Reading Room WEIRD FANTASY "Judgement Day"

This 1950s comics tale is considered the gold standard in utilizing a sci-fi motif for social commentary...

...rightfully-so, I must say!

Perhaps it's a tad slow-paced, even pedantic, by today's standards and the pay-off isn't as shocking as you might expect, but this oft-reprinted tale by writer Al Feldstein, artist Joe Orlando and colorist Marie Severin from EC's Weird Fantasy #18 (1953) was quite controversial when it first appeared.
Even when it was reprinted in the Comics Code-approved Incredible Science Fiction #33 (1956), it caused hassles.
The Code wanted Tarlton changed to a White guy!
Publisher Bill Gaines refused!
The Code tried to get EC to, at least, remove the beads of sweat from Tarlton's brow!
Bill Gaines, again, refused!
The Code refused to approve the comic.
Gaines said he didn't care.
As it was, "Judgement Day" was a reprint fill-in for a new story ("An Eye for an Eye") the Code refused to approve, and, since it was EC's last color comic ever, they'd print it without the Code stamp.
The Code gave in and approved the reprint without changes.

No less a personage than Ray Bradbury praised "Judgement Day" effusively in the final letter (among many...except one...that praised the tale) in Cosmic Correspondence...

Public praise from one of the Masters of Science Fiction/Fantasy!

Can't argue with that...

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Judgement Day and Other Stories
Illustrated by Joe Orlando

Fantagraphics' EC Comics Library
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What Should You Get for the Pop Culture Lover in Your Life on Valentine's Day?

Comics aren't just about spandex-clad heroes and heroines in battles of cosmic import!

They also tell intimate tales of heartbreak and true love, betrayal and redemption, and misery and sheer joy!

With than in mind, Valentine's Day is coming!
And what says "True Love" better than a kool, kitchy gift from True Love Comics Tales™? (Plus, it's both longer-lasting AND cheaper than a dozen roses!)

Choose from over 50 heart-rending designs in eleven categories including...

All You Need is Love...

Confessions

Dear Beatrice Fairfax 

(The ORIGINAL LonelyHearts Columnist)

Diaries and Letters

Lovers Lane
Mod Love in the 1960s

School of Love 

(or is that Love in School?)

Tender Love Stories of the 1970s
WarTime Love

Weddings

Western Love

on greeting cards, teddy bears, calendars, shirts/tops/intimate wear, diaries, and many other kool kollectibles!

A public service announcement for all lovers and would-be lovers from your BFFs at Atomic Kommie Comics™

Frankly, It's Frankie!

Since a new

movie is opening next week, we're going to do several posts dedicated to Mary Shelley's Modern Prometheus!

Watch for them!

Reading Room: SPACE SQUADRON "Man Who Dared"

Just as Atlas' Speed Carter: SpaceMan had a "future history"...

...so did the earlier Atlas space opera title, Space Squadron, as this tale about the first manned ICBM in 1961 (yes, 1961) demonstrates!

The writer and artist(s) of this tale from Space Squadron #3 (1951) are unknown.

The Famous Explorers of Space feature ran in all five issues of Space Squadron and the single issue of Space Worlds that used up material left homeless when Space Squadron was cancelled.

When Speed Carter: SpaceMan came along a couple of years later, writer Hank Chapman ignored everything done in Space Squadron, producing stories that often contradicted "history" established in the earlier series.

Batman the TV Series on DVD/BluRay...FINALLY!

We're Leaping for Joy!

At last, the 1960s Batman TV series is being released on home video!

A complete series box set has been confirmed, with individual season sets a likely alternative for those who don't want to spend a fortune at one shot...

Ah, to relive the childhood memories of those long-lost days...

Now, where's the other Dynamic Duo of the 1960s...

The Green Hornet?

(and Kato, of course)

Why not a mega-set of the two shows?

Reading Room STRANGE WORLDS "Abduction of Henry Twigg"

Here's a dream come true for all us fanboys and nerds (Yep, I'm one)...

...in this Joe Kubert-illustrated tale from Avon's Strange Worlds #8 (1952)...

Talk about politically-incorrect...from both sexes!

But it's still entertaining, and that's what counts, eh?

