Showing posts with label Charles Nicholas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charles Nicholas. Show all posts

Thursday, January 5, 2023

Reading Room GREEN PLANET Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...
Art by Dick Giordano
Exiled by the repressive government of Earth, Jason Tolliver and other dissenters are shipped to the planet Klorath in a far distant solar system where a colony of rebels led by Tolliver's father had been established.
Upon arrival at the so-called "Green Planet", they discover a partially-completed colony encampment, totally-deserted.
The new arrivals cautiously move into the camp, and utilize the supplies to finish the camp and grow food.
Within a couple of weeks, the camp is completed and the first crop ready to harvest, but an attack by a giant pterodactyl-like creature on the farmers provides a possible answer to the fate of the previous Earthmen.
Following the creature to its' nest on a nearby cliff, Jason encounters another human...but not one of the Earthmen!
Tolliver and the fur-garbed man fight off an attack by one of the pterodactyls, then go their separate ways, having conquered a common foe, but unable to communicate.
Jason returns to the camp, calls a meeting and informs the others that they are not alone on the Green Planet...
For those who say classic sci-fi was just Westerns with spaceships instead of horses, this story, with its' "pioneers and native inhabitants" concept seems to prove them correct, albeit with a much happier ending than most settler-Indian encounters in the real Old West.
Penciled by Charles Nicholas, inked by Vince Alascia using the combined pen-name "Nicholas Alascia".
Based on the 1960 Monarch Books novel by J Hunter Holly (Joan Carol Holly), the writer of the comic adaptation is unknown.
Note: Charlton Comics and Monarch Books were divisions of the same company, much as Archie Comics and Belmont Books were also owned by the same people.
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by J Hunter Holly


Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Reading Room GREEN PLANET Part 1

Based on a then-recent (1960) novel by J Hunter Holly...
...which is mentioned nowhere in the comic itself or on the cover!
Go figure!
But, what is the answer?
Be here Thursday for the startling conclusion!
Penciled by Charles Nicholas, inked by Vince Alascia using the combined pen-name "Nicholas Alascia".
Based on the 1960 Monarch Books novel by J Hunter Holly (Joan Carol Holly), the writer of the comic adaptation is unknown.
Note: Charlton Comics and Monarch Books were divisions of the same company, much as Archie Comics and Belmont Books were also owned by the same people.
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Buy...
by J Hunter Holly

Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Reading Room OUTER SPACE "Planet Which Had Everything--Almost!"

Here's a tale that takes a concept from one of H.G. Wells' novels...
...a concept which was based on real-life events from Earth's history!
Yep, it's the classic ending from War of the Worlds!
Note: The movie version of Wells' First Men in the Moon also incorporates the "germs kill aliens who haven't been exposed to them" concept, but it's not in the original novel!
As to real-life, European settlers inadvertently brought a plague to North America and caused an epidemic that decimated a number of native tribes that had contact with them.
While the writer of this tale from Charlton's Outer Space #1 (1968) is unknown to me, the art is by Charles Nicholas and Vince Alascia.

Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Long Patrol"

Here's a never-reprinted Silver Age tale...
...that has a definite Golden Age "look" and "feel" to it!
Written by Joe Gill, penciled by Charles Nicholas, and inked by Vince Colletta, this story from Charlton's Space Adventures V2N6 (1969) feels like it's been edited down from a longer version.
Things happen almost arbitrarily, like the astronauts' home base knowing they've been mind-controlled by aliens, or the crewmen being deliberately-incapacitated by equipment on board we (and probably they) knew nothing about!
It's an interesting, but unsatisfying, tale...a rarity from Charlton.
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Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Baker Reading Room OUTER SPACE "Incredible Giants"

Here's another never-reprinted sci-fi tale...
...by renowned Black artist Matt Baker, who penciled, but didn't ink, the story!
Inker Vince Colletta employed a number of excellent, detailed pencilers like Matt Baker and Joe Sinnott to work for his studio, which "packaged" stories, series, and even book-length tales for publishers.
Unfortunately, when dealing with smaller publishers like Charlton (who didn't pay as much as DC, Marvel, Harvey, etc) to save cash, Vince inked most of the work himself, usually rushing it to meet deadlines!
Compare with another story, inked by long-time Baker collaborator Ray Osrin, and you see the difference inkers can make!
The same level of page layout and storytelling is obvious in both tales...but the rendering...hoo boy!
BTW, Joe Gill wrote this story from Charlton's Outer Space #23 (1959).
One important plot point was that the giant children thought the scout ship was a seed pod due to it's design...

...an element cover artists Charles Nicholas and Rocke Mastroserio didn't follow though on with their re-do of the story's splash panel!
Were they not informed, or did the editor deliberately insist on a more traditional ship design?
We'll never know the answer!

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