Reading Room TALES TO ASTONISH "I Fell to the Center of the Earth!"

Here's a kool 1950s sci-fi story penciled by Matt Baker, whose speciality was "good girl" art!

Yet, there's not a single beautiful woman (not even a cavewoman), in this story, one of his few assignments for Atlas (later Marvel) Comics!

When this story appeared in Atlas' Tales to Astonish #2 (1959), Baker was near the end of his career, working through Vince Colletta's studio, doing only penciling to increase his productivity.

Vince Colletta inked the pages, and it's possible that, seeing how much detail Colletta tended to leave out during inking, Baker did less-detailed pencils than normal.

The writer is unknown, but it's believed to be the book's editor Stan Lee.
Penciler Matt Baker was one of the few Black comic book artists of the Golden and Silver Ages, and was easily the most prolific of them!
Though known for his "good girl" art, including the famous (and infamous) Phantom Girl stories, he handled every genre with ease, including horror, war, sci-fi, and romance!
Sadly, though, few of his stories featured Black characters...who were rare in comics until the mid-1960s!
You can read a short, but complete bio HERE!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour
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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder PSYCHO "Swordsman of Sarn in 'City of Living Light!' "

Created in 1971 for Skywald's b/w magazine Science Fiction Odyssey...

...this cover by Jeffrey Catherine Jones and the following story by writer Gardner Fox, penciler Jack Katz, and inker Vince Colletta were left homeless when the book was cancelled before publication.

However, both were presented in Skywald's Psycho #12 (1973!)!

Enjoy!

This was obviously-meant to be an ongoing high-adventure series in the John Carter/Gullivar Jones mold.

Sadly, there was no follow-up!
Note: Though the cover for Psycho #12 didn't really display Jeff Jones' art to best advantage...

 ...when the cover was reprinted in Toutain Editor's 1984 #36 (1982) in Spain...

...it got the treatment it deserved!

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Complete Illustrated History of the Skywald Horror-Mood!

(which covers both the company's b/w magazines and color comics!)

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Monday Mutant Madness MECHANIX ILLUSTRATED "How Nuclear Radiation can Change Our Race"

From Fawcett's Mechanix Illustrated V49N8 (1953)...

...a cautionary tale about mutants produced by exposure to atomic radiation...written by Otto Binder and illustrated by Kurt Schaffenberger!

Did it help inspire Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Werner Roth, and Vince Colletta in creating this sequence in Marvel's X-Men #14 (1965)?

You tell us!

Holiday Reading Room YOUNG DOCTORS "Dr Tom Brent: Christmas Comes in August!"

You have no idea how few medical-themed Yuletide comic stories there are...

...until you try to find one...and end up with a tale that's the victim of terrible printing!

This never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Young Doctors #6 (1963) unfortunately shows off the terrible printing Charlton Comics was famous for!

The publisher didn't utilize the printing companies literally every other comics publisher used.

Instead, to save money, they printed on old, second-hand printing presses.

But those presses had been constructed to handle cardboard and plastic packaging, not the much-thinner newsprint paper used for comics!

As a result, their comics had an amazing amount of smearing and off-register color, as you can see from the first page.

It's a shame, because the art by penciler Joe Sinnott and inker Vince Colletta deserves a better presentation!

BTW, Young Doctors was an anthology title featuring tales of all the MDs who had their own Charlton books at the time, including, of course, Dr Tom Brent, Young Intern!

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Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories

Reading Room WORLD OF FANTASY "Brain Picker!"

Nuclear accidents mutating everyday people were common in pre-Marvel tales...

...plotted or written by Stan Lee for Atlas Comics...except they didn't result in costumed superheroes...or costumed supervillains!

If this never-reprinted story by plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, penciler Matt Baker and inker Vince Colletta, from Atlas' World of Fantasy #17 (1959) had appeared after the intro of the Fantastic Four in 1961, I don't doubt Frederic Kane would've become an ongoing super-villain and scientist brother Phillip would've become his nemesis, probably working with S.H.I.E.L.D. and/or Professor X to stop him!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour

Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Long Patrol"

Here's a never-reprinted Silver Age tale...

...that has a definite Golden Age "look" and "feel" to it!

Written by Joe Gill, penciled by Charles Nicholas, and inked by Vince Colletta, this story from Charlton's Space Adventures V2N6 (1969) feels like it's been edited down from a longer version.

Things happen almost arbitrarily, like the astronauts' home base knowing they've been mind-controlled by aliens, or the crewmen being deliberately-incapacitated by equipment on board we (and probably they) knew nothing about!

It's an interesting, but unsatisfying, tale...a rarity from Charlton.

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

Reading Room SPACE WARS "Strange World"

A never-reprinted short story that could've been produced as an episode of the original Twilight Zone...

...from Charlton's Space War #22 (1963).

Was this a longer tale edited down to only three pages?

It certainly feels like it, since there are many unanswered questions like...

If these people are Tibetan, why are they dressed like the Flintstones...and why do they speak English?
How would they know anything about the Earth-Uranus War?
And why is it we have no idea how only Heffner survived?
Pencils by Dick Giordano, inks by Vince Colletta.
The writer is unknown, but the Grand Comics Database postulates Joe Gill as the most likely candidate.

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Taylor History of Comics: Volume 3
Science Fiction Comics

Baker Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Green Fog!"

Before a long-haired hippie (hey, it was the Swinging Sixties) with a hammer took over the book...

....Atlas-Marvel's Journey into Mystery was first a horror, then sci-fi anthology featuring some of the best work of the era...quite a bit of it never-reprinted, like this tale from #50 (1959), penciled by the legendary Matt Baker and inked by Vince Colletta!

The scripter is unknown, but probably isn't editor Stan Lee, who tended to incorporate his distinctive signature into the title page when he wrote the story.

You'll note the inking is much more detailed here than in the previous Baker Reading Room story, also inked by Colletta, but published by Charlton!

Atlas' reproduction quality was better than Charlton's, so art studio owner/inker Colletta (who packaged stories for Atlas, Charlton, Dell and others) put more effort into the final product.

The Marvel Masterworks: Journey into Mystery reprint series ended with Volume Four (2012), which only reprinted up to #40, so almost all the non-Thor and Tales of Asgard material since #40 (including this story) hasn't been seen since original publication!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour