Atomic Kommie Comics: Strange Worlds

Showing posts with label Strange Worlds. Show all posts

Thursday, September 22, 2022

Tales Twice Told STRANGE WORLDS "Mystery of Asteroid 9!"

Tuesday, we brought you the 1970s tale "Terror Asteroid"...

...today, we're presenting the original version of the story...from 1952!

It's not as visceral (even thought this was the era of horror comics), but still quite cool!

Penciler Gene Fawcette and inker Vince Alascia illustrated the first telling of this tale in Avon Comics' Strange Worlds #9 (1952).

The writer is, sadly, unknown.

The issue also had this kool inside cover contents page illustrated by Everett Raymond Kinsler...

...who also illustrated the story Ransom--One Million Decimars! in that issue.

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Sci-Fi Art: a Graphic History

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Tales Twice Told STRANGE WORLDS "Space-Gods of Planetoid 50!"

What if Chariots of the Gods? took place on another planet?

And Earthmen were the aliens thought to be "gods"?

This look at the future from Avon's Strange Worlds #7 (1952) was illustrated by artistic mainstay Gene Fawcette, but the writer is unknown.

As you might have guessed from our sub-head, the tale was retold...with the same dialogue and captions...but totally-new artwork...in 1971!

Be here Thursday for that story!

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Showcase Presents

Strange Adventures

Volume 1

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Tales Twice Told STRANGE WORLDS "Lost Kingdom of Athala"

Here's a tale that would make a great "popcorn" CGI action flick!

It's hokey, doesn't make much sense, but boy, it's loaded with action and it looks great!

Written by Gardner Fox, penciled by Joe Orlando & Wally Wood, and inked by Wood, this fast-paced story from Avon's Strange Worlds #4 (1951), would make a great Saturday afternoon flick, thanks to current state-of-the-art special effects!

EXTRA: Here's the b/w inside cover for this issue, which featured an illustrated preview of all the stories in the issue by Wally Wood.

Note the heavy use of "craftint" texturing which Wood used to create a distinctive "look" for his art...

The script was re-used, almost verbatim, in 1970 by Eerie Publications, but the artwork for the retelling was nowhere near as good.

You'll see that version on Thursday!

Thursday, July 14, 2022

Tales Twice Told STRANGE WORLDS "A Nation is Born"

As we mentioned last Tuesday, here's the original Golden Age version...

..of a Bronze Age b/w magazine story we already ran!

Illustrated by Golden Age journeyman Rafael Astarita, this tale appeared in Avon's Strange Worlds #4 (1951) and was reprinted in IW's Strange Planets #9 (1959).

It was then re-illustrated, with only minor changes to the script (including a re-titling), in Eerie Publications' Strange Galaxy V1N8 (1971) as we showed on Tuesday.

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Showcase Presents

Strange Adventures

Volume 1

Thursday, June 9, 2022

Tales Twice Told STRANGE WORLDS "Sabotage on Space Station 1"

Tuesday, we presented a 1970s tale with a 1950s flavor...

...now you'll see where that "flavor" came from!

Damn, we humans are good at this sort of world-saving stuff, eh?

This Norman Nodel-illustrated tale from Avon's Strange Worlds #7 (1952) could have been the basis of an episode of Space: 1999 or Classic Star Trek with just a couple of tweaks!

As to why it was reworked...

Eerie Publications had been using photostats and negatives from defunct comics companies as the source material for their b/w magazine line.

About a year in, they started using South American artists eager to break into the comics market and American artists like Dick Ayers and Chic Stone (who were losing work as the Silver Age ended and comics companies cut back their lines) to re-do old stories with a more contemporary style.

Some illustrators totally-redid the art, using new "camera angles" and clothing/technology designs reflecting contemporary tastes.

In this particular case, artist Cirilo Munoz just lightboxed and re-inked the Nodel artwork!

Editor Carl (Golden Age Human Torch) Burgos eliminated the opening captions and modified a couple of captions and dialogue balloons, but otherwise left the unknown writer's original script intact.

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