Note: we're running stories from two different series named "Strange Worlds".

This tale is from the first one, published by Avon Comics in the early 1950s.

By the late 1950s, Avon Publishing had abandoned comic books and concentrated on "traditional" publishing (hardcovers and paperbacks) in various genres (including sci-fi and horror).

Curiously, when comics became "hot' in the 1960s, Avon did not reprint their comic library in paperback format the way Ballantine Books did with EC Comics, Signet did with DC Comics, and Lancer did with Marvel.

Considering they owned the material and didn't have to pay to reprint it like all the other publishers did, it seems like a lost opportunity for Avon to make some quick cash.

Note: We've recently re-presented several tales from the other Strange Worlds, published by Atlas Comics in the late 1950s, literally right before they became Marvel in 1961!

It's easy to tell which is which, since the Atlas/Marvel version features work by creatives like Jack Kirby, Don Heck, and Steve Ditko who would be the creative mainstays of the Marvel Age of Comics, while the Avon books have art by illustrators who would make their mark at DC, like Joe Kubert and John Forte!

Reading Room FANTASTIC WORLDS "Asteroid God"

Some call Golden Age sci-fi "Westerns with ray guns"...

...but it could also be "jungle tales with aliens instead of natives", as this tale demonstrates!

John Celardo illustrated this story from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #7 (1953), the final issue of a short-lived anthology that featured artwork by Alex Toth, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Gil Kane, and Murphy Anderson, among others.

Reading Room NORGE BENSON "Plummeting to Pluto"

Cosmo Corrigan was apparently caught in a Polar Vortex...

...and immediately replaced in Planet Comics by this guy, who encounted a whole different group of Plutonians!

Illustrated by Al Walker, who spent his entire comics career at Fiction House, this debut tale from Planet Comics #12 (1941) presents a somewhat less snarky (though no less humorous) version of the "Earthman on Pluto" concept shown in Cosmo Corrigan., mixing alien versions of both Arctic and Antarctic animals with total disregard to anything even remotely resembling exobiology!

But it is fun, and that's all that matters!

And it managed to survive for 19 more issues, some of which you'll see here over the winter months...

RetroBlogs' "Polar Vortex" Posts!

Besides the ongoing Polar Vortex posts on this blog...

...every RetroBlog has featured a post with a winter/Arctic/extreme cold theme!

Here's the list (with links)...

Crime & Punishment

NORTHWEST MOUNTIES

"Mountie Guns Break the Snow Siren's Secret!"

Hero Histories

DOC SAVAGE

"Polar Treasure"

Heroines

NELVANA OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS

"Attack from Etheria"

Secret Sanctum of Captain Video

WINKY DINK

"at the Arctic"

Seduction of the Innocent

Adventures into Darkness

"Frozen Death"

True Love Comics Tales

Lovelorn

"World's Most Dangerous Game"

War: Past, Present & Future

CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED

"Battle of the Bulge"

Western Comics Adventures

Original Ghost Rider

"Coffin of Snow"

Read them in front of a roaring fire with a mug of hot chocolate!

Reading Room COSMO CORRIGAN "and the Space ShowGirls!"

What do you do when you want to heat up a planet that's colder than the Polar Vortex?

Cosmo Corrigan has the answer...cosmic chorus girls!

Sady, Cosmo never got back to Pluto.

He wasn't in the next issue of Planet Comics, nor would he reappear anywhere else in the known universe.

His fate remains a mystery...

Written and illustrated by Seymour Reit (who co-created Casper the Friendly Ghost), Cosmo's final tale appeared in Fiction House's Planet Comics #11 (1941).
But don't think that's the end of our Polar Vortex-inspired posts!
There's more frigid fun to come!

Reading Room COSMO CORRIGAN "Martians, Mercurians and Money!"

Yeah, I know the logo says "Cosmic", not "Cosmo"...

...but he's called "Cosmo" in the story itself, as well as the next (and final) tale, so I conder the logo to be a typo!

Now, back to Pluto, the world that makes the Polar Vortex look like a balmy summer day!

Be here tomorrow for Cosmo's frigid final adventure!
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 #10 (1941) is, regrettably, unknown.

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