Reading Room WORLD OF FANTASY "Brain Destroyer!"

This title reminded me of Donald Trump...

...even though the story itself has nothing to connect it to the Republicans' hilarious President but the title!

No matter whether you agree for my reason for running the story, it's still a long-lost, never-reprinted tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #19 (1959) you probably would never have seen otherwise.
Plotted by Stan Lee, written by Larry Lieber, and illustrated by Carl Burgos, it's typical of the sort of stuff Atlas was running as it transitioned into what we would know as Marvel only a couple of years later.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Ten-Cent Plague

Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America

Monday Madness / CoronaVirus Comics MORLOCK: 2001 "Morlock Must be Destroyed!" Conclusion

When Last We Left the Plant-Man Fighting the Totalitarian Government of Earth in 2001...

...as seen from the perspective of 1975, when the story was created, he had been given shelter by a scientist who was conducting similar research into humanoid plants like what Morlock's creator had been doing!

Written by Michael Fleischer, penciled by Al Milgrom, and inked by Jack Abel, this never-reprinted tale from Atlas/Seaboard's Morlock: 2001 #2 (1975) introduces a new vengeance-driven antagonist who could either have worked with the government to capture Morlock or against the government to destroy the plant-man!

Except...as with most of the company's titles, the third issue featured a total change of creative staff and direction...as you'll see next Monday!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Soft City

A "Lost" Graphic Novel about Dystopia

Monday Madness / CoronaVirus Comics STRANGE TALES "Germ Warfare"

You gotta admit...there's nothing "madder" than GIANT germs!

(and, yes, as our post yesterday pointed out, germs aren't viruses!)

If these people weren't irradiated by the bomb (fatally, if not enough to render them all sterile), it would be a miracle!

But can we blame plotter Stan Lee, writer Larry Lieber, and artist Paul Reinman from glossing over that minor point in a tale for 8-15 year-old kids?

Note: this story from Atlas' Strange Tales #90 (1961) has been reprinted, that reprint was in Marvel's Fantasy Masterpieces #6 (1967), so I'd say the 53-year gap since its' last publication was sufficient to justify running it!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Marvel MasterWorks 

Strange Tales

Volume 6

(the last one to date)

Reading Room STRANGE TALES "Beware of Meeks Bringing Gifts!"

A couple of days ago, we brought you a never-reprinted sci-fi comics tale...

...but, while it has never been reprinted, that doesn't mean the story wasn't reused...this time with an oddly-contemporary aspect...

What?

Newspeople have a responsibility to uncover and tell the truth objectively and honestly?

Please don't tell FoxNews that...

We do know that Jack Kirby penciled this (also) never-reprinted story from Atlas' Strange Tales #86 (1961).

However, everything else is pure speculation.

It's thought Sol Brodsky inked the story (though it has aspects of Dick Ayers' style as well).

And, since it's not signed "Stan Lee" (as most confirmed Lee-scripted tales were),  the consensus is that Stan's brother Larry Lieber penned the story.

Reading Room WORLD OF FANTASY "Creatures Who Captured Earth!"

Do you know the two famous sci-fi stories' plots that were combined to create this tale?

Hint: one original involves robots/androids,, and the other is about cannibalism...

This never-reprinted story by Stan Lee/Larry Lieber and Don Heck from Atlas' World of Fantasy #18 (1959) was based on two classic sci-fi tales...

"With Folded Hands" by Jack Williamson, which premiered in Astounding Science Fiction...

...and was expanded into the novel The Humanoids, (and a sequel, The Humanoid Touch, over 30 years later)!

Though never done on film or tv, the story was adapted to radio on Dimension X (which you can hear HERE) and the basic plot was re-used in the classic Star Trek episode "I, Mudd".

The other plot point, involving decoding an alien text to discover a secret agenda, was probably taken from the 1950 Galaxy Magazine short story "To Serve Man" by Damon Knight.

(Note that the classic Twilight Zone episode adapting the tale wouldn't appear until three years later.)

Also note that, while the comic tale was never reprinted, it was redone only two years later by another of Atlas/Marvel's major artistic stars!

We'll have that story tomorrow...

Stan Lee (1922-2018) IN the Comics (Conclusion)

As we've been showing for the past couple of days, Stan Lee didn't just write and edit comics...

...he appeared as a character in them as well!

Writer/editor Stan Lee (in the pink...er...salmon shirt), and artist Stan Goldberg (doing a great Dan DeCarlo imitation) produced this tale for Marvel's Chili #3 (1969).

Note: In the  Silver Age, Stan and the assorted artists he was working with would appear in 3-5 page stories in the 64-page Annuals, showing to fans how they conceived the stories in those books and their monthly counterparts.

Since there are a half-dozen of them, and they've already been reprinted (plus, I couldn't decide which of them I'd include), we suggest you track down the reprints of...

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (1964) "How Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Create Spider-Man!" Lee & Steve Ditko

Daredevil Annual #1 (1967) "At the Stroke of Midnight!" Lee & Gene Colan

Fantastic Four Annual #5 (1967) "This is a Plot?" Lee & Jack Kirby

Avengers Annual #2 (1967) "Avenjerks Assemble!" Lee & Roy Thomas, John Buscema and Don Heck

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5 (1968) "Here We Go-a-Plotting!" Lee & John Romita Sr, Larry Lieber, and Roy Thomas

...in various trade paperbacks and hardcovers.

Once Lee stepped down as a writer/editor and became publisher, he became more an icon than mere mortal...

...as the publication of the Origins of Marvel Comics book series, with intros and behind-the-scenes stories about the early days of the Marvel Age of Comics by Stan the Man made him into an almost Watcher-like figure who would pop up almost everywhere...including this one-shot about Marvel's greatest boo-boos...

(Yes, the cover's upside down!)

BTW, The never-reprinted book is a fun read, but I'n not running it here...yet!
Remember the quote on the cover?
Here's the explanation for it...

...and here's the cover...right-side up!

This is only an example of the stories Stan (the Man) Lee has appeared (or just cameoed) in.
There are many more (almost a hundred) that I've seen over the years, not to mention his film and TV appearances.
Let me know which ones you find...

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

Stan Lee
Man Behind Marvel
Bob Batchelor

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Unreal!"

As Mighty Thor and Tales of Asgard took over Atlas/Marvel's Journey into Mystery...

...backup tales like this one were, sadly, slowly squeezed out of the book!

The cleverly-written narration doesn't offer a clue as to which protaganist is speaking.

Of course, we assume it's the human...

Plotted by Stan Lee, scripted and penciled by his brother Larry Lieber (Stan's birth name was "Stanley Leiber"), and inked by Matt Fox, this never-reprinted story from the back of Marvel's Journey into Mystery #100 (1964) was one of the last non-Asgardian tales in the book.

They were discontinued as of #105.

Matt Fox began as a pulp illustrator for Weird Tales, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, and others.

When the pulps died in the early 1950s, he moved to Atlas Comics, where, because he wasn't a fast penciler, he inked others' pencils more often than doing solo pencil-ink assignments.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Atlas-Era

Journey into Mystery

Volume #4