Man from U.N.C.L.E. From 1965 to 2015!

The new Man from U.N.C.L.E. movie opens this Friday...

...and our "brother" RetroBlog, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video, will be doing a feature on the previous U.N.C.L.E. films.

But before that, we invite you to have a look at the premiere issue of the 1960s comic based on the TV series!

"Why?", you may ask?

Two reasons.

1) It's the closest the comic came to doing an epic tale that would've made a helluva big budget movie.

2) Oddly, enough, the renderings of Solo and Kuryakin look a lot like Henry Cavil and Armie Hammer!

Judge for yourself!

Reading Room BLACK TERROR COMICS "Space Speedsters"

Combine When Worlds Collide, Damon Runyon's Broadway tales, Flash Gordon, and Front Page...

...and you get this really weird one-shot tale!

So, we got...Armageddon, gangsters, intrepid spacemen (and women) and spaceships, newspaper reporters, and some comedy relief.

Did I miss anything?

This never-reprinted tale from Nedor/Standard's Black Terror #23 (1948) seems like part of an ongoing series, but I can't find any other stories featuring the lead characters!

Illustrator (and possible writer) Stan Asch was one of the steadily-working artists who were the backbone of the comics industry in the Golden Age.

With over 300 stories and covers to his credit, he co-created Johnny Thunder and Dr Mid-Nite for DC Comics, and assisted both Milton Caniff (on Terry and the Pirates) and Al Capp (on Lil' Abner) during his long career.

Was this a try-out for an onoging series that didn't sell?

We'll never know...

The REAL Fantastic Four!

Word is the new Fantastic Four flick is crap...

...so let's look at one of the more successful media adaptations...

Adapted from Marvel's Fantastic Four #126 (1972), this Roy Thomas-written, John Buscema/Joe Sinnott-illustrated tale beautifully-expanded on the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby story!

The voices are a fascinating group.

Johnny Storm/Human Torch (and Narrator) was Peter Fernandez (Speed Racer himself).

Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic sounds like Les Tremayne (Mentor on the SHAZAM! TV series) who started out on dramatic radio in the late 1940s!
Enjoy the REAL Fantastic Four!

Reading Room TALES TO ASTONISH "Voice of Fate"

Our final tale is a re-working of the previous one...

...but with some interesting variations!

This story by plotter Stan Lee, writer Larry Lieber, and artist Don Heck is from Atlas' Tales to Astonish #33 (1962) and is a retelling of "Mister Black", which appeared only a couple of months earlier in Atlas' Strange Tales #93 (1962).
You'll note the protaganist is now American, but still a draft dodger.
Of course, the story omits why the Japanese would even take him in (since he had nothing of value to the government), or how he even got to Japan in the middle of World War II...

Reading Room STRANGE TALES "Mister Black"

Continuing our look at how American comics portrayed the bombing of Hiroshima...

...with a tale featuring a Japanese protagonist!

Was this story from Atlas' Strange Tales #93 (1962) an inventory tale from the 1950s?

Artist Bob Forgione lost his ongoing freelance work at Atlas when the company cut back in late 1956-early 1957 after losing their newsstand distributor.

When this story was finally published, Forgione was working steadily for Dell, ACG, and DC.

It also appears to have been the last original tale by Bob that Atlas/Marvel published.

(All subsequent stories were reprints of earlier material.)

Also, could it have been reworked from an unpublished Witness tale?

Every comic company had a cloaked mysteryman narrating stories about "everyday" people (and occasionally influencing them, as well).

Timely/Atlas' entrant in the Mysterious Traveler/Whistler/Phantom Stranger/Man in Black Called Fate competition was The Witness, who had his own one-shot comic and a number of stories scattered in other titles.

At any rate, an extremely-similar tale appeared only a couple of months later...by one of the now-revived and thriving Atlas/Marvel's hottest artists!

You'll see that tale on the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima...tomorrow!