Kirby Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Sorcerer"

Behind a never-reprinted Jack Kirby/Dick Ayers cover...

...lurks a never-reprinted tale rendered by Jack (King) Kirby!

Enjoy...

Was this tale from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #78 (1962) originally a seven-page story?
The fight between the dragon and the knight that begins on the bottom of page 5 ends in a flash in the first panel of page 6!
Considering that battle is the focus of the splash page, I really expected a bit more!
Was there a page between 5 and the last page?
Only plotter Stan Lee, writer Larry Leiber, penciler Jack Kirby, and inker Dick Ayers could tell us.

Trivia: The story is the same as "Handyman", illustrated by Gray Morrow, from Atlas' Journey into Unknown Worlds #48 (1956), which was also the cover-featured story for that book, with a Bill Everett-rendered cover!
It's also never been reprinted!

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Reading Room PLANET OF VAMPIRES "Blood Plague" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Heroes...

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

Astronauts Chris and Craig invade the 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 by Larry Lieber and Al Milgrom gives an idea of what was to come...

Perhaps it's just as well there was no #4...

Reading Room TALES TO ASTONISH "Voice of Fate"

Our final tale is a re-working of the previous one...

...but with some interesting variations!

This story by plotter Stan Lee, writer Larry Lieber, and artist Don Heck is from Atlas' Tales to Astonish #33 (1962) and is a retelling of "Mister Black", which appeared only a couple of months earlier in Atlas' Strange Tales #93 (1962).
You'll note the protaganist is now American, but still a draft dodger.
Of course, the story omits why the Japanese would even take him in (since he had nothing of value to the government), or how he even got to Japan in the middle of World War II...

Reading Room STRANGE TALES "Mister Black"

Continuing our look at how American comics portrayed the bombing of Hiroshima...

...with a tale featuring a Japanese protagonist!

Was this story from Atlas' Strange Tales #93 (1962) an inventory tale from the 1950s?

Artist Bob Forgione lost his ongoing freelance work at Atlas when the company cut back in late 1956-early 1957 after losing their newsstand distributor.

When this story was finally published, Forgione was working steadily for Dell, ACG, and DC.

It also appears to have been the last original tale by Bob that Atlas/Marvel published.

(All subsequent stories were reprints of earlier material.)

Also, could it have been reworked from an unpublished Witness tale?

Every comic company had a cloaked mysteryman narrating stories about "everyday" people (and occasionally influencing them, as well).

Timely/Atlas' entrant in the Mysterious Traveler/Whistler/Phantom Stranger/Man in Black Called Fate competition was The Witness, who had his own one-shot comic and a number of stories scattered in other titles.

At any rate, an extremely-similar tale appeared only a couple of months later...by one of the now-revived and thriving Atlas/Marvel's hottest artists!

You'll see that tale on the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima...tomorrow!

Reading Room TALES OF SUSPENSE "Voice of Doom"

Remember when we presented this kool tale a couple of weeks ago?

We discovered it was a reworking of an earlier story, plotted b Stan Lee, scripted by Larry Lieber, and illustrated by Carl Burgos, that appeared in Atlas' Tales of Suspense #4 (1959)!

The primary difference is that the original tale used a ham radio rather than the blurry tv screen of the later story, so the visualizations of the war were only in Fred's mind, the same way classic dramatic radio dramas of the 1930s-50s used dialogue, music, and sound effects to make the listeners' imaginations create the scenario!
Writer/artist Carl Burgos was one of the seminal creators of the Marvel Universe.
His creation, the Golden Age Human Torch was the cover-featured character on the first Timely (later Marvel) comic called (appropriately) Marvel Comics!
(Burgos showed a marked preference for android heroes, creating not only the original Human Torch, but the White Streak, and the first Silver Age Captain Marvel!)
This particular tale remained lost to history until the first (and only) reprinting in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Tales of Suspense Vol 1 (2006), over half a century later!
Which version do you prefer?

Reading Room FANTASY MASTERPIECES "I Saw the Other World!"

"...if ever a man was born to draw comics, Darlin' Dick Ayers is that pussycat!"

"He's still as much of a comic book fan as any of our rollicking readers!"

Dick Ayers penciled and inked this story from Tales to Astonish #7 (1960) which was also reprinted recently in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish #1 (2006).

It's believed that Stan Lee plotted and Larry Lieber wrote captions and dialogue for the tale.

Tomorrow, the final story from Fantasy Masterpieces #1...by both of Spider-Man's co-creators!

Reading Room FANTASY MASTERPIECES "I Found the Things from Nowhere"

"Not only is Jolly Jack Kirby the undisputed king of superhero artwork..."

"...from The Fantastic Four to long-haired Thor, but he is equally without peer in almost every type of imaginative, far-out fantasy!" --Stan Lee

This tale from Marvel's Fantasy Masterpieces #1 (1965) originally-appeared in Journey into Mystery #60 (1960), and was reprinted, again, in Where Monsters Dwell #9 (1971), but hasn't appeared anywhere in the last 44 years.

That's a pity, since this Jack Kirby-penciled/Steve Ditko-inked story predates both the Kirby-rendered "The Man in the Ant Hill" (Tales to Astonish #27) which introduced Henry Pym who would become...

...aw, you guessed...ANT-MAN...

(Wonder what ever became of him?)

...and Amazing Fantasy #15, featuring Steve Ditko's most famous co-creation...

..your friendly, neighborhood SPIDER-MAN!

BTW, has anyone ever noticed that Ant-Man's and Spider-Man's costumes have opposite/reversed red/blue color schemes?

As for who wrote this tale, the experts believe it's a Stan Lee-plotted, Larry Lieber-scripted story, but I think Lee scripted it as well.

Tomorrow: Another Silver Age artist struts his stuff in a long-unseen short!

Reading Room FANTASY MASTERPIECES "Beware!! The Ghosts Surround Me!"

"This great yarn, which might have taken place today..."

"...gives concrete evidence to the claim that Dashin' Donnie Heck is perhaps our most sophisticated artist!" --Stan Lee

The odd choice of panels to illustrate the story on the bottom left of the cover...

...does give away a crucial plot point, that the "ghosts" are nothing of the kind!

(I would've used a cropped version of the splash page which gives more of a "ghostly" feel than obviously-alien interdimensional beings.)

Penciled and inked by Don Heck, this appearance in Fantasy Masterpieces #1 (1965) was the tale's second reprinting since its' debut in Strange Tales #76 (1960)!

The first was in Strange Tales Annual #1 (1962).

It appeared one more time, in Vault of Evil #19 (1975), which still makes it 40 years since the story's last publication, and many readers of this blog have never seen it.

As for who wrote it, the consensus is that Stan Lee plotted it, but his brother Larry Lieber (Stan's real name was "Stanley Lieber"*) wrote the captions and dialogue.

Tomorrow, another sci-fi/fantasy tale by one of the artists who defined the Marvel Age of Comics!

*Stan had his name legally changed to "Stan Lee".