Atomic Kommie Comics

Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Reading Room VOYAGE TO THE DEEP "Disaster Rises" Part 1

After publishing the comics adaptation of the movie Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea...

...Dell Comics planned to do an ongoing comic series.

However, they lost the license for reasons unknown and decided to rework the existing material into a new, similar, series...

The saga continues...

Thursday!

Art for Dell's Voyage to the Bottom of the Deep #1 (1962) is by Sam Glanzman, who also did the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea movie adaptation, but the scriptwriter is unknown.

There are a lot of similarities in characters and tech between this series and the VttBotS movie.
(The TV series wouldn't debut for another two years...)

But the submarine being able to adapt its' shape as needed was something 1960s special effects couldn't handle so it was considered a defining characteristic to avoid questions of copyright infringement.

They also eliminated the big bay "windows" in the nose of the sub, moving them to the conning tower, just to be safe...

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Voyage to the Deep
TPB reprinting the complete four-issue series, plus some kool features!

Monday, May 31, 2021

Monday Mars Madness VENUS COMICS "Invasion from Mars!"

Orson Welles wasn't the only one to tell this tale...

...but this never-reprinted story takes a slightly different turn!

While the scripter for this story from Atlas' Venus #13 (1951) is unknown, the artist is Dave Berg, who would make a name for himself as one of the mainstays of MAD Magazine with his Lighter Side of... feature!
Berg started at the beginning of the Golden Age as one of the Eisner/Iger Studio artists providing material in various genres for Quality Comics and Fiction House.

He eventually went solo doing stories and covers for St John, Toby, Ziff-Davis, Dell, Fawcett, Archie, and, as you can see here, Timely/Atlas, before finally landing at EC doing one war story and then switching to MAD as of #34, becoming one of the steadiest of the "Usual Gang of Idiots" (as the contributors referrred to themselves).

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Dave Berg

Five Decades of the Lighter Side

Sunday, May 30, 2021

Tomorrow's Memorial Day...

...but we have a kool Monday Mars Madness post I didn't want to wait on!

So pay tribute to our defenders (active and retired) today and tomorrow!

BTW, this is a World War II-era flag!

That's why it has only 48 stars!

Saturday, May 29, 2021

Space Force Saturdays SPEED CARTER "Space Sentinel's Sacrifice"

It is said that every Space Sentinel is ready to die in defense of Earth...

...a belief put to the test in this tense tale from Speed Carter: SpaceMan #5 (1954)!

While it's a good attempt at a poignant tale about how a veteran, even crippled, could contribute to the defense effort, it's hampered by the fact that the story revolves around a character we've never seen before, and thus have no empathy for him.

And, we have to ask, where is the BeastMen's unnamed planet, since the now-diverted meteor crashes into it only a few minutes after being diverted by the impact of Major Ramm's ship!
This story was scripted (as were all Speed Carter tales) by Hank Chapman!

Illustrator George Tuska later became the final artist on the original Buck Rogers comic strip (1959-67) and then assumed the art duties for almost a decade on Marvel's Invincible Iron Man!

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