Reading Room SPACE ACTION "Silicon Monsters from Galaxy X"

If you're a cheesy sci-fi fan like me, you'll go for a story with a title like...

...'cause with a title like that, you're in for a fun (if not totally rational or even coherent) time!

While the writer is unknown, the art for this tale from Ace's Space Action #2 (1952) is attributed to "Jim McLaughlin", who had a short-lived comics career doing work primarily for Ace!

After that publisher dropped comics in 1955 to concentrate on paperbacks, he did a couple of stories for Atlas/Marvel, then a run of Dell's adaptation of the TV series Gunsmoke.

Then "Jim McLaughlin" disappeared.
Totally.
Unlike most comic book artists who went on to do commercial art or newspaper strips, there's no trace of "Jim McLaughlin" after his brief foray into four-color publishing...and no background about his pre-comics career!
Here's another interesting point...his art style altered considerably during his career.
In this story, the inking looks a lot like the work of long-time artist Jim Mooney!
In fact, a number of panels resemble Mooney's work on the DC strip Tommy Tomorrow, which Jim Mooney was both penciling and inking during the same period as "Jim McLaughlin's" work for Ace!
In McLaughlin's later work (particularly his Gunsmoke art), while the layouts look similar, the inking style is totally-different!
Was "Jim McLaughlin" a pen-name for a penciler working with at least two (if not more) different inkers?

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Science Fiction Comics
Taylor History of Comics
Vol 3

Steve Ditko Does Man-Bat and The Batman!

See the only time Steve (Spider-Man) Ditko illustrated The Batman...

...at our "brother" RetroBlog Hero Histories by clicking HERE!

Please Support Hero Histories

Visit Amazon and Order...

Steve Ditko Omnibus

Volume 2

(which reprints this tale as well as new villain Baron Tyme's return story-arc vs The Demon, also illustrated by Ditko)

Friday Fun REX DEXTER OF MARS "Junk Room of Doom"

It's taking a helluva long time for Rex Dexter to reach the second-closest planet to Earth...

...and going through the Junk Room of Doom is not going to speed things up!

This tale from Fox's Mystery Men Comics #12 (1940), was reprinted in Fox's The Eagle #1 (1941), presumably because the strip was being moved over there to give the new title an already-established feature, but the editors changed their minds, and new features like Spider Queen and Joe Spook took over the back pages of The Eagle, instead!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Comics About Cartoonists

Stories About the World's Oddest Profession

Trump Reading Room TALES TO OFFEND "Lance Blastoff on the Dinosaur Planet"

Here's what a veteran of Don the Con's Space Force might be like...

...as he goes "independent contractor" after his tour of duty!

Lance Blastoff was Frank (Do I really have to tell you?) Miller's "redneck in space" satire.

Though this tale first appeared in Dark Horse Presents #100 (1995), we're running the reprint from Dark Horse's Tales to Offend (1997) since it's in glorious full color by Marie Severin.

(The first appearance was b/w)

23 years later, he's the very embodiment of Don the Con's "Deplorables" set in an EC-style future!

He smokes!

He drinks!

He swears!

He lies to women...and they love it!

He's Lance Blastoff, and he says, "Get it while you can get it, then get going while the going's good!" Lance Blastoff: Role model for the next millennium!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Tales to Offend

The Kool Comic featuring Lance Blastoff by Frank Miller

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder BEYOND THE FARTHEST STAR "Tangor Joins the Fight"

We Have Already Seen...

...ok, it's been five years between chapters, but we've been busy!

Just go with it...

Written by Burroughs in 1940 and published in 1942, the story is basically an updating of John Carter of Mars or Carson of Venus but set "present-day" and with no hope of return to Earth since his body was destroyed in the rocket explosion.

In addition, the world our hero ends up on is not the high-adventure fantasyland of Barsoom, but the planet Poloda, where a technologically-advanced version of the Cold War between America and the USSR (with elements of Nazism) in the 1950s is being waged!

(There's an excellent piece about history behind the story HERE.)

Adapted by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by the highly-underrated Dan Green, this never-reprinted chapter from Tarzan #214 (1972) takes considerable liberties with the original storyline.
Our previous Wednesday Worlds of Wonder series, Carson of Venus, received great viewing numbers, so we thought we'd go with another Edgar Rice Burroughs series that hasn't been reprinted.
The first chapter appeared HERE, so you haven't missed anything, True Believer!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Beyond the Farthest Star

by Edgar Rice Burroughs