Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Wednesday Worlds of Wolverton MYSTIC "Devil Birds!"

Behind a somewhat deceptive (though kool) cover by penciler Christopher Rule and inker Sol Brodsky...
...lurks a tale of terror by the one and only Basil Wolverton!
Besides that there's no "Gloria" in this story from Atlas' Mystic #4 (1951), the cover-featured "Devil Bird" features only a passing resemblance to the mutated creatures in this tale...who apparently are altered from any living entity, be it bird or mammal!
This loss of our humanity, whether physical or mental, is a concept Wolverton repeats several times, particularly in his all-time classic "Brain Bats of Venus"!
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Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Reading Room BLACK CAT MYSTIC "A Weemer is the Best of All!"

"Whimsical" is not a word you usually associate with Jack (King) Kirby...
...but in this case, it's perfectly appropriate!
Though Jack Kirby both penciled and inked (a rare occurrence) this tale from Harvey's Black Cat Mystic #59 (1957), the identity of who wrote it is unknown, but it's probably Kirby himself or ex-partner Joe Simon who was the editor of the book at Harvey Comics!
BTW, Black Cat Mystic, despite the title, was a science-fiction, not horror, comic!
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Monday, October 14, 2024

Monday Maternity Madness CHOICES "People Like This Really Exist!"

It's sad and amazing how this strip from 1990 by writer/artist Nina Paley...

...is so relevant (and accurate) today, 24 years later!

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!

Sunday, October 13, 2024

BLACK CAT MYSTIC "Woman Who Discovered America 67 Years Before Columbus!"

From Harvey's Black Cat Mystic #60 (1957)...
...comes a Joe Simon/Jack Kirby tale that may have been created for Simon & Kirby's Strange World of Your Dreams, but not used until years later!
Prize's Strange World of your Dreams only ran for four issues.
Several stories planned for the fifth issue ran in Prize's Black Magic after SWoYD was cancelled.
But S&K left Prize and took any unused material with them, so this could be another tale meant for SWoYD #5!
BTW, I was unable to find any record of an actual Marina Dorotea De Vargas, so it's safe to presume this is an entirely-fictional tale.
And, yes, Columbus Day is tomorrow.
But, we have an ongoing Monday feature we couldn't interrupt 
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Saturday, October 12, 2024

Space...Hero? Saturdays SUPERSONIC SAMMY "...Meets Stalin!"

Does a Martian who comes to Earth qualify as a "Space Hero"?
If it worked for Lars of Mars, it should be equally-valid for this guy, right?
For those not up on their history, the guy with the moustache is Joseph Stalin, the Communist Premier of the USSR (aka the Soviet Union/Russia) from 1924 to 1953.
Who sez comics ain't educational???
Created, written and illustrated by Basil Wolverton who created SpaceHawk, Space Patrol, and Jumpin' Jupiter, Supersonic Sammy is the least-known of his Space Heroes...because he never appeared in a comic book, until the 1980s!
(When he finally did appear in a reprint comic book, he was still in b/w!
So we have no idea what he would've looked like in color!)
He ended up as "filler" in Martin Goodman's "adult" humor magazines like Comedy, Laugh It Off, and Cartoon Parade, which were all b/w periodicals!
(Goodman was also the owner of Timely/Atlas/Marvel Comics until the late 1960s.)
As far as we can tell, there were only three adventures of the somewhat-merry Martian, of which this, which shows his being exiled from Mars, is the first!

You'll be seeing more of him in the future!
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