Showing posts with label magazine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label magazine. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 22, 2025

Earth Day Reading Room NIGHTMARE "Pollution Monsters!"

"The Devil made it do it!" is given new meaning...
...in this never-reprinted tale from 55 years ago (the year Earth Day was first celebrated) which reads like one of Atlas' (pre-Marvel Comics) late 1950s-early 1960s monster stories!
Before we continue, two points:
1) Penciler Don Heck was one of the primary artists of both Atlas era and Silver Age Marvel comics stories, including numerous giant monster tales.
(Inker Mike Esposito, though he entered the field at the same time as Heck, didn't do much work for Atlas or Marvel until the late 1960s.)
2) The story is broken into two parts, even though it's only 10 pages, much like those Atlas Comics stories.
Is it a deliberate homage?
Writer Mike Freidrich was one of the first generation of comic fanboys turned professional creatives, so he was very familiar with the inherent tropes...






One big difference between this story and those Atlas-era giant monster stories...we don't win!
We might, but there's no guarantee in this cover-featured tale from Skywald's Nightmare #1 (1970)!
It's over 50 years later...and it's still frightening!
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Monday, September 16, 2024

Monday Maternity Madness Redux TOPS "Anthony Comstock: Fanatical Reformer"

Is it any wonder Republicans are using the work of a puritanical, conservative con-man from the 19th Century...

...to promote and serve their anti-choice agenda in the 21st Century?







Both Federal and local Republican politicians are currently attempting to use the ancient Comstock Act's19th Century definitions of "obscene material" (which includes printed birth control information and contraceptive drugs) to prevent them from being provided to pregnant women in 2024!

Written by George Hansen and illustrated by Lee Ames, this feature from Lev Gleason's TOPS #2 (1949) presents itself as a "review" of a biography of Comstock, Anthony Comstock: Roundsman of the Lord (1927)..which praised the man!
However, where the book put Comstock on a pedestal, the comic strip savaged him, taking the material from the tome and presenting it in a historical context.
BTW, you'll note the art here is larger than we usually present.
That's because the periodical it was presented in was tabloid-sized, like Marvel and DC Treasury Editions of the 1970s and 80s and the lettering would be unreadable in our usual 525-pixel wide format.
Editor Charles Biro conceived and produced the mag as an attempt to do an "adult oriented" magazine using the comic book format.
Sadly, it only lasted two issues and either issue is incredibly hard to find!
Happily, Fantagraphics worked with noted writer/artist/historian Michael T Gilbert to produce a superb book reprinting those two issues with an astounding amount of historical material about the periodical...
Note: We presented this post only a couple of months ago, but with Repugs in states banning abortion re-introducing this two-century old legislation as the reason to validate preventing women from receiving contraceptive drugs or even printed matter about birth control, we felt it was worth showing what the cons are using at the basis for their insanity...qualifying it as Monday Maternity Madness, indeed!
BTW, the use of the Comstock Act to do exactly that is prominently-listed in Don da Con's Project 2025!

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Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder BRAK THE BARBARIAN "Unspeakable Shrine" Conclusion

...it's not a synopsis, but the Steve Gan art was too kool for me not to present it!
Anyway on with the story (and an actual synopsis)...
Afraid not, Septegundus! 
This story in Marvel's Savage Tales V1N8 (1975) was the finale for Brak's graphic story adventures by any publisher to date!
Unlike other barbarian/high adventure characters, Brak was never reprinted or revived.
OTOH, he fared better than Lin Carter's Jandar of Callisto!
There was a text feature in the previous issue of Savage Tales about that multi-volume John Carter/Carson of Venus pastiche by noted fantasy author Carter being adapted by Marvel.
Unfortunately, except for a couple of promo pieces, there was never any work done on the projected strip.
Next Week:
More Worlds of Wonder!!!
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(includes a never-before-published conclusion to the series!)

Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder BRAK THE BARBARIAN "Unspeakable Shrine" Part One

Though Brak was the least-successful of Marvel's early 1970s barbarian horde...
...it wasn't for lack of trying, as this never-reprinted story from Marvel's Savage Tales V1N7 (1974) demonstrates!
To Be Concluded
Next Issue
(I Mean Next Week!)
Doug Moench and Steve Gan both went on to other kool high-adventure projects at Marvel!
Doug scripted the b/w Doc Savage series (considered by many, myself included, to be the best comics version of the Man of Bronze ever) and Steve worked on TarzanConan, co-created Skull the Slayer, and co-created the Guardians of the Galaxy's own Peter Quill/StarLord!
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(includes a never-before-published conclusion to the series!)
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Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder BRAK THE BARBARIAN "Sword and the Road"

Who is Brak the Barbarian?
Though we presented his first comic appearance last week, most current comics fans are totally-unaware of him!
So let's clear up the matter...
After this never-reprinted text feature from Marvel's Savage Tales V1N6 (1974), there were two more Brak prose short-story collections; When the Idols Walked (1978) and Fortunes of Brak (1980).
All the books were re-edited into the collection shown below.
Next Week: 
Part One of "The Unspeakable Shrine"!
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(includes a never-before-published conclusion to the series!)
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Monday, April 29, 2024

Monday Maternity Madness CHOICES "Silent Scream II: the Prequel"

In Choices: a Pro-Choice Benefit Anthology for the National Organization of Women (1990)...

The sequence was Trudeau's response to the then-recently-released anti-abortion film Silent Scream.
In the strips, Trudeau utilized the same cinema verite/documentary-style techniques the movie used to make his point.
The movie is still distributed by religious and anti-choice groups, but has been disproven as hyperbolic and scientifically-inaccurate.