Reading Room: MYSTICAL TALES "Nomad of Outer Space!"

It's mind-blowing how much Atlas (pre-Marvel) stuff hasn't been reprinted...

...such as this story from Atlas' Mystical Tales #1 (1956)!

While hunting thru files for un-reprinted Jack Kirby tales for last week's Kirby Reading Room mini-marathon, I came across a lot of never-reprinted material!

This Bob Powell-rendered story is just the tip of the iceberg!

It's also inadvertently-appropriate since this week is the 50th Anniversary of the debut of Star Trek, which inspired many would-be scientists in various disciplines to live their dreams (not to mention creatives like writers, illustrators, sfx experts, etc)!

Sadly, we don't know the writer of this tale...

BTW, despite the title, Mystical Tales was an almost-totally "hard sci-fi" anthology!

Only a handful of stories from the anthology's 8-issue run have been reprinted, all in the 1970s, which makes even the reprints 40 years old!

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Atlas Era Tales of Suspense

Volume 1

Reading Room CAPTAIN JOHNER AND THE ALIENS "Crystals of Life"

When Last We Left Our Heroes (and Aliens)...

...since creator/writer/artist Russ Manning has explained evertything, lets just jump into the action...

But we still don't know how the human colonists were taken over by the time-shifting alien "False Men"!

Gold Key's Magnus, Robot Fighter #17 (1967) gives us more questions than answers!
perhaps we'll learn next week!

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Captain Johner and the Aliens
Mini-Series

Recapping the RetroBlog Summer Mini-Marathons...

While you were vactioning this summer, every RetroBlog had at least one mini-marathon...

Seduction of the Innocent!! took a look at the never-reprinted Devilina b/w magazine from 1975 with two tales about the title character and two horror mini-classics!
"Merchants of Evil", "Lost Tomb of Nefertiri", Devilina is Coming..., "Devilina: Satan's Domain", and "Devilina Fights Corrupta...in Curse of the Ra Scarb"

At Secret Sanctum of Captain Video, we presented no less than three different, never-reprinted comic versions of this legendary Ray Harryhausen film, including one of them featuring art by the late, great, John Buscema!
Dell's 1950s adaptation Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Marvel's 1970s adaptation Part 1, Part 2
Legend Horror Classics' 1970s British adaptation 

In cross-overs between War: Past, Present, and Future and Hero Histories, we had never-reprinted tales of two World War I aviator-heroes from the 1960s!
After all, it's the 100th Anniversary of World War I and these tales were published during the 50th Anniversary!

G-8 and His Battle Aces Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Conclusion
Phantom Eagle Part 1, Conclusion

Hero Histories featured the final, never-reprinted tale of the campy Silver Age version of The Shadow. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

War: Past, Present and Future also presented another never-reprinted story published in the 1960s, Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos in...ready for it?...KOREA!
Part 1, Conclusion 

What's summer without a good "beach read"?

And there's nothing better than a never-reprinted Gothic Romance at True Love Comics Tales!
You can read every chapter...Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 

Justice didn't take a holiday during the summer, as the 1950s hard-boiled saga of private eye Johnny Dynamite received a re-telling at Crime & Punishment!
"I'll Find That Killer",  "Eye for an Eye!", and "Wire Trap"

Western Comics Adventures presented the never-reprinted 1950s adventures of Davy Crockett by Jack (King) Kirby!
Introduction, "Devil Rapids", "Missing Bullet Hole", "Running Fight", and "King Ram"

Heroines! took a slightly different approach with Phantom Lady's Twice-Told Tales, featuring stories that re-used either scripts or art from earlier tales!
Spitfire Sanders "The Whip" & Phantom Lady "Satan's Seal, "World's Meanest Crook" & "Meanest Men in the World", "Killer Clown" & "Success is No Accident!", "Television Spies" 1.0 & 2.0, and "Soda Mint Killer" & What Price Protection?"

Sadly, due to Google revamping and screwing up their Photos app, where we store all our pix for these blogs, we did not get to...

...the first, never-reprinted, story of the Silver Age Plastic Man by Gil Kane in Hero Histories!
But, it and the remaining, never published in America, stories of Estaban Maroto's Wolff will see re-presentation this autumn!

Kirby Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "There Dwells a Dragon"

We wind up our week of never-reprinted Kirby Klassics...

...with one that was an original idea and not a reworking of an earlier tale!

Penciled by Jack Kirby, and inked by Dick Ayers, this writer of story from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #81 (1962) is, so far, anonymous.

Pity, because the tale is pretty darn good.
Hope someday, one of the many dilligent souls who are constantly researching such things can come up with the answer...

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Kirby Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Genie with the Light Brown Hair

I Dream of Jeannie this ain't...

...as Jack Kirby once again takes us where another artist has gone before, and puts his own distinctive stamp on it!

Yes, this never-reprinted cover story from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #76 (1962) is another reworking of an earlier tale!

Plotter Stan Lee took the concept from "Forever is a Long Time", which appeared in Atlas' Adventures into Weird Worlds #14 (1953) and reworked it.

Scripter Larry Lieber, penciler Jack Kirby, and inker Dick Ayers did a commendable job, giving the story several touches that make it different from the original, giving it a poetic touch lacking in the 1953 version.

If you want to compare them, "Forever is a Long Time" was reprinted in Marvel's Beware! #4, 1973.

But, if you don't have that almost-as-difficult-to-find-as-AiWW #14-issue, don't worry!

It'll be popping up at our "brother" RetroBlog, Seduction of the Innocent before September is over!
BTW, note the difference between the cover and interior versions of the genie.
The cover genie is evil, malaevolent, sinister.
The genie in the tale, while a little pissed-off, is really the victim, and Mike Morgan is the villain of the piece.
Makes you wonder what the time-frame was between the creation of the cover and the interior art.
Which came first?
Guess we'll never know...

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Kirby: 
King of Comics