Reading Room DO YOU BELIEVE IN NIGHTMARES? "Man Who Crashed into Another Era"

Here's a short story featuring dinosaurs, and illustrated by Steve Ditko...

...just before his stint on Gorgo!

Ok, so it was the old "It's only a dream" scenario.

You got to admit, it's well-done!

From St John's Do You Believe in Nightmares? #1 (1957), a short-lived anthology produced just before St John went out of business.

Space Force Saturdays SPACE BUSTERS "Battle for Alana"

No, your eyes do not deceive you...

...This Space Busters #1.5 tale is in 3-D!

Put your 3-D glasses on (blue lens on right eye!) and enjoy!

One of the changes made for the second issue of Space Busters was to expand the war against Belzar as the aliens lost their hold on Mars and "Earthian" forces pushed outward!

Human traitor Senstral commands these attempts to "hold the line", after having failed to do so on Mars!

When Ziff-Davis dropped their comics line (except for G.I. Joe), several publishers bought up the unpublished material, with St John picking up the bulk of it!

This never-published Space Busters story by Bernie Krigstein was converted to 3-D to fill out the St John one-shot Daring Adventures 3-D (1953)!

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

Friday Fun CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST "Premiere"

Here's the first appearance of a comics legend (over 100 series with his name in the title)...

...who, at the time this came out, was already an animation mainstay!

Utilizing story elements from Casper's first cartoon (1945's Paramount NovelToon "The Friendly Ghost", written by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo) this opener written by Isadore Klien and likely illustrated by one of the cartoon series' animators appeared in St John's Casper the Friendly Ghost #1 (1949)

Interestingly, though Harvey Comics acquired the character rights from Paramount Pictures and continued the series after St John went out of business, they never reprinted the covers or stories of the five issues by St John!   

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Casper the Friendly Ghost

60th Anniversary Special

Friday Fun ATOM-AGE COMBAT "Three Rocketeers"

No, not this Jack Kirby-created team...

...but another trio with a slightly-different take on living "la vida stellar"!

(St John's Atom-Age Combat V1N2 [1952])

(St John's Atom-Age Combat V1N3 [1952])

Illustrated (and probably written) by Vic Martin, these never-reprinted strips featuring Dr Gastro, Rhonda, and Torpo appeared in the otherwise deadly-serious title Atom-Age Combat, one of several comics of the early 1950s that featured a near-future USA involved in atomic warfare with Commies...in this case, Asian (presumably Chinese) Communists!

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Dan DeCarlo's Jetta

Did You Know a Black Artist Penciled the FIRST Graphic Novel from a Comics Publisher?

Graphic Novels are the standard format for innovative storytelling today...

The complete presentation of the first graphic novel!

But "back in the day", as they say, it was an untried concept!
Written by Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller (as "Drake Waller"), illustrated by penciler Matt Baker and and inker Ray Osrin, the digest-sized 1950 one-shot from St John Publications is a pulpish "film noir" tale at its' coolest!

Dark Horse Comics (which published a high-quality reprint available below) explained it thusly...

In 1950, writers Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller, both attending college on the G.I. Bill, envisioned a sophisticated, novel-length comic tailored to their peers. Collaborating with comics art master Matt Baker, known for singularly defining the genre of "good girl art" on titles such as Phantom Lady, they crafted a film-noir inspired masterwork of romance, intrigue, and moral relativity. When cynical newspaperman Hal Weber reunites with old flame Rust Masson, he finds the beguiling widow of a mining magnate willing to do anything to undermine the local political machine--her only opponent for total control of Copper City!

Though not specifically-mentioned, penciler Matt Baker was one of the few Black artists of both comic books' Golden and Silver Ages!
It Rhymes with Lust was the basis of our 2017 Summer Blogathon spanning several RetroBlogs!
Start at True Love Comics Tales and experience not only comics history, but Black history as well!

Note: The thanks of a grateful nation go to Kracalactaka, who found the scans of the St John first edition in the wilds of the internet, cleaned them up, and made them available!

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It Rhymes with Lust

Deluxe Reprint Edition

Monday Madness / Holiday Reading Room CHRISTMAS CARNIVAL "Twas the Night Before Christmas and All Through the House..."

It's a pretty long title for a one-pager...

...but the pay-off makes it worthwhile.

The writer and artist for this piece from the one-shot anthology Christmas Carnival (published by Ziff-Davis in 1952 and reprinted by St John in 1955) are, sadly, unknown.

