Mort Drucker's "Disguised Humor" and the DC Comic YOU DIDN'T KNOW EXISTED!

Can you name what DC Comic this never-reprinted page appeared in?

Hints:
It was during the period Drucker was also working for MAD!
It was during the Silver Age of Comics!

(I didn't say they were great hints!)

Obvious Trivia: Mort would go on to illustrate a number of the Man of Steel's media incarnations in MAD, including Christopher Reeve's movie version and the tv series Smallville.

The answer is...

DC's Teen Beam #2 (1968)!

Yeah, it doesn't look like a comic, but it was comic-sized, and DC produced it!

From '66-'69 several comics companies took a shot at doing mixed-format comics/teen mag titles...

Tower's Teen-In

Charlton's Go-Go

Harvey's Pop Comics

Warren also tried their hand with two b/w mag titles...

Freak Out, U.S.A.
and

Teen Love Stories!

Oddly, Marvel, once noted for their tendency to jump on trends, didn't do one of these!

DC advertised their attempt with this...odd...ad...

...featuring the comic/mag's mascot character Teeny and, presuming it would appeal to the target teenage girl audience, a grungy hippie!

The first issue featured Teeny introducing articles about various heart-throbs...

...but no other comics-type material!

The incredibly-popular mag they based the title on...

...immediately threatened a trademark infringement lawsuit!

So, DC hastily-altered the title in their ads and the book's logo to Teen Beam...

...and added comic pages along with the articles!

It didn't help, since distributors, unwilling to anger the insanely-hot Tiger Beat, refused to rack the title!

(as the ad points out, you had to ask for it, since it was now, as they used to say "under the counter" along with porn magazines!)

The second issue was the last!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

MEOW!

My Groovy Life with Tiger Beat's Teen Idols!

and/or...

Mort Drucker

Five Decades of His Finest Works
Paid Link

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.

Reading Room / Tales Twice Told AMAZING ADULT FANTASY "Why Won't They Believe Me?"

Stan (the Man) Lee felt a good story...

...such as this one from Atlas' Amazing Adult Fantasy #7 (1961), was worth repeating...

Scripted by Lee and illustrated by his Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko, the tale was typical of the "gotcha" snap-ending stories made popular in mass culture by Rod Serling on The Twilight Zone, but done a decade earlier in comics by the EC Comics horror and sci-fi/fantasy books (though usually with more gore).

Lee re-used (and expanded) the plot almost a decade later when he re-did it with another Silver Age legend, as you'll see Thursday...

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder JUNGLE JIM "Winged Fury"

In the 1960s, the usually-staid Jungle Jim series jumped into high adventure/fantasy...

...with lost civilizations, mutants, aliens, even mystical menaces, threatening the Don Moore/Alex Raymond-created hero!

Scripted by Bhob Stewart, penciled by Steve Ditko and inked by Wally Wood, this never-reprinted (in color) tale from Charlton's Jungle Jim #27 (1969) was a classic example of how to update a series properly, unlike say, DC's attempt to make the 1940s aviators, the Blackhawks, into super-heroes from that same era!

Trivia: Though the cover looks like just a modification of Ditko/Wood's art on Page 5, panel 1, its actually a redraw by editor Sal Gentile, a pretty good artist in his own right!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Official Jungle Jim Annual
Paid Link

Reading Room STRANGE WORLDS "I Couldn't Stop the Runaway Comet!"

Some people believe we're entering the Biblical End Times!

Well, we here at Atomic Kommie Comics don't believe that!

We believe the End of the World be something more like this scientifically-inaccurate, never-reprinted tale about death by extreme heat from Atlas' Strange Worlds #5 (1959)!

There's also a really kool Easter Egg within the story!

See if you can find it!

No, we're not going to explore whether God exists or not.

Though popularized as fireballs in bad science fiction, the fact that comets were really composed primarily of rock and ice which vaporized as they approached the Sun, creating the "tail", was known as far back as Issac Newton's time.

So the whole idea of the comet generating heat like a star was ludicrous...even in the 1950s!

Though the writer is unknown, the artist was Steve (Spider-Man) Ditko.

That fact is crucial for understanding the Easter Egg...

The name "Victor Sage", used here for the extremely-fallible protagonist, later became "Vic Sage",  the secret identity of one of Ditko's more durable creations...Charlton's The Question!

Besides becoming a DC mainstay with his own title and spotlighted appearances in the Justice League animated series, the character was the basis for Rorschach in Alan Moore's "reimagining" of classic comic character archetypes in Watchmen!

Support Atomic Kommie Comic

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Marvel Masters of Suspense Omnibus

Volume 1

Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
Paid Link

Remake Reading Room WORLD OF FANTASY "Gargoyle From the 5th Galaxy!"

Is this a kool cover, or what?

But, this sandals-wearing Jack Kirby-Christopher Rule scarlet alien isn't inside the comic!

Instead, we get a more humanoid, less "traditional" gargoyle-looking green alien!

To be fair, he does breathe fire, like the guy on the cover...

Plotted by Stan Lee, scripted by Larry Lieber and superbly-rendered by Don Heck, this tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #19 (1959) was actually a re-do of an earlier story (illustrated by Jack Kirby, no less), which we'll present Thursday!

BTW, though the story was reprinted in the 1970s, the cover has never seen the light of day since its' original publication!

Pity...

Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Atlas-Era Marvel Masterworks
Tales of Suspense
Volume 4
Paid Link