Reading Room ADVENTURE COMICS "Is a Snerl Human?"

A parable is defined as "a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson".

Writers love to tell them, and we love to read them (especially ones with sci-fi elements).

Written by Shelly Mayer and beautifully-illustrated by Alex Toth, this never-reprinted story from DC's Adventure Comics #431 (1974) came out during the era when Jack Kirby's Kamandi was being published, which might explain why it's set on the planet "Teyton" rather than a future Earth, despite the fact all the animals, except the Snerls, are obviously Earth creatures!

(Kamandi was set on a near-future Earth where intelligent animals [most in humanoid form] rule the planet.)

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Showcase Presents

Strange Adventures

Volume 1

Reading Room LOST WORLDS "Alice in TerrorLand"

We ran a humorous variation of Alice in Wonderland HERE......

... but here's a story based on Lewis Carroll's tale that combines sci-fi, and a fear many children experience at one time or another...

Penciled by Alex Toth and inked by Mike Peppe, this tale from Standard's Lost Worlds #5 (1952) takes the common kids' fear of toys coming to life and adds imagery from Lewis Carroll's Alice tales to an alien invasion scenario to create a wonderfully-creepy story.

Sadly, the writer of this wild tale is unknown.

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Alice in ComicLand

Featuring various comics incarnations of the Lewis Carroll character!

Reading Room FANTASTIC WORLDS "Triumph Over Terror"

What if a science fiction writer was the hero of a sci-fi tale?

And, what if the scribe was, initially, just as ignorant of the situation as any other protagonist in such a tale?

This tale from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #5 (1952) was drawn by Alex Toth and John Celardo, though, ironically, the writer is unknown.

BTW, though it's #5, this is actually the first issue of the title!

There was no #1-#4, which was a pretty standard practice for the publisher during the late 1940s-early '50s!!
The publisher felt the audience would be more accepting of a book they believed was established and already had four issues out.
After all, they had no way of finding the "previous" issues!
Newsstands and drugstores just shipped back the previous month's comics (and other magazines) to the distributor!
No comic shops stocking back issues!

No internet they could search!

Trivia: the cover of the comic the kid is holding on page 1...

...is a variation of the cover (rendered by the story's inker, John Celardo) of the actual issue this story appears in!

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Pre-Code Classics

Fantastic Worlds/Lost Worlds

Reading Room WEIRD THRILLERS "Fisherman of Space"

Weird Thrillers was a 1950s sci-fi comic with painted covers...

Art by Allen Anderson

..which helped set the Ziff-Davis comic series apart from others on the newsstands!

All Ziff-Davis comics, no matter the genre, had painted covers, usually by the same artists who did cover art for their large pulp magazine line.

(Avon Comics also used paintings from time-to-time, but not throughout the line, and not on a consistent basis.)

Z-D was a latecomer to the comics business, publishing their first title in 1950 and canceling most titles by the end of 1952, continuing one book, G.I. Joe, until 1957.

During the comic division's brief existence, Z-D published over fifty titles, mostly one-shots and two-issue runs, covering every genre in fiction...except superheroes!

(The closest they came to superheroes were Lars of Mars and Crusader from Mars, both of whom were Martians operating undercover on Earth, and neither lasted past their second issue.)

Weird Thrillers (and it's one-shot predecessor Weird Adventures) ran a total of six issues.

Here's an example of why they lasted longer than most other Z-D titles...

This time-traversing tale from Weird Thrillers #2 (1951) was penciled by Alex Toth and inked by Sy Barry.

The writer is unknown, which is a shame, since it's a decent story with a clever, scientifically-accurate solution.

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Reading Room FANTASTIC WORLDS "Boy Who Saved the World!

The short-lived anthology Fantastic Worlds featured Earth-based stories...

...contrasting with the other anthology from Standard Comics, Lost Worlds, which was a space-opera book.

This kid-friendly tale from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #6 (1952) was drawn by Alex Toth and Mike Peppe, though the writer is unknown.

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The Future WAS Fantastic!

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Reading Room FANTASTIC WORLDS "Invaders"

The short-lived anthology Fantastic Worlds featured Earth-based stories...

...contrasting with the other anthology from Standard Comics, Lost Worlds, which was a space-opera book.

This tale from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #5 (1952) was drawn by Alex Toth and Mike Peppe, though the writer is unknown.
(Page 7, Panel 6 is apparently a redraw by Carmine Infantino!)

BTW, though it's #5, this is actually the first issue of the title!

There was no #1-#4!

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Out of the Night, When the Full Moon is Bright...

"...comes the Horseman known as Zorro!"

Click on the art to enlarge

It's so big, we had to use two blogs to tell it!

It's ZORRO!

The comic book version of the legendary Disney tv series, featuring art by the amazing Alex Toth!

For Part One, go to our TV/Movie Adaptation blog...

Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™

then, either follow the embedded link or return here to go to

Western Comics Adventures™

for the exciting conclusion and a special video treat!

Check out our 

Western Comics online store...

 ...for duds and provisions!