Reading Room: AMAZING ADVENTURES "Deal to Die"

Here's a never-reprinted short tale with a Twilight Zone-style ending...

...from the final issue of Ziff-Davis' sci-fi anthology Amazing Adventures!

I wonder if Zoro's husband, Space Captain Ventra was as big a SoB as Bernice's spouse Harold Leighton!

Illustrated by the relatively-unknown Lawrence (Louis) Dresser, this story from Amazing Adventures #6 (1952) has no credited writer.

Too bad, because it's a memorable piece for a shorter-than-usual filler.
Trivia: There have been four different comic series entitled Amazing Adventures!
This 1950-51 six-issue book, from Ziff-Davis was the first.
The other three 1960-61 (scifi/fantasy anthology), 1970-76 (featuring ongoing series The Inhumans and Black Widow (ten issues), The Beast (seven issues), and War of the Worlds/Killraven (twenty-one issues), and 1979-81, X-Men reprints (fourteen issues), were all published by Atlas/Marvel.

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

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Reading Room TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED "Who is Mr Ashtar?"

We usually don't run stories that have already been reprinted...

...but this one is so kool, we just couldn't resist!

(And after reading, I'm dure you'll agree!)

Penciled and inked by Jack Kirby, shortly before his return to Atlas (which shortly thereafter became Marvel), the writer of this story from DC's Tales of the Unexpected #17 (1957) is unknown...but could be Kirby himself!

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Jack Kirby Omnibus

Volume 1

...which includes this story!

Reading Room TALES TO ASTONISH "I Fell to the Center of the Earth!"

Here's a kool 1950s sci-fi story penciled by Matt Baker, whose speciality was "good girl" art!

Yet, there's not a single beautiful woman (not even a cavewoman), in this story, one of his few assignments for Atlas (later Marvel) Comics!

When this story appeared in Atlas' Tales to Astonish #2 (1959), Baker was near the end of his career, working through Vince Colletta's studio, doing only penciling to increase his productivity.

Vince Colletta inked the pages, and it's possible that, seeing how much detail Colletta tended to leave out during inking, Baker did less-detailed pencils than normal.

The writer is unknown, but it's believed to be the book's editor Stan Lee.
Penciler Matt Baker was one of the few Black comic book artists of the Golden and Silver Ages, and was easily the most prolific of them!
Though known for his "good girl" art, including the famous (and infamous) Phantom Girl stories, he handled every genre with ease, including horror, war, sci-fi, and romance!
Sadly, though, few of his stories featured Black characters...who were rare in comics until the mid-1960s!
You can read a short, but complete bio HERE!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour
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Space Force Saturdays ATOM-AGE COMBAT "Puzzle"

Since it's Memorial Day weekend...

...we thought we'd run a tale of interplanetary conflict between Earth and Mars!

Note: the last page was the inside back cover of the comic, so it's black-and-white, a standard cost-saving technique back then by printing the front and back inside covers one, or sometimes, two-color.

Illustrated by Dick Ayers, this tale from Fago's Atom-Age Combat #3 (1959) touches on an interesting idea.

Someone's keeping us from leaving Earth...but they're also keeping others from approaching Earth!

Were they protecting us from them...or them from us?

Since this was the final tale in the final issue of the series, we'll never know the answer...

BTW, this was the second series called "Atom-Age Combat"!

The first was published by St John Comics with five issues in 1952-53 and a one-shot in 1958.

Fago Publications bought the title when St John dropped it's comic line, continuing the numbering from the one-shot and producing two issues.

Fago itself only lasted from 1958-59.

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Mysteries in Space

The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics
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Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Filbert's Frightful Future!"

After Mighty Thor began his run in Journey into Mystery as of #83......

...and before Norse mythology-related backup series like Tales of Asgard began, the one-shot shorts like this never-reprinted tale continued to fill the back of the book until the inventory was used up!

Don Heck penciled and inked this story from Marvel's Journey into Mystery #85 (1962).

