Holiday Reading Room JOURNEY INTO UNKNOWN WORLDS "They Wait in the Shadows!" & JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Monsters on Mercury!"

No Matter Where Humans Travel in the Universe...

...they will find a way to celebrate joy and happiness even under the most stressful of circumstances, as in this tale behind a very misleading (but extremely-kool) Bill Everett cover!

Illustrated by Bob Forgione and scripted by an unknown writer, this story from Atlas' Journey into Unknown Worlds #47 (1956) is more "hard" science-fiction and less "science-fantasy" than this later tale by a pair of Silver Age legends following the same basic plot...

This long-forgotten Stan Lee/Steve Ditko (You've heard of them, right?) tale from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #78 (1962) amps up the humans' paranoia, but plays down scientific accuracy!
(Even in 1962, we knew Mercury was unlivable for humans without extensive protective equipment and clothing!)

But, to be fair, both tales are equally-good at getting the Yuletide message across, eh?

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Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories

Reading Room WORLD OF SUSPENSE "By the Dark of the Moon"

The cover depicting this tale has a gothic horror feel...

...but, in fact, the story is hard science fiction!

No ghosts or ghoulies at all!

(Halloween was over a week ago!)

Was this story's ending rewritten to conform to the Comics Code?

Scripted by Carl Wessler and ilustrated by John Giunta, this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' World of Suspense #5 (1956) features a last panel with a rather convoluted explanation that seems, as the saying goes "out of left field".

Or is it just the result of trying to cram a lot of story into only four pages?

We'll never know...

Reading Room / Tales Twice Told MIDNIGHT "Project Final X"

Will the world end in an ecological disaster...

...or will it be something much more sinister?

Now that you've read this story from Ajax's Midnight #4 (1957), you might be asking yourself if it seems like it was a tad...disjointed, and that it didn't make much sense at a couple of points.
There's actually a good reason for thinking that.
The clues are in the cover for that issue...

Look carefully at the differences between the alien you see on the cover and the ones in the story itself.

There is a reason behind it all!

Be here Thursday for the surprising, shocking explanation!

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Four Color Fear

Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s

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Space Force Saturdays SPACE RANGERS "...Battle the Mad-Man of Mars"

In the '50s you couldn't swing a dead Slime-Cat without hitting an interplanetary policeman...

...so here's the first appearance of Charlton's contribution to the mayhem from Space Adventures #1 (1952)!

At this point, the strip is called "Space Rangers", but that won't last long.

In #2, field commander, Rex Clive takes top billing, which is retitled "Rex Clive and His Space Officers".

Then it becomes just "Rex Clive" until it's final appearance in #7.

Ironically, as of #15, Space Adventures began a new strip adapting a hot new tv show...Rocky Jones: Space Ranger!

I don't think Rex Clive would've found that turn of events amusing...

Illustrated by Lou Morales.

The writer is unknown.

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Taylor History of Comics

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FLYING SAUCERS Cover Gallery

Here's the cover art by Gene Fawcette...

...to the story we've been running the past few Wednesdays.

Oddly, when the issue was reprinted a couple of years later, the art was altered...

...and I've never heard an explanation as to why!

For the record, I like the original cover better!

Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "Man Who Stepped Out of a Cloud"

Let's have a look at a Steve Ditko story...

...that shows both his storytelling and rendering talents at their best.

Written by Joe Gill and illustrated by Steve Ditko, this tale from Charlton's Out of This World #5 (1957) is a superb example of how to tell a complete story in just five pages.

While the script isn't the greatest, Ditko tells the story effectively with both "talking heads" (and very distinctive, individualistic talking heads, at that), and kool graphics showing things impossible to portray convincingly with the SFX technology of the 1950s.

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Unexplored Worlds

Steve Ditko Archives, Vol 2

Space Hero Saturdays BUZZY BEAN AND HIS FLYING SAUCER

The US government finally admits we're using flying saucers...

But sci-fi fans have known the truth about flying saucers for years...nay, decades!

Here's a never-reprinted strip about a boy and his personal flying saucer from the 1950s...

...from a short-lived company that only put out two titles with a combined total of nine issues!

Artist Carl Hubbell (no relation to the Hall of Fame baseball player) illustrated over 300 tales from the late Golden Age through the Silver Age at almost every company in the business.

Sadly, the writer of this premiere installment of the series in Good Comics' Johnny Law: Sky Ranger #1 (1955) is unknown.

BTW, the company name was not a boast, since the publisher was Edmond Good, an artist with both newspaper and comic book credits from the beginning of the Golden Age to the end of the Bronze Age.

Buzzy Bean Will Return...

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Reading Room SPACE ACTION "Silicon Monsters from Galaxy X"

If you're a cheesy sci-fi fan like me, you'll go for a story with a title like...

...'cause with a title like that, you're in for a fun (if not totally rational or even coherent) time!

While the writer is unknown, the art for this tale from Ace's Space Action #2 (1952) is attributed to "Jim McLaughlin", who had a short-lived comics career doing work primarily for Ace!

After Ace dropped comics in 1955 to concentrate on paperbacks, "Jim" did a couple of stories for Atlas/Marvel and a run on Dell's comic adaptation of TV's Gunsmoke!
Then "Jim McLaughlin" disappeared!
Totally.
Unlike most comic book artists who went on to do commercial art or newspaper strips, there's no trace of "Jim McLaughlin" after his brief foray into four-color publishing...and no background about his pre-comics career!
Here's another interesting point...his art style altered considerably during his career.
In this story, the inking looks a lot like the work of long-time artist Jim Mooney!
In fact, a number of panels resemble Mooney's work on the DC strip Tommy Tomorrow, which Jim Mooney was both penciling and inking during the same period as "Jim McLaughlin's" work for Ace!
In McLaughlin's later work (particularly his Gunsmoke art), while the layouts look similar, the inking style is totally-different!
Was "Jim McLaughlin" a pen-name for a penciler working with at least two (if not more) different inkers?

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Science Fiction Comics
Taylor History of Comics
Vol 3