Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Reading Room: WEIRD THRILLERS "Fisherman of Space"

Weird Thrillers was a 1950s sci-fi comic with painted covers...
Art by Allen Anderson
..which helped set the Ziff-Davis comic series apart from others on the newsstands!
All Ziff-Davis comics, no matter the genre, had painted covers, usually by the same artists who did cover art for their large pulp magazine line.
(Avon Comics also used paintings from time-to-time, but not throughout the line, and not on a consistent basis.)
Z-D was a latecomer to the comics business, publishing their first title in 1950 and canceling most titles by the end of 1952, continuing one book, G.I. Joe, until 1957.
During the comic division's brief existence, Z-D published over fifty titles, mostly one-shots and two-issue runs, covering every genre in fiction...except superheroes!
(The closest they came to superheroes were Lars of Mars and Crusader from Mars, both of whom were Martians operating undercover on Earth, and neither lasted past issue #2.)
Weird Thrillers (and it's one-shot predecessor Weird Adventures) ran a total of six issues.
Here's an example of why they lasted longer than most other Z-D titles...
This time-traversing tale from Weird Thrillers #2 (1951) was penciled by Alex Toth and inked by Sy Barry.
The writer is unknown, which is a shame, since it's a decent story with a clever, scientifically-accurate solution.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Reading Room: CAPTAIN SCIENCE "Martian Slavers"

You'll note a different look to the adventures of...
That's because he's gained a new art team!
(You can see their names in the lower-left corner of the first panel!)
So, buckle up, eager young space cadets...
Wally Wood and Joe Orlando took over the art chores as of Youthful's Captain Science #4 (1951), and you can tell these guys were having the time of their lives, as they cut loose with some of the wildest art ever to grace sci-fi comic books.
They also changed the "linked-stories" concept from the first three issues, making the two-per-issue Captain Science stories stand-alones instead of two-parters.
Unlike the earlier Captain Science stories, which have never been reprinted, these Orlando/Wood stories have been re-published all over the place, but they're still well-worth seeing again!

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Cover Preview MASKS #7

The BIG crossover of masked mystery-men continues...
...with this cover by Francisco Francavilla for #7, featuring The Shadow, The Green Hornet, and The Spider.
But who's holding the card?

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Atomic Kommie Comics' Goodies for YOUR Easter Basket!

Back in the 1940s and '50s, comic book companies produced a prodigious number of holiday annuals and one-shots.
For example, a multitude of Christmas-themed comic books flooded America's magazine racks every November and December!
(In fact, a large part of our popular Cool Christmas collection is based on them.)
But, did you know that several publishers also did Easter-oriented books?
And, that noted comics illustrators including Walt Kelly (Pogo) contributed art to them?
Believing that there's always room for more classic comics collectibles, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ added a new line of goodies to our Happy Holidays section entitled Exciting Easter!
Yes, it's eggs, bunnies, chicks, and other fuzzy animals galore digitally-restored and remastered from Baby Boomer-era classic comics covers on baby bibs, infant creepers / onesies, toddler and kid t-shirts, greeting cards, mugs, and a plethora of kool kollectibles!
They make great Easter basket stuffers! (And they won't rot your kids' teeth like marshmallow chicks or chocolate bunnies!)
So click over and see what's in our basket!

Friday, February 15, 2013

Reading Room: SPACE ACTION "Flight from Destruction"

Here's an apocalyptic tale of the future with a twist...
...direct from the Cold War!
(Considering it was published in 1952, that's not suprising!)
While the writer is unknown, the art for this tale from Ace's Space Action #3 (1952) is attributed to "Jim McLaughlin", who had a short-lived comics career doing work primarily for Ace!
After that publisher dropped comics in 1955 to concentrate on paperbacks, he did a couple of stories for Atlas/Marvel, then a run of Dell's adaptation of the TV series Gunsmoke.
Then "Jim McLaughlin" disappeared.
Totally.
Unlike most comic book artists who went on to do commercial art or newspaper strips, there's no trace of "Jim McLaughlin" after his brief foray into four-color publishing...and no background about his pre-comics career!
Here's another interesting point...his art style altered considerably during his career.
In this story, the inking looks a lot like the work of long-time artist Jim Mooney!
In fact, a number of panels resemble Mooney's work on the DC strip Tommy Tomorrow, which Jim Mooney was both penciling and inking during the same period as "Jim McLaughlin's" work for Ace!
In McLaughlin's later work (particularly his Gunsmoke art), while the layouts look similar, the inking style is totally-different!
Was "Jim McLaughlin" a pen-name for a penciler working with at least two (if not more) different inkers?