Reading Room BLACK CAT MYSTIC "A Weemer is the Best of All!"

"Whimsical" is not a word you usually associate with Jack (King) Kirby...

...but in this case, it's perfectly appropriate!

Though Jack Kirby both penciled and inked (a rare occurrence) this tale from Harvey's Black Cat Mystic #59 (1957), the identity of who wrote it is unknown, but it's probably Kirby himself or ex-partner Joe Simon who was the editor of the book at Harvey Comics!

BTW, Black Cat Mystic, despite the title, was a science-fiction, not horror, comic!

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Reading Room JUNGLE JIM "Wizard of Dark Mountain"

When Jungle Jim returned to comic books in the 1960s in new stories...

...the usually "realistic" high adventure strip jumped head-first into all-out sci-fi/fantasy!

Written and laid-out by Bhob Stewart, pencilled by Steve Ditko, and inked by Wally Wood. this cover-featured story from Charlton's Jungle Jim #22 (1969) was prepared for the character's previous publisher, King Comics, but ended up at Charlton when King Features Syndicate dropped in-house comic book publishing.

You can read Bhob's account of how this story was produced HERE.

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Reading Room WORLD OF SUSPENSE "Very Old Man"

Despite Marvel Entertainment's extensive reprinting program...

...there's an incredible amount of Timely/Atlas material that hasn't seen the light of day since the 1940s-50s!

This is one such tale...

Edited (and likely plotted) by Stan Lee, and penciled by Sol Brodsky, this never-reprinted story from Atlas' World of Suspense #8 (1957) is a typical morality tale from the Comics Code-controlled era.

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Taylor History of Comics

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Monday Madness MYSTERIES OF UNEXPLORED WORLDS "World Where I was King!"

We could call this "The Challenge that Made a Man Out of Bill Jones..."

...since it's a plotline out of the Charles Atlas ads that used to appear on the back covers of comic books, but with a fantasy twist!

This tale of alpha males on other worlds from Charlton's Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #3 (1957) was illustrated by the legendary Steve Ditko and an unknown writer (who could be Ditko himself or Joe Gill)!

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Art of Ditko

...which reprints many Ditko short stories...but not this one!

Friday Fun FAIRY TALES "Gingerbread Boy"

Finishing off the last of my delicious Christmas gingerbread cookies while sitting at the computer...

...inspired me to run this never-reprinted story from Ziff-Davis' Fairy Tales #11 (1951).
Note: the cover contains a spoiler!

This is not so much a fairy tale as a folk tale or fable.

In most versions it's a fox who carries the Gingerbread Boy across the river and devours him!

The comic strip's art is by Leon Winik, who probably also did the cover, which matches the third panel on the final page above perfectly!

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Golden Treasury of

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Holiday Reading Room ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN "Why the Leprechauns Left Ireland!"

 At last, the long-repressed (and never-reprinted) story can be told...

...on, appropriately enough, St Patrick's Day!

So, they left Earth...not just Ireland!

Whatta story!

Leprechauns!

Nikita Khrushchev, Communists and possible Atomic War!

Cape Canaveral (before it was renamed Cape Kennedy, after Irish-American Prez John F Kennedy)!

Plus:  Giants from the center of the Earth!

Does it get any better than this?

I don't think so.

Writer/editor Richard Hughes (under the appropriate pen-name Shane O'Shea) and illustrator Odgen Whitney probably thought the same when they created this whimsical tale for ACG's Adventures into the Unknown #132 (1962).

59 years later, it's my pleasure to present it for your St Patricks Day entertainment.

Now, if you'll excuse me, there's several pints of Guinness Extra Stout in my fridge, waiting to meet me...
Oh, almost forgot...Wednesday Worlds of Wonder will return next week!

Reading Room BLACK CAT MYSTIC "MysteryVision!"

Here's a tale that could've inspired the movie They Live! as well as several Twilight Zone eps...

...plus it has a rather unique aspect we'll explain at the conclusion...

"We take our leave of Herman Scudder, who discovered that "reading" people can be as easy as reading an eye-chart...in the Twilight Zone..."

(Sorry, instinctively channeled Rod Serling for a moment...)

Pencils and inks for this never-reprinted story from Harvey's Black Cat Mystic #57 (1956) are by Jack Kirby, who rarely inked his own work since editors felt his time was better-spent penciling at a rate of up to four pages per day!

(Yes, I said per day!)

Probably written by either Kirby himself, or studio co-owner/creative partner Joe Simon.

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Art of the Simon and Kirby Studio

featuring images shot directly from the original art!

Friday Fun TALES OF SWORD AND SORCERY "Cult of the Cave Bear"

The second try at a Tragg strip...

...dropped any elements of science fiction, and went for pure fantasy...including zombies!

This Don Glut-scripted. Jesse Santos-illustrated story from Gold Key's Mystery Comics Digest #9 (1973) has never been reprinted, nor are the events or other characters referred to in the subsequent Tragg and the Sky Gods series, which we'll begin next Friday!

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Chariots of the Gods

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