Thursday, January 11, 2024

Reading Room LOST WORLDS "Visitors from Space" and "Space Platforms--Way Stations of the Future!"

Besides comic stories, comic books often ran one-page features like these...
Standard's Lost Worlds #5 Art by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito
...based on historical or scientific information available at the time...
Standards' Lost Worlds #6 Art by Rocco Mastroserio
...or speculation about future developments, again, based on then-current knowledge!
(I love that third panel, showing spacesuit-garbed scientists on a balcony on the satellite!)
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Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder WOLFF "World of the Witches"

...where technology and magic are both considered "dark arts" by the majority of inhabitants of this barbaric future!
Is it just me, or does the Sorceress of the Red Mist remind you of our previous Wednesday Worlds of Wonder feature, the sexy space heroine Agar-Agar, who was also published in the Dracula anthology magazine (and was also written by Wolff co-scripter Luis Gasca under the pen-name "Sadko")?
Or was that eye-makeup thing just a European fashion trend in the early 1970s?

This tale from  New English Library's Dracula #2 (1971) was superbly-illustrated and co-written by Esteban Maroto.
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Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Reading Room WORLD OF SUSPENSE "When the Creature Escapes"

Is a "sea monster" a mindless animal...or something more?
That's what this story from Atlas' World of Suspense #7, 1957 asks...
Penciled by Al Williamson, inked by Ralph Mayo, and written by a currently-unknown scripter, this tale leaves the matter open-ended, practically begging for a sequel!

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Monday, January 8, 2024

Monday Madness TOPS "Anthony Comstock: Fanatical Reformer"

Is it any wonder Republicans are using the work of a puritanical, conservative con-man from the 19th Century...

...to promote and serve their anti-abortion agenda in the 21st Century?






Both Federal and local Republican politicians are currently attempting to use the ancient Comstock Act's19th Century definitions of "obscene material" (which includes birth control printed information and drugs) to prevent them from being provided to pregnant women in 2024!
Written by George Hansen and illustrated by Lee Ames, this feature from Lev Gleason's TOPS #2 (1949) presents itself as a "review" of a biography of Comstock, Anthony Comstock: Roundsman of the Lord (1927)..which praised the man!
However, where the book put Comstock on a pedestal, the comic strip savaged him, taking the material from the tome and presenting it in a historical context.
BTW, you'll note the art here is larger than we usually present.
That's because the periodical it was presented in was tabloid-sized, like Marvel and DC Treasury Editions of the 1970s and 80s and the lettering would be unreadable in our usual 525-pixel wide format.
Editor Charles Biro conceived and produced the mag as an attempt to do an "adult oriented" magazine using the comic book format.
Sadly, it only lasted two issues and either issue is incredibly hard to find!
Happily, Fantagraphics worked with noted writer/artist/historian Michael T Gilbert to produce a superb book reprinting those two issues with an astounding amount of historical material about the periodical...

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Sunday, January 7, 2024

Design of the Week MOD LOVE

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!
This week, kool, retro Swinging Sixties-style pop-art comic art on a line of collectible goodies (including this mug) which would be perfect as small Valentine's Day presents for your pop-culture-obsessed Significant Other!
BTW, our "sister" RetroBlog, True Love Comics Tales, has run almost all the stories from this incredibly HTF book, as shown HERE
Order now, because the Day for Lovers is only a month away!
And you don't want to be caught empty-handed!