Monday Madness / Holiday Reading Room HOT WHEELS "Humbug Run"

If a Santa in a motorized sleigh running two teens down isn't the very definition of "madness"...

Art by Neal Adams & Dick Giordano

...I don't know what is!
Enjoy this never-reprinted tale from the Silver Age of Comics!

The cover story for DC's Hot Wheels #6 (1971) was written by Len Wein, with art by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano, following Alex Toth's character designs from the 1969-1971 animated series based on the toy line.
Toth also illustrated most of the stories in the comic series, as shown below!

Art by Alex Toth from Hot Wheels #1

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ATARI FORCE Part Four "Conclusion"

In 2005...

...humanity, spearheaded by the Atari Force, explored multiple dimensions of the Multiverse to prepare to colonize them since Earth's biosphere is rapidly-decaying!

However, some species, such as the Malagon, are hostile to the intruding humans, but Atari techs developed the Phoenix starfighter to defeat them...if the pilot knows the correct strategy!

Note that the combat technique shown here was actually the way to win the video game!

As shown last week, when this digest-sized comic was reprinted in standard comic size as an insert in a couple of DC's ongoing books, the rather nasty-looking Malaglon...

...became almost-too cute-to-shoot frogs...

...not that something like that would ever stop a trigger-happy human pilot!

Liberator was the Atari arcade game which utilized the Atari Force comic's characters and graphics to greatest effect...

...from the advertising/promotion material...

...to the arcade console itself!

The Atari Force WILL Return!

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Art of Atari

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ATARI FORCE Part Four "Part 1"

We Return to the Atari Universe, where in 2005, we started travelling into other dimensions...

..including some where humans definitely aren't welcome!

To Be Continued...

Next Wednesday!

As of this tale in the 1982 fourth cartridge insert comic by writers Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas, Penciler Ross Andru and inker Dick Giordano, it's clear that the pioneering crew of Scanner One finished their initial assignment, returned home, provided vital intel to Atari and helped organize and train a second wave of explorers!
Besides this digest-sized mini-comic, the story was also published as a bonus comic-sized insert in DC's DC Comics Presents #53 and New Teen Titans #27 (both 1983).

That version had some differences...

...starting with a retitling from "Phoenix" to "Code Name: Liberator"...

...and a new subtitle"Liberator Mission: Freedom or Death!"

Plus, every reference in the captions, dialogue and signage is altered from "Phoenix" to "Liberator"!

In addition, the alien Malaglon are altered from brutish, fanged extraterrestrials to...

...frogs, albeit armed and armored frogs!

I'm uncertain if the Comics Code Authority pushed the alteration of the aliens for the mass-market comics version...

...though it is so much more satisfying to see them getting blown up as hideous monsters than cute frogs.

But, that's just me...

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Art of Atari

Reading Room WORLDS UNKNOWN "Arena" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Hero...

Carson, a space fighter pilot on station at the edge of the solar system intercepts an alien ship, but before he or the intruder can fire, they are both teleported from their ships to a planetoid, where unarmed, they face each other.
A voice explains to the two combatants that they must fight to the death to decide the conflict, thus avoiding the mass destruction to both sides that a full-scale war would cause.
A force field separates the combatants, but they are told they can utilize the materials at hand to create weapons.
The opponents discover they can't pentrate the force field, but inanimate objects can!
They throw rocks at each other, but rocks alone won't provide a victory for either side...or will they?

This extremely-faithful adaptation of Fredric Brown's short story was created by writer Gerry Conway, penciler John Buscema, and inker Dick Giordano.
Be here tomorrow when we take a look at some less-accurate, but far more famous adaptations!

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From These Ashes

Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown

(Including "Arena")

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