CoronaVirus Comics STRANGE TALES "I Saved Mankind!"

I love stories with ironic "switch" endings...

...even if the switch produces a tragic result, like this one!

Illustrator John Forte's aliens in this tale from Atlas's Strange Tales #43 (1956) just aren't very...well...alien!
Other than that, it's a clever story (with slightly-stilted dialogue) by a scripter whose identity has been lost to the mists of time!
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Marvel Masterworks
Atlas-Era Strange Tales #5
(which is the only time this story has been reprinted)

Monday Madness / CoronaVirus Comics STRANGE TALES "Germ Warfare"

You gotta admit...there's nothing "madder" than GIANT germs!

(and, yes, as our post yesterday pointed out, germs aren't viruses!)

If these people weren't irradiated by the bomb (fatally, if not enough to render them all sterile), it would be a miracle!

But can we blame plotter Stan Lee, writer Larry Lieber, and artist Paul Reinman from glossing over that minor point in a tale for 8-15 year-old kids?

Note: this story from Atlas' Strange Tales #90 (1961) has been reprinted, that reprint was in Marvel's Fantasy Masterpieces #6 (1967), so I'd say the 53-year gap since its' last publication was sufficient to justify running it!

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Marvel MasterWorks 

Strange Tales

Volume 6

(the last one to date)

CoronaVirus Comics STRANGE TALES "Earth is Off-Limits!"

Once more we open the squeeky vault door...

...(Why are they always squeeky?) and present a long-unseen, never-reprinted tale of disease and death from a pair of Silver Age legends!

If you're thinking "why don't they just keep transmitting audio and video signals and someone else will hear them and relay the info to everyone on Earth?", remember this was written in 1963.

No Internet.

No personal computers.

No home video (VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray) recording devices.

Few people had ham/short wave radios, and even if they picked up the astronauts' signals, they had no way to tell (or show) the world what they saw and heard.

So, in that context, the story works!

Of course, today it would be another matter...

The Human Torch had taken over the cover and front of Strange Tales as of #101, but the back half of the book still had the sci-fi/fantasy short stories that served as the core of the anthology from its' beginning.

Though the Torch stories have been reprinted, most of the shorts, like this one, haven't been seen by readers since their initial publication.

It's a pity, since they're classic examples of some of the Marvel Bullpen's better non-superhero stuff.

This particular story, from Strange Tales #109 (1963), is by the guys who would co-create Dr Strange in the very next issue...Stan Lee and Steve Ditko!

That would mark the end of the shorts in the back of Strange Tales.

Though The Torch (despite being joined by The Thing) would be displaced by Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. , Doctor Strange would not only survive, but take over Strange Tales as of #169.

(Nick Fury got his own book beginning with #1)

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Ditko Unleashed

Reading Room STRANGE TALES "Beware of Meeks Bringing Gifts!"

A couple of days ago, we brought you a never-reprinted sci-fi comics tale...

...but, while it has never been reprinted, that doesn't mean the story wasn't reused...this time with an oddly-contemporary aspect...

What?

Newspeople have a responsibility to uncover and tell the truth objectively and honestly?

Please don't tell FoxNews that...

We do know that Jack Kirby penciled this (also) never-reprinted story from Atlas' Strange Tales #86 (1961).

However, everything else is pure speculation.

It's thought Sol Brodsky inked the story (though it has aspects of Dick Ayers' style as well).

And, since it's not signed "Stan Lee" (as most confirmed Lee-scripted tales were),  the consensus is that Stan's brother Larry Lieber penned the story.

Reading Room STRANGE TALES "Mighty Oak!"

Look!

It's another wooden creature (like Groot) seeking to take over the world...

...in this never-reprinted Steve Ditko-rendered story!

Hah!

Thought it was going to just be a replay of "I Challenged Groot! The Monster from Planet X!"?

To give Stan Lee credit, he knew how to do variations on a theme!

This was the final tale in Atlas' Strange Tales #100 (1962), the final anthology issue of the series.

Beginning with the next issue, The Human Torch's solo strip would debut, and the title would become (like Journey into Mystery, Tales of Suspense, and Tales to Astonish), a superhero book with a couple of unrelated backups.

