Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Reading Room FUTURE WORLD COMICS "What in the Future World"

It's always fun to see what people of the past (1946) predicted for the future (our present)...
...what they got right, what they got wrong, and what they sorta got right!
Both the writer and the artist of this never-reprinted feature from the short-lived George W. Dougherty Publishing's Future World Comics #2 (1946) got about half the predictions right like printed circuits and carbon monoxide detectors, but also came up with weirdies like plastic clotheslines and a fountain pen with ink pellets you just add water to for instant ink!
Ah, well...

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Reading Room SILVER SURFER: THE ULTIMATE COSMIC EXPERIENCE Preface and Creator Bios

Here's the text pieces from the long OOP graphic novel...
Judge for yourself as to the historical accuracy of the material.
Nice to see the rest of the creatives get a little attention.
But, Stan Lee realized the PR value to his audience of promoting the writers and artists like rock stars (as his promo for the first issue of Fantasy Masterpieces demonstrated), and pushed the image of a happy "bullpen" (with him as the lead creative, of course).
We hope you enjoyed seeing this long-lost bit of Marvel history, and suggest you bookmark this blog for a lot more HTF comics goodies...

Monday, February 15, 2016

Reading Room SILVER SURFER: THE ULTIMATE COSMIC EXPERIENCE Conclusion

Original, unused cover by Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott and published cover by Earl Norem
Caught by the CIA in an energy-absorbing trap, the Silver Surfer seemed destined for experimentation in a government laboratory, but something from space swoops down and frees him...
"Tamam Shud" means "ended" or "finished" in ancient Persian.
Bet a lot of you thought it was a quote from a writer named "Tamam"!
The actual quote is from Edward FitzGerald's famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
Was Stan the Man poetic or pompous?

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Reading Room SAVAGE TALES "Fury of the Femizons"

Consider, on Valentine's Day, what the world might be like if the "fairer sex" ran the whole planet...
...as portrayed in this Women's Lib-era story from the b/w magazine Savage Tales #1 (1971)!
(Was it really 45 years ago?)
Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by John Romita, Sr,  this tale had an unusual genesis, as detailed on the editorial page...
Women's liberation.
It's all around us, be we male or female.
marches, intellectual treatises, picketing, bra-burning, some four-letter forensics, and more burnings–not always of bras.
"Women are the equals of men every day, in every way!'
Men are beginning to believe it.
Women always knew it.
So what happens if maybe we come the full circle in, say the next hundred years or so?
What if women turn the rascals out–and we do mean out!
What would we have then?
A better world? Perhaps.
A gentler world? Could be.
A different world? Believe it.
Stan Lee got to wondering-and, by and by, he set imaginative artist Johnny Romita to wondering along with him.
The result is, perhaps, something just a wee bit new under the sun.
Not quite sword-and-sorcery–certainly not science-fiction–and not exactly a political polemic.
Robin Morgan clobbers Buck Rogers in the 25th century!
Kate Millett zaps both Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless–then takes over Mongo for good measure!
The hand that rocks the cradle really rules the world!
A Valentine's Day look at a possible future...as seen from the non-so distant past.  ;-)

Saturday, February 13, 2016

On Valentines Day, Check Out...

"Romance comics?
Yuk!
Why would I read those?"
How about to read never-reprinted work by comics legends...
...John Buscema?
...Wally Wood?
...or Dan DeCarlo doing sci-fi!
(To be accurate, the Dan DeCarlo story has been reprinted in a fantastic [though limited-run] hardcover!)
Want to see more?