Wednesday Worlds of Wonder WEIRD FANTASY "Judgement Day"

This 1950s comics tale is considered the gold standard in utilizing a sci-fi motif for social commentary...

...rightfully-so, I must say!

Perhaps it's a tad slow-paced, even pedantic, by today's standards and the pay-off isn't as shocking as you might expect, but this oft-reprinted tale by writer Al Feldstein, artist Joe Orlando and colorist Marie Severin from EC's Weird Fantasy #18 (1953) was quite controversial when it first appeared.
Even when it was reprinted in the Comics Code-approved Incredible Science Fiction #33 (1956), it caused hassles.
The Code wanted Tarlton changed to a White guy!
Publisher Bill Gaines refused!
The Code tried to get EC to, at least, remove the beads of sweat from Tarlton's brow!
Bill Gaines, again, refused!
The Code refused to approve the comic.
Gaines said he didn't care.
As it was, "Judgement Day" was a reprint fill-in for a new story ("An Eye for an Eye") the Code refused to approve, and, since it was EC's last color comic ever, they'd print it without the Code stamp.
The Code gave in and approved the reprint without changes.

No less a personage than Ray Bradbury praised "Judgement Day" effusively in the final letter (among many...except one...that praised the tale) in Cosmic Correspondence...

Public praise from one of the Masters of Science Fiction/Fantasy!

Can't argue with that...

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Judgement Day and Other Stories
Illustrated by Joe Orlando

Fantagraphics' EC Comics Library
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Spooky Space Force Saturdays KENTON OF THE STAR PATROL "Vampires of the Void"

Strap on your blasters and activate your ato-jets, kids...

Art by Joe Orlando and Wally Wood

...as we join our space-faring hero against gorgeous aliens who suck the life from humans!

Now that's a sci-fi horror tale...and illustrated by Wally Wood and Joe Orlando!

Gardner Fox scripted the story published in Avon's Strange Worlds #4 (1951) and it actually makes sense, given the scientific knowledge of the era.

Add a kool (if slightly misleading) cover by Wood and Orlando...and you've got a cult classic!
Hard to believe it's only been reprinted twice!
But...it has been re-told twice more!
What do we mean by that?

Be Back Next Week to Find Out!

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Strange Worlds

Volume 1

Monday Medical Madness TWILIGHT ZONE "Plague"

Submitted for your approval...

...a tale so frightening, it couldn't be told on TV...but it did appear in comic books...in The Twilight Zone!

There wasn't a sequel to this never-reprinted story by writer Leo Dorfman and illustrator Joe Orlando (with an assist from Mike Sekowsky) from Gold Key's Twilight Zone #20 (1967)!

Perhaps it's best we never know,,,

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Andromeda Strain

by Michael Crichton

and the sequel

Andromeda Evolution

by Michael Crichton & Daniel H Wilson

Space Hero Saturdays WEIRD FANTASY "Judgement Day!"

Not every Space Hero uses a ray gun to save the day!

Sometimes, simply talking, the way Tarleton does, is the most effective way!

As Rod Serling, Gene Roddenberry, and Al Feldstein (who wrote this story) could tell you, one of the best aspects of science fiction is the opportunity to present commentary on social issues that you couldn't otherwise show due to censorship.
Most of this blog's audience is too young to know, first-hand, that the societal conditions shown on Cybrinia were, in fact, the way society in most of America was structured up to the mid-1960s.
(And there are aspects that continue to this day!)

This story originally-appeared in EC's Weird Fantasy #18 (1951) to mostly-positive feedback.

But that was pre-Comics Code!

When it was scheduled to be reprinted in Incredible Science-Fiction #33 (1956) it had to be submitted to the newly-created Comics Code Authority.

As explained in the superb book Tales from the Crypt: the Official Archives by Digby Diehl...

This really made ‘em go bananas in the Code czar’s office. 

“Judge [Charles] Murphy was off his nut. He was really out to get us”, recalls [EC editor Al] Feldstein. “I went in there with this story and Murphy says, “It can’t be a Black man”. 

But … but that’s the whole point of the story!” Feldstein sputtered.

When Murphy continued to insist that the Black man had to go, Feldstein put it on the line.

“Listen”, he told Murphy, “you’ve been riding us and making it impossible to put out anything at all because you guys just want us out of business”.

[Feldstein] reported the results of his audience with the czar to [EC publisher Bill] Gaines, who was furious [and] immediately picked up the phone and called Murphy.

“This is ridiculous!” he bellowed.

“I’m going to call a press conference on this. You have no grounds, no basis, to do this. I’ll sue you”.

Murphy made what he surely thought was a gracious concession.

“All right. Just take off the beads of sweat”.

At that, Gaines and Feldstein both went ballistic.

“Fuck you!” they shouted into the telephone in unison.

Murphy hung up on them, but the story ran in its original form.

It was the final color comic book EC Comics published.

MAD was converted into a b/w magazine, removing it from Comics Code approval, and reprints of EC's comics (including this story)...

...in Tales of the Incredible (1965). were published in standard paperback format by Ballantine Books also exempting them from the Code.
EC tried a line of four magazine-sized b/w titles known as "Picto-Fiction" with a more adult approach to storytelling, like pulp magazines, but with more illustrations.
Like MAD, their magazine format bypassed the Code's restrictions, but none of them got past the second issues.

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Tales from the Crypt

Official Archives

(which covers a lot of EC Comics history, not just the horror titles!)

Reading Room MYSTICAL TALES "Endless Search"

It's said that artists see things not as they are, but as they should be..

...a concept Cedric Chalmers inadvertantly discovers in this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Mystical Tales #1 (1956)!

Despite its' title, the short-lived Mystical Tales was actually a sci-fi/science-fantasy anthology.

To this day, almost none of the tales have been reprinted, despite being rendered by a number of well-known artists like Joe Orlando (who did this story), Bob Powell, Reed Crandall, Bill Everett, and Bernie Krigstein!

The writers for almost all of the stories, however, are unknown.

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder AN EARTHMAN ON VENUS Part 4

When Last We Left Our Hero...

Inside front cover art by Wally Wood

WOW!

Don't just sit there!

Start reading!

Well, that's it for our presentation of Avon's Earth Man on Venus (1950) one-shot comic adaptation illustrated by Wally Wood with Joe Orlando and Sid Check doing inking and minor redrawing.

(The adaptation's scripter is unknown.)

BTW, both Doggo's and Yuri's "deaths" were exaggerations.
Both survived to return in the sequel novels, Radio Beasts and Radio Planet.
Only the first novel, Radio Man/Earth Man on Venus, has been adapted into comics form.
Too bad, since the later novels are even better.

Next Week

We Return to Earth for another

Wednesday World of Wonder!

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Radio Man

Annotated

by Ralph Milne Farley