Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Reading Room ALIEN ENCOUNTERS "Earth Invasion"

There's a twist ending to this alien invasion tale you won't see coming...
...if you're under 35!
I'm serious!
Ah, video arcades...
Kids today have no idea how important those darkened chambers filled with video consoles and pinball machines were to us in the pre-XBox/PlayStation/Nintendo days...and how much money we spent, quarter-by-quarter, in them!
Yeah, there's still Chuck E CheeseDave & Busters, and their ilk, but those are kiddie venues!

Written by Larry Shell and illustrated by Steve (Swamp Thing) Bissette, this never-reprinted tale from FantaCo's Alien Encounters one-shot (1981) captures the long-lost era perfectly.
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Monday, August 2, 2021

Monday Mars Madness ALARMING TALES "Hero"

Here's a short (in more ways than one) space-opera tale...
...though you won't get my pun until the end...
This story of size and space travel from Harvey's Alarming Tales #2 (1957) was produced by writer Jack Oleck, and illustrator Marvin Stein (with what appears to be uncredited layout help by Jack Kirby).
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Sunday, August 1, 2021

The Next Chapter of the RetroBlogs Blogathon Features...ROMANCE???

What's better than a sunny summer day at the beach?
Why, the latest in our annual gothic-themed, multi-chapter Beach Reads in...
...beginning Monday, of course!
Note: this 50-year old tale was reprinted a decade ago...but only in black and white!
This is it's first appearance in full color since 1971!
That's half a century!
Don't miss it!

Saturday, July 31, 2021

Cover Gallery SPEED CARTER: SPACEMAN & SPACE SQUADRON

Here's a look at the covers for the complete run of Speed Carter: SpaceMan...
Art by Bill Everett
Oddly, though they're really nice pieces of art, they never relate to the stories inside the book!
Art by Carl Burgos & ?
Art by Bill Everett
Art by Mike Sekowsky & ?
Art by Mort Lawrence
Art by Joe Maneely
Bill Everett (who didn't do any inside art) did two covers, and Joe Maneely (who did all the Speed stories in the first three issues finally got to do a cover with the last issue!
Here are the covers for Space Squadron.
Note the variants in foreign editions with retitled and redrawn covers...
Art by Sol Brodsky & Christopher Rule.
Vignettes at bottom by George Tuska.
Art by Werner Roth
Canadian Edition
Easily one of the worst recompositing jobs I've ever seen!
Art by Werner Roth
British Edition
Why were the aliens' second heads removed?
Art by Werner Roth
Canadian Edition
Now, this is how you recompose a cover!
Art by Sol Brodsky & Joe Maneely
Art by Sol Brodsky
British
Art by Sol Brodsky &?
We've decided to keep Space Force Saturdays at least through Halloween, so watch this space (pun intended) next week!

Friday, July 30, 2021

Friday Fun / CoronaVirus Comics PATSY WALKER "Great Idea!"

Due to the return of Covid-19 and the Dreaded Deadline Doom...

There used to be lots more to teen humor comics than just Archie and his friends with every comics publisher from the late 1940s through the early 1970s doing them! 
Created by writer Stuart Little and artist Ruth Atkinson, Patsy Walker first appeared in Timely's Miss America Magazine #2 (1944).
Redheaded Patsy Walker, parents Stanley and Betty, boyfriend Robert "Buzz" Baxter, and rich, raven-haired friendly rival Hedy Wolfe appeared from the 1944 through 1967 in various teen humor anthologies as well as several self-titled comics.
Trivia: Patsy Walker (along with Millie the Model and Kid Colt: Outlaw) were the only titles published continuously by Marvel from Timely in the Golden Age, through Atlas in the 1950s, to Marvel in the  Silver Age!
Patsy, Buzz and Hedy are all part of the Marvel Universe from Marvel's Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965) when Patsy and Hedy attended the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm!
Patsy later became the superheroine HellCat, and Buzz was revealed to be the supervillain Mad-Dog!
Patsy (and HellCat) appeared on the NetFlix series Jessica JonesLuke Cage, and Defenders, making her part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
Written and illustrated by the versatile Al Jaffee (before he moved over to MAD Magazine) , this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Patsy Walker #36 (1951) promoted contributing to the charity created in 1946 by newsman Walter Winchell (best known today as the narrator of the 1960s TV show Untouchables) to honor his friend, writer Damon Runyon, who died of cancer!
The charity, now called Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, still exists!