CoronaVirus Comics / Friday Fun CRAZY "Flu Strains from DIfferent Countries"

You thought that, during the 1970s, we were becoming more sensitive to ethnic humor?

You obviously weren't around then, bunkie!

While TV series like All in the Family and films like Kentucky Fried Movie were cleverly skewering racial stereotypes, some pop culture contributors were still indulging in them, as this (not surprisingly) never-reprinted feature from Marvel's Crazy Magazine #43 (1978) proves!

I don't know what writer Fred Wolfe and artist John Langton were thinking when they created this, but the fact that editor Paul Laikin let it see print doesn't speak well for any of their sensibilities!

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Sincerest Form of Parody

CoronaVirus Comics MARVEL TALES "Last Man Alive!"

This lovely cover by Bill Everett is sorta true...

...but it's also sorta deceiving!
Read about Freddie Kruger (yep, that's his name)...

So he wasn't the last man alive...nor was he even on Earth!

Why the disconnect between the cover for Atlas' Marvel Tales #153 (1956) by Bill Everett and the story illustrated by Ed Winiarski?

Two possibilities!

1) the cover was conceived and drawn before the story was written, and the tale, done later on, was modified from the basic premise!

2) Editor Stan Lee (who probably didn't write the story) failed to convey the concept of the already-done story properly to the cover artist, and it was too late in the production process to correct it!

Trivia: It's not unusual for a one-shot character's name to became famous for another reason later on!

This character has no relation to the villain of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise!

Conversely, when Raymond Burr's character in the first Godzilla film, reporter "Steve Martin" was resurrected 29 years later in Godzilla 1985, a certain comedian by the same name had become extremely famous!

Despite that, Burr's character retained the name in the sequel...

BTW, the story's author is unknown and neither the cover nor the tale has ever been reprinted.

This is its' first appearance in 54 years!

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Ten-Cent Plague

Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder / CoronaVirus Comics PLANET OF VAMPIRES "Blood Plague" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Fellow Normal Humans..

This scene...sorta...appears in this issue

Astronauts Chris and Craig invade the virus-infected vampires' stronghold only to discover Craig's wife (and fellow astronaut) Brenda drained dry, as shown on the cover above.
(Except for the fact that Craig has a moustache and both Craig and Brenda are African-American, as shown HERE.)
Leaving Craig to mourn, Chris blasts his way into the Proctor's office...

What was "the Secret Project"?

We never found out, since the book was cancelled!

But it was already going though the transition that almost all the Atlas books that lasted more than two issues went through.

Radical changes in creative staffs, plotlines, even characters themselves were the norm as mercurial publisher Martin Goodman began shaking things up.

It's a sordid tale best told by one who was there, so click HERE for the details!

As for Planet of Vampires, the word was to make it more like Planet of the Apes and/or Kamandi.

This two-page spread in the back of the book by Larry Lieber and Al Milgrom gives an idea of what was to come...

Perhaps it's just as well there was no #4...
Next Wednesday:
Another Disease-Laden World of Wonder!
(There are a lot of them in sci-fi/fantasy!)

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I Am Legend

the Graphic Novel Adaptation of the Original Book Which Inspired Generations of Creatives, including the Creators of Planet of Vampires!

CoronaVirus Comics FLASH GORDON COMICS "Real Enemy"

Though deliberate use of disease as a weapon is forbidden by all civilized countries on Earth...

...sometimes inadvertent use against a technologically-superior enemy may be the only thing that saves us!

Written by Joe Gill and illustrated by Pete Morisi (who signed his work "PAM" because comics were his moonlighting gig after his full-time job as a member of the NYPD), this backup tale from Charlton's Flash Gordon #16 (1969) takes the concept from the finale of HG Wells' War of the Worlds and shows Earth disease destroying the entire population of the alien homeworld, not just an invasion force as in Wells' novel!

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War of the Worlds

Illustrated by Alex Nino

Pendulum Press/Now Age Books

Monday Madness / CoronaVirus Comics YEAR ZERO

A new epic that offers a global look at a pandemic-created Zombie Apocalypse...

 ..from the perspectives of...
A Japanese hitman...

A Mexican street urchin...

An Afghan military aide...

A Polar research scientist...

A Midwestern American survivalist...

Five survivors of a horrific epidemic who must draw upon their unique skills and instincts to survive on a planet filled with shambling undead.

Created by Ben Percy (Wolverine) and Ramon Rosanas (Star Wars: Age of Resistance), Year Zero wrestles with weighty moral and theological questions posed by the pandemic such as "who do you think is worth saving...and what happens when you don't think they're worth the risk to yourself" and investigates the plague's cause and a possible cure!

Note: Though it's from the same publisher as Resistance, it's not a "shared universe" title, but a standalone series!

Sort of like how the 1950s books Atomic War and World War III were from the same publisher and featured the same basic premise, but went off in different directions!

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Year One

Ben Percy & Ramon Rosanas