Reading Room WILD "Frozen North"

A never-reprinted story from one of Atlas Comics' many MAD clones...

...is our snowbound story for today, as winter weather continues to cover America!

Did you catch the cameo by the Golden Age Human Torch on page 3 panel 3, asking if this book was Young Men Comics (where he was appearing in 1954)?

This tale from Wild! #1 (1954) was illustrated by Sol Brodsky, who, while better-known to aficionados as Atlas/Marvel's production manager than as an artist, actually had over 1,000 stories and covers to his credit!

(He inked Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four #3 and #4 as well as Kirby's iconic cover for Avengers #16!)

Sadly, little of the material from Atlas' four humor titles from the 1950s has been reprinted, despite the fact that some of their "big names" like Bill Everett, Joe Maneely, Gene Colan, and Russ Heath all contributed stories that went far afield from their usual "realistic" styles with amazing results!

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Sincerest Form of Parody

Best 1950s MAD-Inspired Satirical Comics

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder CARSON OF VENUS "Girl in the Garden"

When Last We Left the First EarthMan on Venus...

...attempting to reach Mars, Carson Napier fails to take the Moon's gravity into consideration and his trajectory takes him to Venus instead!

Ejecting from the ship before it crashes, Napier encounters a giant crustacean which almost devours him but for the intervention of three humanoids who bring the shaken and stranded Earthman to their home...

Do We Have to Tell You?

Continued Next Wednesday!

Writer Len Wein and illustrator Mike Kaluta continue the high adventure with the second installment of their adaptation of Burroughs' Pirates of Venus from DC's Korak: Son of Tarzan #47 (1972).
To readers of the time, it must have been frustrating to only have 5 to 7 pages of Carson at a time, since the book was bi-monthly!
But it was probably the only thing keeping the detail-oriented, but notoriously-slow Kaluta on Carson, The Spawn of Frankenstein strip in Phantom Stranger, and The Shadow (both of which which were also bi-monthly) along with several cover assignments per month!

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The Complete Ace Books Carson of Venus Series

50 Years Ago Today...2001 Arrived!

No, I haven't gone senile...yet!

On this date in 1968, Arthur C Clarke and Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: a Space Odyssey, hit movie theatres like an atom bomb!

Eight years after that, a comic adaptation finally appeared...in the now-defunct, tabloid-sized "Treasury" format by none other than Jack (King) Kirby...

(You can read it at this amazing site!)

...followed by an ongoing series by Kirby that, to this day, generates controversy among comics aficionados!

Due to licensing limitations, neither the movie adaptation or the sequel series have been reprinted in the US, but we've re-presented the complete set of these otherwise lost tales on this blog!

Click on the titles below the covers to go to each story!

#1 "Beast Killer"

#2 "Vira, the She-Demon"

#3 "Marak"

#4 "Wheels of Death" ("Marak" Part 2)

#5 "Norton of New York: 2040 AD"

#6 "Inter-Galactica" ("Norton of New York: 2040 AD" Part 2)

#7 "New Seed"

#8 "Capture of X-51" (Mister Machine Part 1)

#9 "Mister Machine" (Mister Machine Part 2)

#10 "Hotline to Hades" (Mister Machine Conclusion)

Blow Your Mind, True Believer!

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Making of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: a Space Odyssey

Taschen

Reading Room NORGE BENSON "Time Travel Terror"

In the far future of Pluto's Norge Benson...

...science is sorta arbitrary and time travel is as easy as being swept up by a cyclone!

"Murphy the Mammoth"?

With Frosting the Polar Bear's mysterious reduction from full-size bear to puppy dog-sized cub, the editors must have felt they needed a character who could do "bull in a china shop" slapstick he used to do, as well as provide occasional sheer muscle in dangerous situations.

As a result, Murphy was added to the cast in this Lily Renee-rendered tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #31 (1944)!

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Planet Comics
Vol. 8

Easter & April Fool's Day Reading Room SPEED BUGGY COMICS "Magic Easter Candy"

Here's a never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Speed Buggy #3 (1975)...

...just in time for the first joint Easter/April Fools Day in 62 years!

Scripted by Mike Pellowski and illustrated by Alan James Hanley (not to be confused with the NYC comic book store owner), this was one of numerous one-off text features created to fulfill the second-class (magazine) privilege requirements for subscription copies when they didn't have a letters page or short story based on the specific comic's characters!