Showing posts with label Outer Space. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Outer Space. Show all posts

Saturday, February 15, 2025

Space Hero Saturdays OUTER SPACE "Blueprint for Survival"

Sometimes a Space Hero is just an ordinary guy...

...or someone extraordinary pretending to be ordinary!
This never-reprinted story from Charlton's Outer Space #21 (1959) follows the standard convention of movie/TV sci-fi of the era with friendly aliens who look perfectly human, but dress better (or at least more futuristically than us!
Written by Joe Gill, penciled by Matt Baker, inked by Vince Colletta.
Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...

Thursday, February 13, 2025

Baker Reading Room OUTER SPACE "Fall Guy"

Despite Being Published in a Comic Called Outer Space... 

...this is a totally Earth-bound story, until...




Cue the Twilight Zone theme...
Written by Joe Gill, pencilled by Matt Baker, and inked by Vince Colletta, thie never-reprinted story from Charlton's Outer Space #24 (1959) takes the whole "fraternity hazing" mindset, and tosses it in the trash where it belongs!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...

Saturday, February 8, 2025

Space Force Saturdays OUTER SPACE "Incredible Giants"

Though pioneering Black artist Matt Baker was best known for good-girl/cheesecake art...
...he could work in any genre, including action-packed space opera!
Inker Vince Colletta employed a number of excellent, detail-oriented pencilers like Matt Baker and Joe Sinnott to work for his studio, which "packaged" stories, series, and even book-length tales for publishers.
Unfortunately, when dealing with smaller publishers like Charlton (who didn't pay as much as DCMarvelHarvey, etc) in order to save maximize profit, Vince inked most of the work himself, usually rushing to meet deadlines!
Compare with another story, inked by long-time Baker collaborator Ray Osrin, and you see the difference inkers can make!
The same level of page layout and storytelling is obvious in both tales...but the rendering...hoo boy!
BTW, Joe Gill wrote this story from Charlton's Outer Space #23 (1959).
One important plot point was that the giant children thought the scout ship was a seed pod due to it's design...


...an element cover artists Charles Nicholas and Rocke Mastroserio didn't follow though on with their re-do of the story's splash panel for the cover!
Were they not informed, or did the editor deliberately insist on a more traditional ship design?
We'll never know the answer!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...

Thursday, September 19, 2024

Reading Room OUTER SPACE "Repair Stop"

Today's comics creators have lost the ability to tell a straightforward story...
...in a short story format!
It wasn't always this way....
Written by Joe Gill and illustrated by Steve Ditko, this efficent, effective tale from Charlton's Outer Space #18 (1958) sets up the minimal plot, conveys multiple points of view, and delivers a satisfying ending...all within four pages!
If it was done today, it'd be a book-length tale!
You'll note Ditko's heavy use of pen, rather than brush for inking, resulting in a less-lush, less organic "feel" and a lot more cross-hatching instead of feathering than his work only a year later, when he was transitioning from Charlton over to Atlas/Marvel.
Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...
Paid Link

Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Reading Room OUTER SPACE "Planet Which Had Everything--Almost!"

Here's a tale that takes a concept from one of H.G. Wells' novels...
...a concept which was based on real-life events from Earth's history!
Yep, it's the classic ending from War of the Worlds!
Note: The movie version of Wells' First Men in the Moon also incorporates the "germs kill aliens who haven't been exposed to them" concept, but it's not in the original novel!
As to real-life, European settlers inadvertently brought a plague to North America and caused an epidemic that decimated a number of native tribes that had contact with them.
While the writer of this tale from Charlton's Outer Space #1 (1968) is unknown to me, the art is by Charles Nicholas and Vince Alascia.

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Reading Room OUTER SPACE "For Amusement Only"

Ever wonder if all the natural disasters we experience...
...are truly "natural" in origin?
"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport."
King Lear Act 4, Scene 1
"Submitted for your approval...
A tale by writer Joe Gill and artist Steve Ditko from Charlton's Outer Space #18 (1958) that Repugs would love since it disproves "global warming".
But, it replaces it with something else cons don't believe in...life on other worlds!
A conundrum that may never be solved...at least not in...The Twilight Zone!"
Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Buy...
...which reprints this tale and numerous other long out-of-print short stories illustrated by Ditko!

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Reading Room OUTER SPACE "Third Planet"

Some stories are truly a "product of their time"...
...such as this Silver Age story that reflects the pacifist attitudes of the 18-30 year-olds of the era.
That's how the tale ended in the idealistic 1960s.
If they re-did it today, in the far more cynical 2020s, one (or both) commanders would have had a strike force ready to attack the second the other side disarmed.
This tale from the Charlton one-shot Outer Space (1968) was illustrated by Pat Boyette.
As to who wrote it, it could have been Boyette (who had already proven himself as a writer with several stories for Charlton's anthologies as well as a couple of issues of Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt), or Joe Gill, who co-created several pacifist heroes including Peacemaker with Boyette, and GunMaster with Dick Giordano!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Reading Room OUTER SPACE "His Own Little World"

After co-creating Spider-Man and Dr Strange, Steve Ditko left Marvel in 1967...
...for reasons still unknown to all but the parties involved.
For the next few years, he went on to work for everyone but Marvel, including Charlton, where he returned to Captain Atom, created a new Blue Beetle, and did a plethora of one-off tales like this one!
Is this device a matter-creator (which would create items from scratch) or a teleporter (which would move already-existing things from their origin point to Rudd's location)?
If it created things purely from his brain-patterns, it would look exactly like the photograph, no matter how old the pic was!
Maybe I'm just over-thinking the whole thing.
At any rate, this story from Charlton's one-shot Outer Space #1 (1968) was penciled and inked by the extremely-busy Ditko, but the writer is unknown.
BTW, the printing on this particular issue was pretty bad.
In fact, Charlton was noted for the poor quality of it's printing,  since they used old printing presses that were designed to print boxes and other packaging that used cardboard and plastic, not newsprint!
When the story was reprinted over a decade later, it came out somewhat cleaner, as you can see HERE.