Wednesday Worlds of Wonder / CoronaVirus Comics PLANET OF VAMPIRES "Blood Plague" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Fellow Normal Humans..

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

Astronauts Chris and Craig invade the virus-infected 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 in the back of the book by Larry Lieber and Al Milgrom gives an idea of what was to come...

Perhaps it's just as well there was no #4...
Next Wednesday:
Another Disease-Laden World of Wonder!
(There are a lot of them in sci-fi/fantasy!)

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

I Am Legend

the Graphic Novel Adaptation of the Original Book Which Inspired Generations of Creatives, including the Creators of Planet of Vampires!

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder / CoronaVirus Comics PLANET OF VAMPIRES "Blood Plague" Part 1

When Last We Left Our Heroes...

...keep reading and the characters will explain what's going on right after the big explosion.
"What big explosion?" you may ask...

The battle concludes...Next Wednesday!

(and when we say "concludes", we mean concludes!)

Written by John Albano and illustrated by Russ Heath, Atlas' Planet of Vampires #3 winds up some plotlines and, unfortunately, kills off several major characters in the process.

Be here next week, when we'll show how far afield the book was about to go as it suffered the "Third Issue Curse" that befell most of the Atlas Comics books.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

I Am Legend

the Graphic Novel Adaptation of the Original Book Which Inspired Generations of Creatives, including the Creators of Planet of Vampires!

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder / CoronaVirus Comics PLANET OF VAMPIRES "Quest for Blood" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

...(actually we haven't seen this, since there's no scene like it in the book.

Nor is there a cloaked, sinisterly-snarling vampire!

But it's a great Neal Adams/Dick Giordano cover, eh?)

Escaping the virus-created scientifically-advanced blood-suckers who inhabit the Dome in the center of a devastated Manhattan, our four surviving astronauts team up with the primitive, but human Street People.

Rigging a stolen aircraft as a booby-trap, they destroy two pursuing ships sent to recapture them.

There's a price to be paid...and one of the astronauts will pay it...

...NEXT WEDNESDAY!

With the departure of writer/co-creator Larry Hama (GI Joe), John Albano (Jonah Hex) stepped in to the scripting slot, working off Hama's basic plot for the issue as well as several pages already laid out by penciler/co-creator Pat Broderick.

It'a a well-done job, making the transition pretty seamless between the two writers.

Be here next week, as the astronauts and street people take the fight back to the virus-infected "domies"!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

I Am Legend/Omega Man

Which features both the recent Will Smith version and the 1970s Charlton Heston version (which heavily-influenced Planet of Vampires)!

But not the 1960s Vincent Price adaptation.

That one, you can get here...)

Last Man on Earth

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder PLANET OF VAMPIRES "Quest for Blood" Part 1

In the 1970s, science fiction writers thought the 21st century was going to be rather dystopic...

...as this never-reprinted tale of a virus-influenced year 2010 from Atlas' Planet of Vampires #2 (1975) demonstrates!

It's always fun to end a chapter with a BANG!

But LOTS more action awaits us...

...NEXT WEDNESDAY!

With the departure of writer/co-creator Larry Hama (GI Joe), John Albano (Jonah Hex) stepped in to the scripting slot, working off Hama's basic plot for the issue as well as several pages already laid out by penciler/co-creator Pat Broderick.

It'a a well-done job, making the transition pretty seamless between the two writers.

Be here next week, as the astronauts and street people take the fight back to the virus-infected "domies"!
(Don't worry, Harsh Realm will return in the near-future!)

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

I Am Legend/Omega Man

Which features both the recent Will Smith version and the 1970s Charlton Heston version (which heavily-influenced Planet of Vampires)!

But not the 1960s Vincent Price adaptation.

That one, you can get here...)

Last Man on Earth

CoronaVirus Comics PLANET OF VAMPIRES "Long Road Home" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

Art by Pat Broderick and Neal Adams

...well, that kool cover says it all, doesn't it?

BTW, though the cover says six astronauts, we only see five, including Dr Ben Levitz, who was killed by savages when the crew first reached shore after crash-landing off Coney Island!

The "sixth astronaut" is never mentioned by name...or even shown in the background...anywhere in the issue!

In 2008, a team of astronauts exploring Mars lose contact with Earth.

After a two-year voyage, they return to find most of the planet devastated and the survivors apparently devolved to primitive savages!

However, some people in Manhattan managed to keep technology functioning and a relatively-civilized society going under an impenetrable dome...but at what cost to their humanity?

This never-reprinted first issue of Atlas/Seaboard's Planet of Vampires (1975) was Larry Hama's intro to comic scriptwriting.

Hama had been a penciler/inker apprenticing under Wally Wood before landing his first ongoing gig; penciling Iron Fist in Marvel Premiere.

But when John Byrne was given Iron Fist (which moved into its' own comic), Hama was without steady work.

The brand-new Atlas/Seaboard company welcomed the young creative with open arms, giving him two books: Planet of Vampires, which he scripted, and Wulf the Barbarian, which he both wrote and penciled.

Larry ended up leaving both the books (and the company) when the publisher refused to allow leeway on the deadlines when Hama's mother was dying, forcing the young writer/artist to bring in a host of pro friends to meet the deadlines while he dealt with the personal loss and handled funeral arrangements.

Hama went on to much bigger things like GI Joe, while Atlas/Seaboard went out of business within a year.

Next Wednesday:

It's Omega Man Meets Mad Max!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

I Am Legend

(the graphic novel verson of the novel, adapted into the then-current movie Omega Man, which "inspired" this series!)