Last Week on RetroBlogs...

There was only one mini-marathon, but it was a "goodie"...

...the never-reprinted adventures of Davy Crockett from 1955...

...pencilled and inked by Jack (King) Kirby (whose 99th birthday is tomorrow) at Western Comics Adventures!

Sadly, next week is the finale for the RetroBlogs mini-marathons, but the festival ends with a BANG!

Check out...

Seduction of the Innocent!! as we re-present never-reprinted horror tales from the short-lived Devilina, Seaboard's attempt to beat Warren's Vamiprella at her own game in 1975!

Plus, one more World War I crossover between Hero Histories and War: Past Present and Future as we re-present the unseen-for-50-years adventure of G-8 and His Battle Aces!

Be here for the fun!

Reading Room CONQUEST "Beowolf the Mighty"

How do you liven up those boring, tired old ancient myths?

...why, turn one of the characters into a Tyrannosaurus Rex, of course!

Usually, Grendel is a demonic or ape-like beast.
Certainly, he's never been portrayed as a dinosaur before (or since)!
This 1955 one-shot from Eastern Color featured tales of real-life adventurers...except for Beowolf (which is usually spelled "Beowulf").
We don't know who the writer is so there's no way to tell if it was his/her idea or artist Bill Ely's to make Grendel a dinosaur!
BTW, Ely had a lot of experience rendering dinosaurs in sci-fi tales for almost every comics company of the 1950s and 60s, including a stint as the artist for DC's Rip Hunter: Time Master, who now leads the team on the CW's Legends of Tomorrow TV series!

Before Mister Machine...There Was Captain Marvel (II)!

A decade before Machine Man/Mister Machine appeared on the scene...

...to fight the good fight (even when he went all to pieces)...

...another artificial man with a propensity for disassembling himself while fighting evil had an all-too brief run in the world of comics...

...and this guy had a couple of less-than-obvious connections to Marvel Comics!

Want to learn more?

Click HERE to read his origin and find out some kool background info about him!

And click HERE to see him in combat against someone who looks a lot like a certain Caped Crusader!

Reading Room 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY "Hotline to Hades" Conclusion

Talk about getting your head handed to you...

...sentient robot X-51/Aaron Stack/Mister Machine has been disassembled by the Brotherhood of Hades and his brain is about to be probed by the group's leader...The Great Monitor!

Written and penciled by Jack Kirby, inked by Mike Royer, this final issue of Marvel's 2001: a Space Odyssey kicks-off the saga of Machine Man, but is not included in the current trade paperback compilation of his solo appearances due to licensing restrictions tied to the legendary MGM movie, which this series was a sequel to!

Six months later, in early 1978, Jack continued  X-51/Aaron Stack's story in the first issue of Machine Man (because "Mister Machine" was trademarked by Ideal Toys) .
Kirby would stay on the book until his contract with Marvel ended in late 1978.
The book was cancelled with #9, then, after a multi-part guest appearance in Incredible Hulk 235-237 (which placed the character firmly in the Marvel Universe), the title was revived with writer Marv Wolfman and artist Steve Ditko reimagining the character, who's become a major part of Marvel ever since!
But you can read all that stuff in the trade paperback compilation now on sale at Amazon!
Tomorrow, we'll have a look at another robot (with a Marvel comic connection) who fought evil while disassembled!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and order...

Machine Man: the Complete Collection

Today!

Reading Room 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY "Hotline to Hades" Part 1

When Last We Left X-51/Aaron Stack/Mister Machine...

...after being released by the US military (with a tracking device implanted in him), the newly-christened Mister Machine meets a stranded Olivia and her nephew Jerry.

While fixing their damaged car, the three are attacked by the minions of Mister Hotline, who recognizes the robot as an "X" prototype, and seeks to control it...err...him!

Does a machine, even one programmed with human emotions, have a soul?

Be here tomorrow to see!

Jack Kirby believed in free will and the concept that "evil" was the restraint or removal of it.
In the Fourth World series Kirby created at DC, Darkseid's ultimate goal was to find the "Anti-Life Equation" that would permanently remove free will from sentient beings and make them mindless automatons.

Written and penciled by Jack Kirby, inked by Mike Royer, this final issue of Marvel's 2001: a Space Odyssey kicks-off the saga of Machine Man, but is not included in the current trade paperback compilation of his solo appearances due to licensing restrictions tied to the legendary MGM movie, which this series was a sequel to!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and order...

Machine Man: the Complete Collection

Today!