Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ADVENTURERS' CLUB "Voodoo Lizards!"

Last Wednesday, we introduced you to Nelson Strong and the Adventurers Club...

This cover scene by Luis Dominguez does not appear in the comic!

...where the requirement for entry was a tale about an "exciting or unusual adventure".

Note: though Carter states he's getting "great action pictures" for his publisher (indicating a print magazine or book), he's using a movie camera, not a standard "still-photo" camera!
This never-reprinted story from DC's Adventure Comics #427 (1973) could be considered either science fiction or fantasy with a horror twist.

Either way, writer John Albano and artist Jim Aparo did a great job evoking mood and telling a cohesive story in only 8 pages, eh?

Trivia: Luis Dominguez, who illustrated the cover above (the only cover the Adventurers' Club was ever featured on) took over the art for the next (and last) tale featuring the group.

You'll see it next Wednesday.

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ADVENTURERS' CLUB " 'Scortch' Jordan's Tommy Gun"

The first ongoing feature during Adventure Comics' short-lived 1970s return to an anthology format...

...was this strip with a Boris Karloff-lookalike host.

It's unclear whether writer John Albano (who had been scripting Supergirl until it left Adventure) or Adventure Comics editor Joe Orlando conceived the series.

This never-reprinted tale from DC's Adventure Comics #426 (1973) clearly shows the "ghost" to be of non-supernatural origin, but later stories lean towards supernatural elements.

When The Spectre was reintroduced in Adventure, for a memorable run by Michael Fleisher and Jim Aparo, the cover title (though not indicia) became Weird Adventure Comics.

I mentioned the visual of the host, Nelson Strong, was "Karloff-esque".

Here's Karloff from his one-season 1950s tv series Colonel March of Scotland Yard.

Does he look like the visual inspiration for Nelson Strong?
I'd be willing to bet on it...

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder / CoronaVirus Comics PLANET OF VAMPIRES "Blood Plague" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Fellow Normal Humans..

This scene...sorta...appears in this issue

Astronauts Chris and Craig invade the virus-infected vampires' stronghold only to discover Craig's wife (and fellow astronaut) Brenda drained dry, as shown on the cover above.
(Except for the fact that Craig has a moustache and both Craig and Brenda are African-American, as shown HERE.)
Leaving Craig to mourn, Chris blasts his way into the Proctor's office...

What was "the Secret Project"?

We never found out, since the book was cancelled!

But it was already going though the transition that almost all the Atlas books that lasted more than two issues went through.

Radical changes in creative staffs, plotlines, even characters themselves were the norm as mercurial publisher Martin Goodman began shaking things up.

It's a sordid tale best told by one who was there, so click HERE for the details!

As for Planet of Vampires, the word was to make it more like Planet of the Apes and/or Kamandi.

This two-page spread in the back of the book by Larry Lieber and Al Milgrom gives an idea of what was to come...

Perhaps it's just as well there was no #4...
Next Wednesday:
Another Disease-Laden World of Wonder!
(There are a lot of them in sci-fi/fantasy!)

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

I Am Legend

the Graphic Novel Adaptation of the Original Book Which Inspired Generations of Creatives, including the Creators of Planet of Vampires!

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder / CoronaVirus Comics PLANET OF VAMPIRES "Blood Plague" Part 1

When Last We Left Our Heroes...

...keep reading and the characters will explain what's going on right after the big explosion.
"What big explosion?" you may ask...

The battle concludes...Next Wednesday!

(and when we say "concludes", we mean concludes!)

Written by John Albano and illustrated by Russ Heath, Atlas' Planet of Vampires #3 winds up some plotlines and, unfortunately, kills off several major characters in the process.

Be here next week, when we'll show how far afield the book was about to go as it suffered the "Third Issue Curse" that befell most of the Atlas Comics books.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

I Am Legend

the Graphic Novel Adaptation of the Original Book Which Inspired Generations of Creatives, including the Creators of Planet of Vampires!

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder / CoronaVirus Comics PLANET OF VAMPIRES "Quest for Blood" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

...(actually we haven't seen this, since there's no scene like it in the book.

Nor is there a cloaked, sinisterly-snarling vampire!

But it's a great Neal Adams/Dick Giordano cover, eh?)

Escaping the virus-created scientifically-advanced blood-suckers who inhabit the Dome in the center of a devastated Manhattan, our four surviving astronauts team up with the primitive, but human Street People.

Rigging a stolen aircraft as a booby-trap, they destroy two pursuing ships sent to recapture them.

There's a price to be paid...and one of the astronauts will pay it...

...NEXT WEDNESDAY!

With the departure of writer/co-creator Larry Hama (GI Joe), John Albano (Jonah Hex) stepped in to the scripting slot, working off Hama's basic plot for the issue as well as several pages already laid out by penciler/co-creator Pat Broderick.

It'a a well-done job, making the transition pretty seamless between the two writers.

Be here next week, as the astronauts and street people take the fight back to the virus-infected "domies"!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

I Am Legend/Omega Man

Which features both the recent Will Smith version and the 1970s Charlton Heston version (which heavily-influenced Planet of Vampires)!

But not the 1960s Vincent Price adaptation.

That one, you can get here...)

Last Man on Earth

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder PLANET OF VAMPIRES "Quest for Blood" Part 1

In the 1970s, science fiction writers thought the 21st century was going to be rather dystopic...

...as this never-reprinted tale of a virus-influenced year 2010 from Atlas' Planet of Vampires #2 (1975) demonstrates!

It's always fun to end a chapter with a BANG!

But LOTS more action awaits us...

...NEXT WEDNESDAY!

With the departure of writer/co-creator Larry Hama (GI Joe), John Albano (Jonah Hex) stepped in to the scripting slot, working off Hama's basic plot for the issue as well as several pages already laid out by penciler/co-creator Pat Broderick.

It'a a well-done job, making the transition pretty seamless between the two writers.

Be here next week, as the astronauts and street people take the fight back to the virus-infected "domies"!
(Don't worry, Harsh Realm will return in the near-future!)

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

I Am Legend/Omega Man

Which features both the recent Will Smith version and the 1970s Charlton Heston version (which heavily-influenced Planet of Vampires)!

But not the 1960s Vincent Price adaptation.

That one, you can get here...)

Last Man on Earth