Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY / WHERE MONSTERS DWELL "Ruler of Earth!"

We had something much different for today's post...

...but after Don the Con's announcement at the United Nations that the US government would now refer to Artificial Intelligence only as "Super Intelligence",  my mind immediately returned to this article we posted last year at fellow RetroBlog Hero Histories!

So, let's travel to the "future" year of 1990...as seen from 1962...

Appearing as the cover-featured story in one of the final pre-Mighty Thor issues of Atlas' Journey into Mystery (#82 in 1962), this story by plotter/editor Stan Lee, writer Larry Leiber, penciler Jack Kirby, and inker Dick Ayers is a clear Cold War/anti-Communist parable!

But, when the tale was reprinted at the end of the Cold War in Marvel's Where Monsters Dwell #25 (1973)...

...editor Roy Thomas had the hammer and sickle and red star insignias removed from the Russkies' hats...

...and replaced with an "H", which was explained with the change in the dialogue balloon above!

HYDRA???

Why not AIM...who were always more tech-oriented?

So, presumably, there are at least two worlds in the Marvel Multiverse where ROE presides, to this day, over a peaceful Earth!

Bonus for putting up with this all this fanboy mishigas...the lovingly-detailed original art for the spash page by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers!

BTW, did you note how warm, cuddly, and almost teddy-bear-like the cover's RoE is, compared to the version in the story itself?

Monday Mecha Madness: Before ULTRON...there was MAKINO!

Who created Ultron, the Ultimate Evil AI?

If you go with the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron...Tony Stark aka Iron Man. and Bruce Banner aka The Hulk!

If you go with Marvel Comics history...Henry Pym aka Ant-Man/Giant-Man/Goliath/Yellowjacket/Wasp/etc (Don't ask. It's too long a story...).

In reality, it was writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema in Marvel's Avengers V1 #54 (1967).

But where did Roy come up with the idea?

Well, he "borrowed" it from Captain Video!

Yep!

In #3 of Captain Video's short-lived 1950s Fawcett Comics title, he faced a robot named Makino who killed his scientist creator and then threatened all mankind!

The story left such an impression on the young Roy Thomas that, almost two decades later, he adapted elements of that story into the long-running saga of Ultron!

Roy explained how it came about in TwoMorrows' Alter Ego #114.

You can read the actual comic story on our "brother" RetroBlog Secret Sanctum of Captain Video HERE and HERE!

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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder CHAMBER OF DARKNESS "Music from Beyond!" aka "Music of Erich Zann"

H P Lovecraft's "Music of Erich Zann" Served as the Basis For This Terror Tale...

...which featured the return of an EC Comics stalwart to horror comics!

Adapted by writer Roy Thomas and illustrated by Johnny Craig (with some redrawing by Marie Severin), the story from Marvel's Chamber of Darkness #5 (1970) is pretty successful...within the limitations of the Comics Code Authority's restrictions.

(Ironically, the Code "loosened up" with some major revisions after this story was created and published.

As pointed out HERE at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's site: "The 1971 code relaxed the restrictions on crime comics and lifted the ban on horror comics [while still prohibiting the use of “horror” and “terror” in titles].")

Note: You may have noticed a b/w splash page just before the end of the story.

When it was reprinted in Marvel's b/w magazine Masters of Terror #2 (1975), the spash was inserted into the story with the last two captions from the previous page's final panel.

Plus, the reprint changed the title to the Lovecraft prose tale's "Music of Erich Zann".

We hope you've enjoyed a month of Lovecraft comic adaptations, and suggest you continue to check us out every Wednesday for more Worlds of Wonder!

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At the Mountains of Madness, Call of Cthulhu and Music Of Erich Zann

by H P Lovecraft

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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder HP LOVECRAFT'S THE CALL OF CTHULHU "Call of Cthulhu" Conclusion

 When Last We Left the Elder Gods...

...our intrepid explorers into the unknown approach an island...where none should exist...and see...R'lyeh...a city that shouldn't be there...

Once more, we present several pages with the truly unique, moody coloring used only in the Spanish-language publication of the tale...

Cthulhu Lives!

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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder HP LOVECRAFT'S THE CALL OF CTHULHU "Call of Cthulhu" Part 2

We Have Already Seen...

Title Page from the first appearance of this tale, in Weird Tales V11N2 (1928)!

Inheriting the papers and personal effects of his late grand-uncle, linguistic professor George Gammell Angell, our narrator discovers a small bas-relief sculpture which yields "simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature", along with documents mentioning frequent references to Cthulhu and R'lyeh!

Tracing the documented incidents leads to a larger statue of indeterminate, but undeniable antiquity...perhaps predating known history...

To Be Concluded Next Wednesday!

Here's a couple of pages from this section of the original Spanish language publication, showing the unique color palette used for the story!

Pity these have never been reprinted in any of the several English-language editions!

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