Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Perfect Crime!"

A never-reprinted cross-genre tale from Journey into Mystery...

...combining crime and science fiction, is our entry for this Sunday!

You'll note the last two panels are re-lettered.

I suspect the Comics Code Authority felt it was too cruel to allow the criminal to die for something he technically didn't commit!

This was one of the two tales backing up Mighty Thor's very first appearance in Marvel's Journey into Mystery #83 (1963).

Ah, you've heard about that story, but not this one, eh?

Don Heck penciled and inked the tale.

Stan Lee plotted it, but experts are not sure if he scripted it.

Lee usually signed the later short stories he scripted, but only Heck's signature is here.

Just about everything Lee didn't script at this point was handled by his brother Larry Lieber.

(Stan's birth name is Stanley Leiber. He used "Stan Lee" on his comics work because he wanted his real name on the Great American Novel he planned to write.

When he finally realized he would be forever known for his comics and not any prose novel he might write, he legally changed his name to "Stan Lee".)

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...

Thor Masterworks
Volume 1 
featuring the Thor stories that appeared in front of the never-reprinted tales we're presenting!

Space Force Saturday SEEKER 3000!

Comics Have Tried to Emulate the Success of Star Trek...

...as Marvel did when it took a crack at the genre with this one-shot in 1978 to test audience reaction.

You can read it by clicking on these links...

Part 1

Conclusion

Despite promoting the series in a special science fiction issue of their Prozine FOOM (as shown HERE), the best the project got was a serialized reprint in Marvel UK's sci-fi anthology, Future Tense.
It then disappeared from everybody's radar!
Apparently, two British readers found that reprint enough to inspire their imaginations.
And, two decades later, after they turned professional, the duo pitched a sequel to the original tale!
After a highly-promoted reprint (with a couple of promotional articles detailing the new series) of the decades-old original story...

...a 4-issue limited series appeared in 1998 with an extra-long premiere issue!

"A New Beginning"

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Conclusion

Then three regular-sized issues...

"Medusae"

Part 1

Part 2

"HumanKind"

Part 1

Part 2

"Mind Bomb"

Part 1

Part 2

Personally, we loved the original tale and enjoyed the sequel, which was left open-ended for more adventures with the crew of Seeker.

Sadly, over 25 years later, it's been forgotten yet again, without even a reprint hardcover or trade paperback to inspire yet another generation of creatives to continue their interstellar exploration!

But here's your chance to see "what might have been" by clicking on the links!

Enjoy!

Frigid Friday Fun WILD! "Frozen North"

A never-reprinted story from one of Atlas Comics' many MAD comic clones...

...is our snowbound story for today, as a cold wave continues to cover most of America!

Did you catch the cameo by the Golden Age Human Torch on page 3 panel 3, asking if this book was Young Men Comics (where he was appearing in 1954)?

This tale from Wild! #1 (1954) was illustrated by Sol Brodsky, who, while better-known to aficionados as Atlas/Marvel's production manager than as an artist, actually had over 1,000 stories and covers to his credit!

(He inked Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four #3 and #4 as well as Kirby's iconic cover for Avengers #16!)

Sadly, little of the material from Atlas' four humor titles from the 1950s has been reprinted, despite the fact that some of their "big names" like Bill Everett, Joe Maneely, Gene Colan, and Russ Heath all contributed stories that went far afield from their usual "realistic" styles...with amazing results!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Sincerest Form of Parody

Best 1950s MAD-Inspired Satirical Comics

Reading Room WEIRD WONDER TALES / STRANGE TALES "When a Planet Dies!"

The current "deep freeze" covering the USA reminded me of the splash panel from this story...

...from Marvel's Weird Wonder Tales #22 (1973), which was actually a reworking of this (literally) kool splash page from a cool story from Atlas' Strange Tales #97 (1962)!

While the art is credited to Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers, who wrote it is not entirely clear.

A number of people, myself included, think it's scripted by Kirby!

Bonus: Here's the original art for the cover from a previous issue of Weird Wonder Tales that supplied the Dr Druid figure on the reworked splash page above...

Art by pencilers Jack Kirby and John Romita Sr (Dr Druid's face), and inker Joe Sinnott.

Now, here's the original art for the Strange Tales story's splash page...

A Marvel production artist "flipped" a photostat of the Dr Druid figure from the Weird Wonder Tales cover and replaced the bearded aliens with it on a photostat of this splash page!

No original art was harmed in the making of the new splash! page!

Wednesday World of Wonder WORLD OF FANTASY "Prison 2000 A.D."

In January, We're Doing One-Shot Tales Instead of Continued Stories...

...beginning with this tale, which utilizes a concept that's commonplace today, but all but unknown when this story appeared in Atlas' World of Fantasy #16 (1959)!

WOW!

Editor/conceptualizer Stan Lee and plotter/penciler Jack Kirby were doing what we now call "virtual reality"...in 1959!

The story was reprinted in Marvel's Strange Tales Annual #2 in 1963, than lay unseen for more than a half-century before finally being resurrected in, oddly, Monsters: the Marvel Monsterbus by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby...

...when, despite the "monsters" in the title, the only requirement is that the story was conceptualized/plotted by Lee, scripted by Lieber (Stan's brother, BTW) and plotted/penciled by Jack Kirby!
But there are lots of kool Kirby sci-fi/sci-fantasy stories, some never-previously reprinted!
So don't let the title put you off!