Reading Room COSMO CORRIGAN "Exiled to Pluto"

Like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and many other space heroes...

...Cosmo Corrigan had a weird first name.

Unlike them, he was a bit of a screw-up and wise-ass...

...so he was sent to the Solar System's equivalent of Siberia...the frozen planet Pluto, thereby qualifying his strip for inclusion during our week of Polar Vortex-related posts!

Planet Comics was noted for its...well...lack of scientific accuracy, being much more "science fantasy" than hard science fiction (which at least tried to apply known scientific facts to the storytelling).

But this series seems almost like a space opera sit-com, featuring a slacker as the hero!

Sadly, it only ran for three installments...which you'll see tomorrow and Saturday!

Illustrated by George Tuska (who would handle the Buck Rogers newspaper strip in the 1950s, as well as become Iron Man's illustrator when he received his own book in the 1960s) the scripter for this tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #9 (1940) is, regrettably, unknown.

("Ray Alexander" was a Fiction House pseudonom.)

Reading Room PLANET COMICS "Life on Other Worlds: Pluto"

You think the Polar Vortex makes things cold here on Earth?

Then visit the cold planet that's no longer a planet (at least officially)...Pluto!

Mind you, Pluto was a planet when this chapter of the ongoing feature Life on Other Worlds appeared in Fiction House's Planet Comics #45 (1946).

In fact, it had only been discovered 16 years earlier and little was known about it beyond the fact that it was out there at the edge of the Solar System!

So, it was a blank slate for sci fi writers to play with, as artist Murphy Anderson and the unknown writer did in this "cool" 2-pager!

Reading Room WILD! "Frozen North"

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

...is our snowbound story for today!

Did you catch the cameo by the Golden Age Human Torch on page 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!

Reading Room STRANGE WORLDS "I Captured the Abominable SnowMan"

From the epic story of an underground civilization by Jack Kirby, we go to...

...this rather intimate story of one man's obsession with Yeti, illustrated by Steve Ditko!

Like the Abominable SnowMan story we ran for the past couple of days, no one (including Marvel) is certain who scripted this tale from Strange Worlds #1 (1958).

And, you'll note that neither tale shows the "real" Yeti, just people or other creatures mistaken for it!

BTW, this was the second comic with the Strange Worlds title.

The first one was published by Avon Comics from 1950 to 1955.

This series ran for five issues in 1958-59.

Since then there have been several one-shots from various publishers, usually reprinting stories from the Avon series.

Reading Room TALES TO ASTONISH "I Found the Abominable SnowMan" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

Art by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers

...reality TV show producer Victor Cartwright stops at nothing to get ratings, even faking some of the wonders he shows on the cathode screen!

When he publicly promises to deliver film of the legendary Abominable SnowMan, Cartwright dons a furry costume to fake some footage.

But things go terribly wrong when a huge furry creature captures him and takes him via an advanced drilling ship into the depths of the Earth, where Victor discovers...

Whatever happened to the stranded lizard-man?

The cover art above was reused, but not for a reprint of the story you just read!

When it appeared on the cover of Marvel's Where Creatures Roam #5 (1970)...

Art by Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers with additions by Marie Severin

..it was to cover-feature a reprint of a different furry character (also drawn by Kirby and Ayers) that had it's own cover when it appeared in Tales to Astonish #18!

Why didn't they use that art?

Most likely, the original photostats and printing films of that cover had been lost, so Marvel decided to modify the art for TtA #24 that they did have stats for!

Reading Room TALES TO ASTONISH "I Found the Abominable SnowMan" Part 1

Continuing our series of frozen-themed posts...

...here's one of the coolest (literally) giant monster tales from the final days of Atlas Comics' pre-Marvel Universe Tales to Astonish! told by the master himself, Jack Kirby, assisted by inker Dick Ayers!

Be Here Tomorrow...

...when things get even hairier for Victor Cartwright!

(Sorry, couldn't resist!)

Unfortunately, there's no available record (or even consensus among experts) as to who wrote this snow-bound story from Tales to Astonish #24 (1961).

But, if you haven't read this tale previously, the conclusion does have a couple of suprising developments!

BTW, when we said this was from the "final days" of the pre-Marvel Universe Atlas Comics, we weren't kidding!

The very next month saw the debut of Fantastic Four #1, launching the Marvel Age of Comics!

Reading Room UNUSUAL TALES "Night of Red Snow"

As near-record cold grips the northern USA...

Art by Steve Ditko

...we present another chilly comics tale, illustrated by the co-creator of Spider-Man, Steve Ditko!

Unfortunately, due to Charlton Comics' legendarily-bad printing, the "red" effect on the canvas is muted almost to uselessness, diminishing the ending's effectiveness!

BTW, did you note the sneaky "red herring" on the sides of the moving van on page 3?

Beautifully-rendered by Steve Ditko, this tale from Charlton's Unusual Tales #9 (1957) has no credited writer, but many researchers/historians believe the scripter is the prolific (and underrated) Joe Gill.

Reading Room STRANGE TALES "When a Planet Dies!"

The current "deep freeze" 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) cool story from Strange Tales #97 (1962)!

While the art is clearly-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 himself.

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

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

 ...and here's the original art for the splash page!

The production artist "flipped" a stat of the Druid figure and fit it where the bearded aliens are on the original.

The ComicCraft New Year's Day Font Sale!

If you're into comics, one of the coolest things you can do today is go to ComicCraft's website and participate in their annual New Years' Day font discount sale!

These guys provide fonts to DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, IDW, etc, so you're getting state-of-the-art  software used by the pros at an amazingly-low price for your website, blog, or print project!

(We use them for most of our logos)

"Comicraft fonts are created BY Comic Book Letterers FOR Comic Book Lettering, and every New Year we give our faithful customers -- and even casual browsers who stumbled into our store because it's throwing down outside -- a one-day-only opportunity to rummage through Comicraft's remainder bin and snap up Comicrazy for a mere twenty dollars and fourteen cents rather than $395! And, yes, yes, yes, and thrice YES, EACH of our fonts will be on sale for $20.14, even the ones that usually cost $19! We're Cray Cray Crazy, we know!"

Note: the sale ends at Midnight in your time zone, not at Midnight in California, where ComicCraft is based, so place your orders accordingly!