Showing posts with label American Comics Group. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American Comics Group. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Reading Room: COMMANDER BATTLE AND THE ATOMIC SUB "Giants from the Depths"

...and completed their shake-down cruise, the aptly-named Commander Battle and his Atomic Sub are ready for action!
Tomorrow:
The pseudo 3-D created by Craft-Tint tones used in the first issue was eliminated for #2 of ACG's Commander Battle and the Atomic Sub (1954), although it looks like the pages were initially-conceived to utilize the Craft-Tint effects to create depth.
Without it, the giants aren't quite as imposing as they would have been, and panels like the last one on Page 7 (Battle bailing out of the airplane) just look silly.
Script by Richard Hughes, the Stan Lee of ACG who wrote practically everything at the company during his tenure as editor/writer!
Pencils by Sheldon Moldoff, inks by Al Camy, Odgen Whitney and others.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Reading Room: FORBIDDEN WORLDS "Mysteries of the Unknown: Interplanetary Episode"

Here's a tale filled with irony...
...about a special man who held the fate of the world in his hands.
Note: there are some "politically-incorrect" references to mental illness, so it might be NSFW.
Appearing in ACG's Forbidden Worlds #86 (1960), this Richard Hughes-scripted and Ken Landau-illustrated tale was an oddly-modified re-presentation of a story originally-published in a pre-Comics Code issue of Adventures into the Unknown!
For one thing, most of the artwork changes restore the original Ken Landau artwork that was modified by Ogden Whitney in the AitU tale!
(The exception is the splash page which is changed from the original version (which had Landau's signature.)
Plus, an entire plot point, involving the dead dog, which was redrawn in the original story into a "mistaken identity" plotline by Whitney, is restored!
Check out our "brother" blog, Seduction of the Innocent™, tomorrow (Wednesday) for the first version of this tale that the Comics Code disapproved of!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Reading Room: COMMANDER BATTLE AND THE ATOMIC SUB Conclusion

...that really says it all, doesn't it?
BTW, wouldn't this comic make a great multi-million dollar cgi-fx movie?
(Wait a sec...they're doing a BattleShip flick...)
 Aquatic aliens vs the US Navy!
These guys at American Comics Group were ahead of their time...by over 50 years!
On with the story...
Commander Battle and the Atomic Sub will return...soon!
(I wanna see what happens next, too!)

Script by Richard Hughes, the Stan Lee of ACG who wrote practically everything during his tenure as editor/writer!
Pencils by Sheldon Moldoff, inks by Odgen Whitney and others.

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Friday, February 17, 2012

Reading Room: COMMANDER BATTLE AND THE ATOMIC SUB Part 2

Now, that's a synopsis!
(For the record, the "saucer" still looks like a doughnut!)
On with the story...
I could see the editorial conference now...
"OK, guys, for our first issue we have..
3-D (sort of) effects!
An atomic sub!
Evil aliens!
A "flying saucer"!
The underwater city of Atlantis!
A giant sea monster!
Did we leave anything out?"
Find out tomorrow in the pulse-pounding conclusion!

Script by Richard Hughes, the Stan Lee of ACG who wrote practically everything during his tenure as editor/writer!
Pencils by Sheldon Moldoff, inks by Odgen Whitney and others.

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Thursday, February 16, 2012

Reading Room: COMMANDER BATTLE AND THE ATOMIC SUB Part 1

Travel back to the 1950s, when atomic power was all that stood between us and flying saucers...
...although how an atomic submarine will do it is something to behold!
So, buckle your seatbelts and dive in!
Oddly enough, the "flying saucer" looks more like a flying doughnut...or the 1950s concept of a space station as seen in contemporary films like Conquest of Space!
Script by Richard Hughes, the Stan Lee of ACG who wrote practically everything during his tenure as editor/writer!
Pencils by Sheldon Moldoff, inks by Odgen Whitney and others.
Be here tomorrow for Part 2 when we'll see who's behind the "flying saucer"...

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

COMMANDER BATTLE AND THE ATOMIC SUB are coming...

While preparing files for the 3-D Week series, I came across this title in my archives...
..which doesn't use 3-D, but a pseudo-3-D process called...
BTW, only the first issue used the TrueVision gimmick.
The 1954 seven-issue series from American Comics Group featuring art by Ogden Whitney, Sheldon Moldoff, and Ken Hughes has a lot in common with the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea tv series and the Voyage to the Deep comic series, emphasizing wild science fiction storylines with the occasional spy/anti-Commie tale.
Be here tomorrow when we present the never-reprinted #1, which features the origin of the sub, the assembling of the crew and their first mission!

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