Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Reading Room: EARTH MAN ON VENUS "Chapter 1"

After the success of Princess of Mars and the other Barsoom tales...
..."scientific romances" became a major genre in pulp fiction, with tales of Earthmen transported to alien worlds appearing in both genre and mainstream magazines!
Tomorrow:
One of the more successful "high-adventure on other worlds" series was the Radio Man saga by Ralph Milne Farley.
Set on Venus, the tales of radio expert Miles Cabot were different enough from John Carter's adventures to warrant a half-dozen magazine serials, all of which were compiled as stand-alone novels.
Here's a kool article about the series at ERB.com.
The first story, Radio Man, was retitled Earth Man on Venus when Avon reprinted it in the 1950s.
Art by Ray Johnson
Simultaneous with the reprint was a one-shot comic adaptation illustrated by Wally Wood with Joe Orlando and Sid Check doing inking and minor redrawing.
(The adaptation's scripter is unknown.)
Ironically, the comic book version has been reprinted numerous times, and is probably far more familiar to current sci-fi fans than the original story (which is a shame, since the novel is pretty good)!

Monday, May 27, 2013

Happy Memorial Day

Get outside, enjoy the beautiful weather, have fun.
But, don't forget to say "thank you" to the surviving veterans in your circle of family and friends for making it possible to do so in a free country.
A public service message from your pals at
Atomic Kommie Comics™

Sunday, May 26, 2013

DESIGN OF THE WEEK "FoxHole"

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another.
This week, celebrate Memorial Day with a Klassic Kirby Kover from the comic that was written and illustrated by veterans...FoxHole!
Available on military green shirts and other apporpriate collectibles!

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Join Us in the Peter Cushing Centennial Blogathon!

To celebrate the 100th birthday of horror cinema legend Peter Cushing, a wild collection of bloggers (including yours truly) are doing a blogathon!
You can see our entries (there'll be a couple) over the next few days at Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™, where we're covering Cushing's turn as Doctor Who!

Friday, May 24, 2013

Reading Room: ROBOTMEN OF THE LOST PLANET "Rise of the Humans"

...in the far future, robots have rebeled and conquered the human race.
Humanity's survivors have been forced from cities and towns and now live in caves on the outskirts.
But, after ten years, newly-armed humans are about to take back the planet...
This 1952 one-shot title from Avon Comics was scripted by Walter (The Shadow) Gibson and rendered by Gene Fawcette.
Avon did an amazing amount of one-time-only titles, probably more than any other publisher.
Some of them were adaptations of novels Avon's paperback division had published, like An Earthman on Venus (which we'll be running soon).
Others, like RobotMen, were original stories.