Space Hero Saturdays FANTASTIC COMICS "Space Smith and the Mummified Meteor Vacuumites"

If that title doesn't lure you into reading this post...

...I'll eat my Cosmic Transtator!

Enjoy this even weirder-than-usual installment of Space Smith by the legendary Fletcher Hanks from Fox's Fantastic Comics #6 (1940)!

Say what you will about Fletcher Hanks' sometimes-iffy technical proficiency, but his stories are never dull!

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I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!

by

Fletcher Hanks
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Atomic Reading Room TALES TO ASTONISH "Voice of Fate"

Our final tale about Hiroshima is a re-working of the previous one...

...but with some interesting variations!

This story by plotter Stan Lee, writer Larry Lieber, and artist Don Heck is from Atlas' Tales to Astonish #33 (1962) and is a retelling of "Mister Black", which appeared only a couple of months earlier in Atlas' Strange Tales #93 (1962).
You'll note the protaganist is now American...but still a draft dodger.
Of course, the story omits why the Japanese would even take him in (since he had nothing of value to the government), or how he even got to Japan in the middle of World War II...

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3

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Atomic Reading Room STRANGE TALES "Mister Black"

 Continuing our look at how American comics portrayed the bombing of Hiroshima...

...with a tale featuring a Japanese protagonist!

Was this story from Atlas' Strange Tales #93 (1962) an inventory tale from the 1950s?

Artist Bob Forgione lost his ongoing freelance work at Atlas when the company cut back in late 1956-early 1957 after losing their newsstand distributor.

When this story was finally published, Forgione was working steadily for Dell, ACG, and DC.

It also appears to have been the last original tale by Bob that Atlas/Marvel published.

(All subsequent stories were reprints of earlier material.)

Also, could it have been reworked from an unpublished Witness tale?

Every comic company had a cloaked mystery man narrating stories about "everyday" people (and occasionally influencing them, as well).

Timely/Atlas' entrant in the Mysterious Traveler/Whistler/Phantom Stranger/Man in Black Called Fate competition was The Witness, who had his own one-shot comic and a number of stories scattered in other titles.

At any rate, an extremely-similar tale appeared only a couple of months later...by one of the now-revived and thriving Atlas/Marvel's hottest artists!

Be Here Sunday For the Final Horrific Hiroshima Tale!

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3

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Atomic Reading Room STRANGE TALES "Eyes that Never Close"

With the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima coming up...

...we're presenting several tales from the 1950s-60s relating to it.

This never-reprinted story from Atlas' Strange Tales #61 (1958) treats the bombing as just another disaster, but one the criminal won't escape from.
Illustrated effectively by Bernie Krigstein, who tells a story in only four pages that most artists today would need twenty pages for.
BTW, the writer is unknown.

Be Here Thursday For the Next Horrific Hiroshima Tale!

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3

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Reading Room STRANGE WORLDS "Abduction of Henry Twigg"

Here's a dream come true for all us fanboys and nerds (Yep, I'm one)...

...in this Joe Kubert-illustrated tale from Avon's Strange Worlds #8 (1952)...

Talk about politically-incorrect...from both sexes!

But it's still entertaining, and that's what counts, eh?

Note: we've run stories from two different series named "Strange Worlds".

This tale is from the first one, published by Avon Comics in the early 1950s.

By the late 1950s, Avon Publishing had abandoned comic books and concentrated on "traditional" publishing (hardcovers and paperbacks) in various genres (including sci-fi and horror).

Curiously, when comics became "hot' in the 1960s, Avon did not reprint their comic library in paperback format the way Ballantine Books did with EC Comics, Signet did with DC Comics, Lancer did with Marvel. and Belmont did with Archie's super-heroes!

Considering they owned the material and didn't have to pay to reprint it like all the other publishers did, it seems like a lost opportunity for Avon to make some quick cash.

Note: We've re-presented several tales from the other Strange Worlds, published by Atlas Comics in the late 1950s, literally right before they became Marvel in 1961!

It's easy to tell which is which, since the Atlas/Marvel version features work by creatives like Jack Kirby, Don Heck, and Steve Ditko who would be the creative mainstays of the Marvel Age of Comics, while the Avon books have art by illustrators who would make their mark at DC, like Joe Kubert and John Forte!

