Reading Room BLACK MAGIC "Way Out!"

From the final issue (#50 from 1961) of Prize's Black Magic...

..is a never-reprinted tale that might seem familiar to EC Comics fans!

Compare the last page to the last page below...

Did Black Magic editor Joe Simon swipe the Bill Gaines/Al Feldstein script for this tale, "Round Trip" from EC's Weird Science-Fantasy #28 (1955)?

Or was he given the script by a lazy writer who hoped he didn't recognize it?

We'll never know...

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Zero Hour and Other Stories

(which reprints the complete "Round Trip" from Weird Science-Fantasy #28)

Reading Room BLACK MAGIC "Black Fog"

A never-reprinted 1960s Steve Ditko story is, literally, a buried treasure...

...and this long-unseen tale from Prize's Black Magic #47 (1961) has just been uncovered for your enjoyment!

Considering this is Ditko's only Prize Comics work since the pre-Comics Code days when he assisted in the Simon & Kirby studio, some speculate it was a rejected Charlton story that was "shopped around" to other publishers.

If that's the case, the unidentified writer is more than likely Joe Gill, who wrote almost all Ditko's stories at Charlton during this period.

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Outer Limits

Steve Ditko Archives Vol 6

Reading Room NOT BRAND ECHH "King Konk '68"

You might have heard there's a new movie coming this weekend...

...and before it arrives, we thought we'd take a look at an earlier tale about the big guy...sorta...

There's lots of then-topical references to people and events of the late 1960s, so those not old enough to remember them might want to Google some the subjects.
The protagonists are Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, the Brangelina of the 60s-70s.
Many references are to their movies together like Butterfield 8 ("Butterfield Ape")
Other celebs include Hugh Hefner and Hubert Humphrey.
There are also cameos by now-obscure comics characters like Phantom Eagle and Blackhawk.
Written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Tom Sutton (with a cover and celeb caricatures in the story by Marie Severin), this mini-classic was hidden in comics collectors' longboxes for over 40 years until Marvel finally reprinted it in a Not Brand Echh Masterwork.

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Art and Making of Kong: Skull Island

Reading Room BLACK MAGIC "Cry for Help!"

Most comics fans know Prize's Black Magic series as...

...one of the Simon/Kirby team's best projects.

But, as you can see from this non-S&K tale, there was more to it!

The S&K team's tenure ended when the book was cancelled with #33 in 1954, due to the mass cancellations of horror comics caused by the "Seduction of the Innocent" hysteria generated by Fredric Wertham.

When the book was revived as a Comics Code-approved sci-fi title with #34 in 1957, Joe Simon returned as editor, but the ongoing partnership with Kirby had ended and Jack didn't participate in the new version.

Simon and Kirby would reunite, briefly, at Archie to co-create The Fly and Double Life of Private Strong, but they wouldn't work together again until the duo co-created a new version of The Sandman for DC in 1974.

This particular story, by penciler/inker Ted Galindo and inker Bill Draut is from the final issue...#50 (1961).

Note: Didn't the son's "future self" say he had found the frozen dinosaur two years earlier?

But he also said he was from 1970...ten years in the future.

So, unless my math is really off, the son wouldn't find the dinosaur for another...eight years!
How did he find it now?

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Simon and Kirby Library

Horror!

Trump Reading Room aka the OutHouse HILLBILLY COMICS "Gumbo Galahad Meets Handsome Bill and the Tiger"

Just as every rational, intelligent person knows pro wrestling is fake...

...irrational, unintelligent sorts like Don (the Con) Trump's detestables believe it, like Jabba the Trump himself, is legitimate!

Written and illustrated by Charlton mainstay Art Gates, this story from Charlton's Hillbilly Comics #3 (1956) was clearly-based on Al Capp's then-immensely popular Li'l Abner newspaper strip which had been running as a musical on Broadway and was in preparation as a feature film!
In addition, the tale references pro wrestling, which had experienced a major upswing in popularity due to it's becoming a television mainstay!
Astoundingly, to this day, there are those who believe pro wrestling and the antics sourrounding it (which, BTW, Don the Con participated in) isn't unscripted/plotted/planned/choreographed.
And, apparently, most of them are Jabba the Trump's delporables...

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Best of Li'l Abner

by Al Capp