Sunday, September 8, 2013

Design of the Week: CAMPUS ROMANCES

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another.
This week: Vacation is over, time to get back to work or school!
But what goes on when class is not in session?
This vintage comic book cover from Avon's Campus Romances #2 (1949) gives you the answer!
NOTE: The art was originally used on an Avon paperback novel, entitled Where the Girls were Different by Erskine Caldwell [1948].
The comic does not adapt any Caldwell stories.
Available on adult t-shirts, mugs, e-reader, laptop, and phone cases, and many other goodies!

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Reading Room: JET POWERS "Thing from the Meteor"

We ran this tale in our old, smaller format, but it deserves a bigger presentation...
More 1950s alien invaders, this time with a never-reprinted tale from Magazine Enterprises' Jet #1 (1950)!
Of course,  if the insectoid alien invaded today, Earth would've been totally-screwed since both lead-based paint and DDT are now banned!
It's a tale that '50s state-of-the-art special effects would've been hard-pressed to do convincingly, but for illustrator Bob Powell, it took only his talented pencil and brush to make you believe a sentient insect could...dare I say it...rule the world!

And check out...

Friday, September 6, 2013

Reading Room: JUMBO COMICS "This Time Tomorrow"

What will TV be like in the 24th Century?

It could be a weird combo of fact and docudrama as shown in this never-reprinted tale from Fiction House's Jumbo Comics #166 (1953)
Was this meant to be the debut of an ongoing series?
Since a sequel didn't appear in the next issue of Jumbo Comics (which was the last one in the series), we'll never know.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Reading Room: "Flower of Death"

In sci fi/fantasy, meteors and meteorites often brought aliens to Earth...
...as in this never-reprinted tale from Youthful's Captain Science #5 (1951) shows!
NOTE: May be NSFW due to politically-incorrect ethnic stereotypes.
Both the writer and artist(s) of this odd tale (that would've made a kool B-movie) are unknown!

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Reading Room: DRACULA "A Story of the Stars"

A surreal 1970s sci-fi tale in a magazine called "Dracula"?
BTW, despite the magazine being called "Dracula", the legendary vampire never appears in any of the stories!
The tale, written and illustrated by Jose M Bea was originally published in England in Dracula #11 (1972), a partworks magazine* by New English Library.
Some of the stories from this project made their American debut in Warren Publishing's HTF Dracula TPB in 1972 which reprinted #1-#6 of the British Dracula's run.
The remaining tales from #7-#12 (including this one) have never been published in the US.
*Partworks magazines are a limited series issued weekly, fortnightly, or monthly.
They usually run 12-24 issues for each volume.
When the final issue in a volume is published, the publishers offer a wraparound cover to make the complete set into a hardbound book. 
The buyer is offered the option to bind the magazines themselves or send the set to the publisher who professionally-binds the mags and sends the bound volume back to the customer.
This concept is extremely popular in Europe, but has never caught on in America, despite numerous attempts.