Monday Maternity Madness THE HANDMAID'S TALE

Much as George Orwell's prophetic dystopian novel 1984 was published decades before many elements of it became fact...

Margaret Atwood's 1985 dystopian novel about a future America (renamed Gilead in the early 21st Century) approaches realization in 2024!

We proudly present a couple of excerpts from the graphic novel adaptation, published in 2019.

Note that the Handmaids' clothing designs and other uniforms are somewhat different from the movie or TV series.

Before selection, potential Handmaids live in dorms where communication with each other is forbidden.

The "lucky" ones are placed only in households of the rich and powerful whose wives cannot conceive children.

Note that it is mentioned that failure to conceive is sometimes the husband's fault!
(But it's a situation that likely happens more often than discussed...)
The unnamed narrator is assigned to The Commander and given the name "Offred" since her new master is Fred...

Offred manages to escape, but her fate is unknown.

The epilogue is set in the future (specifically 2195), when Gilead has been replaced by a more rational government and way of life...

There's an award-winning sequel novel published in 2019, The Testaments, set fifteen years after the conclusion of Tale and chronicles the fall of Gilead.
This graphic novel was also published in 2019.
HERE'S an interview with the adaptation writer/artist with some concept art!
Whether you borrow the prose novel or graphic novel from the library or buy it (new or used), please READ it!
Too many of the concepts shown are in the Republican platform and its' manual Mandate for Leadership: Project 2025 (which you can download in PDF form at Archive.org HERE)!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Buy...

The Handmaid's Tale
Graphic Novel Adaptation by Renée Nault
Paid Link

The Latest RetroBlog Time-Lost Blogathon Entry Started YESTERDAY...

...as the re-presentation of the Never-Reprinted Premiere Space-Opera Graphic Novel Began!

Don't Worry, You Can Catch Up Before the Next Chapter.

But Before You Do, It Would be Helpful if You Read This Intro First...

Historical Notes:

The Dune movie referred to was Alejandro Jodorowsky's ambitious and potentially-ground-breaking, but sadly-stillborn production detailed in the recent documentary Jodorowsky's Dune.
Side note: Many of the creatives gathered for this project ended up working on Ridley Scott's Alien! including HR Giger, Chris Foss, Moebius and Dan O'Bannon!
The Space Wars, which was filming at the time, was, as you might have guessed, Star Wars!
Now that you have some context for the era StarFawn was created in, go HERE to read the first part, then return to this blog on Wednesday, to read the next chapter!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Buy

Fiction Illustrated #2

StarFawn

Paid Link

Space Force Saturdays STARFAWN "To the Nearest Quasar" Part 1

Welcome to the first (never-reprinted) space opera graphic novel...

...as we meet the crew of the starship Destiny, the best and brightest Earth has to offer, starting with the tale's narrator/ship's historian/archivist...

To Be Continued on Wednesday Here at Atomic Kommie Comics as Part of

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder

In this pre-Alien tale, "in space, everyone can hear you scream!"

While pre-Alien, this project was post-classic Star Trek and it shows in the basic exploratory concept, the cast's multi-ethnic composition, and a "hey, we come in peace" attitude...not to mention a lackadaisical approach towards touching unknown objects of obviously-extraterrestrial origin!

Created in 1976 by writer/editor Byron Preiss and illustrator Stephen Fabian, this digest-sized graphic novel (second and last in a series which then converted to trade paperback size for two more volumes) was racked in drugstores and candy stores with similarly-formatted periodicals including Archie Comics and various soap opera, romance novel, UFO, etc. mags.
As a result, it sold rather poorly.
Remember there were less than a half-dozen comic book stores in America at that time, and regular bookstores refused to carry the digest-sized periodical!
After this, Pyramid Books modified the format to trade paperback size, but, despite projects by Jim Steranko and Ralph Reese, the series only lasted two more volumes!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Buy

Fiction Illustrated #2

StarFawn

Paid Link

Friday Fascist Fun MAD "Mad's All-Inclusive Do-It-Yourself Impeachment Newspaper Story"

When the previous criminally-inclined Republican Prez was about to be impeached in 1974...

...it was (unlike now) for a non-violent crime and MAD Magazine was at a creative peak, as demonstrated by this classic (and pretty comprehensive) piece by writer Frank Jacobs published in EC's MAD #170 (1974)!

The process took several months, allowing for such satirical pieces to be carefully-crafted.

Today, sadly, MAD as a print magazine is gone (except for reprints), and the increased speed political matters now proceed at prevents such material from being created!

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Unreal!"

As Mighty Thor and Tales of Asgard took over Atlas/Marvel's Journey into Mystery...

...one-shot backup tales like this one were, sadly, slowly squeezed out of the book!

The cleverly-written narration doesn't offer a clue as to which protaganist is speaking.

Of course, we assume it's the human...

Plotted by Stan Lee, scripted and penciled by his brother Larry Lieber (Stan's birth name was "Stanley Leiber"), and inked by Matt Fox, this never-reprinted story from the back of Marvel's Journey into Mystery #100 (1964) was one of the last non-Asgardian tales in the book.

They were discontinued as of #105.

Matt Fox began as a pulp illustrator for Weird Tales, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, and others.

When the pulps died in the early 1950s, he moved to Atlas Comics, where, because he wasn't a fast penciler, he inked others' pencils more often than doing solo pencil-ink assignments.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Atlas-Era

Journey into Mystery

Volume #4
Paid Link