Reading Room STRANGE JOURNEY "Space is a Secret"

Before you read this tale, go HERE...

..because this is the second version of this story!

Like almost all other comics publishers, Ajax/Farrell was hit hard by the Seduction of the Innocent witch-hunt of the 1950s.

They survived where many others didn't by kow-towing to the sometimes inane restrictions placed on them by the censor agency created by the industry itself...the Comics Code Authority!

This story, from Ajax/Farrell's Strange Journey #2 (1957) is a classic example of how extreme the Code took matters.

Every page has alterations, including changing the ending (in the original version, the Earthmen never escape)!

The final version, taken back to it's original level of horror...and beyond...can be found on our "brother" RetroBlog, Seduction of the Innocent!

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Four Color Fear

Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s

Trump Reading Room LOOIE LAZYBONES "There's No Feud Like an Old Feud!"

Our story opens as we gaze upon a life-size statue of one of Don the Con's "deplorables"...

 ...as rendered by the legendary Frank Frazetta!

Created in 1943, Looie Lazybones floated around the Nedor Comics line as a "filler" strip until settling down in Thrilling Comics as of #56 (1946).

Young up-and-comer Frank Frazetta took over the art as of this issue, #67 (1948) bringing it amazingly-close in visual style to the strip's "inspiration", Al Capp's Li'l Abner, which had already become a media sensation, with a radio show, feature film and tons of merchandising!

So close, in fact, that Capp hired Frazetta to "ghost" Li'l Abner in 1954!
BTW, the writer is unknown.

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Li'l Abner: the Frazetta Years Vol 1

Reading Room MENACE "Witch in the Woods"

It's Banned Books Week, and though many don't consider them to be "books"

...since the 1950s, people have tried to ban comics!

As Stan Lee's somewhat snarky script for this story from Atlas' Menace #7 (1953) points out, those beloved fairy tales were as mind-rotting as the comics Wertham and the others hypocritically tried to ban!

Joe Sinnott's clean and elegant renderings keep the story from being too grotesque, helping to sell Lee's point without the extreme gore some other publishers of the period (and even Atlas itself) occasionally went for!

We presented another one of Lee's responses to the Seduction of the Innocent witch-hunt HERE.

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Horror Comics of the 1950s

Edited by Ron Barlow & Bhob Stewart

Reading Room WEIRD THRILLERS "Tentacles of Death"

Beneath this kool painting by Norman (Mars Attacks) Saunders...

...is an equally-kool tale by writer Jerry (Superman) Siegel and illustrator George (Iron Man) Tuska!

The cover-featured tale from Ziff-Davis' Weird Thrillers #4 (1952) has the "feel" of a chapter from an ongoing series, but there were never any other tales of Dr Mark Savant (aka "Doc Savant") and the others.

Was it a rejected "pilot" that ended up as filler?

We may never know the answer...

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Super Boys

The Amazing Adventures of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

The Creators of Superman

by Brad Ricca

Reading Room CAPTAIN JOHNER AND THE ALIENS "Face of Time"

We Have Already Seen...

...buckle up because things are about to become cosmic!

Gold Key's Magnus, Robot Fighter #20 (1967) takes us where no comic series has gone before!

While creator/writer/illustrator Russ Manning's art didn't have the sheer power of Jack Kirby or the psychadelic weirdness of Steve Ditko, his precise, classical, rendering style along with an enthusiasm to boldly experiment within the technical limitations of color separation and printing pack a punch, even today!
Sadly, he passed away in 1981.

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Captain Johner and the Aliens
Mini-Series