Showing posts with label Reading Room. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reading Room. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Reading Room MARVEL BOY COMICS "Planetary Error"

Combining an impulsive, know-it-all teen-ager...

...with the classic "If you time travel, don't change anything!" warning and you end up with this...
No matter what the time period, teen-agers can be real schmucks!
Though the creatives behind the story are unknown, we can tell you it appeared in Atlas' Marvel Boy #2 (1951).
We can also tell you (though you might have guessed it from the header on almost every page) that the comic changed its' name to Astonishing as of the next issue (#3).
Nobody seems to know why the book's name was changed, since the title feature, Marvel Boy, the first Atlas Comics super-hero of the 1950s (though the second Timely/Atlas character to use the name), appeared through issue #6!
You can read about him HERE!
BTW, the series ran for another 60 issues, until 1957.

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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, January 9, 2024

Reading Room WORLD OF SUSPENSE "When the Creature Escapes"

Is a "sea monster" a mindless animal...or something more?
That's what this story from Atlas' World of Suspense #7, 1957 asks...
Penciled by Al Williamson, inked by Ralph Mayo, and written by a currently-unknown scripter, this tale leaves the matter open-ended, practically begging for a sequel!

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Thursday, January 4, 2024

Reading Room WORLDS OF SUSPENSE "Dead End!"

Automobiles like this kool prototype aren't a new idea...
...but this particular one has a potentially-deadly feature for the unwary...as these thieves are about to discover!
know I've seen the 1950s gull-wing concept car used as the prototype vehicle, but I'll be damned if I can find it on the 'Net.
Anybody recognize it?
The art for this never-reprinted tale of greed, gasoline, and goof-ups from Atlas' World of Suspense #8 (1957) was by Howard O'Donnell, whose career in comics was brief (1953-1958), but whose art career continues to this day as a noted painter of maritime and Western subjects!
The writer is unknown.
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Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Reading Room UNLIKELY TALES "Time Machine"

When two Steves...a long-established pro and eager young up-and-comer...collaborate...
...you get this time-travel tale, set only 14 years from now, with a novel twist!
It's amazing what the comics creators of 1967 thought 70 years later would look like!
Considering that we Baby Boomers thought by 2000 we'd have bases on the Moon and flying cars, it's not unreasonable...
Written by up-and-comer Steve Skeates and illustrated by Spider-Man and Dr Strange co-creator Steve Ditko, this never-reprinted story from the Unlikely Tales anthology collection in Charlton Premiere #4 (1968) offers a surprise twist on the usual "time-traveler from the future may change history" concept.
Trivia:
Skeates wrote all the stories in this issue, a rarity for someone just starting out in the industry.
All the stories were both penciled and inked by their respective artists, also a rarity in a business where, in order to meet deadlines, creators usually either penciled or inked, but not both.
The artists in this issue included Ditko, as well as Pat Boyette, Jim Aparo, and Charlton mainstay Rocke Mastroserio.
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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, November 9, 2023

Reading Room: THIS IS SUSPENSE "Choice!"

Occasionally you come across something that makes you scratch your head and go "wha?"...

This odd little piece by Dick Giordano was the opener for Charlton's This is Suspense #23 (1955)...which was actually the first issue using that name, as Charlton had bought the series (including unpublished material) from Fawcett under the name Strange Suspense Stories. after Fawcett cancelled their comics line!

(With the Comics Code about to take effect, Charlton apparently decided to make their carryover from the "bad old days" as inoffensive as possible by changing the title.)
BTW, to see how the Code mutilated a story in the very next issue of This is Suspense, check out the original Strange Suspense Stories version HERE and the revised This is Suspense version HERE!

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Thursday, November 2, 2023

Reading Room WORLD OF SUSPENSE "Forbidden!"

Here's another never-reprinted tale from the Atlas Comics vault...
...illustrated by longtime comics book artist Ed Winiarski and scripted by a writer whose name is lost to the sands of time, though it may be Ed himself!
This never-reprinted story from Atlas' World of Suspense #8 (1957) is one of Winiarski's last stories in comics before either retiring or switching to other media like advertising after a 20-year career in comics!
Trivia: Ed is one of the creators cited in Stan Lee's book (really a bookletSecrets of the Comics as shown HERE!
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Thursday, October 26, 2023

Reading Room GHOST COMICS "Face in the Shroud"

It's been a while, boy fiends and ghoul friends...
..but during the season when ghosts and goblins dominate pop culture, we felt it was time to rise up out of the coffin and tell a sordid story!
As horror stories go, this tale from Fiction House's Ghost Comics #8 (1953) is fairly mild, but the art by the underrated Bill Benulis and Jack Abel has a couple of kool "camera angles" and storytelling tricks that other artists of the period like Alex Toth and Ross Andru were also experimenting with.
The writer's name has been lost to the mists of time.
BTW, this tale was recently-reprinted (for the first time in over 60 years) in IDW's Haunted Horror, but was oddly-attributed to Don Heck, even though the story is signed by Benulis and Abel in the first panel!

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Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Reading Room WEIRD MEN'S ADVENTURES "I Walked on the Moon"

In the early 1950s, EC Comics set the pace for other companies...
...as this hybrid sci-fi/horror tale from Atlas' Men's Adventures #26 (1954) clearly demonstrates!
You'll note the post's header reads Weird Men's Adventures, but I mentioned earlier the book was  just Men's Adventures.
It's not a typo.
The indicia title was Men's Adventures, and from 1-20 it featured war and high adventure tales.
But, with #21, it became a horror title and "Weird" was added in a graphic burst to the logo (but not the indicia).
Six issues later, the brief revival of the Golden Age Human Torch and Toro took over the book for two issues before it was cancelled.
Though the writer for this tale from is unknown, the artist (doing a credible Wally Wood imitation) is Gene Colan!
Trivia: When the story was reprinted in Marvel's Weird Wonder Tales #17 (1976), it was retitled and the splash panel was rewritten (including removing the "Weird Men's Adventure" blurb)...
Considering that, in 1976, it was over five years since the first Moon landing, I'm not certain why the editor made the change...
BTW, note the "originally-presented" caption references the wrong issue!
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