Monday Monster Madness MONSTERS TO LAUGH WITH / MONSTERS UNLIMITED & MONSTER MADNESS

Besides comic books, Marvel made occasional forays into the b/w magazine market...

..with this seven-issue 1965-66 title being their longest-lasting Silver Age series!
(Note: with the second issue, Stan Lee's name was added to the cover as a selling point!)

Other mags had used the gimmick of captioning old movie and tv photos for a feature in a magazine...but never an entire magazine!

At this point, the book changed it's title...

...nobody's really sure why, but it seemed to work!

One of the koolest aspects was that Stan Lee wrote the captions...

...bringing the same kitchy vaudville-level humor that he used for decades in Marvel's humor comics!

I'm not sure if declining sales or Stan Lee's increasing workload caused the cancellation!
(Besides his writing/editing duties, he was now the public face of Marvel, giving interviews, making appearances on tv, even touring college campuses where Marvel Comics were the "in" thing!)
In 1973, when Marvel unleashed an entire line of b/w magazines, ranging from horror to kung fu to Planet of the Apes...

...they revived the concept, still written by Stan Lee!

...but this time, the book was the least-successful of the b/w line!
It was re-tooled into a Famous Monsters of Filmland/Castle of Frankenstein format, adding features about both old and current films and tv shows...

...but the alteration didn't help and the book was cancelled.

Marvel tried again, later that year with a Famous Monsters of Filmland/Castle of Frankenstein clone called Monsters of the Movies, which lasted for eight regular issues and an Annual.

Starting next Monday, through the rest of October, you'll be seeing the best (IMHO) of Monsters to Laugh With and Monsters Unlimited!

Don't Miss It!

Best of Wednesday Worlds of Wonder MARVEL CLASSICS COMICS "War of the Worlds"

We Wind Up Our Month-Long Retrospective with a Halloween Season Treat (No Trick)...

...HG Wells' best-known novel, The War of the Worlds...told the Marvel Way!

Adapted by Chris Claremont, penciled by Yong Montano, and inked by Dino Castrillo, this almost half-century-old book-length tale is a pretty straightforward adaptation of the original novel, which was the basis for Marvel's just-cancelled KillRaven: Warrior of the Worlds series, which was a sequel featuring a second Martian invasion in 2001!

Note: this was not meant as a tie-in to that series, so Dave Cockrum, who was aiding Art Director John Romita Sr as his Associate Art Director while also drawing the All-New X-Men, deliberately designed the tripods and Martians to look different from the ones appearing in KillRaven and other Marvel Universe titles!

Part I: the Coming of the Martians!
Part II: the Conquest of Earth!
Part III: the Rout of Civilization!
Part IV: Earth Under the Martians!
Part V: End of the Invaders!

Reading Room / Tales Twice Told TALES OF THE WATCHER "Why Won't They Believe Me?"

We presented the first version of this tale on Tuesday...

...now let's look at the expanded and enhanced rendition!

Scripted by Stan (the Man) Lee, penciled by Gene (the Dean) Colan, and inked by Paul (no nickname) Reinman, this double-length version of the story from the back of Marvel's Silver Surfer V1N3 (1969) has a lot more humor and a bigger build-up to the switch-ending than the original!
BTW, almost all the "Tales of the Watcher" that appeared during the Silver Surfer book's 48-page incarnation (which lasted for the first seven issues before becoming a "regular" 32-page magazine) were expanded remakes of shorter Atlas-era stories!
The exception was the first tale which was a re-vamp of the origin of the Watcher's race from the original run of Tales of the Watcher when it backed-up Iron Man in Tales of Suspense until a brand-new Captain America strip took over the second slot.

Space Force Saturdays WORLDS UNKNOWN "Black Destroyer" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

While exploring an alien world, the crew of the exploratory vessel Space Beagle encounter Coerl, who looks like a Terrestrial panther or lion...with the addition of tentacles!

But this is not a friendly housecat!

It's a primitive, but sentient, being who can not only reason, but kill and deceive...

Trivia: The announced adaptation of Day of the Triffids ended up as the cover-featured tale in the premiere issue of Worlds Unknown's b/w magazine successor, Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction...

...under a misleading, but undeniably-kool cover by Kelly Freas!
In fact, an adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon's KillDozer ran in the next issue of Worlds Unknown...

Meanwhile, back with Black Destroyer...

Roy Thomas was concerned that the finale as shown in the adaptation wasn't clear enough, so he included an explanation on the letters page...

Bonus #1: You can read the complete original short story HERE.

Feel free to compare and contrast!
Bonus #2: here are the illustrations from the original pulp magazine, so you can see how closely Dan Adkins and Jim Mooney kept to the pulp magazine "feel" of the tale!

"Black Destroyer" was later incorporated with other short stories about the exploratory vessel Space Beagle into the novel Voyage of the Space Beagle, the title of which is a tribute to Charles Darwin's scientific exploratory ship, "The Beagle".

BTW, Van Vogt sued 20th Century Fox over the 1979 movie Alien, claiming that it ripped off elements of "Black Destroyer" and "Discord in Scarlet", both of which were adapted into Voyage of the Space Beagle.

Fox settled out of court for #50,000!

Support Atomic Kommie Csmics!

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Voyage of the Space Beagle

(which includes "Black Destroyer")
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Space Force Saturdays WORLDS UNKNOWN "Black Destroyer" Part 1

 In Space, No One Can Hear You MEOW...

 ...as in this 1940s pulp story that's a clear inspiration for aspects of movie and tv science fiction ranging from Forbidden Planet and Alien to Star Trek and Space: 1999 (among many others)!

Will Coeurl deceive the crew and return with them to Earth?
Or will he simply kill the humans and commandeer the ship?
Find out...Next Saturday!
Plus: read some kool background info about the comic adaptation!

This never-reprinted tale from issue 5 (1974) of Marvel's short-lived science fiction anthology Worlds Unknown was adapted by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Dan Adkins & Jim Mooney.

The story is based on "Black Destroyer", A E Van Vogt's first published story, which appeared as the cover story (a rare honor for a writer's premiere tale) in Astounding Science Fiction (July 1939).

It was later expanded in Vogt's novel Voyage of the Space Beagle, which continued the voyages of the starship and crew!
(BTW, it would make an absolutely dynamite feature film or streaming service mini-series!)
Unlike many other sci-fi stories of the era, it has never been directly-adapted to any other medium, not even radio!
However, the similarities plot elements in the movie Alien to both "Black Destroyer" and "Discord in Scarlet" (which involved an alien who laid eggs in humans) caused Van Vogt to sue 20th Century-Fox, which settled out-of-court for $50,000, with the whole matter sealed with an NDA!

Support Atomic Kommie Csmics!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Voyage of the Space Beagle
(which includes "Black Destroyer")
Paid Link

Easter Reading Room LIFE OF CHRIST: EASTER STORY "Resurrection"

Under this Scott McDaniel cover...

...is one of the most unusual tales Marvel Comics ever told!

(And that's saying a lot!)

Written by Louise Simonson, pencilled by Mary Wilshire and Colleen Doran, and inked by Bill Anderson, this 1993 one-shot, co-published by Thomas Nelson Publishers is a companion volume to The Christmas Story by the same creative team, published earlier that year.

Easter Story tells the tale from Christ's entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to this final chapter, though we're running only the section taking place on Easter itself here.

If you'd like to buy a copy of the HTF comic, you can find it HERE.

Interestingly, Marvel.wika.com postulates Christmas Story and Easter Story link Jesus Christ into the Marvel Comics Universe!