Tales Twice-Told BLACK MAGIC "Screaming Doll!"

You Saw This Tale on Tuesday...

...to be more precise, you saw a re-illustrated version of the same script!

This is the first, never-reprinted, rendering of the story!

Illustrated by Bill Benulis, and scripted by a currently-unknown writer (Though it could be Simon & Kirby Studio bosses Joe Simon and/or Jack Kirby) this story from Prize's Black Magic V4N4 (1954) has some oddly-unique attributes!

It's only 5 pages, when most of the stories are 6-8 pages.

(The re-drawn version is 6 pages!)

There's no half or full-page splash panel, though almost all Black Magic stories (except for one or two-pagers) have them!

Was the original story condensed/re-edited for space or content?

At the time (early 1954), there was a rising rage against comics in general and horror comics in particular due to Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent witch-hunt!

Sadly, we'll never know...

Support Atomic Commie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Ten-Cent Plague

Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America

Paid Link

Tales Twice-Told WITCHES TALES "Thing That Screamed!"

Once More, We Present the Re-Drawn  Version of a "Tale Twice-Told" First...

...because it is a total re-visualization of the original story!

In fact, this version from Eerie Publications' Witches Tales V6N6 (1974) by Alberto Macagno is so visually-different, it's a full page longer, even though the script hasn't been altered!
But the pacing and the emphasis on gore are quite different...as you'll see on Thursday!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

The Worst of Eerie Publications
Paid Link

Tales Twice-Told STRANGE GALAXY "Vampires from Dimension 'X' "

 We Have Already Seen...

...this exact story, but presented, in color, by a different illustrator, who did it almost 20 years earlier!

Inspired by the success of Warren Publications' b/w horror magazines (Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella), schlock publisher Myron Fass dropped his line of poorly-selling color comics and decided to do a line of b/w horror magazines uncensored by the Comics Code Authority.

Though some of the material was pure reprint of b/w stats and photo negatives from defunct comics companies like Avon, Fawcett, and Farrell, Fass' supply of them was limited.

So he had new material produced based on stories in printed comics from those same out-of-business companies, employing South American artists who worked for lower rates than American or European artists the major companies used!

Illustrated by Argentinian artist Antonio Reynoso, this re-telling of Tuesday's story was, itself, reprinted several times throughout the Eerie Publications line after it's premiere in Strange Galaxy V1N11 (1971), though I suspect Reynoso was paid only for its' initial publication!
Eerie Publications continued from 1969 to 1980, when the birth of the Direct Market and comic book stores (who didn't carry the Eerie Publications titles) doomed it to diminishing sales.

Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...

Weird World of Eerie Publiications
Comic Gore that Warped Millions of Young Minds
Paid Link

Tales Twice-Told TERROR TALES "Horrors of the 13th Stroke"

There are a number of horror stories from the 1950s that couldn't be reprinted in the 1960s-early 70s...

...so they were redrawn (and often retitled)!

Pencilled and inked by Sheldon Moldoff, this never-reprinted story from Fawcett's Beware! Terror Tales #5 (1953) apparently was considered too scary for the Comics Code Authority to allow it to be reprinted in color comics!

But black-and-white magazines weren't subject to the CCA!

Guess what happened?

No need...

Just be here  Thursday for the deadly do-over!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Buy...
Four Color Fear
Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s
Paid Link

Twice-Told Tale of Terror INVASION!

One of the best-known Mars invasion tales is Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio show...

Edited version

...which this twice-told tale "updates" to the television era!

But, it's radically-altered from it's first appearance, and the original version had never been reprinted!

First the toned-down version, then the original, scarier version...

Original version

 Note in the original version, both the wife and singer on tv show a lot more cleavage!

Edited version

Original version

Again, more cleavage in the original version...

Edited version

Original version

Oddly enough, the wife's cleavage is unchanged, but the look of terror in the last panel is toned down!

Edited version

Original version

Panel four in the original version is much more gruesome than the edited version. 
Note the dialogue balloon is unchanged, even though there's no actual weapons fire in the edited version!

Edited version

 This last page is radically-different! Prepare yourself!

Ready?

Proceed...but remember, I warned you...

Original version

Wow!

The edited pages were from Harvey's Race for the Moon #1 (1958), which was reprinted in Harvey's Shocking Tales Digest #1 (1981)

The original, never-reprinted, story was from Harvey's Witches' Tales #21 (1953)

As you can see, the Comics Code Authority insisted on some major redos, including most of the last page!

What do you think, fans?

Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Buy...

The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics: Volume 2

Bob Powell's

Terror
Paid Link

Kirby Reading Room / Tales Twice Told BLACK MAGIC "A Beast is In the Streets!"

We Showed You the 1970s Redrawn for Extra Goriness Version On Tuesday...

...now here's the original by...do we really have to tell you?

Penciled and inked by Jack Kirby, this story from Prize's Black Magic #25 (1953) may have been scripted by Kirby as well.

Unfortunately, records are incomplete, and we will likely never know!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Simon & Kirby Library: Horror!

(which includes this story)
Paid Link