Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Reading Room ALIEN ENCOUNTERS "Outpost"

From the original FantaCo 1981 b/w one-shot Alien Encounters...
...here's a never-reprinted tale featuring the most unexpected protaganist of all!
Didn't see that one coming, did ya?
Writer (and the book's editor) Larry Shell is one of those guys who've been around the business for decades. but few beyond the pros he interacted with know who he is!
As Larry himself explained...
I was former Director of Publications for the late, great Heroes World Distribution (the third largest comic book distributor in the country until its demise), where I edited and packaged their 250+ page monthly catalog, along with several specialty catalogs for 10 years.
My article, “How To Solicit In The Direct Market” was published in Comics Buyer’s Guide and served as a template for many small publishers for a number of years.
I have also done freelance marketing consulting for several small publishers.

I’ve been self-publishing sporadically since 1975 when I released a funny animal horror comic entitled, The Barn of Fear, whose contributors included such industry professionals as Doug Moench, Tom Sutton and Alfredo Alcala.
I also packaged a couple of other titles, 50s Funnies published by Kitchen Sink Press and the original Alien Encounters #1 published by Fantaco Enterprises. I later licensed the title to Eclipse Comics.
In the early 80s, in collaboration with Alcala, I contributed a story to Heavy Metal Magazine.
In the late 1980s, I formed Shel-Tone Publications, which published a number of trading card sets and a CD, the soundtrack to R.Crumb: The Musical
He's still around today, primarily as an original art dealer as seen HERE
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Monday, August 13, 2018

Monday Madness FANTASTIC COMICS "Space Smith and the Case of the Criminal Cousin"

When I said this strip was using old gangster movies for plots, I wasn't kidding...
...as this never-reprinted adventure from Fox's Fantastic Comics #18 (1941) clearly demonstrates!
And both Space and Diana get into civilian (1940s-style) clothing for the finale!
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Science Fiction Comics
Taylor History of Comics
Vol 3

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Reading Room MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN COMICS "Into the 4th Dimension"

Is this a lost "Kirby Klassic" from the 1950s?
Read this never-reprinted tale from Prize's Monster of Frankenstein #31 (1954) and judge for yourself...

When Prize Comics' Monster of Frankenstein title was revived during the horror comic boom of the early 1950s, besides a wonderfully-gruesome version of Dick Briefer's Monster, it featured a number of two to four page "fillers".
Most of these tales appear to be, at the very least, laid-out by the legendary Jack (King) Kirby.
This story is a prime example.
The Grand Comics Database lists the story's illustrator as Marvin Stein, who worked primarily for the Simon & Kirby studio, so this most likely was an S&K "inventory" story laid-out by Kirby and meant for insertion wherever editorial page count came up short.
Sadly, the writer of the story is, as in so many cases, unknown...
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Science Fiction Comics
Taylor History of Comics
Vol 3

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Did You Miss the FIrst Week's Chapters of the Story DC Comics REFUSES to Publish...MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL?

SHAZAM MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL DELUXE EDITION HC
(Writer) Otto Binder (Artists) C. C. Beck, Pete Costanza (Cover Artist) Michael Cho
At first he was simply a disembodied voice on the radio, taunting Captain Marvel with his ever-more-fiendish schemes to conquer the world.
Then, readers gasped as Mr. Mind was revealed-all two inches of him!
Was this lowly creature really the epitome of evil he claimed to be?
Fortunately, Billy Batson understood the folly of underestimating someone based on their size!
As small as he was, Mr. Mind was big trouble-especially once he turned the menacing members of his Monster Society of Evil loose to wreak havoc!

This new title collects the entire 24-chapter serial from the Golden Age of Comics with new essays by Fawcett Comics expert P.C. Hamerlinck and film producer and comics historian Michael Uslan.
Collects stories from Captain Marvel Adventures #22-46!
In Shops: Feb 06, 2019
 Then DC pulled the plug!
After careful consideration, DC announces that the Shazam!: The Monster Society fo Evil Deluxe Edition HC (JUL180783) is cancelled due to concerns over its contents,
This title will not be resolicited.
The mini-series had been reprinted once, in 1989 by American Nostalgia Library in a magnificent oversized hardcover with a run of only 3000 copies.
That edition, seen below, is incredibly HTF.

Since we believe the story has historical significance, and the racism (which we abhor) is part of the tale, RetroBlogs dropped the plans we had for various summer mini-blogathons to re-present the entire, unexpurgated story scanned from the original issues of Fawcett's Captain Marvel Adventures at Hero Histories and Not Safe For Work Comics!
Enjoy, and keep up with the saga Monday through Friday!
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Friday, August 10, 2018

Friday Fun REX DEXTER OF MARS "Diamonds Aren't a Planet's Best Friend"

Once more, Earth comes under attack by aliens...
...and only Rex Dexter can save the planet from certain destruction!
(Do I sense a potential meme here?)
"Off to Mars, again!"???
They haven't been there since they left to travel to Earth in Fox's Mystery Men Comics #1!
Rex and Cynde usually end up detouring back to Earth to save its' sorry butt...again and again!
Including this never-reprinted tale from Fox's Mystery Men Comics #16 (1940), over half of Rex's adventures consist of helping Earth...a planet, I might add, that booted him out!
We should retitle this strip "Rex Dexter: Interplanetary SUCKER"!
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