Friday, December 26, 2014

Best of Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "U.F.O.: Healers from Nowhere"

With New Year's Day coming up, why not re-present a time-travel tale?
...especially one with an amazing assortment of contributors!
Sooner than you think, Mr Mann...like Tomorrow!
This rather low-key story from Charlton's Space Adventures #60 (1967) was the first part of a three-part book-length tale that gets wilder as it goes on.
Not that unusual for comics of the Silver Age...except for three things:
1) It was a full-length story in an anthology title.
Anthology books usually had two or more stand-alone stories.
2) The story produced a sequel, which was published a year later!
3) Most importantly, each chapter of this tale was illustrated by a different artist!
This premiere chapter was rendered by "Melonius Thonk" (a play on popular jazz musician Thelonius Monk) a pen-name used to cover an apparent artist jam since every page has different stylistic elements.
The remaining two chapters were rendered by artists who penciled and inked their own work, as you'll see over the next two days.
BTW, the entire story from the final issue of this book's first run was written by Denny O'Neil using his "Sergius O'Shaughnessy" pseudonom.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Holiday Reading Room SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "Night Before Christmas"

There have been numerous graphic adaptations of this classic tale by Clement Clarke Moore.
...this is the third comics version (and one of the best), from Dell's Four Color Comics #61 (1944)
Story taken verbatim from the original, art by Arthur E. Jameson.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Holiday Reading Room SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "Carolers"

Walt (Pogo) Kelly doesn't need captions or word balloons...
...to tell his story in this never-reprinted piece from Dell's Four Color Comics #91 (1945).
BTW, the reason it's just red and black is that it's on the inside back cover of the comic, which was printed with only two colors (instead of the usual four colors) to save money.

Monday, December 22, 2014

SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "Santa's New Mode of Transportation"

One of the koolest Christmas covers ever...
...which most people don't realize is a wraparound, since they've only seen the front and, as a result, don't get the joke!
This cover for Dell's Santa Claus Funnies #1 (1942) has never been reprinted in full!
I've seen the front cover in a number of reference books, but never the back one.
BTW, the reason Santa's driving a Jeep is that it's wartime, and the vehicle had just been introduced into America's Arsenal!
Though the artist is considered "unknown" by the Grand Comics Database, it looks a lot like Walt (Pogo) Kelly, who was working at Dell, and contributed a couple of stories to the book.