Showing posts with label Marvin Stein. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marvin Stein. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Reading Room / Halloween Horror MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN COMICS "Premonition of Death!"

Some things just can't be explained by current science...
...but that doesn't make them any less real!
Is this a lost "Kirby Klassic" from the 1950s?
When Prize Comics' Monster of Frankenstein title was revived during the horror comic boom of the early 1950s, besides a wonderfully-gruesome version of Dick Briefer's previously-humorous Monster, it featured a number of two to four page "fillers".
Most of these tales appear to be, at the very least, laid-out by Jack Kirby.
This never-reprinted story from V3N3 (1954) is a prime example.
The Grand Comics Database lists the story's illustrator as Marvin Stein, who worked primarily for the Simon & Kirby studio, so this most likely was an S&K "inventory" story laid-out by Kirby and meant for insertion wherever editorial page count came up short.
Sadly, the writer of the story is, as in so many cases, unknown...
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Thursday, August 15, 2024

Reading Room WORLD OF MYSTERY "Night I Lost My Body!"

Some people lose their minds!
This guy will tell you about something even worse...
...in a never-reprinted tale from Atlas' World of Mystery #7 (1957)!
Illustrated by longtime Simon & Kirby Studio artist Marvin Stein, the story seems to have a very Jack Kirby "feel" to the panel structures and character poses.
Could Kirby have helped out by doing uncredited layouts?
We'll never know...
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Sunday, June 2, 2024

Red China has Landed a Robot Craft on the Far Side of the Moon!

Pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Marvin Stein

We thought we'd be dealing with the Russkies on the lunar surface, but at this point, Putin has to buy rockets from North Korea!

Saturday, January 15, 2022

Space Force Saturdays SPACE BUSTERS "Remember Makano"

It's the final battle in the series that may have inspired Don (the John) Trump's fantasy about a "Space Force"...

...appropriately enough, a tale that places emotion over logic!
This never-reprinted tale from Ziff-Davis' Space Busters #2 (1952) is the final story for the short-lived series.
Oddly, none of the sci-fi books about specific characters (this one and Lars of MarsCrusader from Mars, and Space Patrol) lasted more than two issues!
But the anthologies lasted longer...Amazing Adventures ran six issues and Weird Thrillers ran five!

It must be admitted that Murphy Anderson's revamp gave the book a solid "shot in the arm" artistically, so why it was cancelled so abruptly remains a mystery!
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Saturday, December 18, 2021

Space Force Saturdays SPACE BUSTERS "Victory on Valda"

Editor Jerry Siegel wanted Space Busters to look more like...
... the recently-revamped and revitalized Buck Rogers strip!
But artist Marvin Stein ended up using the original Buck strip as reference in his tryout, and lost the gig!
With a looming deadline, Siegel contacted the Buck Rogers strip's artist, Murphy Anderson (who had recently left the series) to provide redesigns...
...as well as the cover-featured story!
(Note: the cover is by Allen Anderson...no relation to Murphy!)

Personally, I'm not crazy about the purple-red color scheme, but at least it matches the uniform on the cover.

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Saturday, December 4, 2021

Space Force Saturdays SPACE BUSTERS "Mission to Baldor!"

We're on to Ziff-Davis' Space Busters #2, and the first of the "redesigned" stories...
...as artist Marvin Stein takes a crack at making the "Marines in space" series look more like Buck Rogers!
This never-reprinted story appeared in the back of Ziff-Davis' Space Busters #2 (1952) because editor/writer Jerry Siegel had nothing else to fill the empty pages!
Unfortunately, Stein had gone "old school" 1930s-40s Buck Rogers, when Siegel had wanted "modern" 1950s Buck Rogers.
So Siegel got the guy who had been illustrating the modern Buck Rogers...Murphy Anderson!
You'll see his work in two weeks!
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Weird War Tales
Sci-Fi/Horror/Fantasy Military Tales

Monday, August 2, 2021

Monday Mars Madness ALARMING TALES "Hero"

Here's a short (in more ways than one) space-opera tale...
...though you won't get my pun until the end...
This story of size and space travel from Harvey's Alarming Tales #2 (1957) was produced by writer Jack Oleck, and illustrator Marvin Stein (with what appears to be uncredited layout help by Jack Kirby).
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Sunday, August 12, 2018

Reading Room MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN COMICS "Into the 4th Dimension"

Is this a lost "Kirby Klassic" from the 1950s?
Read this never-reprinted tale from Prize's Monster of Frankenstein #31 (1954) and judge for yourself...

When Prize Comics' Monster of Frankenstein title was revived during the horror comic boom of the early 1950s, besides a wonderfully-gruesome version of Dick Briefer's Monster, it featured a number of two to four page "fillers".
Most of these tales appear to be, at the very least, laid-out by the legendary Jack (King) Kirby.
This story is a prime example.
The Grand Comics Database lists the story's illustrator as Marvin Stein, who worked primarily for the Simon & Kirby studio, so this most likely was an S&K "inventory" story laid-out by Kirby and meant for insertion wherever editorial page count came up short.
Sadly, the writer of the story is, as in so many cases, unknown...
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Science Fiction Comics
Taylor History of Comics
Vol 3

Saturday, April 7, 2018

Reading Room WEIRD THRILLERS "Graveyard in the Antarctic"

While a mini-series about ill-fated Arctic explorers, The Terror, airs on AMC, here's a true tale of frozen fear...
...from the back of Ziff-Davis' Weird Thrillers #4 (1952)!
Illustrated by Marvin Stein, it's purportedly based on a true story.
But I've been unable to verify it, as all of Levick's known studies were about penguins, not seals!
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Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Reading Room ADVENTURE INTO MYSTERY "Watcher"

Here's a never-reprinted cautionary tale...
...from Atlas' Adventure in Mystery #7 (1957) whose "moral" is a little lost on me...
All Andrew Morris really needs is someone to doublecheck his time/space coordinates!
If he does decide to collaborate with others when he rebuilds, I'd hope he register a patent for for the system first!
Better safe, than sorry!
Marvin Stein does a fine job visualizing this tale by an unknown writer.
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