Atomic Kommie Comics

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Holiday Reading Room: EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE

Here's a short story featuring a plethora of fairy tale characters...

...as presented by a (then) future superstar of the comic strip or, (if you want to be pretentious) graphic novel form!

The title story from Dell's Four Color Comics #103: Easter with Mother Goose (1946) was written and illustrated by Walt Kelly, whose signature series Pogo wouldn't debut for another three years.
Trivia:
While Pogo as a stand-alone series began in 1949, various characters including Pogo himself and Albert the Alligator had appeared as supporting characters in other Walt Kelly-written and drawn strips since 1941.

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Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Does North Korea Realize World War III Already Happened?

Nuclear Armageddon came in 1960...

...not once, but twice!

At least, that was the basis for two different series from the same publisher running simultanously in 1952, Atomic War! and World War III!

Oddly, the premiere issue of World War III presented a similar series of events to the first issue of Atomic War, but in a slightly-different time-frame, and a different order!
There were no cross-overs and certain events and available technology were very different in the two titles, indicating the two series were alternate universe versions of each other!
BTW, Atomic War! came first, in November, 1952, following in December, then going bi-monthly in February and April, 1953.
World War III ran in March and May of 1953, the months Atomic War! wasn't published, giving kids of the era a monthly fix of future fun!

Noted comics, pulp, and paperback author Robert Turner wrote both issues of World War III, but the writer(s) of Atomic War! are unknown.

With North Korea threatening us with nuclear annihilation (again), we thought we'd call your attention to our re-presentation of these kool examples of Cold War paranoia at our "brother" RetroBlog ™, War: Past, Present & Future™.

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...for all your radiation-proof
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Monday, March 7, 2016

Reading Room UNKNOWN WORLDS OF SCIENCE FICTION "Kick the Can"

It's said that space opera = "horse opera" with rayguns instead of six-guns...

...and just like the revisionist westerns of the '60s and '70s, this is a more sophisticated version of that concept.

Written and illustrated by Bruce Jones, this never-reprinted tale from Marvel's Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #4 (1975) takes the cliches of both horse opera and film noir, puts them in a sci-fi setting and makes them work in a way the Comics Code would not have allowed in a color book.
(Helping a wife escape her husband through extra-legal means and deliberately allowing someone to die were both no-nos to the Code.)
Plus, Jones' classical illustration style gives the tale an emotional resonance a more-stylized artist wouldn't have achieved.
BTW, Jones is still active in the field, as his LinkedIn site shows...