Showing posts with label comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comics. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Twice-Told Tale of Terror INVASION!

One of the best-known Mars invasion tales is Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio show...
Edited version
...which this twice-told tale "updates" to the television era!
But, it's radically-altered from it's first appearance, and the original version had never been reprinted!
First the toned-down version, then the original, scarier version...
Original version
 Note in the original version, both the wife and singer on tv show a lot more cleavage!
Edited version
Original version
Again, more cleavage in the original version...
Edited version
Original version
Oddly enough, the wife's cleavage is unchanged, but the look of terror in the last panel is toned down!
Edited version
Original version

Panel four in the original version is much more gruesome than the edited version. 
Note the dialogue balloon is 
unchanged, even though there's no actual weapons fire in the edited version!

Edited version
 This last page is radically-different! Prepare yourself!
Ready?
Proceed...but remember, I warned you...
Original version
Wow!
The edited pages were from Harvey's Race for the Moon #1 (1958), which was reprinted in Harvey's Shocking Tales Digest #1 (1981)
The original, never-reprinted, story was from Harvey's Witches' Tales #21 (1953)
As you can see, the Comics Code Authority insisted on some major redos, including most of the last page!
What do you think, fans?
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Terror
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Saturday, September 6, 2025

Space Heroine Stories BARBARELLA 4.2 aka Conclusion!

 When Last We Left Our Heroine...

After surviving the Excessive Machine, Barbarella ends up in the bedroom of the Queen of Sogo.
The pair manage to escape and free the blind angel, Pygar.
However, unskilled in piloting the alien craft they are traveling in, Barbarella crashes the ship, and in the ensuing confusion, the Queen escapes...
This multi-part comic strip was turned into a graphic album, and then adapted into a feature film starring Jane Fonda in the title role.
Japanese poster
Barbarella wouldn't have a new adventure until 1974, when Wrath Of The Minute Eater was published in France.
Two more graphic novels, False Moon aka Moon Child (1977) and Storm Mirror (1982), have appeared since.
Dynamite Comics has been running new comics (not by Jean Claude Forrest), both several solo mini-series and a crossover with another space heroine, Dejah Thoris: Princess of Mars!
Nelvana Animation, proposed doing an animated series during the 1990s, but no network was willing to finance it.

Proposal art by Jean-Claude Forrest
Robert Rodriguez (Sin CitySpy Kids, and Machete franchises) had a movie remake in development, but it died in 2009, and, to date, no one else seems interested...
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Friday, August 1, 2025

Friday Fun MARVIN MOUSE "Not-So-'Honest John' "

The creator of Prince Namor: the Sub-Mariner, Bill Everett, was an amazing writer/artist...
 ...who could do almost anything he was asked to do.
Unfortunately, funny animals, weren't exactly his "cup of tea"!
This never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Marvin the Mouse #1 (1957) was scripted by Stan Lee and illustrated by the aforementioned Bill Everett.
I believe Everett was instructed to make the characters as different as possible from other cartoon mice such as Mickey and Mighty, which resulted in rodents who looked more like rats than mice!
Bill had shown a knack for humor as shown HERE and HERE, but this was a major disappointment!
A caption at the end of the book read "And remember, every issue Marvin Mouse magazine brings you the best in laughs, adventure, and fun ... don't miss a single issue!"
No problem!
The book ended up a one-shot and the already-completed stories intended for #2 became filler in the backs of other humor titles.
(Editor Stan Lee was very frugal and didn't let anything go to waste!)
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Monday, July 14, 2025

Monday Madness RADIO BOY by Chuck Dixon & Jim Engel

In the 1980s, manga finally gained a foothold in the US...
...and American creators began doing their own manga-style material.
Some, like this never-reprinted one-shot title from Eclipse Comics (the first major American company to publish translated manga), were parodies.
This particular spoof was loosely-based on Osamo Tesuka's Astro Boy, which had achieved success in as a translated anime in the early 1960s and opened the door for a flood of Japanese cartoons on American TV that continues to this day.
Note: Though Astro Boy is best-known in the US as a tv cartoon series, it began as a wildly-successful manga in 1954.
The premise of Radio Boy is that the creator himself did the translations for this edition, resulting in a mish-mash of syntax and tenses as well as some literal translations of Japanese phrases.
As a collector of foreign videos (including Japanese and Chinese DVDs and BluRays), I can attest that the English subtitles on them often do read like the captions and copy in this spoof.
BTW, if you don't have a multi-region DVD/BluRay player, get one.
Much of the Asian material released by Dimension (especially their Jackie Chan catalog), Buena Vista, and other mass-market companies is butchered beyond belief, and seeing the originals (even with bad sub-titling) is eye-opening!
I suspect writers Chuck Dixon (yes, that Chuck Dixon) and Jim Engel had also seen some mis-translated films/videos, and wanted to re-create the experience on the printed page.
You'll have the chance to judge for yourself...HERE and HERE!
Next Week
Yep!
They're Back!

Saturday, June 28, 2025

Space Heroine Saturdays BARBARELLA 4.1

...so let's begin the final chapter of her 1960s adventures!
Next Month:
The Fantastic Finale!
Plus some fun facts!
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Thursday, June 5, 2025

Reading Room DO YOU BELIEVE IN NIGHTMARES? "Man Who Crashed into Another Era"

Here's a short story featuring dinosaurs, illustrated by Steve Ditko...
...just before his stint on Charlton's Gorgo!
Ok, so it was the old "It's only a dream" scenario.
You got to admit, it's well-done!
From St John's Do You Believe in Nightmares? #1 (1957), a short-lived anthology produced just before St John went out of business.
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Saturday, April 19, 2025

Space Heroine Saturdays BARBARELLA 3.2

Barbarella met a number of inhabitants of the labyrinth surrounding Lythion's capital city, Sogo, including Pygar the blind angel, and Earth scientist Durand.
With their help, Barbarella defeated the LeatherMen and is now en-route to the city itself.

While many elements were adapted into the feature film with minimal alteration, there's one startling difference...Durand, the main villain of the movie, is a good guy in the original comic strip!
More Barbarella soon.

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