Reading Room TWILIGHT ZONE "Calling..." & "Journey into..."

Though the original Twilight Zone comic never adapted any of the TV episodes...

...it did use a stellar lineup of talent to craft some really good new stories as well as science featurettes like this George Evans-illustrated one from Dell's Four Color #1288 (1962)...

...and this Evans-penciled/Reed Crandall-inked piece from Dell's Four Color #1173 (1961).

Besides these talented guys, other artists on the early issues included Frank Frazetta, Mike Sekowsky, Frank Giacoia, Alex Toth, Frank Thorne, Don Heck, and Angelo Torres!

Though neither Dell nor Gold Key followed the Comics Code, they didn't allow the creatives to go back to the relatively-unrestrained horror material most of the artists (especially the EC alumni) had done previously!

Sadly, trademark and licensing constraints have prevented these stories from being reprinted, but you'll be seeing them re-pesented here and at our fellow RetroBlogs!

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Boris Karloff's

Tales of Mystery Archives

Volume 1

(which is available in reprint, and features many of the same artists as the Twilight Zone comic)

Monday Madness ZANY "Buck Dodgers" and "Flush Gordon"

A couple of comic strip parodies from one of the many MAD Magazine imitators...

From Candar's Zany #3 (1959), illustrated by Carl (Golden Age Human Torch) Burgos, writer unknown.

From Candar's Zany #2 (1958), artist and writer unknown.

For October, we're re-presenting HTF and never-reprinted space adventure parodies, beginning with these two from Candar, which published risque titles like French Cartoons and Cuties and College Laughs.

Though Zany only ran four issues, it had a pretty damn good lineup of writers and artists including the aformentioned Burgos (who was also the editor for the first two issues), Bill Everett (who also painted all four front covers), Joe Sinnott, Dick Briefer, John Forte, Don Orehek, Morris Waldinger, Paul Reinman, and Pete Costanza!

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Sincerest Form of Parody

Design of the Week Redux: HALLOWEEN HOLE-IN-THE-HEAD!

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another...unless it sells really well, then it goes "Redux" for one more week, like this one!
With Halloween coming, it seems only appropriate that we go with scary themes for the next few weeks.
Kicking off our compilation of creepy collectibles is this ghoulishly-graphic image from one of the types of comic books that gave Dr Fredric Wertham such fits in the 1950s!
(Wertham was the psychiatrist who claimed that horror comics caused juvenile delinquency, resulting in the demise of the genre and the near-death of the comic book industry. Despite his heroic efforts, juvenile delinquency continued to flourish!)
Yeah, it's gruesome, but in a campy, cartoonish fashion!
Isn't that exactly what you're looking for in Halloween-wear?

Celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the First Publication of FRANKENSTEIN in October!

Start with the Classic Comics adaptation...

...written by Ruth Roche and illustrated by Robert Hayward Webb & Ann Brewster!

Continue with an authorized (but surreal) sequel to the 1930s Universal movie...

...written by Don Segall and illustrated by Bob Jenney!

Add in a humorous take on the tale by Bill (Sub-Mariner) Everett..

...from Atlas/Marvel's MAD clone, CRAZY!
Sample a startling one-shot tale...

...written by noted horror editor Roger Elwood and illustrated by the creator of the Golden Age Human Torch, Carl Burgos!
See a faithful adaptation of the first Hammer Studios Frankenstein flick...

...scripted by Donne Avenell and rendered by Alberto Cuyas

Then go with a swinging Sixties update...

..from Marvel's Not Brand Echh by writer Arnold Drake and artist Tom Sutton under a freaky Marie Severin cover!
Then try out a never-reprinted fummetti of...

...from DC's Movie Comics #1 (1939)!
If you think that's weird, how about Frankie as a Swinging Sixties SUPERHERO???

...courtesy of writer DJ Arneson and artist Tony Tallarico?

And, finally, beginning October 1st, running Monday through Friday until Halloween...

...Dick Briefer's legendary 1950s horror comic-inspired sequel to the original novel!
So get your fill of Frankie all October at our RetroBlogs!

Friday Fun REX DEXTER OF MARS "Puppet of the Ugly Queen"

Rex's "politically-incorrect" foe returns...

...with a scheme involving one of the oldest concepts in sci-fi!

"As she dies, the spell is broken.."

But, the Ugly Queen's body is still alive as the souls/intellects switch bodies!
So, Cynde doesn't go through the trauma of experiencing death!
But, we lose the closest Rex will ever come to an ongoing arch-enemy...
Body-switching in fiction has gone on as long as fiction itself has existed!
Whether it's via magic, technology, or super-human psychic powers, 
Both Edgar Rice Burroughs and HP Lovecraft used it in novels.
TV series like Star Trek, The Avengers (Steed and Mrs Peel, not Marvel characters), X-Files, and many others have featured their primary cast members' bodies switched with antagonists!
Movies including All of Me, Freaky Friday (all of them) and the highly-underrated I Married a Monster from Outer Space based their premises on the concept.
In comics, this never-reprinted tale from Fox's Mystery Men Comics #23 (1941) is one of the first (if not the first) takes on the subject!

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Comics About Cartoonists

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