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

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"!
Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order...
(includes a never-before-published conclusion to the series!)
Paid Link

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.

Friday, March 8, 2024

Friday Fun ZANY "Li'l Abnrr"

Unseen since 1959, a look at how comics...
...and by extension, media in general, change to reflect pop culture trends!
Comics, in particular, jump on the latest fad, sometimes revamping the book or strip almost beyond recognition!
The classic example was the mid-1960s "New Blackhawk era", when the middle-aged WWII veteran flyers, published continuously since 1942, became superhero/spies...because the two hottest pop culture trendsetters at the time were Batman and Bond!
(Think I'm joking?
You can read the transition story beginning HERE!)
BTW, both the artist who did a dead-on imitation of Al Capp's style and the scripter for this never-reprinted Li'l Abner spoof (with a cameo by creator Al Capp himself) from Candar's Zany #4 (1959) are unknown!
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Legendary artist Frank Frazetta ghost-illustrated the Sunday strip from 1954 to 1961!

Monday, February 26, 2024

Monday 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 birth control printed 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 Madness, indeed!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Buy

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder Valentine's Day Special SAVAGE TALES "Fury of the Femizons"

Consider, on Valentine's Day, what the world might be like if the "fairer sex" ran the whole planet...
...as portrayed in this Women's Lib-era story from the b/w magazine Savage Tales #1 (1971)!
(Was it really over a half-century ago?
Lord, I feel so old...)

Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by John Romita, Sr,  this tale had an unusual genesis, as detailed on the editorial page by editor Roy Thomas...

Women's liberation.
It's all around us, be we male or female.
marches, intellectual treatises, picketing, bra-burning, some four-letter forensics, and more burnings–not always of bras.
"Women are the equals of men every day, in every way!'
Men are beginning to believe it.
Women always knew it.
So what happens if maybe we come the full circle in, say the next hundred years or so?
What if women turn the rascals out–and we do mean out!
What would we have then?
A better world? Perhaps.
A gentler world? Could be.
different world? Believe it.
Stan Lee got to wondering-and, by and by, he set imaginative artist Johnny Romita to wondering along with him.
The result is, perhaps, something just a wee bit new under the sun.
Not quite sword-and-sorcery–certainly not science-fiction–and not exactly a political polemic.
Robin Morgan clobbers Buck Rogers in the 25th century!
Kate Millett zaps both Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless–then takes over Mongo for good measure!
The hand that rocks the cradle really rules the world!

A Valentine's Day look at a possible future World of Wonder...as seen from the not-so distant past. 
BTW: Almost every RetroBlog has a Valentine's Day Post!
Check out the list to the left to see them all!
Wolff Will Return Next Wednesday!