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3

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Reading Room HOUSE OF MYSTERY "Human TIme Capsule"

Under this kool Ruben Moreira cover...

...lurks an even kooler, never-reprinted tale of illegal aliens and crime from DC's House of Mystery #64 (1957)!

So the American citizen is the criminal, not the "illegal alien"!

The Mort Meskin-illustrated tale left a possibility for a sequel, which was never realized!

Since even DC doesn't know who wrote it (and the odds are the author is deceased by now), we'll never know...

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Showcase Presents

Strange Adventures

Volume 1
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Reading Room AMAZING ADVENTURES "Amazing Prophecies"

Let's peer into a crystal ball from the 1950s...

...and see they did predict 3-D TV and bigger women (as compared to the females of the 1950s).

But the other prophecies from this never-reprinted feature illustrated by Ross Andru in Ziff-Davis' Amazing Adventures #4 (1951) have yet to occur...

Reading Room LOST WORLDS "Man Who Didn't Know Venus"

Nedor/Better/Standard Comics produced several sci-fi anthologies...

...none of which lasted more than three issues.

But it certainly wasn't due to lack of quality.

With a contributor list that included Alex Toth, Ross Andru, Mike Sekowsky, Nick Cardy, and Jack Katz, you're talking some of the great and soon-to-be-great storytellers of comics history!

But, there was one other sci-fi creator who did a story for Lost Worlds, one of only four tales he did for comic books.

Jerome Bixby, novelist and short-story writer, as well as screenwriter whose credits include...

IT! the Terror from Beyond Space!

Fantastic Voyage

Star Trek "Mirror, Mirror"*, "By Any Other Name", "Requiem for Methuselah" and "Day of the Dove"

and the short story "It's a Good Life" which was adapted on both the original Twilight Zone tv series (by Rod Serling) and the 1983 feature film (by Richard Matheson).

BTW, around the time he wrote this, Bixby had just left his position as editor of the Planet Stories pulp magazine at Fiction House, where he also contributed a couple of text pieces to Planet Comics and Indians (his only non-genre text story)!

*The Mirror Universe created by Bixby in "Mirror, Mirror" has proven to be so popular that it has reappeared in almost all the spin-off series spanning almost all of Federation and StarFleet history!

And let's not get into the numerous (sometimes contradictory) novels and comics about the concept...

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Masters of Science Fiction Volume 2
Jerome Bixby
"One Way Street" and Other Tales
Note: "One Way Street's" concept of being transferred to another universe was the thematic basis for "Mirror, Mirror"!
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Reading Room (and Bonus Video) STAR*REACH "Why Viking Lander/Mars?" by Ray Bradbury

A very kool, never-reprinted adaptation of a Ray Bradbury poem...

...first performed by the legendary author at the 1976 San Diego Comic-Con the week after the Viking probe landed on Mars!
Sadly, there's no extant video or audio recording of the event, but we did find a more recent reading by Robert Picardo ("The Doctor" on Star Trek: Voyager)

AFAIK, the poem's never been reprinted in any of the Bradbury anthologies, or anywhere else, for that matter!

It's only appearance was in Star*Reach #6 (1976), illustrated with absolutely beautiful art by Alex Nino!

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Star*Reach
Greatest Hits

Reading Room STRANGE TALES "Beware of Meeks Bringing Gifts!"

A couple of days ago, we brought you a never-reprinted sci-fi comics tale...

...but, while it has never been reprinted, that doesn't mean the story wasn't reused...this time with an oddly-contemporary aspect...

WTF???

Newspeople have a responsibility to uncover and tell the truth objectively and honestly?

Please don't tell FoxNews that...

We do know that Jack Kirby penciled this (also) never-reprinted story from Atlas' Strange Tales #86 (1961).

However, everything else is pure speculation.

It's thought Sol Brodsky inked the story (though it has aspects of Dick Ayers' style as well).

And, since it's not signed "Stan Lee" (as most confirmed Lee-scripted tales were),  the consensus is that Stan's brother Larry Lieber penned the story.