Sunday, May 25, 2025

The RetroBlogs 2025 Summer Blogathons are Coming...

Starting July 1st, we're running several blogathons...
With Fantastic Four: First Flight finally incorporating the characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we're presenting this long-OOP (almost a half-century) premiere prose novel (as compared to graphic novel) about them right here at
Atomic Kommie Comics
The legendary Man of Bronze takes on the Nazis at the 1936 Olympics as they put up an athlete who was trained from birth using the same techniques that Dr Clark Savage Sr used for Doc in this never-reprinted, almost 40 year-old extra-long comic!
Guest appearances by historical figures including Jesse Owens and Adolf (You Know Who)!
See the Nazi-Punching action at
Hero Histories and Medical Comics and Stories
Almost 40 years ago, there was a "high-concept" series about a tired, disillusioned comic book creator whose characters (a wholesome, upright superhero and hardboiled private detective) entered the real world!
With only seven episodes produced (four unaired), it's been largely-forgotten.
But there was a never-reprinted 2-issue adaptation of the pilot episode!
You'll see that at
Secret Sanctum of Captain Video
Here's a never-reprinted 1994 graphic novel based on Peter O'Donnell's first Modesty Blaise book, which provided about as much a basis for the 1966 movie as Ian Fleming's Casino Royale did for the 1967 flick based on that novel!
See what O'Donnell really intended at
Heroines!
And, of course, another entry in our "Beach Read" book-length gothic romance comic story series at
True Love Comics Tales
Stay cool...and kool...with
RetroBlogs
this Summer!

Saturday, May 24, 2025

Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "Flying Saucers of Death!"

Though He Doesn't Go into Outer Space in This Post...

...the "Sentinel of the Spaceways" does take on flying saucers like The Shadow, Buck Rogers. and Spurs Jackson before him!








Trivia: The insignia shown in the final panel are from the US Army Air Corps, the predecessor to the US Air Force....which was formed in September, 1947.
But, though the cover date is 1948, the story was written and illustrated around summer 1947...before the official creation of the Air Force!
Dr Osmosis had appeared once before, in Fawcett's Captain Midnight #52 (1947).
Intended to be an ongoing genius criminal arch-enemy to Cap, his career was derailed by the introduction of colorful alien enemies to battle Midnight.
Dr Osmosis would appear twice more, then disappear into the ether!

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Friday, May 23, 2025

Friday Fun DUNC AND LOO "Loo in 'Hot Potato' "

Remember When Not All "Teen Humor" Comics Looked Like Archie?

This never-reprinted story from Dell's Dunc and Loo #8 (1963), featuring title slacker Loo is a kool example!





Scallions, also called "green onions" or "spring onions", are immature, not fully-grown onions!
Usually, they're used as a minor flavor element in cooked dishes and salads.
I've never heard of a "scallion sandwich"!
Trivia: The book was originally-titled Around the Block with Dunc and Loo, but was shortened to just Dunc and Loo as of #4.
(Apparently suburban and rural readers used "corner" or "street" instead of "block" when referring to addresses, so the original title confused them!)
Written by John Stanley and illustrated by Bill Williams (the series' co-creators).
It was one of three "teen humor" series created for Dell by Stanley, including Kookie and Thirteen (Going on Eighteen) for Dell.
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Thursday, May 22, 2025

Reading Room LOST WORLDS "Man Who Didn't Know Venus"

Nedor/Better/Standard Comics produced several sci-fi anthologies...
...none of which lasted more than three issues.
But it certainly wasn't due to lack of quality.
With a contributor list that included Alex Toth, Ross Andru, Mike Sekowsky, Nick Cardy, and Jack Katz, you're talking some of the great and soon-to-be-great storytellers of comics history!
But, there was one other sci-fi creator who did a story for Lost Worlds, one of only four tales he did for comic books.
Jerome Bixby, novelist and short-story writer, as well as screenwriter whose credits include...
IT! the Terror from Beyond Space!
Fantastic Voyage
Star Trek "Mirror, Mirror"*, "By Any Other Name", "Requiem for Methuselah" and "Day of the Dove"
and the short story "It's a Good Life" which was adapted on both the original Twilight Zone tv series (by Rod Serling) and the 1983 feature film (by Richard Matheson).
BTW, around the time he wrote this, Bixby had just left his position as editor of the Planet Stories pulp magazine at Fiction House, where he also contributed a couple of text pieces to Planet Comics and Indians (his only non-genre text story)!
*The Mirror Universe created by Bixby in "Mirror, Mirror" has proven to be so popular that it has reappeared in almost all the spin-off series spanning almost all of Federation and StarFleet history!
And let's not get into the numerous (sometimes contradictory) novels and comics about the concept...
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Masters of Science Fiction Volume 2
Jerome Bixby
"One Way Street" and Other Tales

Note: "One Way Street's" concept of being transferred to another universe was the thematic basis for "Mirror, Mirror"!
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Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder INVASION '55 "Something Strange on the Radar"

Square-Jawed, Heroic Aviators!
Wise-Ass Teen-Agers!
Terrified, Helpless Women!
Innocent, Annoying Kids!
ALIENS!!!


It's the 1950s...as seen from the 1990s, courtesy of writer Chuck Dixon and artist Lito Fernandez!














To Be Continued...
Next Wednesday!
Though both the original Apple Press miniseries and IDW trade paperback reprint (available below) are in b/w, a Spanish-language reprint book was fully-colored...


I don't know if it was because Dixon & Fernandez wanted to retain the "b/w B-movie feel" in the IDW reprint or not, but the Spanish book's coloring is muted and very effective!
And if they wanted the "b/w B-movie feel", why didn't they add grey tones to the b/w art?
You'll note the Spanish version adds a "Fin" (end) at this point.
It's not in the American version.
Nor is there a title for the story itself!
We added one translated from the one in the Spanish edition!
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