Friday Fun BLAST-OFF "Danger! Atoms!"

Some stories need little extrapolation...

...such as this never-reprinted short by writer/artist Howard Nostrand from Harvey's Blast-Off! #1 (1965)

Cute, eh?

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Chilling Archives of Horror Comics Volume 7

Howard Nostrand's Nightmares

Friday Fun HOLY CREAM-FILLED PASTRY!

When Hostess Baking ceased operation in 2012, a chapter of comics history ended...

This wonderfully-looney series of ads featuring all the major comics characters from Archie to Spider-Man to Casper the Friendly Ghost to Wonder Woman appeared in comics for almost a decade, featuring some of the best artists in the business including Neal Adams (above with Dick Giordano), Gil Kane, John Romita Sr, Curt Swan, Jim Starlin, and Frank Miller doing the rendering!

Note: You can see a complete set of the Marvel and DC ones HERE!

Bonus: the original art for this ad...

BTW, Hostess' nigh-indestructible pastries have since returned to supermarket shelves...but the comic advertising never did!

Monday Moon Madness BLACK CAT COMICS "Legend of the Sun Eclipse"

Why are we calling this entry "Monday MOON Madness" when the story's title has "Sun Eclipse" in it?

What do you think causes the eclipse?

THE MOON!

Marv Levy wrote and illustrated this never-reprinted tale from Harvey's Black Cat Comics #9 (1948) which combines both Greek and Norse mythology!

Remember:

Don't Look Directly at the Eclipse Without Special Glasses!

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder CLAWFANG THE BARBARIAN

Here's a one-time World of Wonder for you before the New Year!

(BTW, isn't it weird how most fictional barbarians have a "hard C" or "hard K" name...Conan, Crom, ClawFang, Claw, Kull, Kothar, Kyrik, etc.)

We'll never know, since this was ClawFang's only published adventure!

A cool mix of sf/fantasy genres written and laid-out by Wally Wood with pencils and inks by Al Williamson, appearing in Harvey's Unearthly Spectaculars #2 (1966), part of a short-lived line of action/adventure comics produced by Harvey Comics in the mid-1960s.

Oddly, while there were numerous "jungle hero/heroine" strips and books with sci-fi/fantasy elements, Clawfang was only the second actual barbarian strip in comics history, after Crom...which was also from Harvey Comics!

Five years later, Marvel would launch Conan the Barbarian, and suddenly, an entire new genre bloomed in comics with almost every publisher launching at least one barbarian-themed comic!
Speaking of which...

The "barbarian in a post-apocalyptic future Earth" concept is an oft-used trope in sci-fi/fantasy...

...from ClawFang to Teenage Caveman to BlackMark to Kamandi to Killraven: Warrior of the Worlds to Lost World (from Fiction House's Planet Comics) to IronJaw, to Talos of the Wilderness Sea,  to Planet of the Apes (Yes, PotA qualifies since mankind is reduced to primitives) to Thundarr the Barbarian to Yor: Hunter from the Future, scantly-clad heroes using primitive weapons against super-science and/or sorcery in a devastated world has proven to be a popular trope in various media, not just print.

Join us next Wednesday as we begin our re-presentation of one of the best (though least-known) series featuring this concept...

Wolff the Barbarian

by

Esteban Maroto, Sadko, and Laurence James

Monday Madness FLASH GORDON COMICS "The World You WILL Live In" #1

In 1950, what amazing advances did we think the 21st Century would bring?

As shown in this uncredited (and never-reprinted) feature from Harvey's Flash Gordon #1 (1950), all five predictions have, in fact, come to pass...albeit in modified form.

This was one of three different new one-page features that appeared in all four issues of the series which reprinted the Flash Gordon Sunday newspaper strip by Alex Raymond, reformatted for the comic book page, and new covers (not by Alex Raymond).

The others were "Stories Behind the Stars" (about the myths behind constellation names) and "know Your Planets" (about the other worlds in the solar system).

Monday Madness RACE FOR THE MOON "Asylum"

A Twilight Zone-style story from Race for the Moon #1, illustrated (and possibly written) by Bob Powell!

With the world the way it is now, perhaps we should rename our planet from "Earth" to "Asylum"!

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

Election Day 2023 Remember...YOUR VOTE IS VITAL!!!

And there came a day unlike any other day, when heroes banded together to battle a menace so overwhelming no single hero could stand against it...

,,,unless not enough of those heroes actually go to vote!

Here's a handy (very) basic guide...

Illustrated by Warren Kremer and Al Avision, this one-shot published by Harvey Comics in 1952 (71 years ago) was offered for only a couple of pennies a copy to anyone who wanted to utilize it to get out the vote!

Amazing how it's both generic and pertinent even decades later!

Note: Out gratitude to the ever-amazing Kracalactaka for the scans of this ultra-rare comic!

Now, unless you want things to stay as they are (or get worse)...if you're over 18 and under 110...

...GET OFF YOUR BUTT AND

VOTE! 

Monday Madness BLACK CAT MYSTERY "Colorama"...Before and After the Comics Code!

One of the most notorious stories in 1950s comics went thru some changes...

Art by Howard Nostrand

 ...when it was reprinted after the Comics Code Authority came into existence!

Actually, the theory that "Black" has all the colors together is true only in printing!

It's called "subtractive color", and when you combine all the inks in four-color printing (CYAN, MAGENTA, and YELLOW) as solid colors, they DO produce a BLACK effect on the printed page!

However, the effect that light produces when it's reflected from objects around you (or generated from a tv or computer screen) is called "additive color" and when all the colors are added together, they produce WHITE!
But, at the point where this story appeared in Black Cat Mystery #45 (1953), there were no computer screens and what little commercial tv existed was almost totally b/w!

When the story was reprinted in Black Cat Mystery #61 (1958), the Comics Code insisted on some alterations, beginning with the cover...

Art by Bob Powell from Page 1 with additional art by Howard Nostrand

...adapted from the first panel on Page 1, but featuring a character not seen in the story itself, and with the protagonist shown in the rear-view mirror wearing glasses he doesn't wear until the end of the story!
Quite frankly, there's nothing too gross or disgusting about the original cover, so why it wasn't used is unknown...

Page 1 in the reprint is unaltered.

Page 2 has only one minor change; the policeman's less-snarling expression in Panel 5...

There are no changes on Page 3

Page 4, on the other hand, has a major change...the optometrist survives!

 

And the final page is unchanged.

Script and art are by Golden Age great Bob Powell.

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Ten-Cent Plague

Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America