Showing posts with label Mike Esposito. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike Esposito. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 22, 2025

Earth Day Reading Room NIGHTMARE "Pollution Monsters!"

"The Devil made it do it!" is given new meaning...
...in this never-reprinted tale from 55 years ago (the year Earth Day was first celebrated) which reads like one of Atlas' (pre-Marvel Comics) late 1950s-early 1960s monster stories!
Before we continue, two points:
1) Penciler Don Heck was one of the primary artists of both Atlas era and Silver Age Marvel comics stories, including numerous giant monster tales.
(Inker Mike Esposito, though he entered the field at the same time as Heck, didn't do much work for Atlas or Marvel until the late 1960s.)
2) The story is broken into two parts, even though it's only 10 pages, much like those Atlas Comics stories.
Is it a deliberate homage?
Writer Mike Freidrich was one of the first generation of comic fanboys turned professional creatives, so he was very familiar with the inherent tropes...






One big difference between this story and those Atlas-era giant monster stories...we don't win!
We might, but there's no guarantee in this cover-featured tale from Skywald's Nightmare #1 (1970)!
It's over 50 years later...and it's still frightening!
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Friday, May 24, 2024

Friday Fun GET LOST! "Dr Jerkyll Became Mr Hide"

It's more "inspired" by the Robert Louis Stevenson tale than an adaptation...

...since it's set "present day" (1950s) and the dear doctor is a psychiatrist!
MikeRoss' Get Lost was one of numerous MAD comic clones that popped up in the mid-1950s when that humor comic became one of the hottest titles on the market...literally flying off newsstands!
The company, created by writer/artists Mike Esposito and Ross Andru (the "MikeRoss" of the company name) was meant to be a showcase for their talents.
They edited, wrote, and illustrated almost all the material, including this tale from #1 (1954).
Unfortunately, they debuted just as the legendary "Seduction of the Innocent" scandal (where comics were blamed for juvenile delinquency) hit the public consciousness!
All MikeRoss published were Get LostHeart and Soul (a romance comic) and a couple of 3-D books using modified Heart and Soul artwork.
Sadly, the company never really got off the ground as distributors became leery of handling any comics, much less titles from a brand-new, unproven company!
MikeRoss folded within a year, and the creators returned to working for others, enjoying long careers in the comics business both as a team and individually until they passed away!

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Thursday, January 11, 2024

Reading Room LOST WORLDS "Visitors from Space" and "Space Platforms--Way Stations of the Future!"

Besides comic stories, comic books often ran one-page features like these...
Standard's Lost Worlds #5 Art by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito
...based on historical or scientific information available at the time...
Standards' Lost Worlds #6 Art by Rocco Mastroserio
...or speculation about future developments, again, based on then-current knowledge!
(I love that third panel, showing spacesuit-garbed scientists on a balcony on the satellite!)
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Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Reading Room WEIRD MYSTERIES "Spirits from Outer Space!"

An astronaut returns from space and doesn't act like himself...
...yeah, it's a bit of a cliche, but this tale from Key's Weird Mysteries #1 (1952), has a surprise gimmick to defeat the baddies!

Illustrated by Walter Palais (brother of better-known Golden Age artist Rudy Palais) and Mike Esposito, this "possession by aliens" tale manages to present a variation of the old story with the fact that literally ANY pain causes the parasite to flee.

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Thursday, June 15, 2023

Reading Room WEIRD TALES OF THE FUTURE "Ten Thousand Years Old!"

Here's the "pilot episode" for an ongoing comic series that never came about...
...but did see publication in Key's Weird Tales of the Future #1 (1952)!
It's an interesting premise, and the publishers even gave the story the coveted cover slot...
Art by Ross Andru and ?
...yet next issue, Jerry and Jill were nowhere to be found!
So, what happened?
With a cool (if somewhat implausible) story by an uncredited scripter and pencils (and possible inks) by Ross Andru, it seemed like the sort of ongoing feature that could anchor a title.
Was a second story commissioned?
We'll never know...

Friday, January 27, 2023

Friday Fun GET LOST! "How It All Began..." & "How to Make Your Own Comic Book!!"

In the mid-1950s, the young, multi-talented, creative team of Ross Andru and Mike Esposito...
...took a big risk and started their own comics company, MikeRoss Publishing!
They told a fascinating tale of how it came about...
...which didn't have a bit of truth to it!
Then, they decided to "teach" others the "secrets" of how to emulate their success...
As you can see, Ross and Mike were having fun and producing some great material.
Ironically, and through no fault of their own, it would all come crashing down a few months later!
And though their product consisted of a only two non-horror series (humor and romance) and a couple of 3-D one-shots, they were caught in the paranoid backlash against four-color fun that less than a fifth of existing comics publishers survived!
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Andru and Esposito
Partners for Life

Saturday, November 19, 2022

Space Hero Saturdays GET LOST! "Ace of Space: Four-Flush Gordon"

If you're a poker player, you'll get the reference in the name of the title character...
...if not, we'll explain it at the end of this classic comedy tale!

A four flush (also flush draw) is a poker hand that is one card short of being a full flush.
"Four flushing" refers to empty boasting or unsuccessful bluffing.
Written and illustrated by the team of Ross Andru and Mike Esposito for first issue of their short-lived 1954 humor title Get Lost, for their own short-lived publishing house, MikeRoss Publishing,  this was their almost-mandatory Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers spoof all humor publishers in the 1950s did!
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