Showing posts with label Larry Lieber. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Larry Lieber. Show all posts

Thursday, May 23, 2024

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Filbert's Frightful Future!"

After Mighty Thor began his run in Journey into Mystery as of #83......
...and before Norse mythology-related backup series like Tales of Asgard began, the one-shot shorts like this never-reprinted tale continued to fill the back of the book until the inventory was used up!
Don Heck penciled and inked this story from Marvel's Journey into Mystery #85 (1962).
Stan Lee plotted it, but experts are not sure if he scripted it.
Lee usually co-signed the later shorts he scripted, but only Heck's signature is here.
Just about everything Lee didn't script at this point was handled by his brother Larry Lieber.
(Stan's birth name is Stanley Leiber. He used "Stan Lee" on his comics work because he wanted his real name on the Great American Novel he planned to write.
When he finally realized he would be forever known for his comics and not any prose novel he might write, he legally changed his name to "Stan Lee".)
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...
featuring the Thor stories that appeared in front of the never-reprinted tales we present!
Paid Link

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Reading Room / Tales Thrice Told TALES OF SUSPENSE "Last Rocket!"

Marvel's Tales of Suspense #39 (1963) is famous for it's cover story...
...but that oft-retold tale is not what we're looking at today!
Instead, we're presenting one of the backup stories...the third and final version of the "Adam & Eve on past/future Earth" trope plotted and/or scripted by Stan Lee.
You can read the previous two tales HERE and HERE.
Ok, I'm willing to believe that, with 1960s-level technology, all of Mankind could pull off a When Worlds Collide-style evacuation of the planet...though how they'd survive to reach another solar system several light-years distant is questionable.
I'm even willing to accept a couple of ecology-oriented sorts being stubborn (and let's face it, suicidal) enough to remain on their home world to the bitter end.
But an "exploding star" close enough to warm and light the planet, yet totally-unknown to anyone before that?
C'mon!
And one more thing...couldn't the space fleet just turn around and return when they noticed the "exploding star" behind them?
In this "Adam and Eve" retelling, it's believed that Lee plotted the story and his brother, Larry Lieber, scripted it.
But it's a fact that the legendary Gene Colan penciled and inked the absolutely beautiful art!
It makes the rather silly story bearable.
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Buy...
Paid Link

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Reading Room WORLD OF FANTASY "Brain Picker!"

Nuclear accidents mutating everyday people were common in pre-Marvel tales...
...plotted or written by Stan Lee for Atlas Comics...except they didn't result in costumed superheroes...or costumed supervillains!
If this never-reprinted story by plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, penciler Matt Baker and inker Vince Colletta, from Atlas' World of Fantasy #17 (1959) had appeared after the intro of the Fantastic Four in 1961, I don't doubt Frederic Kane would've become an ongoing super-villain and scientist brother Phillip would've become his nemesis, probably working with S.H.I.E.L.D. and/or Professor X to stop him!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...

Thursday, December 29, 2022

Robot Reading Room TALES OF SUSPENSE "Robot Hater!"

The third variation on the "robot saves human despite mistrust" theme...
...as shown HERE and HERE, shares both plotter and artist in common with one of the other tales!
Technically, the pilot is an android, not a robot.
Illustrator Paul Reinman, also rendered the Xmas-themed "It Walks Like a Man!" which was plotted, like this story from Atlas' Tales of Suspense #3 (1959), by Stan Lee!
There are several more Atlas/Marvel stories with this same concept.
Would you like to see them?
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Buy...

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Robot Reading Room WORLD OF FANTASY "Iron Hulk!"

...who was so emotionally-attached to her, it sacrificed itself to save her!
But, that wasn't the first time that plot was used...
This never-reprinted tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #19 (1959), scripted by either Stan Lee or Larry Lieber, is extremely similar to the previously-presented 1963 story, minus the "Christmas present" element and making the robot look like a life size toy soldier.
Note the lovely art by Joe Sinnott.
While most of you know Sinnott as one of the best inkers in the business, he was also a competent penciler as well.
Ironically, Joe didn't ink most of his own pencil work, since it was subcontracted by Vince Colletta's prolific studio for use by CharltonGold Key, and Dell and inked by Colletta himself!
You'll see another story with the same theme on Thursday.
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Haunted House Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "I Spent the Night in a Haunted House!"

...now let's look at how Stan Lee, his brother, and a Silver Age superstar artist re-told the tale a decade later!
Stan Lee turned the previously-used plot over to his brother, writer Larry Lieber and artist Don Heck who modified it slightly for this story from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #80 (1962).
Trivia: When this story was reprinted in Marvel's Monsters on the Prowl #26 (1973), the comics the kids were reading were updated to then-current titles...
...but the last panel still showed the kid reading Journey into Mystery...because that title had just been revived!
Be here Thursday for one more version of this tale...by Stan Lee and another Silver Age superstar!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...
Marvel Masterworks: Atlas-Era
Journey into Mystery
Volume 4

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Haunted House Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "I Don't Believe in...Ghosts!"

Behind this never-reprinted Jack Kirby/Dick Ayers cover...
...lurks a rarely-reprinted haunted house tale that's so darn good, I couldn't resist re-presenting it!
Plotted by Stan Lee, scripted by Larry Lieber, penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by George Klein, this cover-featured story from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #77 (1962) has only been reprinted once, in Marvel's Fantasy Masterpieces #9 (1967)...
...which is where I first read it as a kid!
Since it hasn't seen publication in over 50 years, I thought it was time to dig it up and dust it off for a new generation of Kirbyphiles and other comics readers!
The lead character's name, Mr Jordan, is an in-joke and a clue as to what he is!
L-R Evelyn Keyes, Robert Montgomery, Claude Rains (Mr Jordan), Edward Everett Horton

"Mr Jordan" was the title character of Here Comes Mr Jordan (1941), an angel (Claude Rains) sent to guide a recently-deceased boxer who died before his time and was returned to Earth in a different body since his own was creamated!
The movie was running on tv pretty regularly at the time, so either Lee or Leiber was inspired to give the protagonist the "Jordan" name in tribute.
Note the little banner at the bottom of the final page promoting The Fantastic Four?
#2 of that series had just come out!
In addition, Hank Pym (who would later become Ant-Man/Giant-Man/Goliath/YellowJacket/Wasp) had just been introed in "Man in the Ant Hill" in Tales to Astonish #27!
Within a couple of months both Spider-Man and The Hulk would debut!
And Mighty Thor would premiere in Journey into Mystery itself six issues later!
Bonus: the original art for the splash page....
Kool, ain't it?
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...

Monday, May 9, 2022

Monday RUSSKIE Madness JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Propaganda"

Today is "Victory Day" in Russia, and since Vladimir Putin will, no doubt, use...
...to claim a non-existent victory in Ukraine, this never-reprinted tale from sixty years ago about using "alternative facts" seems as timely as ever!
Note: because of racial stereotypes common to the era of publication, this may be NSFW!
This story from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #80 (1962) by plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, penciler Jack Kirby, and inker Dick Ayers, is a reworking of an earlier story, also called "Propaganda", from Atlas' Uncanny Tales V1N9 (1953). That one was reprinted in Marvel's Uncanny Tales V2N1 (1973) and you'll be seeing it on our "brother" RetroBlog, Seduction of the Innocent, today!
In the meantime, here's a special treat...scans of the complete original art for this tale!
Enjoy!
Support Atomic Kommie Comics