Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Reading Room STRANGE TALES "Mighty Oak!"

Look!
It's another wooden creature (like Groot) seeking to take over the world...
...in this never-reprinted Steve Ditko-rendered story!
Hah!
Thought it was going to just be a replay of "I Challenged Groot! The Monster from Planet X!"?
To give Stan Lee credit, he knew how to do variations on a theme!
This was the final tale in Atlas' Strange Tales #100 (1962), the final anthology issue of the series.
Beginning with the next issue, The Human Torch's solo strip would debut, and the title would become (like Journey into Mystery, Tales of Suspense, and Tales to Astonish), a superhero book with a couple of unrelated backups.
This, and several other Ditko tales from the era, have never been reprinted, and will be re-presented here over the next few months!
Watch for them!
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Monday, July 30, 2018

Monday Madness FANTASTIC COMICS "Space Smith vs Colt the Cosmic Criminal"

Gangsters wearing 20th Century fashions continue to menace Space Smith and Diana...
...as this somewhat anachronistic series continues its' journey into weirdness!
This never-reprinted story from Fox's Fantastic Comics #16 (1941) demonstrates the value of having a colorist who can keep track of who's who as almost everyone is mis-colored somewhere in this tale!
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Science Fiction Comics
Taylor History of Comics
Vol 3

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Reading Room RIOT "Pascal the Rascal"

In 1956, one of the many MAD clones did a spoof of the then incredibly-hot new comic strip...
...Dennis the Menace illustrated by an artist whose identity you probably won't guess!
Was I right?
Did you guess who it was?
Atlas' MAD rip-off RIOT #6 (1956) ended the book's run with some spectacular (and never-reprinted) artwork by Bill Everett, John Severin, Dan DeCarlo and this piece by an unrecognizable Joe Maneely!
Joe, whose art normally looked like this...
...totally-suppressed his own style to match Hank Ketcham's style down to the thickness of the linework while making the character look just different enough to avoid copyright and trademark infringement!
It was a beautiful job, and an example of this amazingly-ignored artist!
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Friday, July 27, 2018

Friday Fun REX DEXTER OF MARS "Moonlight Murder Mystery"

Seems Like Rex Dexter has given up all hope of ever reaching Mars again...
...especially since Earth needs him to bail it out of imminent destruction again!
As of this never-reprinted story from Fox's Mystery Men Comics #14 (1940), how many times has Rex Dexter saved the Earth?
And of course, this story!
That's seven out of fifteen stories...over 50% of all Rex Dexter tales to this point!
For a guy Earth doesn't want around, they keep calling on him a lot, eh?
Hey, kiddies!
As a kool bonus, you, too, can construct a Lunite Death Ray (non-working, of course)!
Who do you think we are, the NRA?
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