Atomic Kommie Comics: Bob Powell

Showing posts with label Bob Powell. Show all posts

Monday, February 21, 2022

Monday Madness "Supreme Penalty" 1.0 & 2.0

Here's two radically-different versions of the same sci-fi comic tale...

...with changes in the reprint forced upon the publisher by the Comics Code Authority!

This version appeared in Harvey's Black Cat Mystery #47 (1953) during the height of the horror comics boom.

It was re-presented in Harvey's Race for the Moon #1 (1959) after the Comics Code went into effect.

Let's see how things have changed...

Almost every panel has a change from the original, either in art or balloons!

Panel 4 has an interesting change in dialogue indicating the condemned survive in space...

Only change is dialogue in the first panel, which indicates the exiled criminals are still alive, but in orbit.

The figure of Judge Krenk being murdered in Panel 6, and his corpse in Panel 7 have been removed!

Panel One: Judge Krenk is said to be wounded, not dead!

Panel Six: Frances' face redrawn to look less maniacal and his sentence altered to confine him to his lab!

Interesting to note the alterations inflicted by the Comics Code!

Art (and probably story) by Bob Powell.

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Bob Powell's
Terror
(Anthology of the best of his 1950s horror and sci-fi tales)

Monday, April 19, 2021

Monday Mars Madness: a Twice-Told Tale INVASION!

One of the best-known Mars invasion tales is Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio show...

Edited version

...which this twice-told tale "updates" to the television era!

But, it's radically-altered from it's first appearance, and that the original version had never been reprinted!

First the toned-down version, then the original, scarier version...

Original version

Note in the original version, both the wife and singer on tv show a lot more cleavage!

Edited version

Original version

Again, more cleavage in the original version...

Edited version

Original version

Oddly enough, the wife's cleavage is unchanged, but the look of terror in the last panel is toned down!

Edited version

Original version

Panel four in the original version is much more gruesome than the edited version. Note the dialogue balloon is unchanged, even though there's no actual weapons fire in the edited version!

Edited version

This last page is radically-different! Prepare yourself!
Ready?
Proceed...but remember, I warned you...

Original version

Wow!

The edited pages were from Race for the Moon #1 (1958), which was reprinted in Shocking Tales Digest #1 (1981)

The original story was from Witches' Tales #21 (1953)

As you can see, the Comics Code Authority insisted on some major redos, including most of the last page!

What do you think, fans!

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The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics: Volume 2

Bob Powell's

Terror

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Reading Room WEIRD THRILLERS "Shadow on the Screen!"

For all those whose parents told them "TV is bad for you"...

...and "comics are bad for you", well, they were right, as this comic tale about TV proves!

This tale from Ziff-Davis' Weird Thrillers #3 (1952) was illustrated by Bob Powell.

Powell, besides being a gifted illustrator was also a pioneer in the use of "color holds" in comic books.

The same technique he used on the tv screen was also used in a tale of radio and pulp hero The Shadow HERE, taking artwork that normally would be black-line and making it one of the color plates.

It was a very tricky thing to do back in those days since the interior pages were almost never proofed due to time and cost restraints.

But, Powell does some amazing things with the holds, making them line up exactly almost all the time!

Sadly, the writer of the story is, as in so many cases, unknown...

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics: Volume 2

Bob Powell's

Terror

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Reading Room WORLDS BEYOND "Twice Alive!"

Instead of the usual vampires or werewolves or zombies, here's a horror story...

Art by Sheldon Moldoff

...with a different, more "science fiction", approach to terror, from the HTF Worlds Beyond #1 (1951) from Fawcett.

Did the writers of the movie Fantastic Voyage read this tale when they were younger?

The art is by comics legend Bob Powell, but the writer is unknown.

The cover, by Sheldon Moldoff, shows a cavern (with bats!) instead of the inside of a human being, and probably was meant for another story, but it conveys the mood of "Twice Alive", if not the plot points.

Worlds Beyond was retitled Worlds of Fear with #2 and ran for another nine issues.

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Thursday, October 4, 2018

Tomb of Terror Thursdays "End Result!"

On Thursdays this October, we're presenting sci-fi horror...

...from Harvey Comics, which, near the end of the horror line's run, applied specific story themes to the four anthology titles, as explained here...

There had been sci-fi tales scattered throughout all the Harvey horror titles for the two years they'd been around, but as of March, 1954, the editors decided to concentrate them in Tomb of Terror!

So let's dive in with the never-reprinted cover-feature tale...and note how different Lee Elias' bug-eyed aliens on the cover are from Bob Powell's insect ETs in the story itself!