Showing posts with label Dick Giordano. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dick Giordano. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

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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Wednesday, May 8, 2024

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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Thursday, February 15, 2024

Reading Room WORLDS UNKNOWN "Arena" Conclusion

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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Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Reading Room WORLDS UNKNOWN "Arena" Part 1

It's the sci-fi novella so nice, TV adapted it twice...
...first on Outer Limits, then, two years later, on Classic Star Trek!
Will human ingenuity, cunning, and strength triumph?
Or will the alien win?
Be here THURSDAY for the answer!
This extremely-faithful adaptation was created by writer Gerry Conway, penciler John Buscema, and inker Dick Giordano.
The Fredric Brown-penned short story it's based on first appeared in Street & Smith's Astounding Science Fiction (June, 1944) pulp magazine.
The tale was voted one of the Top 20 Science Fiction Stories before 1965 by the Science Fiction Writers Association and included in the must-have (if you're a serious sci-fi fan) anthology... 
...which is still in print.
(Note: this is the dust jacket/cover of the hardcover 1st edition, one of the coolest and most effective cover designs ever, IMHO of course, and a proud part of my personal collection!)
You can read the taut tale of terror online HERE.
Feel free to compare to the comic.

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Sunday, December 31, 2023

Best of Holiday Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Mummers from Mercury"

70 years ago, the world almost ended on New Year's Day...
...but it was saved by the participants of the annual Mummers Parade!
This never-reprinted story from Charlton's Space Adventures #1 (1953) was illustrated by Albert Tyler and Dick Giordano.
The writer (who was probably from Philadelphia) is unknown.

The Mummers Parade is usually held every New Years Day in Philadelphia.
Mummers tradition dates back to 400 BC and the Roman Festival of Saturnalias where Latin laborers marched in masks throughout the day of satire and gift exchange.
This included Celtic variations of “trick-or-treat” and Druidic noise-making to drive away demons for the new year.

Reports of rowdy groups “parading” on New Years day in Philadelphia date back before the revolution.
Prizes were offered by merchants beginning in the late 1800s.
January 1, 1901 was the first “official” parade offered about $1,725 in prize money from the city.
January 1, 2021 was the 120th Anniversary of the event, but, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was cancelled.
The Parade returned in 2022, and will happen on New Years Day, 2024!