Reading Room PLANET COMICS "Life on Other Worlds: Pluto"

As the spacecraft New Horizons approaches Pluto for our closest look ever at that frozen world...

...let's have a look at what we thought it might be like in 1946!

Mind you, Pluto was a planet when this chapter of the ongoing feature Life on Other Worlds appeared in Fiction House's Planet Comics #45 (1946).

In fact, it had only been discovered 16 years earlier and little was known about it beyond the fact that it was sitting out there at the edge of the Solar System!

So, it was a blank slate for sci fi writers to play with, as artist Murphy Anderson and the unknown writer did in this "cool" 2-pager!

Reading Room KIDNAPPED BY A SPACE SHIP "Part 5 - Into New Peril"

Journey back to 1970, when two 'tweens and two adults were...

...and transported to another world.

Ever get the feeling we're about to go from "space opera" to "horse opera"?

This tale from Treasure Chest V14N15 (1959) introduces other aliens, but they're apparently extremely-primitive!

Next Monday, we'll see if the writer and artist follow the then-standard Western story motif of "explorers/settlers meet noble savages and make friends", or if they go off on a different tangent!

Writer Frances Crandall followed the accepted concepts of space travel postulated by scientist Wener Von Braun and, illustrated by Chesley Bonestell in various books and magazines like Conquest of Space, and popularized in numerous 1950s movies like Destination Moon and Angry Red Planet!

Artist Fran Matera was also the art director/art editor for Treasure Chest, but is best known for his long run on the Steve Roper and Mike Nomad newspaper strip.

San Diego "Tales from ComicCon" 5th Anniversary Shirts & Stuff!

On July 24th, 2010, at the San Diego ComicCon, reality became far more frightening than any horror comic book!
Thankfully, the victim survived, and  a suspect was quickly taken into custody.

Sadly, nerd-on-nerd crime is becoming a more common problem in our society than most people realize!
It is THE Threat to Our Way of Life that Dare Not Speak It's Name...mostly because people would roll on the floor laughing hysterically.

But this is NO laughing matter, citizens!
To draw attention to this growing menace to our way of life, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have produced this line of kool kollectibles for you to display at conventions so that this incident is not quickly forgotten by a jaded populace eager for the next cheap thrill!
We were warned!
We didn't listen!
We paid the price!
Remind everyone!
DR WERTHAM WAS RIGHT!

Reading Room: SECRETS BEHIND THE COMICS by STAN LEE...Secrets 7-10!

Join us, as we continue to explore the sacred writings of Stan (the Man) Lee...

 ...as he shows us how a comic story is created!

Note: the "Marvel Method" of a writer giving just a basic plot outline or even a page-by-page synopsis to a penciler who would have greater input into the story direction didn't come about until the early 1960s, when the sheer volume of material Stan Lee was editing/art directing/writing by himself became too much to handle.

We'll return to Secrets Behind the Comics in the near future.

Reading Room: SECRETS BEHIND THE COMICS by STAN LEE...Secrets 4-6!

Let's rejoin comics legend Stan (the Man) Lee as he reveals...

...in this incredibly HTF book from 1948!

All this has been mere prologue.

Tomorrow we get to the stuff you're dying to see...so don't miss it, true believers!

BTW, you probably don't recognize most of the characters Lee mentions.

Timely/Atlas/Marvel hasn't published most of them in decades.

Note: the blonde model/actress Hedy Devine, (aka "Hedy de Vine"), is not the Hedy who became part of the team of Patsy & Hedy, who had their own book through the mid-60s.

That was brunette Hedy Wolfe, who was a teenager, like her "frenemy" Patsy Walker.
Both of them eventually became part of the Marvel multiverse.