Patriotic Reading Room SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN "When Olsen Changed History!"

We Have Already Seen...

...since this is the continuation of a story from the previous issue, I'll let the narrator clue you in as t what's going on...

Had ya goin' there for a minute, eh?

Written by Leo Dorman and illustrated by Pete Costanza, this never-reprinted tale from DC's Jimmy Olsen #127 (1970) was one of the last Silver Age-style stories of "Superman's Pal" as a radical change came only a half-year later as Jack (King) Kirby, coming over from Marvel, asumed writer-penciler duties with #133...

...the Bronze Age got fully under way, and elements of Kirby's Fourth World became part of the DC mythos!

Patriotic Reading Room SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN "Jimmy Olsen--Traitor!"

Which of the Man of Steel's Besties Got into More Trouble?
Lois Lane or Jimmy Olsen?

Don't answer until you've read this never-reprinted Silver Age story...

To Be Concluded...Next Sunday!

Written by Leo Dorfman and illustrated by Pete Costanza, this tale from DC's Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #126 (1970) wasn't considered odd or unique enough to warrant being the cover story...

Hope You Had a Happy (and Safe) 4th of July!

Best of Space Force Saturdays MARS COMPANY in "Winner"

In the early 1970s, DC experimented with pulp-style illustrated prose tales...

...in genre (sci-fi, horror, western, and romance) titles!

Written by Denny O'Neil, and rendered in retro 1950s Buck Rogers style...

...by Murphy Anderson, this never-reprinted text feature from DC's Strange Adventures #227 (1971) seems more a tribute to classic 1940s-50s "hard" sci-fi pulps instead of a then-current "new wave" science fiction tale!
Since it featured the last story about Earth's interplanetary fighting force, Mars Company, we felt it would be the perfect "capper" to the SpaceBusters saga, which Murphy re-conceived just before its' cancellation!

Murphy seemed to be DC's "go-to" guy when they needed retro-style material in the 1960s-70s!

He was the artist for Silver Age revival try-outs of Golden Age characters in Brave & Bold (Starman & Black Canary) and Showcase (Dr Fate & HourMan and The Spectre), as well as the first few issues of The Spectre's own Silver Age title!

Anderson was also the initial artist on DC's Bronze Age version of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars, as well as filing-in where needed on other Burroughs strips including Korak and Beyond the Farthest Star!

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Space Hero Saturdays: The Comic Book Trade Paperback You SHOULD have Bought in 1980...but DIDN'T!

Remember this spectacular wraparound cover?

This superb, never-reprinted Murphy Anderson illustration encapsulates what made DC's science fiction line in the 1950s and 60s so entertaining!

• Adam Strange and Alanna! (DC's premiere Silver Age space-going heroes!)
• Winged Apes! (DC was famous for using apes almost anywhere you could think of!)
• A ridiculous, physically-impossible image (giant arrow thrown by aforementioned winged [but normal-sized] ape through the Earth) that you just must know the story behind! (Though, sadly, in this case, there's no actual story behind this particular piece!)

Fireside's Mysteries in Space (1980), a $7.95 trade paperback reprint compiled from Strange Adventures, Mystery in Space, Tales of the Unexpected, and From Beyond the Unknown came and went quickly through bookstores.

Sadly, it didn't sell well, and many copies were returned to the publisher and pulped!

It's not available in e-book form, and a different 1999 trade paperback, Mystery in Space, doesn't reprint any of the stories featured in this compilation!

When you can find a copy now, it runs from $30 to $100, depending on condition!

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Space Hero Saturdays MYSTERY IN SPACE "Gremlins"

The Cover is a...Tad...Misleading...

...about who the actual Space Hero is in this story from DC's Mystery in Space #113 (1980)!

Editor/writer Len Wein got the very busy Joe Kubert to contribute both the cover and the three-page story to the struggling 1980 revival of the sci-fi anthology Mystery in Space, which had been cancelled in 1966!
(Kubert did all the covers from the first new issue, #111, to #115.
The final two covers were by Jim Starlin and Dave Cockrum.)
But the main reason I'm running this piece is the superb coloring by the late Tatjana Wood, the first comic book colorist to receive national attention when she passed!
Her mastery of the pre-computer 64-color palette is beautifully-shown here both "inside the lines", where everything is clearly-separated within the panels, to her use of negative (white) space to emphasize Kubert's weightless humans and gremlins!

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder SUPER-STAR HOLIDAY SPECIAL "House of Mystery"

It's Christmas Eve...

...so let's join the hosts and hostesses of DC's various late, lamented, sci-fi/mystery anthologies as they attempt to top each other with Yuletide tales in this almost half-century old, never-reprinted story...

Written by Bob Rozakis, penciled by Romeo Tanghal, and inked by Dan Adkins, this one-time get-together of hosts plus the The Phantom Stranger and Madame Xanadu (who had their own books) occured in DC Special Series #21: Super-Star Holiday Special (1980)!

A fitting World of Wonder  for Christmas Eve, eh?

Holiday Reading Room PICTURE STORIES FROM THE BIBLE: NEW TESTAMENT "Story of Jesus: Part One"

The origin tale of Jesus Christ has, usually, been presented tastefully, even reverently!

Here's the most-reprinted comic book version of all...

The story continues with a caption mentioning that Mary and Joseph escaped and then takes up with Jesus as a 'tween.

Originally published by All-American Comics under the DC Comics logo in 1942, later editions were done by EC Comics after publisher MC Gaines sold his rights to most of the All-American line to National Allied Publications who combined the two groups into National Periodical Publications.

(National Allied and All-American had been marketing and distributing their books together, usually using the DC Comics logo, which was the result of an earlier buyout of Detective Comics Inc by National!)

Retaining the rights to the Picture Stories series, Gaines used it as the cornerstone of his new EC Comics imprint.

Note: EC Comics, now famous (or infamous) for its horror/sci-fi titles and MAD was originally conceived as Educational Comics with lots of wholesome, young-kid oriented material like Tiny Tots Comics and Land of the Lost!

Don't remember them?
Their sales (except for the Picture Stories of the Bible) were pitiful.

That's why "Educational" Comics became "Entertaining" Comics, though they continued reprinting Picture Stories (but without the EC logo on the front after the whole "Seduction of the Innocent" scare...)

Note: the entire Picture Stories series (including this tale) was written by Montgomery Mulford & Edward Wertheim and illustrated by Don Cameron!

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