Reading Room CRUSADER FROM MARS "Death in the Soil"

We've presented almost all the tales of the short-lived Crusader from Mars...

...and now, at long last, here's the only one we haven't run!

Illustrated by Henry Sharp, and probably written by editor Jerry (Superman) Siegel, the second story from Ziff-Davis' Crusader from Mars #1 (1952) continues the theme that the major example of "Evil on Earth" Tarka and Zira must battle is Communism!
Though the adventures of the earlier Ziff-Davis Martian, Lars of Mars, have been reprinted several times (including a 3-D adaptation), the saga of the Crusader from Mars has been kept from the eyes of a sci fi-loving audience for over 60 years!
We've corrected that oversight with a complete re-presentation of his too-brief stay on Earth...

"Mission Through Space" (Origin)

"Death in the Soil"

"Night of Terror"

"Beachhead on Saturn's Ring"

BTW, isn't it a shame there was never a Lars/Crusader crossover?

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Three Who Vanished"

One of the joys of doing things like Reading Room...

...is uncovering a long-lost treasure, like this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #50 (1959)!

With a (admittedly somewhat-misleading) cover by Joe Sinnott, art by Steve Ditko, and script probably by Larry Lieber (Stan Lee almost always had his byline on his own scripts), it's a great example of the sort of energy and creativity that was just waiting for a spark to coalesce into what would become Marvel Comics only a year or so later.

Holiday Reading Room: EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Ten Little Easter Eggs"

Here's a perfect rhyme for the little ones...

...from the typewriter and brush of legendary comic creator Walt (Pogo) Kelly.

Published in Dell's Four Color Comics #103: Easter with Mother Goose (1946), this gentle little piece is a classic example of kid-friendly material rarely-seen today.
(And please, no politically-correct comments about the "Two little Easter eggs playing with a gun" rhyme.)

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Reading Room WEIRD WORLDS "Creature"

What happens when you take a 1950s comic story, and redo the art 20 years later...

...but re-use the original dialogue and captions?

With a script taken almost verbatim from the (then) 20 year-old tale "Lost Kingdom of Althala", this story from Eerie Publications' Weird Worlds V1N10 (1970) had a complete redo on the art by Argentine illustrator Oscar Fraga, whose work in the American comics market was exclusively for Eerie Publications and consisted solely of re-dos of 1950s stories!

Reading Room STRANGE WORLDS "Lost Kingdom of Athala"

It's Friday, time for a story that'd make a great "popcorn" movie!

It's hokey, doesn't make much sense, but boy, it's loaded with action and it looks great!

Written by Gardner Fox, penciled by Joe Orlando & Wally Wood, and inked by Wood, this fast-paced story from Avon's Strange Worlds #4 (1951), would make a great Saturday afternoon flick, thanks to current state-of-the-art special effects!

EXTRA: Here's the b/w inside cover for this issue, which featured an illustrated preview of the stories by Wally Wood.

Note the heavy use of "craftint" texturing which Wood used to create a distinctive "look" for his art...

The script was re-used, almost verbatim, in 1970 by Eerie Publications, but the artwork for the retelling was nowhere near as good.

You'll see that version tomorrow!