Sunday, August 1, 2021

The Next Chapter of the RetroBlogs Blogathon Features...ROMANCE???

What's better than a sunny summer day at the beach?
Why, the latest in our annual gothic-themed, multi-chapter Beach Reads in...
...beginning Monday, of course!
Note: this 50-year old tale was reprinted a decade ago...but only in black and white!
This is it's first appearance in full color since 1971!
That's half a century!
Don't miss it!

Saturday, July 31, 2021

Cover Gallery SPEED CARTER: SPACEMAN & SPACE SQUADRON

Here's a look at the covers for the complete run of Speed Carter: SpaceMan...
Art by Bill Everett
Oddly, though they're really nice pieces of art, they never relate to the stories inside the book!
Art by Carl Burgos & ?
Art by Bill Everett
Art by Mike Sekowsky & ?
Art by Mort Lawrence
Art by Joe Maneely
Bill Everett (who didn't do any inside art) did two covers, and Joe Maneely (who did all the Speed stories in the first three issues finally got to do a cover with the last issue!
Here are the covers for Space Squadron.
Note the variants in foreign editions with retitled and redrawn covers...
Art by Sol Brodsky & Christopher Rule.
Vignettes at bottom by George Tuska.
Art by Werner Roth
Canadian Edition
Easily one of the worst recompositing jobs I've ever seen!
Art by Werner Roth
British Edition
Why were the aliens' second heads removed?
Art by Werner Roth
Canadian Edition
Now, this is how you recompose a cover!
Art by Sol Brodsky & Joe Maneely
Art by Sol Brodsky
British
Art by Sol Brodsky &?
We've decided to keep Space Force Saturdays at least through Halloween, so watch this space (pun intended) next week!

Friday, July 30, 2021

Friday Fun / CoronaVirus Comics PATSY WALKER "Great Idea!"

Due to the return of Covid-19 and the Dreaded Deadline Doom...

There used to be lots more to teen humor comics than just Archie and his friends with every comics publisher from the late 1940s through the early 1970s doing them! 
Created by writer Stuart Little and artist Ruth Atkinson, Patsy Walker first appeared in Timely's Miss America Magazine #2 (1944).
Redheaded Patsy Walker, parents Stanley and Betty, boyfriend Robert "Buzz" Baxter, and rich, raven-haired friendly rival Hedy Wolfe appeared from the 1944 through 1967 in various teen humor anthologies as well as several self-titled comics.
Trivia: Patsy Walker (along with Millie the Model and Kid Colt: Outlaw) were the only titles published continuously by Marvel from Timely in the Golden Age, through Atlas in the 1950s, to Marvel in the  Silver Age!
Patsy, Buzz and Hedy are all part of the Marvel Universe from Marvel's Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965) when Patsy and Hedy attended the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm!
Patsy later became the superheroine HellCat, and Buzz was revealed to be the supervillain Mad-Dog!
Patsy (and HellCat) appeared on the NetFlix series Jessica JonesLuke Cage, and Defenders, making her part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
Written and illustrated by the versatile Al Jaffee (before he moved over to MAD Magazine) , this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Patsy Walker #36 (1951) promoted contributing to the charity created in 1946 by newsman Walter Winchell (best known today as the narrator of the 1960s TV show Untouchables) to honor his friend, writer Damon Runyon, who died of cancer!
The charity, now called Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, still exists!

Thursday, July 29, 2021

Reading Room SPACE WARS "Strange World"

A never-reprinted short story that could've been produced as an episode of the original Twilight Zone...
...from Charlton's Space War #22 (1963).
Was this a longer tale edited down to only three pages?
It certainly feels like it, since there are many unanswered questions like...
If these people are Tibetan, why are they dressed like the Flintstones...and why do they speak English?
How would they know anything about the Earth-Uranus War?
And why is it we have no idea how only Heffner survived?
Pencils by Dick Giordano, inks by Vince Colletta.
The writer is unknown, but the Grand Comics Database postulates Joe Gill as the most likely candidate.
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Wednesday, July 28, 2021

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder LOST WORLD "Brute in the Bubble"

This kool cover, though it does feature Lyssa and Voltamen...

...has nothing to do with the story inside!
The so called "brute in the bubble" turns out to be a potential friend!
But questions abound!
Why do they call themselves "mummy-men" when they look like humanoid canines?
And what planet did they come from?
We may never know the answers...
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