Wednesday Worlds of Wonder WORLDS UNKNOWN "Black Destroyer!" Part 1

A 1930s pulp story adapted into comic form in the 1970s...

...and a clear inspiration for aspects of movie and tv science fiction ranging from Forbidden Planet and Alien to Star Trek and Space: 1999 (among others)!

Will Coeurl deceive the crew and return with them to Earth?

Or will he simply kill the humans and commandeer the ship?

Find out in the conclusion next Wednesday, plus read some kool background info about the comic adaptation!

This tale from issue 5 (1974) of Marvel's short-lived science fiction anthology Worlds Unknown was adapted by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Dan Adkins & Jim Mooney.

It's based on "Black Destroyer", A E Van Vogt's first published story, which appeared as the cover story (a rare honor for a writer's premiere tale) in Astounding Science Fiction (July 1939).
It was later expanded in Vogt's novel Voyage of the Space Beagle, which continued the voyages of the starship and crew!

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Voyage of the Space Beagle
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Reading Room TALES TO ASTONISH "I Fell to the Center of the Earth!"

Here's a kool 1950s sci-fi story penciled by Matt Baker, whose speciality was "good girl" art!

Yet, there's not a single beautiful woman (not even a cavewoman), in this story, one of his few assignments for Atlas (later Marvel) Comics!

When this story appeared in Atlas' Tales to Astonish #2 (1959), Baker was near the end of his career, working through Vince Colletta's studio, doing only penciling to increase his productivity.

Vince Colletta inked the pages, and it's possible that, seeing how much detail Colletta tended to leave out during inking, Baker did less-detailed pencils than normal.

The writer is unknown, but it's believed to be the book's editor Stan Lee.
Penciler Matt Baker was one of the few Black comic book artists of the Golden and Silver Ages, and was easily the most prolific of them!
Though known for his "good girl" art, including the famous (and infamous) Phantom Girl stories, he handled every genre with ease, including horror, war, sci-fi, and romance!
Sadly, though, few of his stories featured Black characters...who were rare in comics until the mid-1960s!
You can read a short, but complete bio HERE!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour
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It's Memorial Day!

Remember the guys who went thru THIS for us!
A public service message from your pals at
Atomic Kommie Comics™

The 2024 RetroBlog "Time-Lost" Blogathons are Coming July 1st...

This summer's theme is never-reprinted tales from at least three decades ago!

To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of The Shadow (the Movie), a re-presentation of the 2-issue adaptation of the film by the man who visually-defined He Who Knows What Evil Lurks for several generations of readers, Mike Kaluta (along with writer Joel Goss)...plus we're providing comparisons between the comic and the movie (with film clips) in...

Crime and Punishment!
Next:

We're doing an intra-blog crossover right here at Atomic Kommie Comics between Wednesday Worlds of Wonder and Space Heroine Saturdays with a graphic novel featuring the interstellar adventures of StarFawn by writer Byron Preiss and illustrator Stephen Fabian...unseen since 1976!

(That's almost half a century!)
Plus:

Travel back almost a full century (1936) to the origin of the first (radio/movie serial/Golden Age) Green Hornet and Kato in a time-lost tale from 1991!
Confused?
You won't be after you read it in
Crime and Punishment!

And, Of Course...

...There'll be a Book-Length Gothic "Beach Read" Novel from half a century ago in
True Love Comics Tales
It's Gonna be a Sizzling Summer!

Space Force Saturdays ATOM-AGE COMBAT "Puzzle"

Since it's Memorial Day weekend...

...we thought we'd run a tale of interplanetary conflict between Earth and Mars!

Note: the last page was the inside back cover of the comic, so it's black-and-white, a standard cost-saving technique back then by printing the front and back inside covers one, or sometimes, two-color.

Illustrated by Dick Ayers, this tale from Fago's Atom-Age Combat #3 (1959) touches on an interesting idea.

Someone's keeping us from leaving Earth...but they're also keeping others from approaching Earth!

Were they protecting us from them...or them from us?

Since this was the final tale in the final issue of the series, we'll never know the answer...

BTW, this was the second series called "Atom-Age Combat"!

The first was published by St John Comics with five issues in 1952-53 and a one-shot in 1958.

Fago Publications bought the title when St John dropped it's comic line, continuing the numbering from the one-shot and producing two issues.

Fago itself only lasted from 1958-59.

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Mysteries in Space

The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics
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