The RetroBlogs Summer Blogathon Concluded...

...with a Re-Presentation of the Long-OOP Prose Novel from 1979...

...which spanned two blogs, Seduction of the Innocent and Medical Comics and Stories!

But, because we were posting to both blogs daily, instead of alternating between them with one-a-day posts, we had problems creating the correct hyperlinks to flow the reading experience from chapter to chapter smoothly!

Now, that was (dare we say it?), a
NIGHTMARE!

But, everything has been corrected due to cyber-sorcery and now you can read the entire novel starting HERE!
We've done other prose novels...

Captain America: the Great Gold Steal
and

Batman vs the 3 Villains of Doom

...but they were each posted to a single blog!

When we do more OOP prose novels in the future, that's the format we'll return to!

Hey, we're eccentric...but we're not insane!

The RetroBlogs Summer Blogathon Goes MULTIVERSAL...

...with the biggest entry we've ever done!

A loooong (almost 45 years) Out Of Print novel by noted sci-fi fantasy author William Rotsler!

And it's so big it takes two RetroBlogs; Seduction of the Innocent and Medical Comics and Stories, to accommodate the multiverse-spanning saga!

DON’T DARE GO TO SLEEP

Unless you are prepared to confront an evil that is older than time itself—a haunting, inhuman horror!

Unless you are prepared to share the fate of the dark-eyed Evangelist, the power-hungry Prize-fighter, the cold-blooded Assassin, and the stunning love-starved Starlet!

Unless you are prepared to enter the terrifying realm of NIGHTMARE, dark overlord of the dream dimension, and master of other men’s minds!

Unless you are prepared to trust your future, and the future of your world to...

Doctor Strange

Master of the Mystic Arts

in

NIGHTMARE

A soul-chilling tale of terror . . . terror that could be YOURS!

Begin HERE...and don't falter!

The fate of the Multiverse may depend on YOU!

Celebrate the New Year with the Psychedelic Master of the Mystic Arts!

The Doctor Strange story we ran for the past two days...

...produced not one...

...but two...

...classic blacklite posters in the early 1970s!

Third Eye Studios produced, using Marvel artwork, a line of fluorescent-ink posters, greeting cards, and puzzles that glowed under ultra-violet ("black") light...

 

(Click to enlarge)

...all of which are now hard-to-find and expensive!

Ironically, the most collectible of the posters are the montage shown above and this one with new art by John Romita Sr...

(Click to enlarge)
...which were not for sale, just display!
There were three Doctor Strange posters, the two Colan/Palmer ones and a Dan Adkins piece.
Note: while all the puzzles repeated art from the posters, some of the greeting cards used art not seen on the posters, so while there are repeats, there are also unique cards that make the set worth collecting!
 Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics This New Year's

Order This BlackLite-style Reproduction Poster!

Digitally-Restored and Remastered DIRECTLY From an Original Poster!

Best of Holiday Reading Room DOCTOR STRANGE "Eternity, Eternity" Conclusion

(A New Year's Eve repost you readers demanded...)
When Last We Left the Sorcerer Supreme...

...it was the end of 1968, New Year's Eve, to be exact.

After seeing a vision of the etherial Eternity changing into his old enemy, Nightmare, Dr Strange takes his alien love, Clea, to Times Square to experience New Year's Eve: New York City Style...where a pterodactyl crashes into the clock as it strikes midnight!

Yep, True Believer, it's another of Marvel's patented "continued stories"!

But our intent here is to present only the New Year's Eve part of the tale, since both parts have been reprinted recently.

So we're going to show you how Marvel itself got out of re-running the entire two-parter when it ran this tale from Doctor Strange #180 (1969) in Marvel Treasury Edition #8: Giant SuperHero Holiday Grab-Bag (1975)!

The editors took the Gene Colan penciled and inked presentation piece showing the finalized design for Doc's "superhero-style" costume that appeared as a pin-up in Doctor Strange #180...

