BTW, this was our #1 selling-design!
Cute, ain't it? ;-)
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Happy Easter
BTW, this was our #1 selling-design!
Cute, ain't it? ;-)
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Reading Room: SPACEHAWK "Moon Justice"
Basil Wolverton really enjoyed doing SpaceHawk...
...and even took a crack at writing a short text story starring the character, as seen in this tale from Target Comics #15 (1941)
The same issue this prose piece appeared, the SpaceHawk strip's format was changed in a direction Wolverton was not
happy about; moving the hero from outer space to Earth to use his
advanced technology to battle threats from thinly-disguised surrogates
of the Axis powers.
(This was pre-Pearl Harbor, and we weren't at war at the time, so the stories were still set in the future!)
Once America entered the war, SpaceHawk was actually transported thru time to the "present day" (1942) to fight the real Hitler, Hirohito, Mussolini, and their minions.
So you might consider this text story to be Wolverton's last try to convince the editor to keep the strip in deep space.
It didn't work.
Friday, March 25, 2016
Holiday Reading Room: TICK-TOCK TALES "Koko & Kola Meet the Red Easter Bunny"
Walt (Pogo) Kelly didn't have a monopoly on Easter-themed stories...
...in fact, Magazine Entertainment's Tick Tock Tales #4 (1946) presented both a cover and several stories (including this one) featuring it's ongoing characters teamed-up with the Easter Bunny!
The artwork is by Leon Jason Comic Art Studios who supplied funny-animal art to numerous publishers including Magazine Entertainment, Spotlight Publishing, Novelty Press and EC Comics (before they did horror) during the 1940s and '50s.
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Reading Room 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY "Norton of New York 2040 A.D." Conclusion
After a disappointing interactive experience at the Comicsville amusement facility, Norton heads home...
Can a comics fanboy save the Earth?
At the time (1975), writer/penciler Jack Kirby was heavily-criticized for much of his output after returing to Marvel.
The audience wanted more Marvel continuity-oriented material, considering his Captain America and Black Panther series to be too drastic a change in their creative direction and new projects like Eternals, Devil Dinosaur, and 2001 (which didn't tie-in to the Marvel Universe) to be eccentric failures.
Kirby ended up integrating some series into the MU, introducing S.H.I.E.L.D. into The Eternals and creating X-51 (originally called "Mister Machine", but altered to "Machine Man" when Ideal Toys claimed trademark infrigement.) in the final three issues of 2001.
Marvel brought Devil Dinosaur into conflict with Godzilla, then made him a member of Fallen Angels.
Ironically, Kirby's work from this period is now lauded as exciting, innovative, and even astoundingly-creative and is almost all back in print (except for 2001, due to licensing problems!)
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Reading Room 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY "Norton of New York 2040 A.D." Part 1
Jack "King" Kirby presented the idea of an interactive comics-themed amusement park 39 years ago...
...in this never-reprinted tale from Marvel's 2001: A Space Odyssey #5 (1977).
And kids today wonder why we still call him "The King".
BTW, at the time, letters columns and fanzines (we didn't have blogs and message boards back then) complained Kirby was mocking comics fans!
Written and penciled by Kirby, inked by Mike Royer, this highly-imaginative series based on the concepts presented in the landmark Stanley Kubrick/Arthur C Clarke cinematic collaboration and goes off in directions that only Kirby could conceive.
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