Stan Lee plotted it, but experts are not sure if he scripted it.

Lee usually co-signed the later shorts he scripted, but only Heck's signature is here.

Just about everything Lee didn't script at this point was handled by his brother Larry Lieber.

(Stan's birth name is Stanley Leiber. He used "Stan Lee" on his comics work because he wanted his real name on the Great American Novel he planned to write.

When he finally realized he would be forever known for his comics and not any prose novel he might write, he legally changed his name to "Stan Lee".)

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Thor Masterworks

Volume 1 

featuring the Thor stories that appeared in front of the never-reprinted tales we present!
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Reading Room / Tales Thrice Told TALES OF SUSPENSE "Last Rocket!"

Marvel's Tales of Suspense #39 (1963) is famous for it's cover story...

...but that oft-retold tale is not what we're looking at today!

Instead, we're presenting one of the backup stories...the third and final version of the "Adam & Eve on past/future Earth" trope plotted and/or scripted by Stan Lee.

You can read the previous two tales HERE and HERE.

Ok, I'm willing to believe that, with 1960s-level technology, all of Mankind could pull off a When Worlds Collide-style evacuation of the planet...though how they'd survive to reach another solar system several light-years distant is questionable.

I'm even willing to accept a couple of ecology-oriented sorts being stubborn (and let's face it, suicidal) enough to remain on their home world to the bitter end.

But an "exploding star" close enough to warm and light the planet, yet totally-unknown to anyone before that?

C'mon!

And one more thing...couldn't the space fleet just turn around and return when they noticed the "exploding star" behind them?

In this "Adam and Eve" retelling, it's believed that Lee plotted the story and his brother, Larry Lieber, scripted it.

But it's a fact that the legendary Gene Colan penciled and inked the absolutely beautiful art!

It makes the rather silly story bearable.

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EXCELSIOR!

Amazing Life of Stan Lee

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Reading Room / Tales Thrice Told STRANGE TALES "A Thouand Years Later..."

Tuesday, we showed you the first of three variations of a theme...

...today we give you the second version, by the legendary team of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko!

Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Steve Ditko, this story from Marvel's Strange Tales #90 (1961) is the second time in two years that Lee produced a story based on the "Adam and Eve on past/future Earth" cliche, this time adding the plot element of an immortal man who didn't fit in with society.
Lee would reuse the "Adam and Eve" concept one more time two years later...as we shall see Tuesday!

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AMAZING FANTASTIC INCREDIBLE
A MARVELOUS Memoir
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Reading Room / Tales Thrice Told STRANGE WORLDS "I Am the Last Man on Earth!"

One thing Stan Lee was really good at was recycling plots (with minor variations)...

...as demonstrated in this first of three tales based on the same premise!

Plotted (and probably scripted) by Stan Lee, this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Strange Worlds #1 (1958) was illustrated by Silver Age mainstay Don Heck.

Yes, it's the "Adam & Eve begin a new Earth in the future/past" tale, which has become something of a cliche in sci-fi/fantasy.

But, it's some of the details that carry-over from one story to another that make this particular variation's multiple versions interesting.

Be here Thursday to see what I mean...

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EXCELSIOR!
Amazing Life of Stan Lee
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Monday Madness MYSTICAL TALES "Man Who Saw Too Much!"

Here's one of those stories that make you scratch your head and ask...

..."what were they smoking/drinking/ingesting whan they created this?"

What's the "speed of time"?

How would it alter the composition of a piece of metal never designed to be played as a musical instrument by a human to allow it to be played. much less to transport the player through time?

Perhaps it's just as well we don't know who scripted this weird story!

The Grand Comics Database attributes Ed Winiarski as the sole artist for this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Mystical Tales #1 (1956), but there are clear aspects of long-time Atlas-Marvel artist Werner Roth's style in there as well.

Did he re-draw panels or did he pencil the entire story with Winarski just inking it?

So many questions, so few answers...

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Marvel Masterworks

Atlas-Era Journey into Mystery

Volume 1