Reading Room STRANGE STORIES OF SUSPENSE "Man of Mystery"

Here's a never-reprinted tiny tale about a tiny man...

...specifically, a miniature man of metal, from Atlas' Strange Stories of Suspense #5 (1955)!

The illustrator of this tale of a bionic blabbermouth was highly-unappreciated Golden Age/Silver Age workhorse Sud Shores, though the teller of the tin terror's tale is, regrettably, unknown!
Trivia: Though this was #5, it was actually the first issue of Strange Stories of Suspense, since the first four issues were called Rugged Action...

...featuring manly men performing manly feats of derring-do in various venues...which apparently didn't sell well enough to keep the book going in that format!
OTOH, Strange Stories of Suspense continued though #16 until a change in newsstand distributors in 1956 reduced the amount of titles Atlas Comics could distribute per month!

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Atlas Comics Library No 1

Adventures into Terror
Volume 1

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Reading Room CRIME DETECTOR "Ultimate Destiny"

Some comics tales of the 1950s have a real "nightmare" feel...

...such as this rarely-seen story by an underrated master of the genre!

Note: the final page was printed sideways as a single page, but we think it works better as a two-page spread, so...

The writer for this cool comic classic from Timor's Crime Detector #5 (1954) is unknown, but the distinctive art is by Jay Disbrow, who had a long career in comics from 1948 to 2005!

His last new work was the on-line comic Aroc of Zenith, which ran for 312 pages from 2000 to 2005, and you can find HERE.

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EC Horror Library of the 1950s

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Reading Room GREEN GIANT COMICS "Fear the Wrath of...The Researcher!"

Next to "The Listener" (DC), "The Witness", or "The Watcher" (both Marvel), probably the least frightening name for a comic hero is...

...however, this guy could make the name synonymous with "action hero"!

“Criminals are a cowardly superstitious lot, so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts.”
As if in answer, a book falls from a nearby shelf.
“A book!
That’s it!
It’s an omen…I shall become a RESEARCHER!”
And thus is born this weird figure of the library…this avenger of evil!
The Researcher!"
(Actually, that never happened, it's just a rephrasing of The Batman's origin from Batman V1N1 (1940)!)

Who is The Researcher?

We never learn his real name.

Everyone calls him "Researcher"...even his girlfriend.

Where did he get the money for his kool weaponry and equipment?

Is he independently-wealthy or does he bill clients?

He hob-nobs with the upper crust, including diplomats, politicians and rich businessmen.

Did he start out as a librarian?

Many are the mysteries surrounding...The Researcher!

Unfortunately, this short strip from Pelican's Green Giant Comics #1 (1940) was his only appearance anywhere!

Pity, since he has a lot of potential.

Frank Thomas, the writer/artist behind this strip created a number of detective-themed characters in the Golden Age including The Eye, The Owl, and Dr Hypno.

Reading Room/Tales Twice Told TALES FROM THE TOMB "Living Corpse"

Last Tuesday, We Showed You the Original Version of This Story!

Now Witness How Another Artist Re-Interpreted It for a Cover-Featured Tale...and Needed an Extra Page to Do So!

This new version of the Simon & Kirby Black Magic story appeared in Eerie's Tales from the Tomb V6N5 (1974), illustrated by Alberto Macagno.

What's odd is that most of the reworked versions that appeared in Eerie Publications' b/w magazines (which weren't restricted by the Comics Code Authority) were gorier than the originals.
Yet this tale would've easily passed the looser Code, then in effect, which allowed "traditional/classic" monsters (Frankenstein, Dracula (and other vampires), werewolves, mummies)...without too much blood!

Heck, Marvel had just released their own Living Mummy series in Supernatural Thrillers!

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The Worst of Eerie Publications

Reading Room THIS MAGAZINE IS HAUNTED "Secret of the Walking Dead"

With the return of AMC's The Walking Dead...

...we thought we'd present a shocker involving someone deliberately creating a scientific zombie!

Could this be similar to how the walkers on AMC's Walking Dead came to be?

This tale from Fawcett's This Magazine is Haunted #6 (1952) was illustrated by Ed Waldman who worked on-and-off in comics from 1941 to 1954.

The tale's writer is sadly, unknown!
However, the cover artist is Sheldon Moldoff!

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EC Horror Library of the 1950s

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Reading Room / Tales Twice-Told TERROR TALES "Horror Bugs"

Last Tuesday, We Presented a Frightening Future by Simon & Kirby HERE!
Now, We Present Another Artist's Version of That Same Story!

Illustrated by Antonio Reynoso, this retelling from Eerie Publications' Terror Tales V5N6 (1973) of Simon & Kirby's "Slaughter-House" shows the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) of editor Carl Burgos.

• Find an old story from a now-defunct publisher that hadn't been reprinted since the 1950s.
• Use the original script almost verbatim, usually making a couple of changes in the opening and closing narratives and assigning it to one of the team of talented South American artists hired to work at rates lower than US illustrators!
• "Update" it, making technology and aliens look like what tv/movies were currently showing.
• And, in this case, making one of the primary characters in the originally all-White cast a Black guy!

Curiously, though most of these reworked versions were reprinted throughout the publisher's various titles, usually a year after the previous publication, this story was only run once!

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The Worst of Eerie Publications

Reading Room UFO FLYING SAUCERS "Life on Other Worlds"

Specifically-themed anthologies are difficult to keep going for more than a few issues at a time...

...but Gold Key's UFO Flying Saucers / UFOs and Outer Space managed an impressive 25-issue run!

The series combined stories using documented UFO sightings with features based on reasonable speculation and tales that were flights of sheer fantasy,

Written by Leo Dorfman and illustrated by Luis Dominguez, this short from  UFO Flying Saucers #1 (1968) falls into the "reasonable speculation" category...albeit with aliens who look like refugees from a Golden Age (1920s-1940s) pulp magazine!

BTW, Gold Key's former publishing partner Dell, had their own 1960s anthology, Flying Saucers, which began before UFO Flying Saucers, but only managed five issues!

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Flying Saucers from Outer Space

by Major Donald E Keyhoe