Reading Room VENUS COMICS "Little Man Who Wasn't There!"

What is "real" and what is "fiction"?

That's the basis for this story which would have qualified as "metafictional"...if the word had existed in 1951!

The writer for this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Venus Comics #14 (1951) is unknown.

Pity, since it's a clever little tale...though it would've benefited from being given a couple of additional pages to flesh out why the "creator" decided to suddenly alter the character's personality and actions so radically.

Perhaps the "creator"  in the last panel (artist John Tartaglione) was, himself, being manipulated by a creator who was going insane...

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Reading Room VENUS COMICS "Plot!"

With concern mounting about artificial intelligence (AI) taking over more and more control of our daily lives...

...we thought we'd take a look at one of the early tales about robots rebelling against Mankind!

As you might have guessed, we're re-presenting the never-reprinted back-up stories!

This back-up story from Atlas' Venus Comics #11 (1950), is illustrated by Russ Heath.

The writer is unknown.

Long before the Terminator and Matrix films, sci-fi literature presented examples of our creations such as the Robotmen of the Lost Planet one-shot comic we recently re-presented!

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Reading Room VENUS COMICS "Thru the Lens"

Now this is how you tell a story in four pages...

...as demonstrated by artist Joe Maneely, a talent who died long before his time, and an unknown writer.

Who knew the world could end so...simply?

BTW, did you note the alien astronomer got it wrong?

Our planet blew up, not our sun!

If I was his boss, I'd fire him!

Originally-published in Atlas' Venus Comics #16 (1951), the tale was reprinted in the back of Marvel's X-Men #88 (1974), while the book was a reprint title, about a year before its' resurrection as the All-New X-Men!

So, the odds are that you, dear reader, have never seen it before!

And that, is what this blog is all about, showing you "lost" treasures!

The Changing Face of Life on Venus...in Planet Comics!

 You'd think a sci-fi magazine featuring "shared universes" would be the first place you'd see...

...a consistent presentation of the Solar System!

And you would be wrong, as this one-pager by an unknown writer and artist from Fiction House's Planet Comics #51 (1947) will demonstrate!

A couple of years earlier, in Planet Comics #34 (1945)...

...a decidedly-different Venus with different inhabitants was shown by an unknown writer and future Buck Rogers/Superman artist Murphy Anderson!

But only a few issues before that, in Planet Comics #30 (1944)...

...a text feature by an unknown writer using the Fiction House pen-name "Montague Truex PhD" and artist Fran Hopper about Venus featured another race of aquatic aliens inhabiting the cloudy planet!

This doesn't even count the various versions of Venus that appeared in Planet's ongoing strips like Gale Allen and Her Girl Squadron and Lost World!

BTW, we've previously-presented two "scientific romance" versions of Venus...

Earth Man on Venus by Ralph Milne Farley...

and Carson of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs!

They're kool retro fun!

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Reading Room VENUS COMICS "Escape from Death"

We recently presented "Escape to Death"...

...so here's the counterpoint (at least in title)...

So Kallam ends up escaping to death...

This never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Venus Comics #15 (1951) was mild compared to the really intense horror-themed stuff some of the other publishers were running!

While the writer is unknown, the artist was Sol Brodsky, who was originally a journeyman artist during the Golden Age and the first editor of Cracked magazine, but is best known as Marvel's overworked production manager during the Silver Age before founding the short-lived, but rather entertaining, Skywald comic and magazine line in 1970.

He returned to Marvel in 1974, where he took on the dual roles of Vice President of Operations and Vice President Special Projects before passing on in 1984.

Reading Room VENUS COMICS "Storm"

The rather-unnaturally intense storms we've been experiencing lately made me think of...

...the aquaphobic character in this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Venus Comics #17 (1951).

Illustrated by Allen Bellman, this tale presents a typical example of a "karmic payback" for evil actions so often presented in stories of the era.

Usually, though, they're a bit more gruesomely-graphic than shown here.

Reading Room VENUS COMICS "Last Rocket"

We ran a similarly-named (but totally-different) tale HERE...

...but this is no "Adam & Eve on Future/Past Earth" story like that other one, though it does involve a man and a woman...

BTW, the ships are heading for Saturn, not Jupiter!
(Jupiter's rings weren't discovered until 1979, 30 years after this story was published!)

The Imperial Fleet's recruiters apparently will take anyone (as George Bush's army recruiters did with Bowe Bergdahl after the Coast Guard rejected him), since an entire flight of ships turns traitor at the first word from their commander!
It's also too bad we don't actually get to see the conflict, since artist Joe Maneely was superb at doing sci-fi comics as shown HERE!
The writer for this story from Atlas' Venus Comics #10 (1950) is unknown
BTW, the Next Issue promo was only half-right.
While the main Venus story in #11 was "End of the World", "Slaves of the Sultan" was never published.

Reading Room VENUS COMICS "Strange Rocket!"

Here's another never-reprinted tale...

 ...from the back of Atlas' Venus Comics featuring the art of a major Silver Age Marvel artist!

The parents weren't questioned as to where their son went after he failed to show up for school...ever again?

"Well, officer, Toby went into space with a bunch of extraterriestrials, but they promised they'd bring him back.

It's OK, we gave him permission..."

The writer of this somewhat silly story from Venus #12 (1951) is unknown, but the artist is Gene Colan, best known to Marvel fans as one of the definitive artists on Daredevil, Iron Man, and Dracula.