Wednesday, September 3, 2025

Best of Wednesday Worlds of Wonder CARSON OF VENUS

For September, we're presenting compilations of previous series you may have missed!

...starting with the never-reprinted DC adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' "scientific romance" (as they called it back then) Carson of Venus by Len Wein & Michael J Kaluta!
Click on the Links to Enjoy!
Sadly, the series ends on a cliffhanger...

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

Reading Room / Tales Twice Told AMAZING ADULT FANTASY "Why Won't They Believe Me?"

Stan (the Man) Lee felt a good story...
...such as this one from Atlas' Amazing Adult Fantasy #7 (1961), was worth repeating...
Scripted by Lee and illustrated by his Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko, the tale was typical of the "gotcha" snap-ending stories made popular in mass culture by Rod Serling on The Twilight Zone, but done a decade earlier in comics by the EC Comics horror and sci-fi/fantasy books (though usually with more gore).
Lee re-used (and expanded) the plot almost a decade later when he re-did it with another Silver Age legend, as you'll see Thursday...

Monday, September 1, 2025

Monday Mecha Madness CRAZY "Robert the Robot!"

Here's a long-lost tale from the era when MAD comic clones filled America's newsstands!
(Which bring up the question...does anybody under 30 even know what a "newsstand" is?)
While the story's not a classic, it's not bad, either!
The amazingly versatile Joe Maneely handled the art for this never-reprinted tale from this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Crazy V1N7 (1954), but the script is not by Stan Lee...who would've had his name on it if he had penned the story!
Maneely could do anything; sci-fi, horror, war, romance, western, even humor, as this story demonstrates!
If not for his tragic death falling from a New York suburban commuter train, he would have been one of the major talents of Marvel Comics in the 1960s.
Atlas had no less than three MAD clones going at once; CrazyWild, and Riot!
MAD themselves commented on the proliferation of clones, not only from Atlas, but virtually every other publisher with this opener for their spoof of the 1950s movie Julius Ceasar by Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood...
When MAD converted to a b/w magazine, Atlas dropped the three color comics and launched the b/w Snafu,which only lasted three issues!
Atlas/Marvel would revive Crazy twice more!
First, in early 1973 as a reprint book of Not Brand Echh stories.
Then, in late 1973 as a b/w magazine going head-to-head with MAD, and surviving until 1983 for 96 issues!
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Sunday, August 31, 2025

Holiday Reading Room (a day early) EVERY DAY'S A HOLLY DAY "Labor Day"

With the Labor Market and the Entire Economy in the Most Tenuous State since the Great Recession...
...now is the time to see why we celebrate this particular holiday!
Why is this 1955 comic entitled "Every Day's a Holly Day" instead of "Every Day's a Holiday"?
Because it was given away to kids by grocers who sold Holly Sugar!
Illustrated by John Rosenberger, it's a unique pamphlet covering a number of American holidays, including both Lincoln and Washington's Birthdays (before they were combined into "Presidents' Day" in 1962), 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!
We'll be presenting the other chapters on the dates they fall upon.
Watch for them!
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Saturday, August 30, 2025

Space Hero Saturdays SPACE DETECTIVE COMICS "Cargo from Mars"

A non-sensationalistic title hides a damned good detective story...

...that appeared in back of a science fiction detective's comic book!





Illustrated by Gerald McCann, this well-written little tale by a currently-unknown author was hidden in the back of this 1952 Avon Comics comic book...

...about the ongoing adventures of a private investigator "fighting crime in a future time"!

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