Showing posts with label silver age. Show all posts
Showing posts with label silver age. Show all posts

Thursday, May 30, 2024

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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...which includes this story!

Thursday, May 23, 2024

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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featuring the Thor stories that appeared in front of the never-reprinted tales we present!
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Tuesday, May 21, 2024

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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Saturday, May 18, 2024

Space Force Saturdays THREE ROCKETEERS "Long Long Years"

Introduced in Harvey's Race for the Moon #3 (1958)...

This team of intrepid explorers survived the book's cancellation to appear in other Harvey titles over the next decade!

Penciled (and possibly written) by Jack Kirby and inked by Al Williamson, the team's debut exemplifies the 1950's optimism that science and humanity's desire to explore the unknown would enable us to set up space stations and moonbases within a few decades!
Sadly, as of the end of the first quarter of the 21st Century, over half a century later, we ain't there yet!
Yeah, we have one small space station, but nothing like what we envisioned...
Now that's a space station!
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(which reprints all the Kirby Three Rocketeer stories!)
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Thursday, May 16, 2024

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

...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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Tuesday, May 14, 2024

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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Saturday, May 11, 2024

Space Hero Saturdays FLASH GORDON "Monster Men of Tropica!"

Probably the Last Artist You'd Think of Illustrating Flash and Dale on Mongo...

...would be sword and sorcery/gothic fantasy artist Jeffrey Catherine Jones!


But, Jones was a serious Alex Raymond/Flash Gordon fan, so this work in Charlton's Flash Gordon #13 (1969), while a bit rough, showed enormous love and enthusiasm for the character.
And Charlton's notoriously-bad printing didn't help showcase Jones' art!
Written by Bill Pearson. Penciled and inked by Jeff Jones (as they were known then).
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