Atomic Kommie Comics

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder / CoronaVirus Comics SPACE ADVENTURES "U.F.O.: Secret of the Saucer"

Intrepid reporter Paul Mann had heard many tales about locals seeing flying saucers...

...now he's encountered an apparent alien who saved him (and the town) from a biological weapon stolen by a Communist spy.

Mann is taken into a flying saucer where he's about to (as we said in the 60s) "blow his mind"...

The finale of this book-length tale from Charlton's Space Adventures #60 (1967) was deliberately left open-ended.
A sequel, also using the artist "round-robin" concept, and also written by Denny O'Neil using his "Sergius O'Shaughnessy" pseudonym, appeared almost a year later.
Luckily for you, it'll be here...

Next Wednesday!

The art for this chapter was by up-and-comer Jim Aparo, who started at Charlton and went to DC when editor Dick Giordano moved there and offered him, Pat Boyette, Steve Ditko, and writers Denny O'Neil and Steve Skeates work after Charlton cancelled all their super hero and adventure/sci-fi titles in 1968!

Aparo became DC's primary Batman artist during the 70s and 80s as well as handling other series like Aquaman and Phantom Stranger.
One last note, this art from the reprint in Charlton's Ghost Manor #77 (1984) left out the "Chapter 3" header seen here...

...because the reprint left out the entire first chapter, though the events in it were referenced in the remaining two parts!

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Injection

Volume 1

(which shares a number of plot elements with this story)

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

CoronaVirus Comics VAMPIRELLA MAGAZINE "Masque of the Red Death"

We've presented several versions of Edgar Allan Poe's tale of pandemic pandemonium HERE...

...and HERE...

...in fact, its' one of the most re-told tales of classic horror that doesn't involve a classic "monster" like Frankenstein or Dracula!

Here's another rarely-seen (in fact, never-reprinted) version from Warren's Vampirella #110 (1984)...

Written by Rich Margopoulos, and illustrated by Rafael Auraleón, this is one of the moodier and graphically-gruesome versions, stopping just short of qualifying for our Not Safe for Work Comics Retroblog!

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Raven and the Red Death

Adapted by Richard Corben

Monday, May 4, 2020

Monday Madness / CoronaVirus Comics VEXT "Germ Warfare" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Hapless Protagonist...

...well, that's a superb synopsis for this story!

Doctors Scratch and Snyff create a sentient (and lethal) virus, which escapes from their lab to a nearby fast-food franchise!

(Talk about your welcoming environments...)

Meanwhile, banished from his native Jejune Realm (home to the minor deities that oversee the mundane events that define our day-to-day life) Vext ends up on Earth, where his almost total lack of knowledge and knack for causing chaos leads to him constantly being both the cause and victim of accidents, like this one...

So Vext saves the world...without realizing it!

Quite frankly, I'd heard of, but never read, this series.
Now that I've read this issue, I'm sorry I missed it!
Once this pandemic is over, I'll make this the ongoing Monday Madness feature!
Written and laid-out by Keith Giffen, penciled by Mike McKone, and inked by Mark McKenna, this never-reprinted story from DC's Vext #3 (1999) was a showcase for the snarky, in-joke-infused humor Giffen is notorious for!

Despite being incorporated into the mainstream DC universe from his first issue (which guest-starred Superman), and promoted in the DCU Heroes Secret Files and Origins one-shot, the book didn't sell well despite writer-artist Giffen's popularity with the comics audience!

This 6-issue mini-series was one of the few to not be reprinted as a trade paperback!

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