Friday, September 20, 2024

Friday Fascist Fun UNQUOTABLE TRUMP "Trump SuspenStories"

From Now Until Election Day, We'll Be Presenting Examples of How Creatives See Don da Con...
With his current demonizing of legal immigrants...who just happen to be Black, Don da Con returns to his, dare I say, roots!
Interesting to note the Klan leader in the original Wally Wood-illustrated cover from EC's Shock SuspenStories #6 (1952-53)...
...had a red hood!
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Thursday, September 19, 2024

Reading Room OUTER SPACE "Repair Stop"

Today's comics creators have lost the ability to tell a straightforward story...
...in a short story format!
It wasn't always this way....
Written by Joe Gill and illustrated by Steve Ditko, this efficent, effective tale from Charlton's Outer Space #18 (1958) sets up the minimal plot, conveys multiple points of view, and delivers a satisfying ending...all within four pages!
If it was done today, it'd be a book-length tale!
You'll note Ditko's heavy use of pen, rather than brush for inking, resulting in a less-lush, less organic "feel" and a lot more cross-hatching instead of feathering than his work only a year later, when he was transitioning from Charlton over to Atlas/Marvel.
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Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder FLYING SAUCERS "Spawn of Terror"

Was Erich Von Däniken (Chariots of the Gods) the first to tie flying saucers to ancient civilizations?
Nope!
The idea of aliens visiting us in ancient times had been popular for as long as fantasy and science fiction have been around.
Next Wednesday:
First Contact!
Inspired by the flying saucer craze of the late 1940s-early 1950s, this 1950 Wally Wood-illustrated book was one of many one-shot titles from Avon Comics during their short, but prolific existence.
Another one-shot (though it probably wasn't intended to be such), was Fawcett's Vic Torry and His Flying Saucer (1950).
Flying saucers also popped-up in almost every already-running comic book from funny animals to mysteries.
They even appeared in Charlton's Cowboy Western Comics, which changed it's name for a year to Space Western Comics to play up the connection!
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Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Reading Room JUNGLE JIM "Wizard of Dark Mountain"

When Jungle Jim returned to comic books in the 1960s in new stories...
...the usually "realistic" high adventure strip jumped head-first into all-out sci-fi/fantasy!
Written and laid-out by Bhob Stewart, pencilled by Steve Ditko, and inked by Wally Wood. this cover-featured story from Charlton's Jungle Jim #22 (1969) was prepared for the character's previous publisher, King Comics, but ended up at Charlton when King Features Syndicate dropped in-house comic book publishing.
You can read Bhob's account of how this story was produced HERE.
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Monday, September 16, 2024

Monday Maternity Madness Redux 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-choice 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 printed birth control information and contraceptive 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...
Note: We presented this post only a couple of months ago, but with Repugs in states banning abortion re-introducing this two-century old legislation as the reason to validate preventing women from receiving contraceptive drugs or even printed matter about birth control, we felt it was worth showing what the cons are using at the basis for their insanity...qualifying it as Monday Maternity Madness, indeed!
BTW, the use of the Comstock Act to do exactly that is prominently-listed in Don da Con's Project 2025!

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