Reading Room WORLD OF FANTASY "Xom! The Menace from Outer Space!"

Behind this kool, never-reprinted Jack Kirby/Christopher Rule cover...

...lurks an equally-cool (but visually-different) never-reprinted tale!

Plotted by Stan Lee, scripted by Larry Lieber, and penciled/inked by Joe Sinnott, this cover-featured tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #18 (1959) was a combination of the "giant monster with weird name" and Twilight Zone "switch ending" tropes Lee was so fond of.

You'll note the "monster" is rendered pretty much the same on both the cover and insides, while the Earthmen and aliens are vastly-different!

I'm not certain which was done first, but the difference between the Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers renderings by Sinnott and the...well...Kirbyesque versions on the cover are striking!

Reading Room CAPTAIN JOHNER AND THE ALIENS "Matter of Judgement"

When Last We Left Our Astronauts...

With half his crew on an alien ship and half the alien crew on his, Johner heads home to Earth...

Written by Eric Freiwald & Robert Schaefer and illustrated by Russ Manning, this morality tale from Gold Key's Magnus, Robot Fighter #3 (1963) also sets up a potential menace in another group of aliens who are, in fact, hostile!
There's more space opera action to come, next week!

Happy Mother's Day!

Memorial Day is Coming...

Comic books played a major part in shaping the public's impression of both our troops and our enemies during World War II.
Among the classiest were these three beautiful covers for Contact Comics, an aviation-oriented title. Spectacular, intense, eye-catching color highlights these poster-style pieces of art.
Each one paid honor to the aviation division of one of the three armed forces branches. (The Air Force as a separate branch didn't come about until after WWII)

Tribute to the Navy Air Corps featuring F6F Hellcat fighters.

Tribute to the Army Air Force featuring B-24 Liberator heavy bombers.

Tribute to the Marine Air Corps featuring F4U Corsair fighters.

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have digitally-restored and remastered them on a line of kool kollectibles which would make perfect Memorial Day, Armed Forces Day,  Flag Day, or 4th of July gifts for the WWII veteran in your life.
Choose from t-shirts, mugs, magnets, BBQ aprons, and many other goodies.
(And have a look at the other World War II collectibles we offer at War: Past, Present & Future™ while you're at it!)

Reading Room TALOS OF THE WILDERNESS SEA "...to the Wilderness Sea!" Part 3

When Last We Left Our Post-Nuclear Armageddon Barbarian Prince...

(Bet you thought George RR Martin invented "warging" for Game of Thrones...)

Next Friday: Reunion!

Riding high on the success of the Sword of the Atom mini-series and follow-up annuals which re-imagined the hard sci-fi superhero in a barbarian adventure setting, Gil Kane (along with collaborator Jan Strnad) was given the go-ahead for another high-adventure series, this time based on a new character.

Planned as a 12-issue mini-series, cutbacks at DC dictated that the already-penciled and scripted first two issues be combined into a one-shot whose sales would determine if the project would continue.

Unfortunately, the unfamiliar character didn't attract a large enough audience (as The Atom had), and only the single, open-ended issue came about.
It's never been reprinted since its' publication in 1987.