Reading Room GORGO "Land of Long Ago!" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

...scientists use time-travel tech to send Gorgo into the primordial past!

But using untested technology has disadvantages as the mutated dinosaur and Dr Howarth are about to discover...

The series ends with Gorgo & Dr Howarth back in the present, and the US government apparently deciding to keep the Big Green Kaiju alive (if relatively-confined), leaving enough loose ends to make a continuation viable.

Unfortunately, to date, there hasn't been one!

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Gorgo

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Reading Room GORGO "Land of Long Ago" Part 1

Most Sci-Fi/Fantasy Fans are Familiar with Gorgo... 

...either as a kool '60s British kaiju movie, or a comic book series featuring pre-Marvel work by Steve (Spider-Man) Ditko!

Gorgo herself (she was the mother of a baby Gorgo) was a mutated dinosaur.
But the comic series included a couple of stories where Gorgo met much more"traditional" thunder lizards!

To Be Concluded Thursday!

This never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Gorgo #23 (1965) was the kaiju's final new tale at the company!
Written by Joe Gill, penciled by Bill Molino, and inked by Ernie Bache, it's an interesting send-off to the character.
Ditko had left the book after #16 in 1963 due to growing ongoing commitments to Marvel on The Amazing Spider-Man book, The Incredible Hulk in Tales to Astonish, The Invincible Iron Man in Tales of Suspense, and Doctor Strange in Strange Tales!

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Gorgo

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Monday Mecha Madness JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Orogo!! The Nightmare from Outer Space!!"

Behind this Jack Kirby-penciled/Don Heck-inked splash...

...lurks a mystery. which we'll delve into after you read the story!

When this Stan Lee-scripted, Don Heck-illustrated (except for the splash) tale was reprinted in Marvel's Fantasy Masterpieces #2 (1967), the cover played-up Heck's Cyclopean robot (and Dashin' Don himself)...

...but when it was first published in Atlas' Journey into Mystery #57 (1960)...

...and reprinted a second time in Marvel's Where Monsters Dwell #12 (1971)...

...it used the original Kirby cover that seems to be a reverse-angle of the splash page above and shows a radically-different Orogo with two eyes!

Did editor/art director Stan the Man have The King do the cover and splash and then pass the rest of the story to Heck to finish,...but, for whatever reason, didn't give Dashing Don the cover as reference for Orogo, so Heck came up with his own version of the robot...with only one eye?

There are several Atlas-era monster stories where Kirby would do splashes, then another artist would complete the tale.

Bookmark us and keep an eye out as we attempt to solve the half century-old mystery....

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3

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Holiday Reading Room EVERY DAY IS A HOLLY DAY "Columbus Day"

 It used to always be October 12th (tomorrow, AAMOF)...

...but now it's the second Monday in October, no matter the date, to allow people a three-day holiday!

Interestingly, this page from Brevity Inc's one-shot giveaway Every Day is a Holly Day (1956) acknowledges Christopher Columbus didn't discover America, a rarity in that era!
(Vikings, in fact, discovered the already-inhabited continent in 860 AD!)

Why is this comic entitled "Every Day is a Holly Day" instead of "Every Day is a Holiday"?

Because it was given away to kids by grocers who sold Holly Sugar!

Illustrated by John Rosenberger, it's a unique pamphlet covering a number of American holidays, including both Lincoln and Washington's Birthdays (before they were combined into "Presidents' Day"), Mothers' Day (though not Fathers' Day), Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and a couple of holidays we've largely abandoned...Pan-American Day and American Indian Day!

We'll be presenting the other chapters on the dates they fall upon.

Watch for them!

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Cartoon History of the Modern World

Part 1: From Columbus to the U.S. Constitution
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Reading Room STRANGE ADVENTURES "Maze of Time!"

Tuesday, We Presented a Never-Reprinted, Dinosaur-Themed, Story from Atlas' Strange Tales!

Cover illustrated by Murphy Anderson

Today, we do the same with a tale from DC's Strange Adventures!

Scripted by Gardner Fox, penciled by Gil Kane, and inked by Murphy Anderson, the cover-featured story from DC's Strange Adventures #159. (1963) has the same sort of "science can solve everything"-based optimism we saw a couple of years later on the original Star Trek TV series!

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Mysteries in Space
The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics
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Monday Mecha Madness WORLD OF FANTASY "Guardian of the Stars!"

What's kooler than a Jack (King) Kirby cover?

How about the Steve Ditko story it leads into?

Did the cover or the story come first?

The total redesign of the robot indicates whichever was done first wasn't provided to the other artist as reference!

Also, shouldn't the title be "Guardian of the Earth"?

Of course, that would be a "spoiler", ruining the drama shown on the cover...

Illustrated by Steve Ditko, this tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #17 (1959) was probably plotted by Stan Lee, though the scripting doesn't read like his work.
Trivia: Though both the Jack Kirby cover and the Steve Ditko story have been reprinted, they weren't reprinted together!
Each was reprinted in an expensive Omnibus devoted to that particular artist's work!

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Ditko Unleashed
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