Monday Madness / Holiday Reading Room HOT WHEELS "Humbug Run"

If a Santa in a motorized sleigh running two teens down isn't the very definition of "madness"...

Art by Neal Adams & Dick Giordano

...I don't know what is!
Enjoy this never-reprinted tale from the Silver Age of Comics!

The cover story for DC's Hot Wheels #6 (1971) was written by Len Wein, with art by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano, following Alex Toth's character designs from the 1969-1971 animated series based on the toy line.
Toth also illustrated most of the stories in the comic series, as shown below!

Art by Alex Toth from Hot Wheels #1

Reading Room STRANGE ADVENTURES "Science-Fiction Convention on Mars!"

You gotta ask: how can three of the best creatives of the Silver Age of Comics...

...make such an exciting concept so decidedly-deadly dull?

Writer Gardner Fox, penciler Gil Kane, and inker Joe Giella (together and separately) produced some of the koolest tales of the Silver Age!

Yet, this story from DC's Strange Adventures #73 (1956) almost put me to sleep!

The premise is great, the concepts are well-thought out, but the rendering of it is...well...drab!

Why aren't the Martians more visually-interesting?

They're just bald orange guys with slightly-elongated brain-cases!

Couldn't they be using disguises (either masks or holograms) while on Earth and then reveal themselves to be funky-looking Martians when the convention-goers arrive on Mars?

It's not like penciler Gil Kane has any problem with rendering kool-looking humanoid aliens, as shown HERE and HERE!

And, would it have killed them to give the creatives an extra page?

Jamming in all that exposition into the last page really limited Gil into what he could present.

(Remember, DC worked "full script", so Kane knew how much room the captions and dialogue balloons needed to take!)

Using two pages for that last sequence would've helped enormously!

And what about the weird rays that destroy any spaceships?

Natural?

Artificial?

We'll never know...

In comparison, this tale from Dell's Four Color #1288: Twilight Zone has a less-epic, but much more "fun" feel to it!

Special Gardner Fox Note: Fox's Crom, the first barbarian in comic books, returns tomorrow in Wednesday Worlds of Wonder!

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Showcase Presents

Strange Adventures

Volume 1

(which reprints this tale...but in black and white)

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Reading Room SENSATION MYSTERY COMICS "Last Dream!"

Wonder Woman lost her cover feature in DC's Sensation Comics as of this issue (#107 in 1952)...

...when the book was retitled Sensation Mystery, and featured "mysteries" like this one!

(Sensation Comics was Wonder Woman's "sister" title, much as Action Comics is Superman's "brother" comic and Detective Comics is Batman's "brother" book!)

In 1952, horror comics became the "hot" genre, with most comics publishers going "all in" to see who could be the goriest!

DC, though, tried to stay relatively innocuous, refusing to go for the gore.

While their sales didn't skyrocket as many other publishers' did, they managed to stay below the radar during the whole "Seduction of the Innocent" mania.

And, it certainly made reprinting any of the material produced during this period a breeze after the Comics Code was imposed!

This John Broome-written, Carmine Infantino-penciled, and Frank Giacoia-inked tale was typical of DC's output during this period.

(Some say Sy Barry inked it, but expert art identifier Martin O'Hearn thinks it's Giacoia, and I agree with him.)

Straightforward, logical, and effectively-told, it's almost a template for the various stories the anthology would carry until the book's cancellation a year later with #116.

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Showcase Presents

Ghosts

(which features this story...but in black and white!)
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Reading Room MYSTERY IN SPACE "Space Baby"

No, it's not a story about Don (da Con) Trump and his "Space Force"...

...but a never-reprinted Silver Age tale by Jerry (Superman) Siegel and Gil (Green Lantern) Kane!

Notice how, on the cover of DC's Mystery In Space #101 (1965), astronaut Ron "Babyface"Trent looks like a young adult rather than (like he does inside) a kid?

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Mysteries in Space

The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics

Reading Room TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED "Who is Mr Ashtar?"

We usually don't run stories that have already been reprinted...

...but this one is so kool, we just couldn't resist!

(And after reading, I'm dure you'll agree!)

Penciled and inked by Jack Kirby, shortly before his return to Atlas (which shortly thereafter became Marvel), the writer of this story from DC's Tales of the Unexpected #17 (1957) is unknown...but could be Kirby himself!

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Jack Kirby Omnibus

Volume 1

...which includes this story!

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ATARI FORCE Part Four "Conclusion"

In 2005...

...humanity, spearheaded by the Atari Force, explored multiple dimensions of the Multiverse to prepare to colonize them since Earth's biosphere is rapidly-decaying!

However, some species, such as the Malagon, are hostile to the intruding humans, but Atari techs developed the Phoenix starfighter to defeat them...if the pilot knows the correct strategy!

Note that the combat technique shown here was actually the way to win the video game!

As shown last week, when this digest-sized comic was reprinted in standard comic size as an insert in a couple of DC's ongoing books, the rather nasty-looking Malaglon...

...became almost-too cute-to-shoot frogs...

...not that something like that would ever stop a trigger-happy human pilot!

Liberator was the Atari arcade game which utilized the Atari Force comic's characters and graphics to greatest effect...

...from the advertising/promotion material...

...to the arcade console itself!

The Atari Force WILL Return!

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Art of Atari