Showing posts with label Atlas Comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Atlas Comics. Show all posts

Sunday, November 10, 2024

Reading Room WORLD OF SUSPENSE "By the Dark of the Moon"

The cover depicting this tale has a gothic horror feel...
...but, in fact, the story is hard science fiction!
No ghosts or ghoulies at all!
(Halloween was over a week ago!)
Was this story's ending rewritten to conform to the Comics Code?
Scripted by Carl Wessler and ilustrated by John Giunta, this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' World of Suspense #5 (1956) features a last panel with a rather convoluted explanation that seems, as the saying goes "out of left field".
Or is it just the result of trying to cram a lot of story into only four pages?
We'll never know...

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

Reading Room STRANGE WORLDS "I Was the Changing Man!"

Here's a beautifully-rendered tale by comics legend Al Williamson...

...that elevates an average tale about mind/body transfer to near-classic status!



Published in Atlas' Strange Worlds #4 (1959), the story was likely-plotted by the book's editor, Stan Lee, but the actual scripter is unknown!
Since publication, it's been reprinted, only once, and only in b/w, in the volume below...

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Thursday, August 29, 2024

Reading Room ADVENTURE INTO MYSTERY "Beware...the Brimm!"

If there's one thing any fan of sci-fi/fantasy can tell you, it's that things that appear to be warm, cuddly, and cute are, in reality, rarely harmless...
Illustrated by Angelo Torres and likely plotted by editor Stan Lee, this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Adventure into Mystery #7 (1957) leaves the door open to a sequel, but one never appeared!
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Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Reading Room ADVENTURE INTO MYSTERY "Inside the Iceberg"


If there's anywhere we'd like to be during this heat wave, it's inside an iceberg!
But then, we're not about to experience what Jeff Marlin is about to encounter...
Illustrated by Manny Stallman, the actual scripter of this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Adventure into Mystery #1 (1956) is unknown, though the plot is likely the brainchild of the book's editor, Stan Lee!
But any way you look at it, this is a kool tale for a hot summer day!
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Thursday, August 22, 2024

Reading Room WORLD OF SUSPENSE "Bright New World!"

How do you prove the theoretically-unprovable?
This never-reprinted story from Atlas' World of Suspense #1 (1956) presents one possible way!
It's a cute story with a kool "gotcha" ending...if you don't think about it too much!
But writer Carl Wessler and artist Al Hartley ignored a number of simple (and obvious) facts...
1) Jet engines aren't rockets.
They require an oxygen-rich atmosphere to function, otherwise they konk out!
2) Commercial aircraft, while somewhat airtight, are not designed for use in a total vacuum, where there's no external pressure!
The hull and windows would blow outward within minutes, if not seconds!
(Especially if they were made by Boeing!)
3) Any phenomenon creating a "tunnel" between Earth and Uranus in our atmosphere would've been noticed by scientists, even with the relatively-unsophisticated instruments of the period!
(They wouldn't have understood it...but they would have noticed it!)
4) Nobody paid attention to the little green tourists (in magenta robes)wandering around?
5) Though I love the point that Earth (Most likely just America) was, even then, expensive to live in, I have to ask; what were the Uranians using for money?
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Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Reading Room WORLD OF FANTASY "Brain Destroyer!"

This title reminded me of Don (da Con) Trump...
...even though the story itself has nothing to connect it to the Republicans' hilarious convicted criminal candidate!
No matter whether you agree for my reason for running the story, it's still a long-lost, never-reprinted tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #19 (1959) you probably would never have seen otherwise.
Plotted by Stan Lee, written by Larry Lieber, and illustrated by Carl Burgos, it's typical of the sort of stuff Atlas was running as it transitioned into what we would know as Marvel only a couple of years later.

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Thursday, August 1, 2024

Reading Room STRANGE TALES OF THE UNUSUAL "Gift"

Do we really appreciate presents given freely to us?
Or do we always think there's an ulterior motive behind them?
Illustrated by Bob Powell, this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Strange Tales of the Unusual #1 (1955) suggests Mankind should be a bit more trusting and less paranoid.
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Thursday, July 25, 2024

Reading Room STRANGE TALES OF THE UNUSUAL "Stowaway in the Sky!"

Here's a never-reprinted Cold War tale...

...about secrets, spies, and sabotage from Atlas' Strange Tales of the Unusual #9 (1957).
Written by Carl Wessler and illustrated by Ed Winiarski, this was a typical 1950s tale of sneaky Russkies being out-maneuvered by smarter Americans!
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Saturday, July 6, 2024

Space Hero Saturdays STRANGE WORLDS "I Was a Human Satellite!"

You Don't Have to be Square-Jawed and Muscle-Bound to be a Space Hero...

...as our unnamed protagonist discovers in this tale from Atlas' Strange Planets #3 (1959)
Illustrated by Steve Ditko and written by an unknown scribe, the lesson is that courage isn't defined by lack of fear, but being able to control fear and to utilize it!
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Tuesday, July 2, 2024

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO UNKNOWN WORLDS "Lost...One World"

James Blane is in for a rough day...
...or is it a rough year...or decade...or...
"A chance to do your life over, with no memory of what you've done previously.
Would you repeat your mistakes, or take a different path...into The Twilight Zone?"
(Sorry, couldn't resist)
This odd tale of time and turnover was the lead (but not the cover feature) in Atlas' Journey into Unknown Worlds #53 (1957).
However, these scans are from Marvel's Worlds Unknown #4 (1974), which had better reproduction.
Art by Bob Powell, but the writer is unknown.
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