intentional,

Only the prices have been changed because it’s after five o’clock!
-the editors"

Created by two horror comics veterans; writer Jack Mendelsohn and illustrator Lee Elias (in a very Jack Davis-esque style), this never-reprinted story from the second (and final) issue of Whitestone Publishing's short-lived MAD magazine clone Lunatickle is a bittersweet, but amazingly-accurate look at how the comics industry almost disappeared in the mid-1950s!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Ten-Cent Plague

The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America