Reading Room SPACE MAN "Out Into Space" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Space Heroes...

Returing to Earth after successfully breaching the Anti-Force that kept humans from leaving Earth orbit, Ian and Johnny must keep the secret from the public that they are now part of a secret interplanetary defense force operated by a (dare I say) federation of planets to protect the galaxy.

The series would run another seven issues that got even weirder and wilder than this premiere from Dell's Four Color #1253.

We'll be presenting those tales in the future.

Reading Room SPACE MAN "Out Into Space" Part 3

We Have Already Seen...

Hey, we're in the middle of a war here!

Check out Part 1 and Part 2, when you have a chance.

In the meantime, dive in...

Think this is the end of the story?

Heck, it's not even the end of the issue!

Be here tomorrow, when our heroes face the world...and lie through their teeth to almost everyone!

Illustrated by Jack Sparling, and probably written by Joe Gill, this story from Dell's Four Color #1253 (1962) was the kickoff to a series that would continue for seven more issues in the early 1960s, then disappear from view...until now!

Reading Room SPACE MAN "Out Into Space" Part 2

When Last We Left Our Space Heroes...

In the near-future (as seen from 1962), the experimental X-1825 attempts to break through the "Anti-Force" surrounding Earth that keeps spacecraft from going any further into outer space than orbiting our world.

Veteran spaceman Ian Stannard and rookie Johnny Mack manage to steer the ship through the barrier and land on the Moon's surface where they are surrounded by silent humanoids in spacesuits who bring them to an underground city...

Battle is joined, and the mayhem continues...tomorrow!

This book-length tale from Dell's Four Color Comics #1253 (1962) was illustrated by Jack Sparling and probably scripted by Joe Gill.

Reading Room SPACE MAN "Out Into Space" Part 1

Beginning: a long-lost space epic of a federation of alien worlds, cyborgs, a secret Earth defense force, and flying saucers...

...years before Star Trek, Six Million Dollar Man, or UFO were broadcast over the airwaves!

What...or who...is at the end of the corridor?

Find out...tomorrow!

With a real-life space program well under way, this book-length tale from Dell's Four Color Comics #1253 (1962) was an attempt to "update" the sort of space opera popular with comic and pulp fans of the 1940s-50s like Speed Carter: SpaceMan and Space Squadron by setting it in the near-future instead of 50 or more years later.

Illustrated by Jack Sparling, who used the then-current Mercury astronauts' spacesuit designs, but Chesley Bonestell's already-outdated spacecraft concepts (probably because the finned ships looked cooler than the actual Atlas and Redstone rockets NASA used) as reference.

While the writer/series creator is unknown, he's believed to be Joe Gill who is credited for the later entries in what would turn out to be an eight-issue run.

It's Summertime! Refresh Yourself with Kooba Kola!

Wait a second...You CAN'T!
It doesn't exist!
(You can read the sordid tale of the soda that almost took the world by storm here!)

Now, you can't DRINK it, but you can WEAR it!
With Memorial Day weekend upon us, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ decided to re-present the Soda That Would Not Die on collectibles ranging from BeachWear / NightShirts to mugs, iPad / netbook / messenger bags (and the irony of doing bags with "Kooba" on them hasn't escaped us!), iPhone cases, and hoodies at KoobaCola 1 and KoobaCola 2!
So celebrate what could have been one of the bubbliest success stories of soft drink entepreneurship, but instead just fizzled out and fell flat!
(You just knew we were gonna do a pun like that, didn't you?)  ;-)