Saturday, February 4, 2023

Space Hero Saturdays WEIRD FANTASY "Judgement Day!"

Not every Space Hero uses a ray gun to save the day!
Sometimes, simply talking, the way Tarleton does, is the most effective way!
As Rod Serling, Gene Roddenberry, and Al Feldstein (who wrote this story) could tell you, one of the best aspects of science fiction is the opportunity to present commentary on social issues that you couldn't otherwise show due to censorship.
Most of this blog's audience is too young to know, first-hand, that the societal conditions shown on Cybrinia were, in fact, the way society in most of America was structured up to the mid-1960s.
(And there are aspects that continue to this day!)
This story originally-appeared in EC's Weird Fantasy #18 (1951) to mostly-positive feedback.
But that was pre-Comics Code!
When it was scheduled to be reprinted in Incredible Science-Fiction #33 (1956) it had to be submitted to the newly-created Comics Code Authority.
As explained in the superb book Tales from the Crypt: the Official Archives by Digby Diehl...
This really made ‘em go bananas in the Code czar’s office. 
“Judge [Charles] Murphy was off his nut. He was really out to get us”, recalls [EC editor Al] Feldstein. “I went in there with this story and Murphy says, “It can’t be a Black man”. 
But … but that’s the whole point of the story!” Feldstein sputtered.
When Murphy continued to insist that the Black man had to go, Feldstein put it on the line.
“Listen, he told Murphy, “you’ve been riding us and making it impossible to put out anything at all because you guys just want us out of business”.
[Feldstein] reported the results of his audience with the czar to [EC publisher Bill] Gaines, who was furious [and] immediately picked up the phone and called Murphy.
“This is ridiculous!” he bellowed.
“I’m going to call a press conference on this. You have no grounds, no basis, to do this. I’ll sue you”.
Murphy made what he surely thought was a gracious concession.
“All right. Just take off the beads of sweat”.
At that, Gaines and Feldstein both went ballistic.
“Fuck you!” they shouted into the telephone in unison.
Murphy hung up on them, but the story ran in its original form.
It was the final color comic book EC Comics published.
MAD was converted into a b/w magazine, removing it from Comics Code approval, and reprints of EC's comics (including this story)...
...in Tales of the Incredible (1965). were published in standard paperback format by Ballantine Books also exempting them from the Code.
EC tried a line of four magazine-sized b/w titles known as "Picto-Fiction" with a more adult approach to storytelling, like pulp magazines, but with more illustrations.
Like MAD, their magazine format bypassed the Code's restrictions, but none of them got past the second issues.
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Buy...
(which covers a lot of EC Comics history, not just the horror titles!)

Friday, February 3, 2023

Friday Fun: CALVIN

The Black Panther was not the first Black Marvel character to get a cover-featured series!
He wasn't even the second!
He was the third!
First was Luke Cage, who received his own title...
...and was the star of his own Netflix series!
Note: Though the series ended, three of the stars have gone on to headline other shows...
Simone Missick (Misty Knight) on All RiseMike Colter (Luke Cage) on Evil and Rosario Dawson (Clare Temple/Night Nurse) on the upcoming Ahsoka!
(BTW, Luke Cage is now available on Disney+!)
The second character was...
WHO???
Several months before Prince T'Challa took over a reprint book, Jungle Action, and began a memorable series that served as part of the plot of the billion-dollar blockbuster movie...
...this character took over another reprint book and began a series that nobody remembers!
You can read every never-reprinted tale featuring Calvin and his buddies HERE!
What makes the strip even more fascinating, beyond the vaudeville-level humor, is the identity of the writer-artist behind it!
"Kevin Banks" was not a pseudonym for an already-established creative, but an editorial staffer at Marvel in the early 1970s who received his "big break" with this strip!
Trivia: Kevin was the first (and so far, onlyMarvel creator to have a head shot illustration on an on-going series!
Even the ever-amazing comics researcher Nick Caputo could find little about the mysterious Mr Banks, as seen HERE.
What did Banks did after working at Marvel?
Did he work in advertising?
Become an art instructor?
Switch careers and become an accountant or fireman?
We may never know the answer...

BTW, this is our 5,000th post!

Thursday, February 2, 2023

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Humans, Keep Out!"

While the Mighty Thor stories in the front of Journey into Mystery have been reprinted over and over...
...the backup stories from that period have rarely appeared since their initial publication over 50 years ago!
The last page demonstrates clever use of "camera angles", witholding the secret of how the humans avoid being destroyed until the next-to-last panel!
In fact, a 1970s "how-to" book for aspiring filmmakers used Silver and Bronze Age Marvel comics to graphically-demonstrate such things as camera work, film editing, sound effects, etc.
You can read the entire book HERE.
Writer Stan Lee and artist Don Heck produced this sneaky little tale in Marvel's Journey into Mystery #86 (1962) that's only been reprinted once, in Marvel's Giant-Size Man-Thing #4 (1974)!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder MEDUSA CHAIN Part 4

Things are about to get really intense in...
...and the story is already way too complex to synopsize.
So, if you haven't read Part 1Part 2, and Part 3, do so.
Then continue...
Next Wednesday: An Epic Space Battle!
Give Ernie Colon credit.
He has a little bit of almost every fiction genre you can think of in this one graphic novel.
Mystery and crime.
Sci-fi/space opera.
War.
Horror.
(OK, maybe he left out romance...)

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Reading Room SCIENCE COMICS "Build an Arctic Schooner"

Man it's c-c-c-old outside!
How am I gonna get around?
Why, with this kool cut-out transport courtesy of an unnamed artist in Fox's Science Comics #3 (1940)!
(BTW, despite the title, it was a science fiction comic!
A later Science Comics from Ace Publications was a comic about real-life scientists and actual science!)
Though the caption seems to indicate it's something we've seen before, there's nothing in any of the stories in the issue even vaguely like it!
I'll peruse the previous and later issues to see if it appeared in any of the tales...