Reading Room STRANGE STORIES OF SUSPENSE "Man of Mystery"

Here's a never-reprinted tiny tale about a tiny man...

...specifically, a miniature man of metal, from Atlas' Strange Stories of Suspense #5 (1955)!

The illustrator of this tale of a bionic blabbermouth was highly-unappreciated Golden Age/Silver Age workhorse Sud Shores, though the teller of the tin terror's tale is, regrettably, unknown!
Trivia: Though this was #5, it was actually the first issue of Strange Stories of Suspense, since the first four issues were called Rugged Action...

...featuring manly men performing manly feats of derring-do in various venues...which apparently didn't sell well enough to keep the book going in that format!
OTOH, Strange Stories of Suspense continued though #16 until a change in newsstand distributors in 1956 reduced the amount of titles Atlas Comics could distribute per month!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Atlas Comics Library No 1

Adventures into Terror
Volume 1

Paid Link

Monday Madness CHAMBER OF CHILLS "Delusion for a Dragon Slayer"

The late Harlan Ellison wrote the novella this adaptation was based upon...

...and considering he had already written a couple of scripts for Marvel, I'm not sure why he didn't pen this retelling of his own tale...under this slightly-misleading (though really kool) Gil Kane/Tom Palmer cover...

This cover-featured adaptation of Harlan Ellison's novella "Delusion for a Dragon Slayer" by writer Gerry Conway and artist Syd Shores in Marvel's Chamber of Chills #1 (1972) was part of editor Roy Thomas' attempt to do new comic adaptations of prose tales by big-name sci-fi/fantasy authors in a group of anthology titles.

Sadly, none of the books survived past the first year without going totally-reprint, or switching over to featuring new horror characters like The Living Mummy. 

This particular tale shows the weaknesses of the project all too well, with the art failing to really separate Warren Glazer Griffin's fantasy world from the real one, thereby weakening the whole point of the narrative!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

by Harlan Ellison

(which contains the short story this comic tale is adapted from!)

Reading Room MARVEL TALES "Return of the Monster"

One attempt at updating the Monster in the 1950s involved terrorists...

Art by Syd Shores

...who wanted Frankenstein's secrets to create an invincible army!

Illustrated by Gene Colan and Vince Alascia (with a splash panel taken from the cover by Syd Shores), this tale from Atlas' Marvel Tales #96 (1950), this tale was one of several produced by Atlas Comics.

Note, the author is unknown.

Art by Larry Lieber and VInce Colletta

When the story was reprinted in 1974, the Monster's look was modified on the new cover art to look more like Marvel's new version who had his own series!