Reading Room CAPTAIN SCIENCE COMICS "Spawn of Saturn"

Welcome to the Cover Featured Tale from Captain Science #1 (1950)...

...except it's not about Captain Science!

In fact, the story's title isn't mentioned on the cover at all!

(You can find the actual Captain Science stories from #1 HERE and HERE.)

It's interesting to see a sci-fi tale where a handsome starship captain doesn't go on a landing party to a potentially-dangerous locale!

The writer is unknown, but the art is by Walter Johnson, who not only penciled and inked his own work, but ran a studio that supplied material to a number of comics companies, so some of his "signed" jobs (like this one) show elements of several artists' styles.

Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Buy..

Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 
Paid Link

Friday Fun HOT DOG "Harry Hotdog in 'Mad, Modern and Egad!' "

Though the Series' Title was Hot Dog...

...the character's name was Harry Hotdog, who can best be described as Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry David as a generic yellow canine!

Cue the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme...

This never-reprinted story from Magazine Enterprises' Hot Dog #3 (1954) aka A-1 #124 (1954) satirizes the "Greatest Generation's" attitude towards "modern art"!
If you're wondering why the comic has two titles and numberings, let me explain...
Like Dell's Four Color Comics, A-1 was an anthology title which served as a tryout platform for various concepts, so it had both the strip's numbering and the title's numbering.
That way, if the strip didn't sell well, the publisher wouldn't have to pay for another second-class mailing permit (which was required for each title published) for a new series!
Numerous ME strips were published this way, including Cave Girl, I Am a Cop, Trail Colt, Manhunt, Ghost Rider, Undercover Girl, and Thun'da!
This issue was the third of four Harry Hotdog-starring issues!
Writer/Artist George Crenshaw began as an animator for Walt Disney, then MGM before going to comic strips and books.
Besides being a longtime "ghost" on Dennis the Menace, he created his own long-running strip, Belevdere, about (surprise) a dog...but not an anthropomorphic one like Harry!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Golden Treasury of

Klassic Krazy Kool Kids Komics
Paid Link

Reading Room BLAST-OFF "Little Earth"

This is a classic example of an unheralded gem by two graphic-story masters...

...that has been reprinted only twice...in now OOP limited-run books, so most of you have never seen it!

Oddly, the GCD lists it as penciled by Reed Crandall and inked by Al Williamson, but Teddy I at pencilink.blogspot.com reverses the credits!
Personally, I think both artists, in typical Fleagle Gang-style worked at both tasks in various panels.

The writer is Larry Ivie, who scripted several dozen stories for Marvel, DC, Tower, King, and Warren in the 1960s, and also published Monsters and Heroes, a competitor to Famous Monsters of Filmland!

According to the Kirby Museum, this story was intended for Harvey's never-published Race for the Moon #5 in 1958, but remained unused until 1965, when it ran in the Harvey one-shot anthology Blast-Off!

Reading Room WEIRD THRILLERS "Shadow on the Screen!"

For all those whose parents told them "TV is bad for you"...

...and "comics are bad for you", well, they were right, as this comic tale about TV proves!

This tale from Ziff-Davis' Weird Thrillers #3 (1952) was illustrated by Bob Powell.

Powell, besides being a gifted illustrator was also a pioneer in the use of "color holds" in comic books.

The same technique he used on the tv screen was also used in a tale of radio and pulp hero The Shadow HERE, taking artwork that normally would be black-line and making it one of the color plates.

It was a very tricky thing to do back in those days since the interior pages were almost never proofed due to time and cost restraints.

But, Powell does some amazing things with the holds, making them line up exactly almost all the time!

Sadly, the writer of the story is, as in so many cases, unknown...

Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Buy...

The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics: Volume 2

Bob Powell's

Terror
Paid Link

The Mid-Terms Are Coming! The Mid-Terms Are Coming!

And Your Voting Participation Will Have a Major Effect!

Sadly, this story, published over 75 years ago is as relevant today as it was in 1952, with the basic percentages of voter participation (actually lack of participation) unchanged!

...unless not enough of those heroes actually go to vote!

Here's a handy (very) basic guide...

Illustrated by Warren Kremer and Al Avision, this one-shot published by Harvey Comics in 1952 (76 years ago) was offered for only a couple of pennies a copy to any group (even Republicans) who wanted to utilize it to get out the vote!

Note: Our gratitude to the ever-amazing Kracalactaka for the full-color scans of this ultra-rare comic!

Now, unless you want things to stay as they are (or get worse)...if you're over 18 and under 110...

...GET OFF YOUR BUTT AND REGISTER TO VOTE!

Space Hero Saturdays SPURS JACKSON & HIS SPACE VIGILANTES "Sun Masters"

Once more we return to the really weird pages of Space Western Comics...

...where both stagecoaches and spacecraft are accepted forms of transportation!

Written by Walter (The Shadow) Gibson and illustrated by Stan Campbell, this tale from Charlton's Space Western Comics #42 (1953) starts out relatively-accurate to the science of the era, but throws it all away at the conclusion!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Buy...

Space Western Comics
Cowboys vs Aliens, Commies, Dinosaurs, and Nazis
Paid Link