Reading Room WORLDS OF SUSPENSE "Dead End!"

Automobiles like this kool prototype aren't a new idea...

...but this particular one has a potentially-deadly feature for the unwary...as these thieves are about to discover!

I know I've seen the 1950s gull-wing concept car used as the prototype vehicle, but I'll be damned if I can find it on the 'Net.

Anybody recognize it?

The art for this never-reprinted tale of greed, gasoline, and goof-ups from Atlas' World of Suspense #8 (1957) was by Howard O'Donnell, whose career in comics was brief (1953-1958), but whose art career continues to this day as a noted painter of maritime and Western subjects!

The writer is unknown.

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Friday Fun CRAZY "Tales from Aesop's Stables"

Here's a never-reprinted example of horror humor...

...from one of Atlas' several MAD clones, Crazy V1N7 (1954)

Despite the title, this piece written and illustrated by Howie Post was not part of a series!

Well, perhaps it was!
But since this was the last issue, no other installments were ever seen!

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Sincerest Form of Parody

Reading Room VENUS COMICS "Thru the Lens"

Now this is how you tell a story in four pages...

...as demonstrated by artist Joe Maneely, a talent who died long before his time, and an unknown writer.

Who knew the world could end so...simply?

BTW, did you note the alien astronomer got it wrong?

Our planet blew up, not our sun!

If I was his boss, I'd fire him!

Originally-published in Atlas' Venus Comics #16 (1951), the tale was reprinted in the back of Marvel's X-Men #88 (1974), while the book was a reprint title, about a year before its' resurrection as the All-New X-Men!

So, the odds are that you, dear reader, have never seen it before!

And that, is what this blog is all about, showing you "lost" treasures!

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Three Who Vanished"

One of the joys of doing things like Reading Room...

...is uncovering a rarely-seen work by one of the greats in the business, like this tale from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #50 (1959)!

With a (admittedly somewhat-misleading) cover by Joe Sinnott, interior art by Steve Ditko, and script probably by Larry Lieber (Stan Lee almost always had his byline on his own scripts), it's a great example of the sort of energy and creativity that was just waiting for a spark to coalesce into what would become Marvel Comics only a year or so later.

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Creativity of Ditko

Reading Room WORLD OF FANTASY "When Will They Come?"

At one time or another, we all think we don't fit in and don't belong where we are...

...perhaps we're more like this tale's nameless protagonist than we think!

This never-reprinted tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #1 (1956) certainly offers an original excuse for breaking up with someone!
"I discovered I was an alien left behind on Earth, but now my people have come back for me so I can't see you any more."
While the writer is unknown, the artist is Robert "Bob" Bean, who's had an interesting career.
After illustrating stories and covers in almost every genre for numerous publishers including Atlas, Avon, St John, Charlton, Toby, and Lev Gleason, he left comics in the late 1950s and helped found Wylde Films, an industrial movie studio and is currently has also producing and directing cartooning correspondence course videos for Joe Kubert's World of Cartooning.

Reading Room WORLD OF SUSPENSE "Very Old Man"

Despite Marvel Entertainment's extensive reprinting program...

...there's an incredible amount of Timely/Atlas material that hasn't seen the light of day since the 1940s-50s!

This is one such tale...

Edited (and likely plotted) by Stan Lee, and penciled by Sol Brodsky, this never-reprinted story from Atlas' World of Suspense #8 (1957) is a typical morality tale from the Comics Code-controlled era.

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Reading Room WORLD OF FANTASY "Brain Picker!"

Nuclear accidents mutating everyday people were common in pre-Marvel tales...

...plotted or written by Stan Lee for Atlas Comics...except they didn't result in costumed superheroes...or costumed supervillains!

If this never-reprinted story by plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, penciler Matt Baker and inker Vince Colletta, from Atlas' World of Fantasy #17 (1959) had appeared after the intro of the Fantastic Four in 1961, I don't doubt Frederic Kane would've become an ongoing super-villain and scientist brother Phillip would've become his nemesis, probably working with S.H.I.E.L.D. and/or Professor X to stop him!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour

Friday Fun RIOT! "Guillotine!"

Sometimes you find something so weird, you just have to show it to others!

This never-reprinted cover and story from Atlas' RIOT! #1 (1954) are two such examples!

Illustrated (and possibly written) by Howie Post.

This tale proves that, with Atlas doing several MAD comic clones at once, even the most talented of creatives could find themselves stretched thin!

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Sincerest Form of Parody

Monday Madness FLYING SAUCERS x FOUR #4 "Impossible Spaceship!"

The final version of the "sentient flying saucer" story doesn't even include the words "flying saucer" in the title...

...and the ship design itself is closer to classic Star Trek or 1960s Italian sci-fi like Planet of the Vampires (one of my all-time faves)...

Published in the back of Marvel's Strange Tales #101 (1962), this MadMan-era, never-reprinted, Don Heck-illustrated, Stan Lee-scripted tale was the final version of a Stan Lee plot involving sentient alien spacecraft first used in 1953 (HERE), then re-used in 1958 (HERE), and 1960 (HERE).

NOTE: Atlas had given way to Marvel several months earlier with Amazing Fantasy #15 (first Spider-Man) and Fantastic Four #1 in 1961.

(When Spider-Man received his own title a year later, the FF were cover-featured guest-stars!)

BTW, the cover feature for this issue was the introduction of the Human Torch's short-lived solo strip!

Weird Trivia: All four of the issues these stories originally appeared in had a number "1" in the issue numbering (21, 1, 11, 101)!

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Monday Madness FLYING SAUCERS x FOUR #3 "I Know the Secret of the Flying Saucer!"

Last Monday, Jack Kirby demonstrated why he was THE KING...

...now Spider-Man co-creator "Sturdy" Steve Ditko shows us his unique approach to the same plot!

Presented in the back of Atlas' (later Marvel's) Tales of Suspense #11 (1960), this Stan Lee/Steve Ditko collaboration takes the twice-told tale (as we showed you HERE and HERE) and adds Ditko's more personal/less cosmic storytelling approach, playing up emotions of wonder and fear, taking the story closer to its' horror comic origins...but without the devouring of humans.

It's not better or worse, just different.

Next Monday, the final version of the tale...
...from another Silver Age stalwart!

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