Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder MYST "Passages"

One of the most popular video games of the 1990s was never played in an arcade...
...because it was conceived and designed, from the beginning, for use on then-new desktop home computers!
The puzzle-solving game was a phenomenon of the time, with the title (and sequels) becoming the best-selling computer game series until after The Sims debuted a decade later!
This never-told tale from Dark Horse's Myst #0 (1997) is the prequel to the comic book series which itself is a prequel to the events of the game...

Written by Chris Ulm and illustrated by Kirk Van Wormer, the tale expands on the backstory already presented in the game and associated novel, The Book of Atrius.
It lead into the mini-series Myst: The Book of the Black Ships...which was cancelled after only one issue due to creative differences between Dark Horse and the game's creators at Cyan, Inc.
But You'll See It Here...in March!
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Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Reading Room ASTONISHING "Unknown Ones!"

The story's title has a double meaning to graphic literature aficionados...
...since it also covers the fact this story hasn't been seen in color since 1957!
It was reprinted (in b/w) in Dark Horse's Al Williamson: Hidden Lands TPB (2004), but that OOP tome had a very limited print run.
Written by Carl Wessler, this Williamson-penciled and Roy Krenkel-inked tale from Atlas' Astonishing #57 (1957) was done after the horror comics purge of the mid-1950s reduced EC Comics to just MAD Magazine, and the majority of now-unemployed artists were scrambling around for work.
Besides Atlas, Williamson was freelancing for ACG and Harvey, doing full pencils and inks, inking others like Jack Kirby and Matt Baker, or, as in this case, penciling for others (usually fellow Fleagle Gang members*) to ink.

*The "Fleagles" were a group of artists including Williamson, Krenkel, Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, Angelo Torres, and George Woodbridge who would help each other out on tight deadlines by doing a "jam" with individuals penciling and inking different pages and even different panels on a single page, producing some absolutely amazing visuals!
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Monday, January 24, 2022

Monday Madness STRANGE TALES "Zzutak: the Thing That Shouldn't Exist!" Part 2

Sci-fi magazine cover artist Frank Johnson, desperate to top his previous efforts, tries out a set of "three-dimensional paints" offered by a mysterious sttanger, that cause whatever he draws to not only exist as a three-dimensional object...but also to come to life!
Accepting the paint set as a gift, he is suddenly-compelled to journey to a remote part of Mexico, where he paints his greatest monster of all, Zzutak, on a giant canvas!
But...why?
Now, all shall be revealed!
You'd think the colorist of the cover for Atlas' Strange Tales #88 (1961) didn't communicate with the colorist for the story itself, since he transposed the coloring for Zzutak and his unnamed adversary...
...except the two colorists were the same guy, Stan Goldberg!
I can only speculate the cover and interior were colored at two different times and, in the confusion, someone lost track of who was orange and who was green!
When the story was reprinted in Marvel's Fear #3 (1971), the unknown colorist got the second monster right, but still got Zzutak wrong!
 
When the story was reprinted in Germany, a new, painted cover got Zzutak's color right, though not all the details of his design/anatomy!
Poor Zzutak is postitively unreocognizable on his most recent reprint appearance in Marvel's Monster Menace #3 (1994), even though he's rendered by the guy who inked his story back in 1961...Steve Ditko!
(And he's portrayed correctly in the "character box" in the upper left corner of the cover!)
Zzutak was the cover-featured monster on #4 of Marvel's Monsters Unleashed (2017) with this superb Francesco Francavilla variant cover...
This mini-series featured a new character named Kid Kaiju aka Kei Kawade, an Inhuman who could control giant monsters he illustrates...including Zzutak!
Bur a decade earlier, Zzutak, Frank Johnson, and the Aztecs, returned in a never-reprinted adventure featuring a team of Marvel heroes!
You'll see that story next Monday!
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Sunday, January 23, 2022

In the Technological Dark Ages, Before Social Media...

...the main way people kept track of their love lives was thru Love Letters & Love Diaries!
In fact, they made up one of the most popular sub-categories of romance comics, with literally dozens of titillating titles!

Let our selection of the best of these these kitchy, campy (and very kool) classic comics covers help you express your true feelings on the Most Important of Days--Valentines Day on greeting cards, teddy bears, mugs, and even "naughty" undies!

And, if they can't assist your love-life, perhaps something from one of our other sections at True Love Comics Tales™ including...

(or is that Love in School?)
will help get your point across on the Most Important of Days!
But order quickly, V-Day is less than a month away!

Saturday, January 22, 2022

Space Force Saturdays SPACE PATROL "Balloon Men of Jupiter"

Just when you think you've seen the weirdest art Basil Wolverton could create...
...you find something even weirder!

The multi-talented Basil Wolverton wrote, illustrated, lettered, and probably colored, this wild tale from Amazing Mystery Funnies #21 (1940).
I'd love to see someone animate these classics of surreal storytelling.
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Basil Wolverton in Space
Reprinting the entire Space Patrol series along with other kool tales and extras!