Atomic Kommie Comics: Alarming Tales

Showing posts with label Alarming Tales. Show all posts

Monday, April 24, 2023

Monday Madness ALARMING TALES "I Want to Be a Man!"

Following up on yesterday's guest-post about artificial intelligence...

...is this little tale about an AI who aspires to be more than mere machine!

Written and penciled by Jack (King) Kirby and inked by Kirby with Simon & Kirby Studios partner Joe Simon, this story from Harvey's Alarming Tales #2 (1957), this short feature would be quite different if done today, since miniaturization would enable David to put FABIAC in a human-sized form with close-to-human features...as Kirby himself did with X-51 aka Aaron Stack aka Mr Machine aka Machine Man 20 years later!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Simon & Kirby Library

Science Fiction
(which reprints this story, along with a lot of other kool sci-fi by the duo!)

Thursday, September 29, 2022

Reading Room ALARMING TALES "Secret Weapon"

We've worried about homeland security for decades...

...but, quite frankly, we're damned good at it!

OK, maybe we haven't produced an invisibility device/formula...yet, but we Americans can handle anything terrorists can thtrow at us, as this never-reprinted Silver Age story from Harvey's Alarming Tales #4 (1958) shows!

BTW, it's written by Jack Oleck (a talented novelist and comic book writer who was the brother-in-law of Alarming Tales editor Joe Simon) and illustrated by Johnny Quest's co-creator Doug Wildey!

Monday, August 2, 2021

Monday Mars Madness ALARMING TALES "Hero"

Here's a short (in more ways than one) space-opera tale...

...though you won't get my pun until the end...

This story of size and space travel from Harvey's Alarming Tales #2 (1957) was produced by writer Jack Oleck, and illustrator Marvin Stein (with what appears to be uncredited layout help by Jack Kirby).

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Baker Reading Room "Behind the Scenes of 'Half Man-Half What' "

Here's Saturday's tale...

...but from the original Matt Baker/Al Williamson art!

Take particular note of the areas "whited out", probably at the request of the Comics Code Authority!

BTW, note that in the story, Dr Talbot's right side is altered, but on the cover, his left side is affected!

Let's look closely at that final panel...

Dr Talbot's right side has been totally-whited out.

Was it still metallic?

And his face originally wasn't happy!

Did the original ending show him at the beginning of the process, wondering if it would succeed, and leaving the door open for a sequel if it didn't?

Was the Comics Code Authority responsible for the odd changes?

We'll never know...
Penciler Matt Baker was one of the few Black comic book artists of the Golden and Silver Ages, and was easily the most prolific of them!
Though known for his "good girl" art, including the famous (and infamous) Phantom Girl stories, he handled every genre with ease, including horror, war, sci-fi, and romance!
Sadly, though, few of his stories featured Black characters...who were rare in comics until the mid-1960s!
You can read a short, but complete bio HERE!
He'll be our featured artist this month in the Baker Reading Room at Atomic Kommie Comics, spotlighting his amazing cross-genre versatility!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...