Monday Mars Madness ATTACK ON PLANET MARS "Chapter One: Tarrano Strikes"

In the 1950s Avon did a number of one-shot comic books...

...based on sci-fi novels.

While most were of tales (then) recently-reprinted by their paperback division,  this one was not.

Does a Fate Worse than Death Await Elza?

And...What is Tarrano's Plan?

Be Here Next Monday to Find Out!

Based on the novel Tarrano the Conqueror by Ray Cummings, this chapter of the 1951 comic adaptation was penciled by Carmine Infantino and inked by Joe Kubert, the team who would illustrate the first Silver Age Flash story in DC's Showcase #4 several years later!

The writer of the adaptation is unknown.

Please Support

Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Weird Horrors and Daring Adventures

Joe Kubert Archives

...which reprints only this chapter of the story, since it's the only one in the book that Kubert worked on!

(But there's lots of other kool stuff by the legendary editor/writer/artist in the book, so it's a must-have for any comics fan's library!)

Give Your Loved One a Batman Christmas!

Want to give your Batman-obsessed loved one (and we all have at least one) a "Batty" Christmas?

Combine the blu ray (or dvd) set ...

...with a not-available-in-stores digitally-restored reproduction of a 1966 Carmine Infantino/Murphy Anderson promo piece...

...created in 1966 to hype the then-new tv show!

Ironically, the visual looks more like a huge flat-screen tv than the small cathode-ray tv tubes of the 1960s!

Available in a variety of formats to fit both decor and budget!

The Dead Walk at Christmas...

There have been numerous comic adaptations of Charles Dickens' Christmas ghost story...

...but this never-reprinted one from (believe it or not) Marvel Comics, has the distinction of being illustrated by more artists than any other version!

Credited to "Diverse Hands", the art styles I recognize include Bob Hall, Frank Giacoia, Frank Springer, Dave Cockrum, Marie Severin, Carmine Infantino, Steve Leialoha, John Romita Sr, Al Milgrom, Mike Esposito, and probably anybody who wandered into the Bullpen while this book was in production!

Trivia: 

This was the final title in the Marvel Classics Comics line which had started out as color reprints of the early '70s b/w Pendulum Press "comic adaptations of classic stories" series. After a dozen issues, Marvel began doing their own adaptations, continuing for another two dozen issues.

Scripter Doug Moench was no newcomer to adapting prose to comics having worked on comics versions of literary properties including Doc Savage, The Shadow, James Bond, and Fu Manchu!

Colorist Francoise Mouly later became the art editor of The New Yorker, co-creator of the legendary comic anthology Raw, and is currently the publisher/editorial director of Toon Books, an imprint of Candlewick Press. She is the creative partner (and spouse) of Art Spiegelman.

What are you waiting for?

Click here for Stave One!

Support Small Business this Christmas!

Visit the

A Christmas Carol / Scrooge

Collectibles Store!

Reading Room SENSATION MYSTERY COMICS "Last Dream"

Wonder Woman lost her cover feature in Sensation Comics as of this issue (#107)...

...when the book was retitled Sensation Mystery, and featured "mysteries" like this one!

In 1952, horror comics became the "hot" genre, with most comics publishers going "all in" to see who could be the goriest!

DC, though, tried to stay relatively innocuous, refusing to go for the gore.

While their sales didn't skyrocket as many other publishers' did, they managed to stay below the radar during the whole "Seduction of the Innocent" mania.

And, it certainly made reprinting any of the material produced during this period a breeze after the Comics Code was imposed!

This John Broome-written, Carmine Infantino-penciled, and Frank Giacoia-inked tale was typical of DC's output during this period.

(Some say Sy Barry inked it, but expert art identifier Martin O'Hearn thinks it's Giacoia, and I agree with him.)

Straightforward, logical, and effectively-told, it's almost a template for the various stories the anthology would carry until the book's cancellation a year later with #116.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Showcase Presents

Ghosts

(which features this story...but in black and white!)

