Monday, November 5, 2018

Monday Madness ALICE "Lost Rag Doll"

...several comics publishers tried to take advantgage of the source book being in public domain by doing their own versions!
(Note that the Allen Anderson cover has Alice in a blue dress, like the animated character, but the stories show her wearing red!)
Writer/artist Dave Berg, who created this never-reprinted tale from Ziff-Davis' Alice #10 (1951), later achieved his greatest and longest-lasting success as the auteur behind MAD Magazine's "The Lighter Side of..." feature where his cranky self-portrait, Roger Kaputnik often appeared!
Note: Alice #10 was actually the first issue of the series, but there's no indication of a Ziff-Davis book that ended with #9 and was then retitled "Alice"...madness indeed!
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Sunday, November 4, 2018

Design of the Week SPACE SANTA

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!
This week...Space Santa (note the four arms!) listens to a cute alien child telling him what he/she/it wants for Christmas!
In the late 1950s-early 1960s we thought there was nothing science couldn't improve...including Santa Claus!
Galaxy Magazine's primary artist (both covers and interiors) in this era was Ed Emshwiller, who signed his work "Emsh".
Known for both detail and playfullness, Ed did a series of Christmas covers from 1951 to 1960 featuring a four-armed Santa in the future celebrating the Yuletide with humans and aliens alike!
Enjoy this final one in the series on mugs, t-shirts and other kool kollectibles!

Friday, November 2, 2018

Friday Fun SPACE MOUSE "Hunter"

Thought the Martian invasion stuff was over for the year?
Guess again, Earthling!
Even funny animals battled Martians!
Not a Dream!
Not a Hoax!
Not an Imaginary Story!
(though it is the ending of the movie Invaders from Mars, which came out the year before this never-reprinted tale from Avon's Space Comics #4 [1954] appeared!)
If I were a cynical sort, I'd say writer/artist Frank Carin copped that finale...
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(covering the studio where Frank Carin got his start)

Thursday, November 1, 2018

Reading Room WAR OF THE WORLDS "Part V: the End of the Invaders"

(This was Dave Cockrum's presentation piece for the Martians and their tripods, looking decidedly-different from the aliens and war machines from the then-recently cancelled Killraven: Warrior of the Worlds series!)
You know the story.
Guy meets alien!
Alien conquers planet!
Alien suddenly ghosts guy...
Overall, not a bad job by the creatives, eh?
The Marvel Classic Comics series ran 36 issues from 1976 to 1978, the first 12 of which were reprints of the b/w Pendulum Press Now Age Books comic adaptations of literary classics which had been sold directly to schools and libraries.
(Note: Classics Illustrated had ended in 1971, leaving a void in the retail comic market that Marvel attempted to fill.
Sadly, sales of the books after the reprints in 1-12 didn't warrant continuing the ambitious project.
The Direct Sales/Comic Book Shop market was just beginning, and if the project had survived another couple of years, it might have found a successful niche, but the timing was off.)
Like Classics Illustrated, the Marvel adaptations included text pieces about the original authors...
...and other goodies like the Dave Cockrum model sheet seen at the beginning of this post!
The adaptations featuring new material (13-36) have never been reprinted in America.
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