Reading Room TALES OF SUSPENSE "Voice of Doom"

Remember when we presented this kool tale a couple of weeks ago?

We discovered it was a reworking of an earlier story, plotted b Stan Lee, scripted by Larry Lieber, and illustrated by Carl Burgos, that appeared in Atlas' Tales of Suspense #4 (1959)!

The primary difference is that the original tale used a ham radio rather than the blurry tv screen of the later story, so the visualizations of the war were only in Fred's mind, the same way classic dramatic radio dramas of the 1930s-50s used dialogue, music, and sound effects to make the listeners' imaginations create the scenario!
Writer/artist Carl Burgos was one of the seminal creators of the Marvel Universe.
His creation, the Golden Age Human Torch was the cover-featured character on the first Timely (later Marvel) comic called (appropriately) Marvel Comics!
(Burgos showed a marked preference for android heroes, creating not only the original Human Torch, but the White Streak, and the first Silver Age Captain Marvel!)
This particular tale remained lost to history until the first (and only) reprinting in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Tales of Suspense Vol 1 (2006), over half a century later!
Which version do you prefer?

Reading Room FANTASY MASTERPIECES "I Became a Human Robot"

"Employing a style that combines decorative embellishment with crisp, clear, no-nonsense storytelling..."

"...this talented artisan (Joe Sinnott) has long been one of the most durable and dependable of illustrators." --Stan Lee

Note: this story was originally presented in Tales of Suspense #5 (1959), not Suspense, which was a 1940s-1950s Atlas comic based on the popular radio and TV anthology series of the same name!

In terms of the story itself, how did the scientists know the button on the robot's head would turn it on/off?

And, more importantly, why did the aliens put it there when they built the automaton?

Why not somewhere a little less obvious?

Since the writer is unknown, there's no way to ask him/her.

Joe Sinnott is best-known to Marvel fans as one of the slickest inkers ever, making great pencils look amazing, and salavaging mediocre pencils with his slick style.

Oddly, almost all his Silver Age pencil work was for other companies like Gold Key and Charlton, on licensed titles like 12 O'Clock High, religious-themed stories for Treasure Chest, and romance books, usually inked by Vince Colletta, who obliterated much of the detail work!

BTW, unlike the other Fantasy Masterpieces tales we've presented, this one was reprinted fairly recently, in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales of Suspense #1 (2006)

Tomorrow, another Silver Age stalwart shows us "how it's done".

YouTube Wednesday Reux: IRON MAN "Enter Hawkeye" (& Black Widow)

While everyone's familiar with Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, and Captain America, most don't know...

Hawkeye and the Black Widow!
Hawkeye the Marksman first appeared as a misunderstood hero in Iron Man's series in Tales of Suspense #57, where he met the already-ongoing villainess (yes, villainess) Black Widow!
That story and it's follow-ups in Tales of Suspense #60 & 61...

...were the basis for the cartoon from the Marvel SuperHeroes Show (1966) below!

The previous episode in the Iron Man series had introduced the Black Widow in a tale adapted from Tales of Suspense #46 (the first Crimson Dynamo story)...

  ...and Tales of Suspense #52 (the sequel which featured the Black Widow's first appearance)!

The episode features one of the characters actually dying on screen (A rarity in 60s cartoons)!

Enjoy!