...took out the final panel of the story and used the Doc figure with a new word balloon!

Sneaky, huh?

Written by Roy Thomas, penciled by Gene Colan, and inked by Tom Palmer, this tale is one of the koolest of the era's Dr Strange stories with pop culture references galore and accurate NYC locales!

The cover, btw is a combination of a Steve Ditko Eternity figure, a new Doctor Strange by Colan and Palmer and a New York City photo background (Marvel did several photo background covers during this period)

Tomorrow:

The Splash Pages that Became BlackLite Posters!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics This New Year's

Visit Amazon and Order...

Marvel Masterworks

Doctor Strange

Volume 4

...featuring this tale and it's continuation!

Best of Holiday Reading Room DOCTOR STRANGE "Eternity, Eternity" Part 1

(By popular demand...our most-read New Year's post of all...)
The year was 1968, going into 1969...

...and the wildest New Year's Eve story in comics history is about to begin!

To Be Continued...

Yeah.

It's a heckuva point to break off our tale until tomorrow, but you'll need an incentive to get out of bed on New Year's Eve Day!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics This New Year's

Order This BlackLite-style Reproduction Poster!

Digitally-Restored and Remastered DIRECTLY From an Original Poster!

RIP Steve Ditko (1927-2018)

Easily one of the most eccentric and unique personalities in a rather eccentric and unique field...

...Steve Ditko was not only the co-creator or sole creator of some of pop culture's most enduring characters, but a fascinating person to be around.

I had the privilege of working with him on a number of projects at various companies, and while he disliked interacting with fans, when dealing with fellow pros, he was honest (if not entirely diplomatic), knowledgeable about an amazing array of subjects, and far more "professional" than many young hot-shot artists!

By that, I mean he always met deadlines and had no problems modifying artwork to suit the editor's/client's needs, which rankles many "creatives" who feel it would "impugn their vision".

I'll miss him.

BTW, check out a rarely-reprinted Mr A story with no captions or dialogue (or any mention of Objectivism) at all...HERE!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Ditko Unleashed

Tom Wolfe (1931-2018) and Doctor Strange

The late "New Journalism" pioneer Tom Wolfe referenced Marvel's Doctor Strange in...

...a non-fiction book about the cross-country adventures of Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters in passages like

“Kesey is young, serene and his face is lineless and round and smooth as a baby’s as he sits for hours on end reading comic books, absorbed in the plunging purple Steve Ditko shadows of Doctor Strange.”

(BTW, dig that psychedelic cover by graphic design legend Milton Glaser!)

Several years later, writer Roy Thomas (a former English teacher and big fan of Wolfe), penciler Gene Colan and inker Tom Palmer returned the favor in Doctor Strange #180 (1969)...

You can read the whole story HERE.

Strange's "...an old friend of mine...haven't seen him since '64..." line is a reference to the year Electric Kool Aid Acid Test was published.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...

Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
by Tom Wolfe

DOCTOR STRANGE in BlackLite!

The Doctor Strange story we ran for the past two days...

...produced not one...

...but two...

...classic blacklite posters in the early 1970s!

Third Eye Studios produced, using Marvel artwork, a line of fluorescent-ink posters, greeting cards, and puzzles that glow under ultra-violet ("black") light...

 

(Click to enlarge)

...all of which are now hard-to-find and expensive!

Ironically, the hardest to find and most collectible posters are the montage shown above and this one with new art by John Romita Sr...

(Click to enlarge)
...which were not for sale, just display!
There were three Doctor Strange posters, the two Colan/Palmer ones and a Dan Adkins piece.
Note: while all the puzzles repeated art from the posters, some of the greeting cards used art not seen on the posters, so while there are repeats, there are also unique cards that make the set worth collecting!
 Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics This New Year's

Order This BlackLite-style Reproduction Poster!

Digitally-Restored and Remastered DIRECTLY From an Original Poster!