Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ADVENTURE COMICS "SWORD OF THE DEAD!"

Here's a never-reprinted tale of "HIGH adventure"...

...written and illustrated by Gil Kane during the same period he was producing his landmark graphic novel BlackMark!

Simple.

Visceral.

Effective.

Now, THAT'S the way to tell a story!

This tale appeared in DC's Adventure Comics #425 (1972-73), when it was, briefly, an anthology between the departure of Supergirl into her own short-lived title and the debut of heroine Black Orchid!

BTW, BlackMark will be coming to Wednesday Worlds of Wonder this summer!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Blackmark

by Gil Kane

One of the first true graphic novels

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ADVENTURERS' CLUB "Whick! Whock! Whick! Whock!"

Let's end the too-brief run of this retro (even when it was published almost 50 years ago) series...

...with a story about the world's most unique timepiece as we present the final chapter of The Adventurers' Club!

This never-reprinted story from DC's Adventure Comics #430 (1973) featured a new creative team, writer Arnold Drake and artist Luis Dominguez (who had illustrated the only cover the Adventurers' Club appeared on as shown last week) and an oddly-red-headed Nelson Strong!

Though the Adventurers' Club strip ended, Nelson Strong would reappear a couple of decades later in DC's Swamp Thing #145-150 (1994-5) as a big-game hunter attempting to capture Swampy.
Nelson dies in the attempt and is briefly resurrected as an Elemental!
Bet that would've been a helluva Adventurers' Club story, eh?

Next Wednesday

A New World of Wonder!

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ADVENTURERS' CLUB "Voodoo Lizards!"

Last Wednesday, we introduced you to Nelson Strong and the Adventurers Club...

This cover scene by Luis Dominguez does not appear in the comic!

...where the requirement for entry was a tale about an "exciting or unusual adventure".

Note: though Carter states he's getting "great action pictures" for his publisher (indicating a print magazine or book), he's using a movie camera, not a standard "still-photo" camera!
This never-reprinted story from DC's Adventure Comics #427 (1973) could be considered either science fiction or fantasy with a horror twist.

Either way, writer John Albano and artist Jim Aparo did a great job evoking mood and telling a cohesive story in only 8 pages, eh?

Trivia: Luis Dominguez, who illustrated the cover above (the only cover the Adventurers' Club was ever featured on) took over the art for the next (and last) tale featuring the group.

You'll see it next Wednesday.

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ADVENTURERS' CLUB " 'Scortch' Jordan's Tommy Gun"

The first ongoing feature during Adventure Comics' short-lived 1970s return to an anthology format...

...was this strip with a Boris Karloff-lookalike host.

It's unclear whether writer John Albano (who had been scripting Supergirl until it left Adventure) or Adventure Comics editor Joe Orlando conceived the series.

This never-reprinted tale from DC's Adventure Comics #426 (1973) clearly shows the "ghost" to be of non-supernatural origin, but later stories lean towards supernatural elements.

When The Spectre was reintroduced in Adventure, for a memorable run by Michael Fleisher and Jim Aparo, the cover title (though not indicia) became Weird Adventure Comics.

I mentioned the visual of the host, Nelson Strong, was "Karloff-esque".

Here's Karloff from his one-season 1950s tv series Colonel March of Scotland Yard.

Does he look like the visual inspiration for Nelson Strong?
I'd be willing to bet on it...

Reading Room ADVENTURE COMICS "Prior Warning"

Some "people" are just too smart for their own good...

...as this never-reprinted short story proves!

Carl Sagan postulated in his novel, Contact, that aliens could receive our radio and tv broadcasts which were traveling at light-speed from Earth since the 1920s, literally broadcasting our presence to the rest of the universe.

Without context, what would they make of those images...and how might they make use of them?

This story from DC's Adventure Comics #425 (1972-73), illustrated by Frank Redondo, offers one outcome.

BTW, the writer is unknown.
Note: for three issues, Adventure Comics briefly returned to its' original anthology format between the departure of Supergirl into her own title and the debut of heroine Black Orchid!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Intro to Alien Invasion

Reading Room ADVENTURE COMICS "Invasion"

Here's a"lost" story you'd think was from one of Atlas/Marvel's early 1960s sci-fi titles...

...because it features a kool a pencil and ink job by Silver Age legend Don Heck!

But you'd be wrong!

Heck had an undeserved reputation as a hack artist, mostly due to poor inking by actual hacks like Vince Colletta, who was notorious for leaving out pencilers' linework to get the job done faster.

When Don had a good inker or inked himself, his work was on a par with any of the other acknowledged greats of the field.

But since he was almost as fast a penciler as Jack Kirby, publishers didn't utilize his inking talents as often as they could've.

This tale hasn't been seen since it appeared in the back of DC's Adventure Comics #424 (1972).

We're pleased to present it to an audience that was probably unaware of its' existence.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Don Heck

A Work of Art

Reading Room ADVENTURE COMICS "Wings of Jealous Gods"

In 1972, Supergirl moved from Adventure Comics into her own title...

...and DC decided to restore Adventure to its' original anthology format.

The first issue (425) featured the kool Mike Kaluta cover seen above, along with a never-reprinted, high-adventure story illustrated by a Golden Age pro who had moved to the animation field, but still kept in touch with his comic book roots...

Alex Toth made a brief return to DC in 1972-73, doing stories for several titles, including Adventure (where he did a two-part Black Canary back-up tale several issues earlier), Detective, and Our Fighting Forces.

Toth would do one more tale for Adventure Comics during this period; "Is a Snerl Human?", which we presented HERE.

(If you want to see all the Alex Toth stories we've presented, click HERE.)

Lynn Marron scripted several tales for DC and Warren in the early 1970s before disappearing from comics...but not from writing!

She's the author of several ongoing mystery and fantasy series available as e-books or print-on-demand editions on Amazon.

Check out her website HERE.

Please Support
Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Treasures Retold

Lost Art of Alex Toth