Saturday, March 21, 2026

Space Hero Saturdays MYSTERY IN SPACE "Gremlins"

The Cover is a...Tad...Misleading...

...about who the actual Space Hero is in this story from DC's Mystery in Space #113 (1980)!



Editor/writer Len Wein got the very busy Joe Kubert to contribute both the cover and the three-page story to the struggling 1980 revival of the sci-fi anthology Mystery in Space, which had been cancelled in 1966!
(Kubert did all the covers from the first new issue, #111, to #115.
The final two covers were by Jim Starlin and Dave Cockrum.)
But the main reason I'm running this piece is the superb coloring by the late Tatjana Wood, the first comic book colorist to receive national attention when she passed!
Her mastery of the pre-computer 64-color palette is beautifully-shown here both "inside the lines", where everything is clearly-separated within the panels, to her use of negative (white) space to emphasize Kubert's weightless humans and gremlins!

Friday, March 20, 2026

Friday Holiday/Fairy Tale Fun EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Mother Hubbard's Cupboard"

Walt (Pogo) Kelly loved to incoporate well-known characters...
...(in this case, from a classic nursery rhyme) into his seasonal holiday stories!
This fun, never-reprinted featurette, written and illustrated by Kelly, appeared in Dell's Four Color Comics: Easter With Mother Goose #220 (1949).

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Thursday, March 19, 2026

Reading Room UNUSUAL TALES "Look into the Future"

One of Charlton Comics' defining traits was...
...using montages of interior art as their covers.
Usually, the cover would utilize several different stories' art, but in this case, they played up the final story in the issue!
A morality play in a sci-fi/fantasy context.
Rod Serling was a master of this concept, as he displayed weekly on the original Twilight Zone.
This never-reprinted story from Charlton's Unusual Tales #27 (1961) illustrated by Steve Ditko (and probably written by Charlton mainstay Joe Gill) follows the concept to a "T", within the limitations established by the Comics Code Authority.
If it had been done pre-CodeSimms would've come to a horrific (and graphic) end...

Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder MAN-GODS FROM BEYOND THE STARS Part 3

In the far-distant past...
...technologically-advanced aliens visit the Earth on a missionof exploration.
Their mandate is to observe, but not interfere.
In the present (1975)...
...scientists discover ancient cave paintings that tell of god-like beings who came down among the primitive humans.
But, the paintings don't tell the whole story, for the aliens are far more human than even they suspect!






To Be Concluded...Next Wednesday!

This tale, written by Doug Moench, illustrated by Alex Nino was likely a "pilot" for an ongoing series, but, due to Jack Kirby's return to Marvel with his similarly-themed Eternals, this ended up being merely an all-but-forgotten one-shot!
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Featuring all the Chariots of the Gods-inspired series' Jack Kirby-written and illustrated stories!
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Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Holiday Reading Room AMAZING ADULT FANTASY "Beware of the Giants!"

It's not often you see Stan Lee's signature on cover art...
...(behind the giant boot) perhaps because it was probably meant as the title page for the following story (and, to tell the truth, I think the splash page below would've been a better cover)...
Hah!
Bet you thought I had forgotten St Patrick's Day, eh? 
This Stan Lee-scripted/Steve Ditko-illiustrated piece from Atlas' Amazing Adult Fantasy #14 (1962) has one fatal flaw...the clothing and architecture are more mid-European (Germany/Austria/Switzerland) than Celtic (Irish/Scottish)!
BTW, one of the rarely-noted aspects of this series were the kool individualized contents pages for each issue...
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