Showing posts with label Sy Barry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sy Barry. Show all posts

Monday, January 20, 2025

MARTIN LUTHER KING and THE MONTGOMERY STORY

On the day we honor the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr, the gang at Atomic Kommie Comics™ thought it only appropriate to help present this item, the first comic book dramatizing his historic efforts.
From the website's intro to the comic...
Many sane thinkers consider MLK to be an important and historic larger-than-life icon, but how did that happen?
Especially given the marginalized press coverage of blacks in the 50s, how was his message galvanized among southern minorities and then spread as a single statement beyond the black community -- and how was it focused so specifically to such seemingly ignorable or boring local incidents as one black woman's refusal to give up a bus seat and a following small-town bus boycott, as well as the concept of Passive Resistance?
Without any need for hyperbole, this comic book is one of the reasons.

Produced by the Fellowship of the Reconciliation and sent very surreptitiously throughout the South (it was dangerous for many to own a copy), then translated, re-drawn, and distributed once again throughout the entire SOUTHERN CONTINENT through Mexico, into Central and then South America, this comic tells the story that established the myth of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks at the time that it mattered, mere months after news events occurred.
Intended for adults, but shown in comic book format for the largest possible distribution and audience and instruction.

It was also produced as a comic because more adult seeming publications and newspapers were often destroyed by white businessmen and other violent types bent on continuing segregation's grip on the South.
But that does not mean people found distributing copies of this comic were not given their fair share of beatings and harassment, nor does it mean thousands of copies were not often destroyed.
Why? This comic is and was dangerously honest.
Featuring the Klan (lynching, bombs, burning crosses), Jim Crow laws, and the entire concept of Nonviolent Protest.
This pamphlet offered advice and instructions on how to use passive resistance and massive non-violent resistance against segregation, just as these ideas were fresh --and it also established a clear connection of MLK to Gandhi, a public connection that continues on to today.

A copy of this comic is held in the Smithsonian and many Civil Rights leaders recognize this as one of the most important AND PERSUASIVE items of the 50s in establishing or explaining their cause to the world, as well as giving many black youths the courage and direction to hold their own political protests.
Many notable sit-ins and demonstrations link to this comic book getting into the right hands - and it did get around, literally devoured by black college students at the time.

We're DELIGHTED to offer you not just the American version of this comic but also the SPANISH edition, of which maybe two or three copies are known to exist.
After extensive effort and search, we were able to find a copy in Uruguay.
Not joking. Completely redrawn and translated, click back and forth to compare art, some of the differences between the two are great.
Ever wonder how much influence and power a small press or self-produced item can have?
This is one of the best examples you'll ever see.

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Reading Room SENSATION MYSTERY COMICS "Last Dream!"

Wonder Woman lost her cover feature in DC's Sensation Comics as of this issue (#107 in 1952)...
...when the book was retitled Sensation Mystery, and featured "mysteries" like this one!
(Sensation Comics was Wonder Woman's "sister" title, much as Action Comics is Superman's "brother" comic and Detective Comics is Batman's "brother" book!)
In 1952, horror comics became the "hot" genre, with most comics publishers going "all in" to see who could be the goriest!
DC, though, tried to stay relatively innocuous, refusing to go for the gore.
While their sales didn't skyrocket as many other publishers' did, they managed to stay below the radar during the whole "Seduction of the Innocent" mania.
And, it certainly made reprinting any of the material produced during this period a breeze after the Comics Code was imposed!
This John Broome-written, Carmine Infantino-penciled, and Frank Giacoia-inked tale was typical of DC's output during this period.
(Some say Sy Barry inked it, but expert art identifier Martin O'Hearn thinks it's Giacoia, and I agree with him.)
Straightforward, logical, and effectively-told, it's almost a template for the various stories the anthology would carry until the book's cancellation a year later with #116.
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Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Reading Room WEIRD THRILLERS "Fisherman of Space"

Weird Thrillers was a 1950s sci-fi comic with painted covers...
Art by Allen Anderson
..which helped set the Ziff-Davis comic series apart from others on the newsstands!
All Ziff-Davis comics, no matter the genre, had painted covers, usually by the same artists who did cover art for their large pulp magazine line.
(Avon Comics also used paintings from time-to-time, but not throughout the line, and not on a consistent basis.)
Z-D was a latecomer to the comics business, publishing their first title in 1950 and canceling most titles by the end of 1952, continuing one book, G.I. Joe, until 1957.
During the comic division's brief existence, Z-D published over fifty titles, mostly one-shots and two-issue runs, covering every genre in fiction...except superheroes!
(The closest they came to superheroes were Lars of Mars and Crusader from Mars, both of whom were Martians operating undercover on Earth, and neither lasted past their second issue.)
Weird Thrillers (and it's one-shot predecessor Weird Adventures) ran a total of six issues.
Here's an example of why they lasted longer than most other Z-D titles...
This time-traversing tale from Weird Thrillers #2 (1951) was penciled by Alex Toth and inked by Sy Barry.
The writer is unknown, which is a shame, since it's a decent story with a clever, scientifically-accurate solution.

Sunday, April 29, 2018

Reading Room WEIRD THRILLERS "SandFlower of Venus"

Alien worlds have potentially-lethal animals and plants...
...but the most dangerous creature in the Universe is...Man!
I take it back.
The most dangerous creature in the Universe is Woman!
This never-reprinted tale from Ziff-Davis' Weird Thrillers #1 (1951) was probably illustrated by a round-robin of Dan & Sy Barry, Murphy Anderson, and Frank Giacoia.
The writer is unknown.
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