Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Tales Twice Told PLANET COMICS "Last Expedition"

In space, things are not always as they seem...
...as this story of the rescue of personnel from a science research colony aptly demonstrates!
This tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #72 (1953) was illustrated by Bill Benulis, but the writer is unknown.
That's a pity, because Eerie Publications editor Carl Burgos thought the story was good enough to re-do almost 20 years later...as we'll see on Thursday!
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Monday, June 27, 2022

Monday Maternity Madness CHOICES "Burning Issue"

The ruling made by the Supreme Court repealing Roe V Wade last week seems inevitable...
...when you are dealing with people who believe America should be like this!

Nope, this isn't America...yet!
But we're sure as Hell headed there as our own conservative religious fundamentalists start dominating the government!
From Isis Press' Choices: a Pro-Choice Benefit Comic for the Anthology National Organization for Women, produced to raise money after the Supreme Court ruling of Webster V Reproductive Health Services (1989) began the re-imposition of limits to the rights of women over their own bodies!
There will be more in the coming weeks!

Sunday, June 26, 2022

The RetroBlogs Summer Blogathons Are Coming...

Our theme this year is "crossover", featuring posts of long-out of print (OOP) tales with multi-genre appeal!
First up...
...is a double-feature of the conclusion of Thor and Jane Foster's long-running soap opera-style Silver Age romance in
...along with Jane Foster's first time wielding Thor's hammer in
Then...
The OOP Street Fighter the Movie (1995) comic adaptation in both
and
Plus...
The OOP graphic novel Cowboys and Aliens that served as the basis for a recent fun flick in
Western Comics Adventures
and right here at
Atomic Kommie Comics
And, finally...
The OOP first Doctor Strange prose novel, Nightmare (1979) by William Rotsler in both
and
PLUS: A standalone OOP "beach read" Gothic Romance in
True Love Comics Tales
(Hey, it's a long-standing tradition!)
The Fun Starts Right After July 4th!

Saturday, June 25, 2022

Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN AERO "Alien Invasion"

What do you do with a wartime character after a war?
In the case of fighting aviator Captain Aero, you make him into a space-going fighter!
Art by Rudy Palais, writer unknown.
Captain Aero was one of numerous independent costumed aviators who fought the Axis in comic books during World War II.
His few distinctive traits included a mustache that came and went depending on the artist and an aircraft that could use its' propeller like a buzz-saw.
(The laws of physics were rarely-followed in Golden Age comics!)
In his early days he was assisted by the Sky Scouts, a gang of tweens and teens who wanted to be aviators, and who were popular enough to briefly have their own backup strip.
By the time of this never-reprinted story's publication in Holyoke's Captain Aero Comics #25 in 1946, WW II was over, and sales on military-themed comics were dropping.
A number of them, like Blackhawk, shifted to battling criminals and/or Communist spies.
But not Captain Aero!
He was destined for bigger things...like interplanetary conflict!
The series' change of concept was taken even further in the next issue...as you'll see in two weeks!
But be here next week as space-going hero SpaceHawk begins his descent from spanning the galaxy of the far future to patrolling (then0 present-day Earth!
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featuring the cover art from this issue of Captain Aero Comics by LB Cole!

Friday, June 24, 2022

Friday Fun MODELING WITH MILLIE "Millie the Marvel"

If you think Marvel and DC are rebooting their characters (and continuities) more frequently than ever...
...you've never followed the many incarnations of Millie the Model from 1945 to the present!
This particular story is from the early Silver Age "romance comic" phase of her career.
This never-reprinted story from Modeling with Millie #54 (1967); written by Gary Friedrich, penciled by Odgen Whitney, and inked (uncredited) by Frank Giacoia; was Millie the Marvel's only appearance.
It was also the final issue of this particular title.
Over at her ongoing "sister" title, Millie the Model, the character returned to her previous Archie Comics-influenced format, once more becoming a teen-humor title without ongoing storylines.
Trivia: From 1945 to 1973, there was always at least one Millie title from Atlas/Marvel, for a total of five different series, plus annuals, a couple of one-shots, an ongoing strip in Comedy Comics, and a spin-off series for her rival, Chili!
Her main title ran for 207 issues, and was, until Fantastic Four #207 came out in 1979, Marvel's longest-running character-named book!
(Books with longer runs like Mighty ThorIncredible Hulk, and Captain America had different names [Journey into MysteryTales to Astonish, and Tales of Suspense, respectively] before becoming "character" titles.
Millie's flagship title was always Millie the Model!)
Millie was rebooted several times going from a romance/humor hybrid to Archie-style humor to romance/soap opera and finally back to Archie-style humor with changes to the characters' ages, professions, and relationships at each stage.
Millie Collins, despite being shown as outside the Marvel Universe in this tale, has appeared as part of the mainstream Marvel universe in several titles, including the "Wedding of Reed and Sue" in Fantastic Four Annual #3 (and Marvels #2), Dazzler #34, Sensational She-Hulk #60, and the Models, Inc mini-series.
In the 1980s, a middle-aged Millie appeared in the Star Comics mini-series Misty, about the teen-age daughter of Millie's brother!
(The best thing about this Trina Robbins-produced mini-series was the retro look and use of readers' designs for the characters' clothes.)
Millie was scheduled to be rebooted in 2003 as a teen-age tennis player in a manga-style mini-series called 15-Love.
When the project was finally published in 2011 (yeah, eight years later), the lead character was Millie's teen-age niece (though Millie herself did appear briefly)!