This, and several other Ditko tales from the era, have never been reprinted, and will be re-presented here over the next few months!

Watch for them!

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Ditko Unleashed

Trump Reading Room STRANGE TALES "When a Planet Dies!"

Our current President has pulled us out of the Paris Climate Accords...

...and has stated he doesn't believe in man-made climate change!

Perhaps he thinks omnipotent aliens, like these guys frim Atlas' Strange Tales #97 (196x) cause climate change...

While the art is credited to Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers, who wrote the tale is not entirely clear.

A number of people, myself included, think it's scripted by Kirby himself.
(BTW, if you think I was looking for an excuse to re-run one of my favorite Kirby Klassics...you'd be right!)
When the story was reprinted in Marvel's Weird Wonder Tales #22 (1973), the splash page was reworked...

...combining the cover from a previous issue of Weird Wonder Tales that supplied the Dr Druid figure...

Art by Jack Kirby, John Romita (Dr Druid's face) and Joe Sinnott

 ...and the original splash page!

The production artist "flipped" a stat of the Dr Druid figure and fit it where the bearded aliens are on the original.
To paraphrase "the World's Most Interesting Man", stay cool, my friends!

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Atlas Era

Tales to Astonish

Featuring stories by Lee, Kirby, Ditko, Heck, Sinnott, and others...

Reading Room STRANGE TALES "Mister Black"

Continuing our look at how American comics portrayed the bombing of Hiroshima...

...with a tale featuring a Japanese protagonist!

Was this story from Atlas' Strange Tales #93 (1962) an inventory tale from the 1950s?

Artist Bob Forgione lost his ongoing freelance work at Atlas when the company cut back in late 1956-early 1957 after losing their newsstand distributor.

When this story was finally published, Forgione was working steadily for Dell, ACG, and DC.

It also appears to have been the last original tale by Bob that Atlas/Marvel published.

(All subsequent stories were reprints of earlier material.)

Also, could it have been reworked from an unpublished Witness tale?

Every comic company had a cloaked mysteryman narrating stories about "everyday" people (and occasionally influencing them, as well).

Timely/Atlas' entrant in the Mysterious Traveler/Whistler/Phantom Stranger/Man in Black Called Fate competition was The Witness, who had his own one-shot comic and a number of stories scattered in other titles.

At any rate, an extremely-similar tale appeared only a couple of months later...by one of the now-revived and thriving Atlas/Marvel's hottest artists!

You'll see that tale on the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima...tomorrow!

Reading Room STRANGE TALES "Eyes that Never Close"

With the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima coming up...

...we're presenting several tales from the 1950s-60s relating to it.

This never-reprinted story from Atlas' Strange Tales #61 (1958) treats the bombing as just another disaster, but one the criminal won't escape from.
Illustrated effectively by Bernie Krigstein, who tells a story in only four pages that most artists today would need twenty pages for.
BTW, the writer is unknown.

Reading Room FANTASY MASTERPIECES "Beware!! The Ghosts Surround Me!"

"This great yarn, which might have taken place today..."

"...gives concrete evidence to the claim that Dashin' Donnie Heck is perhaps our most sophisticated artist!" --Stan Lee

The odd choice of panels to illustrate the story on the bottom left of the cover...

...does give away a crucial plot point, that the "ghosts" are nothing of the kind!

(I would've used a cropped version of the splash page which gives more of a "ghostly" feel than obviously-alien interdimensional beings.)

Penciled and inked by Don Heck, this appearance in Fantasy Masterpieces #1 (1965) was the tale's second reprinting since its' debut in Strange Tales #76 (1960)!

The first was in Strange Tales Annual #1 (1962).

It appeared one more time, in Vault of Evil #19 (1975), which still makes it 40 years since the story's last publication, and many readers of this blog have never seen it.

As for who wrote it, the consensus is that Stan Lee plotted it, but his brother Larry Lieber (Stan's real name was "Stanley Lieber"*) wrote the captions and dialogue.

Tomorrow, another sci-fi/fantasy tale by one of the artists who defined the Marvel Age of Comics!

*Stan had his name legally changed to "Stan Lee".