Reading Room ASTONISHING TALES "Doctor Doom: ...and if I be Called Traitor--!"

Witness a Clash of Kings...

...as the evil ruler of Latveria and the heroic monarch of Wakanda face off under a Herb Trimpe-rendered "split cover"...

In Marvel's Astonishing Tales #8 (1970), writer Gerry Conway and penciler Gene Colan step into the middle of a two-part story and while Colan (who's previously-drawn both Doctor Doom and the Black Panther) does an amazing job, Conway falls flat when it comes to his knowledge of both Wakanda and Vibranium!
Despite the flaws in continuity (and simple logic), Conway does convey the differences in T'Challa and Victor's attitudes towards their respective constituencies and abstract concepts like "honor" and "responsibility", as well as the fact Doom respects the Panther both as a strategist and a fellow ruler!

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Essential Super-Villain Team-Up

Volume 1

(which reprints this story...but in black-and-white!)

Reading Room ASTONISHING TALES "Doctor Doom: Tentacles of the Tyrant!"

There are some all-but-forgotten Silver and Bronze Age stories featuring the title character of...

Disney/Marvel's The Black Panther...

including this tale behind a "split cover" by penciler John Buscema and inker Frank Giacoia!

A Clash of Kings...

TOMORROW!

You'll note the cover text mentions "T'Challa", not "The Black Panther", even though he's in costume!
When this issue of Marvel's Astonishing Tales (#6) came out in 1971,  controversies involving the political movement known as the Black Panthers were at their peak, such as this murder/kidnapping trial which ended in a mistrial.
Marvel was in a bit of a bind, as they had been developing plans to give T'Challa a higher profile thanks to his ongoing appearances as a member of The Avengers (which, at that point, featured characters who didn't have their own series).
So, when the Panther guest-starred in other titles (like here), or was cover-featured in The Avengers...

...he was promoted as "T'Challa", not the "Black Panther"!
When he appeared in Fantastic Four #119 (1972), though cover-featured as "T'Challa"...

...he proclaimed himself "Black Leopard", instead of "Black Panther".
But that's a story for another time...
Meanwhile, Doctor Doom scripter Larry Lieber (who hadn't handled the Black Panther previously) seems woefully uninformed about Wakanda in general and Vibranium in particular, with the most obvious fact being the Vibranium Mound isn't a volcano!
Two trivia notes:
Larry Lieber had written and penciled the first half of Doom's full-length cover-featured story in Marvel Super-Heroes #20 (1969), which would explain why he got the nod to write the ongoing Doom strip in Astonishing Tales a year later!
Penciler George Tuska would draw Dr Doom's two-issue encounter with Marvel's other major Black hero in Luke Cage: Hero for Hire #8 & #9 (1973)

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Essential Super-Villain Team-Up

Volume 1

(which reprints this story...but in black-and-white!)

Reading Room NORGE BENSON "Attacked by the Aurorans"

As on Earth, there are hidden races in Pluto's unexplored wilds...

...and like the hidden races of Earth, these guys are somewhat xenophobic!

Since artist Al Walker was now in the military, one of the few female artists in 1940s comics, Fran Hopper (using her maiden name Deitrick) takes over the illustrating duties in her very first comic book assignment!

Though she tries to match Walker's layout style and sense of humor, the tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #23 (1943) is but a pale shadow of what Walker would have done with the same script!

This is not a dig against Hopper!

Walker was a unique talent, and anybody following him would suffer by comparison.

Fran found her niche doing other strips like Gale Allen and Her Girl Squadron and Yank Aces of World War II, rendering over 120 stories exclusively for Fiction House via the Iger Studio during her career!

Fran passed away this past November.

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Planet Comics

Volume 6

Super Bowl? I'll Show You a True SUPER Bowl!

Today, we PARTY, with our own Super-HERO Bowl!

A marathon of comic book-based DVDs and BluRays from around the world.

(Thank the tech gods for multi-region players!)

See you tomorrow with more exciting tales!

Reading Room TRAGG AND THE SKY GODS "Where Prowls the Devil Shark" Conclusion

So, what's going on with the cavemen, aliens, and dinosaurs in Tragg's prehistoric world?

...Zorek, learning that rebellious officer Fernek is still alive and that reinforcements are en-route from Yargon, decides to silence the rebel before he can tell the other Yargonians of the commander's failures.

Following the radiation from Fernek's jetpack, the Yargonian attack force comes upon...

The series ends with many open plotlines.

What happens when the other Yargonians arrive?

Do they arrest Zorek, or continue with his plans?

Does Fernek work with Tragg and the humans to resist the Yargonians?

Do he and Keera try to contact the others and tell them the truth?

Do the Yargonians end up abandoning their attempt at conquering the Earth?

Does Keera actually accept Fernek's love?

Sadly, we'll never know the answers.

Unlike most of the other Silver/Bronze Age Gold Key series, Tragg and the Sky Gods has never been reprinted or revived in new tales.

But...there is one more chapter in the story of Tragg and Lorn...a "lost tale" from their beginnings that finally saw publication just as Gold Key itself headed for extinction!

Click HERE to visit our "sister" RetroBlog Heroines! and read that final tale...

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Jurassic Classics

A Collection of Saurian Essays and Mesozoic Musings

by

Donald F Glut

(featuring the behind-the-scenes info on the creation of Tragg and the other Gold Key comic series Don worked on!)