Monday, November 12, 2012

Reading Room: ABRAHAM LINCOLN: LIFE STORY "Part 4"

From the day of his birth, Abraham Lincoln's life was a mixture of triumph and tragedy.
Now a young man in his mid-20s, he goes off to seek employment working on the Mississippi River...
We'll continue with Lincoln's political campaign...
This section of Dell's never-reprinted one-shot Abraham Lincoln: Life Story (1958) was written by Gaylord DuBois, and illustrated by Alberto Giolitti, known to American comics readers as the primary illustrator of the Gold Key Star Trek comic book of the 1960s-70s.
Note: the story is over 80 pages, so it's going to run through Friday.
But it's a story worth telling, especially with a new Steven Spielberg-directed feature film starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Honest Abe currently out in limited run, so I'm going ahead and I hope you'll join me.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Reading Room: SPACE ADVENTURES "Unknown Element"

Here's a never-reprinted tale...
...about the perils of exploring Inner (rather than Outer) Space, illustrated by a most unexpected artist!
This short story from Charlton's Space Adventures #12 (1954) was one of the last tales penciled by Superman co-creator Joe Shuster, who ended his comics career doing work for Fawcett and Charlton.
The inker was Spurs Jackson's John Belfi, but the writer is unknown.
BTW, when I said the story was "never-reprinted", I was somewhat incorrect.
(Yeah, it's hard to believe, but true!)
While the tale itself has never been re-presented in print, the splash page was modified and used as the cover for IW's Jet Power #1 (1958), which reprinted material from Magazine Enterprises' Jet and Space Ace comics!

Friday, November 9, 2012

Reading Room: ABRAHAM LINCOLN: LIFE STORY "Part 3"

From the day of his birth, Abraham Lincoln's life was a mixture of triumph and tragedy.
Moving constantly to find better-quality farmland, the Lincoln family endured hardship due to famines and floods.
Eventually, they found themselves on the very edge of America's Western frontier, where they were able to settle for an extended period, but at a terrible cost...the life of their beloved mother due to "milk sickness, which forced the two Lincoln children to accept adult responsibilities much earlier than they normally would have to.
When their father remarried, the children acquired both a new mother and three siblings...
This section of Dell's never-reprinted one-shot Abraham Lincoln: Life Story (1958) was written by Gaylord DuBois, and illustrated by Alberto Giolitti (except the first two pages, which were penciled by John Buscema and inked by Giolitti).
Note: the story is over 80 pages, so it's going to run through next Friday.
But it's a story worth telling, especially with a new Steven Spielberg-directed feature film starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Honest Abe coming out today, so I'm going ahead and I hope you'll join me.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Reading Room: ABRAHAM LINCOLN: LIFE STORY "Part 2"

From the day of his birth, Abraham Lincoln's life was a mixture of triumph and tragedy.
Moving constantly to find better-quality farmland, the Lincoln family endured hardship due to famines and floods.
Eventually, they found themselves on the very edge of America's Western frontier...
"Milk-sickness" was caused by drinking the milk of cows who had ingested plants that, while harmless to bovines, was lethal to humans.
This section of Dell's never-reprinted one-shot Abraham Lincoln: Life Story (1958) was written by Gaylord DuBois, penciled by John Buscema, and inked by Alberto Giolitti.
Buscema would pencil the remainder of this chapter about Lincoln's boyhood, then Giolitti would assume both pencil and ink tasks for most of the remainder of the book, up until the final few pages detailing Lincoln's assassination, which Buscema penciled.
Note: the story is over 80 pages, so it's going to run through next Friday.
But it's a story worth telling, especially with a new Steven Spielberg-directed feature film starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Honest Abe coming out tomorrow, so I'm going ahead and I hope you'll join me.