Showing posts with label Ziff-Davis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ziff-Davis. Show all posts

Monday, March 16, 2026

Monday Mecha Madness ADAM LINK!

This Requires a Little Explanation/Background...

Introduced in Ziff-Davis' sci-fi anthology Amazing Stories (1939), Adam Link was the first ongoing series about a sentient robot!

Though credited to "Eando Binder" (a pen-name used by author brothers Earl and Otto Binder when they worked together), the Adam Link stories were entirely Otto's work!
Adam was no soulless automaton!
From his introduction onward (and Binder used the title "I, Robor" before Isaac Asimov) he was on a quest to become as human as possible!
Though created to be totally-logical, he developed emotions!
In fact, after his second story "Trial of Adam Link" where he was accused of killing his creator (scientist Dr Charles Link, not Otto Binder), though found innocent (he was framed)  he decided he couldn't go on living without his "father", and decided to commit suicide.
That's the basis of the third tale, "Adam Link's Vengeance", where another scientist (of the "mad" variety), prevents his untimely death, and plans to use him as a weapon!
That particular story was adapted by writer/editor Bill Spicer and artist D Bruce Berry into a two-part story in Spicer's prozine Fantasy Illustrated in 1965 and reprinted in Spicer's Graphic Story Magazine (under a new Berry cover) in 1971.
You'll be seeing that over the next two Mondays.
The comic story was done shortly after the Adam Link tales were adapted into a fix-up novel combining all the short stories...
Note the Isaac Asimov quote!
BTW, if the name "Otto Binder"sounds familiar to comics fans, that's because he wrote a lot of DC, Quality, Timely, and Fawcett comics in the Golden and Silver Ages, as well co-creating among others, the Legion of Super Heroes, Black Adam, Braniac, Kid EternityKrypto, Young AlliesMary MarvelBizarro, and Supergirl!
But, for some, he's best-known as the writer of the first Marvel Comics prose novel...

(Dig the Doc Savage-style logo!)
BTW, We'll be running this long OOP & HTF novel this summer during the annual RetroBlogs Summer Blogathon!

Thursday, February 19, 2026

Reading Room SPACE PATROL COMICS "Push Button Tyrant"

Ziff-Davis' Space Patrol comic featured stories based on the 1950s TV series...
...and unrelated one-shot tales, like this never-reprinted "Cold War of the Future" story from #1 (1952).




Boy, they were obsessed in the 1950s that the Commies would win the Cold War!
The writer and artist are officially unknown, but I see a great deal of Carmine Infantino's penciling style in a number of panels.
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Saturday, February 14, 2026

Space Hero Saturdays/Valentine's Day AMAZING ADVENTURES "Asteroid Witch"

In Space, No One Can Hear You Smooch!

Art by Clinton Spooner
Comic book romance stories are geared towards tween/teen/young adult womwn which make you wonder what the 'tween/teen/young adult male attitude on romance is.
This never-reprinted story from Ziff-Davis' Amazing Adventures #1 (1950) offers that viewpoint.
And what have we learned today?
Women, alien or not, are scheming little trollops, plotting to control helpless men, usually by tricking them into marriage.
No wonder there's so much misogyny in America...
While the writer for this story is unknown (but believed to be editor Jerry [Superman] Siegel), the art is by Murphy Anderson, who did a lot of work for Ziff-Davis Comics before moving on to illustrate the Buck Rogers newspaper strip!
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Weird Romance
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Thursday, January 15, 2026

Reading Room EERIE ADVENTURES "Vampires from Venus!"

 It's Freezing, Windy, and Snowy Outside...

...perfect weather for a tale about an invasion by aliens from a hot and steamy planet!


This 1951 tale combining mobila, lethal plants (based on the Triffids from the novel Day of the Triffids which had just been published) and vampires (with their classic weakness, sunlight) from the Ziff-Davis one-shot Eerie Adventures was illustrated by Bob Powell and Howard Nostrand.
The writer is unknown.
Eerie Adventures used leftover material from the recently-cancelled Amazing Adventures with an attempt to market it as horror rather than sci-fi/fantasy.
Only one issue was published as the title was dropped by Ziff-Davis to avoid legal action by Avon who already had an ongoing Eerie comics title.
ZD then did a Weird Adventures one-shot, which sold well, but discovered there was already a title with the same name from PL Publishing which debuted the month before!
So ZD retitled their book Weird Thrillers, before PL could take legal action.
The series ran five more issues before the Dr Wertham-led Seduction of the Innocent witch-hunt forced the cancellation of all horror-related comic books.
(Ironically, the PL series only ran two more issues before the entire company folded.)
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Vol 3
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Thursday, January 8, 2026

Reading Room CRUSADER FROM MARS COMICS "Escape to Nowhere"

The idea that we should leave Earth before atomic war destroys it is not new...
...nor is the "surprise ending" to this never-reprinted backup tale from Ziff-Davis' Crusader from Mars #1 (1952)
"You blew it up!
Damn you!
Damn you all to hell!"
Almost two decades before Rod Serling had Charlton Heston scream those words to the sky at the conclusion of Planet of the Apes, artist Mike Becker and an unknown writer presented a much more mellow discovery by space travelers returning to Earth centuries in the future!
The script may be by editor Jerry (Superman) Siegel...
Mike Becker illustrated over 100 crime, horror, romance, sci-fi, sports, spy, war and western stories for various publishers including Timely, Ziff-Davis, Hillman, Youthful, and Nedor/Better/Standard from 1948 through 1956.
What happened after that is, regrettably, unknown.
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Friday, December 26, 2025

Friday Holiday Fun CHRISTMAS CARNIVAL "Saint George and the Dragons"

You Likely Read the Title and Wondered...

...what do dragons have to do with Christmas???
Don't worry, it'll all make sense by the end...





Illustrated by an anonymous artist who signed himself/herself as "Flip", this tale from  Ziff-Davis' Christmas Carnival (1952) hasn't been seen since its' only reprinting in 1955 when St John Publishing, who bought all of the assets of Ziff-Davis Comics when the comic division folded, reprinted the entire 100-page issue!
"Flip" worked in comics, doing funny animal and humor stories for Ziff-Davis and Toby, over a two year period before leaving the industry.
Where (s)he was before comics and where (s)he went after comics is a mystery we'll likely never solve...

Friday, December 19, 2025

Friday Holiday Fun CHRISTMAS CARNIVAL "Wolf Who Didn't Believe in Santa Claus"

Here's a Yuletide Tale I Can Guarantee  You've Never  Read...
...unless you're over 75, involving four of the most famous characters in fairy tales!

This combo of Yuletide and children's fantasy, unseen since the 1950s, appeared in Ziff-Davis' one-shot 100-page Christmas Carnival (1952)!
Sadly, the writer and artist (or writer and artists or writer/artist) is unknown, since few records still exist after Ziff-Davis, which is still publishing other magazines, closed the comics division in 1957, selling most of its' assets (both published and unpublished material) to St John Publishing, which itself closed up shop in 1959!

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