Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "Man-Eating Lizards!"

It's fun to see early work by a talent who would become one of the all-time greats...

...like this rarely-seen work by a then-teenaged Joe Kubert!

Note: may be NSFW due to racial stereotypes common to the era.

Oddly, the Pacific Islanders are colored green in this tale from Avon's Out of This World (1950) one-shot.

But when this story appeared several years earlier in Avon's Eerie Comics #1 (1947), they were various shades of brown and tan...

There's no explanation for the change to the coloring, especially since all the other color elements remained the same in both versions!

While artist Joe Kubert went on to become one of the icons of graphic storytelling, writer Edward Bellin disappeared from comics after scripting just this and one other story...which also appeared in that issue of Eerie Comics.

But that's not the end of the story!

Bellin (actually "Edward J Bellin") was an early pen-name for a writer already well-established in science-fiction/fantasy...Cyril M. Kornbluth...who was looking to expand beyond the prose market into other media, including comics, radio, and television.

Kornbluth had used the name on one of his earliest short stories, "No Place to Go", and decided to reuse it years later for his comics work.

Who sez comics ain't educational?

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Tribute to Joe Kubert

Creator & Mentor

Monday Mars Madness JOHN CARTER OF MARS "Lights of Doom"

When Last We Left the First EarthMan on Mars...

...well that pretty much covers it, so let's rejoin Carter as he faces imminent peril!

This all-new tale from DC's Tarzan Family #64 (1976) was written by Bob Kanigher, penciled by Noly Zamora and inked by Vic Catan with several panels modifed/redrawn by editor Joe Kubert.

Unfortunately, the story ends on a cliffhanger as the remaining two issues of Tarzan Family featured reprints of Carter's first DC Comics appearances from Tarzan #207-208!
DC then cancelled both of their Burroughs-related titles as ERB.Inc announced plans to publish their own line of comic books which, unfortunately didn't work out, as seen HERE.

In 1977, Marvel Comics was granted the license for ERB characters, doing both Tarzan and John Carter as stand-alone titles ignoring any storylines DC had produced (including adaptations).

When those titles were cancelled in 1979, unused artwork for both of them was adapted (ironically) into other licensed-property titles!

The unused Tarzan story became, with rescripting and additional art, a two-part BattleStar Galactica tale!

John Carter's unpiublished tale was modified into a two-part Star Wars story (#53-54) with Carter becoming Aron Peacebringer, Dejah Thoris relabeled Alisande, and Tars Tarkas losing his extra arms, becoming orange, and renamed Keral Longknife!

As we mentioned earlier, the "Secret Diaries" mini-series has never been reprinted since it's publication in 1976, even in the recent Dark Horse trade paperback that presented all the other John Carter stories that appeared in DC Comics!
There is one more never-reprinted Barsoom tale (without John Carter or any established characters) from DC which you'll see next week!

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Monday Mars Madness JOHN CARTER OF MARS "Death has Three Heads"

Continuing the Secret Diaries of John Carter...

...her's the second chapter of the never-reprinted "Secret Diaries" mini-series that ran in DC Comics' Tarzan Family in 1976!

The Adventure Concludes...Next Monday!

Of course, it goes without saying that since these are the "secret diaries" of John Carter, that he must have survived in order to write them...

This all-new tale from DC's Tarzan Family #63 (1976) was written by Bob Kanigher, penciled by Noly Zamora and inked by Vic Catan..with several panels redrawn by editor (and comics legend) Joe Kubert!

As we mentioned earlier, this mini-series has never been reprinted since it's publication in 1976, even in the Dark Horse trade paperback that presented all the other John Carter stories that appeared in Tarzan and Weird Worlds!

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Monday Mars Madness ATTACK ON PLANET MARS "Chapter 3: Fugitives from the WarLord"

We Have Already Seen...

Art by Joe Kubert

Wow, that pretty well covers it, so let's dive into the action!

Be Here Next Monday for the Earth...er...Mars-Shaking Finale!

Based on the novel Tarrano the Conqueror by Ray Cummings, this chapter of the 1951 comic adaptation was penciled by Carmine Infantino and inked by Vince Alascia.

The writer of the adaptation is unknown.

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Tarrano the Conquerer

by Ray Cummings

Monday Mars Madness ATTACK ON PLANET MARS "Chapter One: Tarrano Strikes"

In the 1950s Avon did a number of one-shot comic books...

...based on sci-fi novels.

While most were of tales (then) recently-reprinted by their paperback division,  this one was not.

Does a Fate Worse than Death Await Elza?

And...What is Tarrano's Plan?

Be Here Next Monday to Find Out!

Based on the novel Tarrano the Conqueror by Ray Cummings, this chapter of the 1951 comic adaptation was penciled by Carmine Infantino and inked by Joe Kubert, the team who would illustrate the first Silver Age Flash story in DC's Showcase #4 several years later!

The writer of the adaptation is unknown.

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Weird Horrors and Daring Adventures

Joe Kubert Archives

...which reprints only this chapter of the story, since it's the only one in the book that Kubert worked on!

(But there's lots of other kool stuff by the legendary editor/writer/artist in the book, so it's a must-have for any comics fan's library!)

Reading Room SOJURN "Kingdom of the Maggot"

In the late 1970s, during the birth of the Direct Market and comic book stores...

...several publishers experimented with formats for Direct Sales Only periodicals.

One of them was Joe Kubert's White Cliffs Publishing, which produced Sojourn, a tabloid-sized anthology of two and three-page ongoing features by established pros like Kubert himself, Doug Wildey, Dick Giordano, Sergio Aragonés and John Severin along with newbies like Steve Bissette, who devoted his two pages per issue to a single-panel spread called Kingdom of the Maggot.

The first one included this descriptive paragraph...

The spread in #2, "Bagged Prey" didn't have a description!

Sadly, there wasn't a third issue.

Trivia: The co-publisher of the project was Ivan Snyder, who created/operated the mail-order business and comic distributor Superhero Enterprises/Heroes World, whose ads and catalogs were produced by Kubert and his school's students!

None of the strips or features in Sojourn (including Kubert's new Tor stories have ever been reprinted...except John Severin's Western strip The Eagle (in Warren's The Rook) which also ran the strips planned for the never-published Sojourn #3 and #4!

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Sojourn #2

Reading Room STRANGE WORLDS "Abduction of Henry Twigg"

Here's a dream come true for all us fanboys and nerds (Yep, I'm one)...

...in this Joe Kubert-illustrated tale from Avon's Strange Worlds #8 (1952)...

Talk about politically-incorrect...from both sexes!

But it's still entertaining, and that's what counts, eh?

Note: we've run stories from two different series named "Strange Worlds".

This tale is from the first one, published by Avon Comics in the early 1950s.

By the late 1950s, Avon Publishing had abandoned comic books and concentrated on "traditional" publishing (hardcovers and paperbacks) in various genres (including sci-fi and horror).

Curiously, when comics became "hot' in the 1960s, Avon did not reprint their comic library in paperback format the way Ballantine Books did with EC Comics, Signet did with DC Comics, and Lancer did with Marvel.

Considering they owned the material and didn't have to pay to reprint it like all the other publishers did, it seems like a lost opportunity for Avon to make some quick cash.

Note: We've recently re-presented several tales from the other Strange Worlds, published by Atlas Comics in the late 1950s, literally right before they became Marvel in 1961!

It's easy to tell which is which, since the Atlas/Marvel version features work by creatives like Jack Kirby, Don Heck, and Steve Ditko who would be the creative mainstays of the Marvel Age of Comics, while the Avon books have art by illustrators who would make their mark at DC, like Joe Kubert and John Forte!