Space Hero Saturdays SPACE WAR "Blue Men of Bantro"

How Often Do You Read a Story Where a Writer or Artist of the Tale is the Space Hero?

Now's your chance, courtesy of writer Joe Gill and artist Steve Ditko...neither of whom look like the writer and artist in this story!

Yes, it's a little weird, and the idea that our sand would regenerate the metabolisms of aliens is, to say the least, highly-implausible!

But you can't deny the "meta" impact of the ending!

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Art of Ditko

...which reprints many Ditko short stories, including this one!
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Space Heroine Saturdays BARBARELLA 3.1

It's been a while since we last looked in on Barbarella...

...and you're about to encounter more plot elements and characters you saw in the 1960s movie, but in somewhat different form...

More adventures of Barbarella and Pygar soon...

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Barbarella

2-Disc 4K Blu Ray

with Lots of Kool Extras

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Friday Fun YAK YAK "Romance vs Realism"

Last Friday, we presented the first part of this series about "fiction vs realism"...

...now here's the second, and sadly, final part of the series!

Dell gave MAD mainstay Jack Davis his own title, to do with as he pleased.

The series, Yak Yak (subtitled "A Pathology of Humor") only ran two issues, but they were pure Davis, who wrote, penciled, inked, and colored the whole project as well as providing painted covers for both issues!

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Art of Jack Davis
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Friday Fun YAK YAK "Drama vs Realism"

I'm struck by the disparity of info presented by con and lib media...

...so to keep my spirits up, I decided to run this never-reprinted piece showing the stark difference between how each side portrays a given situation.

I leave it to the reader to decide which (drama or reality) is which (con or lib)...

Dell gave MAD mainstay Jack Davis his own title, to do with as he pleased.

The series, Yak Yak (subtitled "A Pathology of Humor") only ran two issues, but they were pure Davis, who wrote, penciled, inked, and colored the whole project as well as providing painted covers for both issues!

The next (and final issue) had another Drama vs Realism piece.

You'll see that next Friday!

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Art of Jack Davis

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Perfect Crime!"

A never-reprinted cross-genre tale from Journey into Mystery...

...combining crime and science fiction, is our entry for this Sunday!

You'll note the last two panels are re-lettered.

I suspect the Comics Code Authority felt it was too cruel to allow the criminal to die for something he technically didn't commit!

This was one of the two tales backing up Mighty Thor's very first appearance in Marvel's Journey into Mystery #83 (1963).

Ah, you've heard about that story, but not this one, eh?

Don Heck penciled and inked the tale.

Stan Lee plotted it, but experts are not sure if he scripted it.

Lee usually signed the later short stories he scripted, but only Heck's signature is here.

Just about everything Lee didn't script at this point was handled by his brother Larry Lieber.

(Stan's birth name is Stanley Leiber. He used "Stan Lee" on his comics work because he wanted his real name on the Great American Novel he planned to write.

When he finally realized he would be forever known for his comics and not any prose novel he might write, he legally changed his name to "Stan Lee".)

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Thor Masterworks
Volume 1 
featuring the Thor stories that appeared in front of the never-reprinted tales we're presenting!

Reading Room WEIRD WONDER TALES / STRANGE TALES "When a Planet Dies!"

The current "deep freeze" covering the USA reminded me of the splash panel from this story...

...from Marvel's Weird Wonder Tales #22 (1973), which was actually a reworking of this (literally) kool splash page from a cool story from Atlas' Strange Tales #97 (1962)!

While the art is credited to Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers, who wrote it is not entirely clear.

A number of people, myself included, think it's scripted by Kirby!

Bonus: Here's the original art for the cover from a previous issue of Weird Wonder Tales that supplied the Dr Druid figure on the reworked splash page above...

Art by pencilers Jack Kirby and John Romita Sr (Dr Druid's face), and inker Joe Sinnott.

Now, here's the original art for the Strange Tales story's splash page...

A Marvel production artist "flipped" a photostat of the Dr Druid figure from the Weird Wonder Tales cover and replaced the bearded aliens with it on a photostat of this splash page!

No original art was harmed in the making of the new splash! page!

Friday Holiday Fun SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS Conclusion

We Have Already Seen ...

In a desperate attempt to stimulate their lethargic and unmotivated children, the Martians decide to create a Christmas celebration on Mars.
But, the idea lacks one vital element...the real Santa Claus!
The benevolent Martian leader, Kimar, leads an expedition to Earth, where the aliens invade Santa's workshop at the North Pole.
Transporting Kris Kringle (and a couple of Earth kids they ran into) to the Red Planet, the Martians build a totally-automated factory to produce enough toys in time for Christmas.
But, the big green men are divided about if Santa's presence on Mars is actually helping their offspring.
A dissident group, lead by Voldar, sabotages the factory and kidnaps who they think is Santa, but is actually Kimar's bumbling aide, Dropo in a spare Santa suit...

Now, as a special early Christmas present...

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians:

the Motion Picture!

(Actually the MST3K version condensed down to 10 minutes!)