Monday, April 9, 2018

Reading Room NORGE BENSON "Mammoth Poachers of Thor"

Add a mammoth to your cast, and what's the first thing that happens?
You encounter mammoth poachers, of course!
Perhaps it's a blessing that this tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #32 (1944) is the final Norge Benson adventure.
The writing, which had never been the strip's greatest asset, has deteriorated remarkably.
Even Lily Renee's constantly-improving artwork can't save the series.
Be here next Monday as we begin a new time-lost series!
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Planet Comics
Vol. 8

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Reading Room PANIC "What to Do with Ebbet's Field?"

As I had mentioned previously, baseball's Dodgers had left Brooklyn for Los Angeles in 1957...
...leaving an empty stadium in the heart of the Borough of Kings!
This never-reprinted strip from Panic Publications' Panic #1 (1958) takes the "Man on the Street" skit from then-popular The Steve Allen Show (featuring Don Knotts, Tom Poston, and Louie Nye) and uses it to answer the question!
(You can read about Ebbets [no apostrophe] Field's fate HERE.)
As to who wrote and drew the four-pager...we have no idea!
Only Publisher Robert Farrell and Editor/Art Director Bob Powell used their own names on the masthead!
Panic survived longer than most other MAD clones, running nine issues from 1958 to 1966.
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Saturday, April 7, 2018

Reading Room WEIRD THRILLERS "Graveyard in the Antarctic"

While a mini-series about ill-fated Arctic explorers, The Terror, airs on AMC, here's a true tale of frozen fear...
...from the back of Ziff-Davis' Weird Thrillers #4 (1952)!
Illustrated by Marvin Stein, it's purportedly based on a true story.
But I've been unable to verify it, as all of Levick's known studies were about penguins, not seals!
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Friday, April 6, 2018

Friday Fun JETTA OF THE 21st CENTURY "My Cosmic Hero"

...so as long as we're completing re-presenting the Jetta series, we'll upgrade with these superior scans thanks to the amazing Kracalactaka!
Let's look at a typical evening at the drive-in, supposedly set in the early 21st Century (aka NOW)...as presented in 1952!
(I'm still waiting for my flying car!)
If the art style looks familiar, it's the work of Dan DeCarlo, who helped establish the iconic "look" of Archie Comics!
Dan actually started at Atlas Comics (the 1940s-50s predecessor to Marvel Comics) doing a variety of humor strips before beginning a long-term run on various Archie titles in 1951.
Even then, he continued to work for a number of other publishers, including Standard Comics, who asked him to create, write, and illustrate a teen-humor series.
(Every publisher had at least one of them!)
Jetta of the 21st Century was the only one set in the future.
This particular tale is from the series' premiere issue, #5 (1952)!
In the 1950s, Standard tended to begin series with #5, believing readers would pick up the book, wondering "How did I miss the first four issues of this kool book?"
It rarely worked...
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Dan DeCarlo's Jetta

Thursday, April 5, 2018

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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