Baker Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "Return of the Pied Piper"

A Corrupt Politician Who Steals Public Funds!

As common back in 1959, when this never-reprinted story was published, as today, 65 years later!

Written by Joe Gill, penciled by Matt Baker (with only a single beautiful woman in sight) and inked by Vince Colletta, this story from Charlton's anthology Out of this World #13 (1959) is dependent on the reader being familiar with the classic fairy tale of "The Pied Piper of Hamlin"!
Wonder how many kids today know about the tale and would get the "punchline"...

Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Matt Baker

Art of Glamour

Paid Link

Monday Holiday Madness PRESIDENTS' DAY...the Holiday that Combines Two REAL Presidents' Birthdays!

Before they combined Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays into a "floating" holiday...

...Washington's Birthday was always celebrated each year on Feb 22nd...

...and Lincoln's Birthday was always on February 12th!

Why the change?

USA Today has an explanation HERE!

Since this is a comics blog, let's get back on-topic!

These two features appeared in a 1956 comic called "Every Day's a Holly Day"

(No, it's not a typo...as you can see!)

Why was it called that instead of "Every Day's a Holiday"?

Because it was given away to kids by grocers who sold Holly Sugar!

Illustrated by long-time comic illustrator John Rosenberger, it's a unique pamphlet covering a number of American holidays, including Mothers' Day (though not Fathers' Day), Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and a couple of holidays we've largely abandoned...Pan-American Day and American Indian Day!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Cartoon History of the United States

Return of the BlogRoll

Now that I finally have a presence on Threads, BlueSky, and LinkedIn, I've noticed discussions about users linking their accounts on those apps to their vlogs/blogs/substack/etc.

I've noticed that, when I post to them, the link usually converts the feed into a phone-friendly format, which unlike my standard desktop/laptop format, doesn't have the sidebar elements I designed.
The sidebar has what's called a "blogroll", which is usually a listing of related blogs by family, friends, and others who share common interests!
In my case, it's a listing of my own blogs, dedicated to different genres and categories of fiction!
So, here's a blogroll within a blog post, featuring ALL the blogs I do, in alphabetical order!
Just click on the name to go to the blog!

Crime & Punishment

Femmes Fantastique

Hero Histories

Heroines!

Horror Comics of the 1950s

Medical Comics & Stories

Not Safe For Work Comics

Pop Art Martial Arts

Secret Sanctum of Captain Video

Seduction of the Innocent!!

True Love Comics Tales

War: Past, Present & Future

Western Comics Adventures

Enjoy any and all of them!

Space Hero Saturdays OUTER SPACE "Blueprint for Survival"

Sometimes a Space Hero is just an ordinary guy...

...or someone extraordinary pretending to be ordinary!

This never-reprinted story from Charlton's Outer Space #21 (1959) follows the standard convention of movie/TV sci-fi of the era with friendly aliens who look perfectly human, but dress better (or at least more futuristically than us!
Written by Joe Gill, penciled by Matt Baker, inked by Vince Colletta.

Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...

Matt Baker

Art of Glamour

Paid Link

Friday Fun MARGIE COMICS "Elusive Valentine!"

Here's a never-reprinted Valentine's Day treat...

...from almost 80 years ago years ago, featuring a teen humor character from the company that later became Marvel Comics!

Until the mid 1970s when Archie Comics became the sole "teen humor" publisher, every company had several titles with wacky teenage protagonists.
Margie, created/written/illustrated by Morris Weiss was typical of the genre...

• Irresponsible, impulsive teen (of either gender)!
• Usually-clueless object of affection!
• Constantly-irritated parents!
• An annoying younger sibling (usually of the opposite gender to the protagonist)!
• Various eccentric friends!

Initially a backup strip that floated to whatever humor comic needed a 5-6 page filler, she finally got her own title by taking over Timely's Comedy Comics in 1946 as of #35 and holding on to it until #50 in 1950, when the book became Reno Browne: Hollywood's Greatest Cowgirl.
Margie went back to being a floating backup strip for another year before disappearing completely, never to be seen again!
This particular tale (one of the few comic tales I could find with "Valentine's Day" in the title that didn't deal with the famous gang-war massacre!) is from Timely's Margie Comics #37 (1946).

Happy Valentine's Day!