Monday Mecha Madness WORLD OF FANTASY "Guardian of the Stars!"

What's kooler than a Jack (King) Kirby cover?

How about the Steve Ditko story it leads into?

Did the cover or the story come first?

The total redesign of the robot indicates whichever was done first wasn't provided to the other artist as reference!

Also, shouldn't the title be "Guardian of the Earth"?

Of course, that would be a "spoiler", ruining the drama shown on the cover...

Illustrated by Steve Ditko, this tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #17 (1959) was probably plotted by Stan Lee, though the scripting doesn't read like his work.
Trivia: Though both the Jack Kirby cover and the Steve Ditko story have been reprinted, they weren't reprinted together!
Each was reprinted in an expensive Omnibus devoted to that particular artist's work!

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Ditko Unleashed
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Reading Room WORLD OF FANTASY "What Went Wrong?"

You think you've prepared for every contingency...but is that truly possible?

Can anyone always account for the "human" factor?

Illustrated by Bob Forgione, whose credits at Timely/Atlas included a number of sci-fi stories including an issue of Speed Carter: SpaceMan, this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #1 (1956) is one of those "average guy inadvertently saves the world" tales that writers (in this case, unidentified) love to tell.

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Mars in the Movies

A History
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Monday Mecha Madness WORLD OF FANTASY "Iron Hulk!"

Last Christmas, we presented a tale about a child and her robot...

...who was so emotionally-attached to her, it sacrificed itself to save her!

But, that wasn't the first time that plot was used...

This never-reprinted tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #19 (1959), scripted by either Stan Lee or Larry Lieber, is extremely similar to the previously-presented 1963 story, minus the "Christmas present" element and making the robot look like a life size toy soldier.

Note the lovely art by Joe Sinnott.

While most of you know Sinnott as one of the best inkers in the business, he was also a competent penciler as well.

Ironically, Joe didn't ink most of his own pencil work, since it was subcontracted by Vince Colletta's prolific studio for use by Charlton, Gold Key, and Dell and inked by Colletta himself!

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Brush Strokes with Greatness

Life and Art of Joe Sinnott
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Friday Fun WORLD OF FANTASY "Man from Tomorrow!"

Admittedly, Humor is Subjective...

...but the conclusion to this tale made me chortle.
And since this is my blog, this is where it goes!



OK, not quite Twilight Zone level irony...but it'll do!

Illustrated by Carl Burgos, likely-plotted by the book's editor Stan Lee, and probably-written by Stan's brother and Atlas/Marvel writer-artist Larry Lieber (Stan's birth name is Stanley Lieber), this neve-reprinted tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #17 (1959) of a con gone wrong hits all the right "silly" notes for me!

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3
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Monday Mecha Madness WORLD OF FANTASY "To Build a Robot!"

Does this tale take place in the present...or the future?

Or has it already happened, and we don't know it?

Considering the way industry tried to slow the introduction of the electric car, is it that far-fetched someone for their own ulterior motives is trying to suppress mobile artificial intelligence?

Or have we just seen the Teminator and Matrix films too many times?

Plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, penciler Jack Kirby, and inker Christopher Rule had their own take in Atlas' World of Fantasy #18 (1959), decades before James Cameron or the Wachowskis...and it didn't take multiple films to tell it, just four pages!

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Simon & Kirby Library
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Remake Reading Room WORLD OF FANTASY "Gargoyle From the 5th Galaxy!"

Is this a kool cover, or what?

But, this sandals-wearing Jack Kirby-Christopher Rule scarlet alien isn't inside the comic!

Instead, we get a more humanoid, less "traditional" gargoyle-looking green alien!

To be fair, he does breathe fire, like the guy on the cover...

Plotted by Stan Lee, scripted by Larry Lieber and superbly-rendered by Don Heck, this tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #19 (1959) was actually a re-do of an earlier story (illustrated by Jack Kirby, no less), which we'll present Thursday!

BTW, though the story was reprinted in the 1970s, the cover has never seen the light of day since its' original publication!

Pity...

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Atlas-Era Marvel Masterworks
Tales of Suspense
Volume 4
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Reading Room WORLD OF FANTASY "Creatures Who Captured Earth!"

Did you know the two famous sci-fi stories' plots that were combined to create this tale?

Hint: one original involves robots/androids,, and the other is about cannibalism...

This never-reprinted story by Stan Lee/Larry Lieber and Don Heck from Atlas' World of Fantasy #18 (1959) was based on two classic sci-fi tales...

"With Folded Hands" by Jack Williamson, which premiered in Astounding Science Fiction...

...and was expanded into the novel The Humanoids, (and a sequel, The Humanoid Touch, over 30 years later)!

Though never done on film or tv, the story was adapted to radio on Dimension X (which you can hear HERE) and the basic plot was re-used in the classic Star Trek episode "I, Mudd".

The other plot point, involving decoding an alien text to discover a secret agenda, was probably taken from the 1950 Galaxy Magazine short story "To Serve Man" by Damon Knight.

(Note that the classic Twilight Zone episode adapting the tale wouldn't appear until three years later.)

Also note that, while the comic tale was never reprinted, it was redone only two years later by another of Atlas/Marvel's major artistic stars!

We'll have that story Thursday!

Wednesday World of Wonder WORLD OF FANTASY "Prison 2000 A.D."

In January, We're Doing One-Shot Tales Instead of Continued Stories...

...beginning with this tale, which utilizes a concept that's commonplace today, but all but unknown when this story appeared in Atlas' World of Fantasy #16 (1959)!

WOW!

Editor/conceptualizer Stan Lee and plotter/penciler Jack Kirby were doing what we now call "virtual reality"...in 1959!

The story was reprinted in Marvel's Strange Tales Annual #2 in 1963, than lay unseen for more than a half-century before finally being resurrected in, oddly, Monsters: the Marvel Monsterbus by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby...

...when, despite the "monsters" in the title, the only requirement is that the story was conceptualized/plotted by Lee, scripted by Lieber (Stan's brother, BTW) and plotted/penciled by Jack Kirby!
But there are lots of kool Kirby sci-fi/sci-fantasy stories, some never-previously reprinted!
So don't let the title put you off!

Reading Room WORLD OF SUSPENSE "Bright New World!"

How do you prove the theoretically-unprovable?

This never-reprinted story from Atlas' World of Suspense #1 (1956) presents one possible way!

It's a cute story with a kool "gotcha" ending...if you don't think about it too much!

But writer Carl Wessler and artist Al Hartley ignored a number of simple (and obvious) facts...

1) Jet engines aren't rockets.

They require an oxygen-rich atmosphere to function, otherwise they konk out!

2) Commercial aircraft, while somewhat airtight, are not designed for use in a total vacuum, where there's no external pressure!

The hull and windows would blow outward within minutes, if not seconds!
(Especially if they were made by Boeing!)

3) Any phenomenon creating a "tunnel" between Earth and Uranus in our atmosphere would've been noticed by scientists, even with the relatively-unsophisticated instruments of the period!

(They wouldn't have understood it...but they would have noticed it!)

4) Nobody paid attention to the little green tourists (in magenta robes)wandering around?

5) Though I love the point that Earth (Most likely just America) was, even then, expensive to live in, I have to ask; what were the Uranians using for money?

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Marvel Masterworks

Atlas-Era Journey into Mystery

Volume 1