Reading Room: AMAZING ADVENTURES "Deal to Die"

Here's a never-reprinted short tale with a Twilight Zone-style ending...

...from the final issue of Ziff-Davis' sci-fi anthology Amazing Adventures!

I wonder if Zoro's husband, Space Captain Ventra was as big a SoB as Bernice's spouse Harold Leighton!

Illustrated by the relatively-unknown Lawrence (Louis) Dresser, this story from Amazing Adventures #6 (1952) has no credited writer.

Too bad, because it's a memorable piece for a shorter-than-usual filler.
Trivia: There have been four different comic series entitled Amazing Adventures!
This 1950-51 six-issue book, from Ziff-Davis was the first.
The other three 1960-61 (scifi/fantasy anthology), 1970-76 (featuring ongoing series The Inhumans and Black Widow (ten issues), The Beast (seven issues), and War of the Worlds/Killraven (twenty-one issues), and 1979-81, X-Men reprints (fourteen issues), were all published by Atlas/Marvel.

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

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Reading Room TALES TO ASTONISH "I Fell to the Center of the Earth!"

Here's a kool 1950s sci-fi story penciled by Matt Baker, whose speciality was "good girl" art!

Yet, there's not a single beautiful woman (not even a cavewoman), in this story, one of his few assignments for Atlas (later Marvel) Comics!

When this story appeared in Atlas' Tales to Astonish #2 (1959), Baker was near the end of his career, working through Vince Colletta's studio, doing only penciling to increase his productivity.

Vince Colletta inked the pages, and it's possible that, seeing how much detail Colletta tended to leave out during inking, Baker did less-detailed pencils than normal.

The writer is unknown, but it's believed to be the book's editor Stan Lee.
Penciler Matt Baker was one of the few Black comic book artists of the Golden and Silver Ages, and was easily the most prolific of them!
Though known for his "good girl" art, including the famous (and infamous) Phantom Girl stories, he handled every genre with ease, including horror, war, sci-fi, and romance!
Sadly, though, few of his stories featured Black characters...who were rare in comics until the mid-1960s!
You can read a short, but complete bio HERE!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour
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Space Force Saturdays THREE ROCKETEERS "Long Long Years"

Introduced in Harvey's Race for the Moon #3 (1958)...

This team of intrepid explorers survived the book's cancellation to appear in other Harvey titles over the next decade!

Penciled (and possibly written) by Jack Kirby and inked by Al Williamson, the team's debut exemplifies the 1950's optimism that science and humanity's desire to explore the unknown would enable us to set up space stations and moonbases within a few decades!
Sadly, as of the end of the first quarter of the 21st Century, over half a century later, we ain't there yet!
Yeah, we have one small space station, but nothing like what we envisioned...

Now that's a space station!

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Simon & Kirby Library

Science Fiction

(which reprints all the Kirby Three Rocketeer stories!)
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Reading Room WEIRD ADVENTURES "Dome of Death"

Reading this blog,  you might think that "sci-fi" just means "space opera" or "futuristic"...

...but it can be set on present-day (meaning when the story was created) Earth, as well!

This never-reprinted tale from the Ziff-Davis one-shot Weird Adventures #10 (1951) reads like a script for an anthology tv show or a b-movie.
It's mostly character interaction and a crime/thriller plot with some easily-done (even for the 1950s) sfx!

Illustrated by John Giunta, whose long career spans both the Golden and Silver Ages with work for literally every company in every genre!
However, Giunta may be best-known to today's audiences as the artist who gave the legendary Frank Frazetta his first job, when he hired the talented teen as a studio assistant!
The writer of this unusual tale is unknown, but could be Giunta himself!

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Mystery in Space

Pulp Fiction Library

(which contains only a couple of stories from this previously-listed volume)

On May 4th...What Will YOU Do?

Holy Dire Dilemma!!!
Do you go to...

...or...do you go to...

...since you can't do both!!!

The 24+ hour Star Wars Marathon begins on Friday night, and if you leave the theatre, you'll lose your seat!

But, if you don't go to Free Comic Book Day, you miss out on all the limited-edition goodies...including a couple of Star Wars-related comics!

What Will YOU Do???

Friday Fun HOLY CREAM-FILLED PASTRY!

When Hostess Baking ceased operation in 2012, a chapter of comics history ended...

This wonderfully-looney series of ads featuring all the major comics characters from Archie to Spider-Man to Casper the Friendly Ghost to Wonder Woman appeared in comics for almost a decade, featuring some of the best artists in the business including Neal Adams (above with Dick Giordano), Gil Kane, John Romita Sr, Curt Swan, Jim Starlin, and Frank Miller doing the rendering!

Note: You can see a complete set of the Marvel and DC ones HERE!

Bonus: the original art for this ad...

BTW, Hostess' nigh-indestructible pastries have since returned to supermarket shelves...but the comic advertising never did!

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder WOLFF "Beginning of the End"

It Has All Come to This...

...the Final Chapter in the Saga of Wolff, the Post-Apocalyptic Barbarian, seeking his long-lost wife and tribe!

This never-seen-in-America finale from New England Library's Dracula V1N12 (1972) is melancholy at best.

But it holds the potential for a sequel...which was never realized!

Next Wednesday...

We Present a Far Different WORLD OF WONDER than You've Seen the Past Three Months!

Dare You Miss It???

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Wolff et la Reine des Loups

(aka Wolff and the Wolf Queen)

French Graphic Novel reprinting this storyline with superb printing!

and/or

Dracula Annual

The Incredibly-HTF British Hardcover with all 12 issues of the Comic, including the Complete Wolff Saga!

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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder WOLFF "Lair of the Witches"

Wolff leaves Katerina and her father the sorcerer...

...to begin his final quest...to discover what had become of his tribe...and his wife!

Next Wednesday...

The Fateful, Fearsome Finale!

Dare You Miss It???

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Wolff et la Reine des Loups
(aka Wolff and the Wolf Queen)

French Graphic Novel reprinting this storyline with superb printing!
and/or

Dracula Annual

The Incredibly-HTF British Hardcover with all 12 issues of the Comic, including the Complete Wolff Saga!

Paid Link

It's Palm Sunday! Did You Know the Very First Captain of the USS Enterprise...

...was Jesus Christ?

Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus Christ in King of Kings (1961)

 Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike with Leonard Nimoy as Mr Spock in Star Trek "The Cage" (1964)

Here's"six degrees of separation" trivia in only five degrees:

• John Huston, who later did a prequel movie, The Bible: In the Beginning, directed Moby Dick, using a screenplay adapted by Ray Bradbury from the Herman Melville novel.
• Ray Bradbury wrote the voiceovers in King of Kings spoken by Orson Welles.
• Welles' The Shadow and Mercury Theatre radio series co-star Agnes Moorehead served as dialogue coach to  Jeffrey Hunter (Jesus Christ) in King of Kings.
• Jeffrey Hunter later played Christopher Pike, the first captain of the Starship Enterprise in the pilot episode of Star Trek, "The Cage".
• Star Trek did an episode, "Bread and Circuses", about a planet where parallel evolution produced a society that resembled a 20th Century version of the Roman Empire, complete with it's own "Christians" and Jesus Christ (who doesn't appear on-camera, but is mentioned in dialogue)!