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!

Visit

The Future WAS Fantastic!

Comics Collectibles Store!

Give Someone a Batman Christmas!

Want to give your Batman-obsessed loved one a "Batty" Christmas?

Combine the new blu ray (or dvd) set...

...with a not-available-in-stores digitally-restored reproduction of a 1966 Carmine Infantino/Murphy Anderson promo piece...

...created in 1966 to hype the then-new tv show!

Ironically, the visual looks more like a huge flat-screen tv than the small cathode-ray tv tubes of the 1960s!

Available in a variety of formats to fit both decor and budget!

Carmine Infantino (May 24, 1925–April 4, 2013)

Licensing art original by Infantino and Murphy Anderson

The man who visually-redefined DC Comics in the Silver Age, first as an artist, then as art director, finally as publisher, has passed away.

(Mind you, that's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of his work, but it's the most prominent aspect, and the one that Baby Boomers like myself will talk about.)

Holiday Reading Room: A CHRISTMAS CAROL "Stave Five"

When Last We Left Our Miser...

Ebenezer Scrooge despised and loathed Christmas.

Not just the holiday, mind you, but also any and all who celebrated it!

But, thanks to what we today would call an "intervention" by the ghost of his business partner, Scrooge awakens on Christmas morning, profoundly changed...

Adapted by Doug Moench, based on the novella by Charles Dickens.

Credited to "Diverse Hands", the art styles I recognize include Bob Hall, Frank Giacoia, Frank Springer, Dave Cockrum, Marie Severin, Carmine Infantino, Steve Leialoha, John Romita Sr, Al Milgrom, Mike Esposito, Tom Palmer, Ron Wilson, and probably anybody who wandered into the Bullpen while this book was in production!

Support Small Business this Christmas!

Visit our

A Christmas Carol / Scrooge

Collectibles Store!

Holiday Reading Room: A CHRISTMAS CAROL "Stave Four"

We Have Already Seen...

Thanks to the powers of the Ghost of Christmas Present, Ebenezer Scrooge witnesses how, despite unfortunate circumstances or lack of money, most people (including the family of his clerk Bob Cratchit) joyously celebrate the holiday.

Then, the specter disappears, leaving Scrooge on a fog-bound London street.

But the misanthropic miser is not alone...

Tomorrow:

"The Cataclysmic Climax!"

(C'mon, it's a Marvel book!)

Adapted by Doug Moench, based on the novella by Charles Dickens.

Credited to "Diverse Hands", the art styles I recognize include Bob Hall, Frank Giacoia, Frank Springer, Dave Cockrum, Marie Severin, Carmine Infantino, Steve Leialoha, John Romita Sr, Al Milgrom, Mike Esposito, Tom Palmer, Ron Wilson, and probably anybody who wandered into the Bullpen while this book was in production!

Support Small Business this Christmas!

Visit our

A Christmas Carol / Scrooge

Collectibles Store!

Holiday Reading Room: A CHRISTMAS CAROL "Stave Three"

When Last We Left Our Miser...

Scrooge travelled through time with the Spirit of Christmas Past to relive Christmases from his childhood to the recent past.

Now as Ebenezer is safely ensconced back in bed, the clock chimes, and a second specter appears...

Tomorrow:

"Days of Future Presents!"

(C'mon, it's a Marvel book!)

Adapted by Doug Moench, based on the novella by Charles Dickens.

Credited to "Diverse Hands", the art styles I recognize include Bob Hall, Frank Giacoia, Frank Springer, Dave Cockrum, Marie Severin, Carmine Infantino, Steve Leialoha, John Romita Sr, Al Milgrom, Mike Esposito, Tom Palmer, Ron Wilson, and probably anybody who wandered into the Bullpen while this book was in production!

Support Small Business this Christmas!

Visit the

A Christmas Carol / Scrooge

Collectibles Store!