But we didn't want this piece, unseen for 65 years, to be forgotten...so here it is for your enjoyment!

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Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories

Monday Madness WHACK "Flush Jordan"

Yes, it's a Flash Gordon spoof...

..but it has a cultural reference most readers won't recognize!
Ming the Merciless usually looks like this...

...so who's "Bing", the golf-playing guy in the Hawaiian shirt and porkpie hat?

He's Bing Crosby, singer, comedian, obsessive golfer, and (when this comic was published) a pop culture icon!
With that in mind, please read...

The guy at the end, whining about "Thanks for the Memory" is comedian Bob Hope...

...Bing's co-star/rival in the 1940s-50s "Road to..." movie series as well as a pop culture legend in his own right!

Note: Thanks for the Memory" was Hope's personal theme song, used primarily to close his radio show, live appearances, and TV specials!

This never-reprinted story from #2 of St John's MAD clone WHACK was illustrated by William Overgard for 3-D use, but the collapse of the 3-D comic market forced St John to publish it in regular color comic format!

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Sincerest Form of Parody

It's HERE! The FIRST Graphic Novel!

Today begins the BIG event in the 2017 RetroBlogs mini-blogathon...

The complete presentation of one of the first (if not the first) graphic novels!

Written by Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller (as "Drake Waller"), illustrated by Matt Baker and Ray Osrin, the digest-sized 1950 one-shot from St John Publications is pulpish film noir at its' coolest!

Dark Horse Comics (which published a 2007 high-quality reprint available below) explained it thusly...

In 1950, writers Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller, both attending college on the G.I. Bill, envisioned a sophisticated, novel-length comic tailored to their peers. Collaborating with comics art master Matt Baker, known for singularly defining the genre of "good girl art" on titles such as Phantom Lady, they crafted a film-noir inspired masterwork of romance, intrigue, and moral relativity. When cynical newspaperman Hal Weber reunites with old flame Rust Masson, he finds the beguiling widow of a mining magnate willing to do anything to undermine the local political machine--her only opponent for total control of Copper City!

Buckle up your seatbelts and begin the adventure at True Love Comics Tales...

Note: The thanks of a grateful nation go to Kracalactaka, who found the scans of the St John first edition in the wilds of the internet, cleaned them up, and made them available!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

It Rhymes with Lust

Deluxe Reprint Edition

Design of the Week "DIARY SECRETS: OH, JIM, IF ONLY WE COULD!"

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another.
This week, put a "beach read" retro romance comic book cover on your beach blanket, t-shirt, canvas bag, e-reader, and other stuff!

Available on all sorts of kool kollectibles!

Enjoy...and make sure you have plenty of drinks.
Gotta keep hydrated in this heat!

Reading Room ZIP-JET COMICS "Space Doom"

Here's a one-shot tale in the Flash Gordon / Buck Rogers vein...

...that's not quite what it seems to be.

Did I say "in the Flash Gordon / Buck Rogers vein"?

Numerous panels are swiped almost verbatim by artist Ralph Mayo from those strips!

Quinto, the villain, looks like Ming the Merciless with five o'clock shadow!

When I came across this tale from St John's Zip-Jet Comics #2 (1953), I had the feeling it was an older story that was reworked.

(In fact, the entire Zip-Jet run consisted of modified reprints, with a couple of new covers and splash pages tossed in!)

Be here Thursday to see the original version of this tale!

Why not tomorrow?

It's a sacred day on our calendar!

Stop by and find out...

Reading Room: ATOM-AGE COMBAT "Science Assaults the Death Sphere"

Normally, we'd post an Atom-Age Combat story in our "brother" blog...

...War: Past, Present & Future™, but this tale is derived from a story we posted earlier this month, as seen HERE!

This is actually the third publication of this story!

The first one, shown HERE, was in Dynamic's Scoop Comics #1 (1941).

The second was a reprint in Dynamic's Dynamic Comics #11 (1944).

But this version, rewritten, relettered, and recolored, appeared in St John's Atom-Age Combat #2 (1952).

Publisher/comic book packager Harry Chester was an extremely-frugal man, able to squeeze every last penny out of anything he paid for, and such reuse of existing artwork wasn't unusual in the comics industry, where a packager could re-sell the same art to two (or more) publishers, and no one would be the wiser.

In fact, Chester could re-do the same story several times, as shown with a tale that used the same artwork with three seperate stories and characters HERE, HERE, and HERE!

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