Saturday, April 6, 2013

Jackie Robinson 1950s Comic Book Covers

With the new flick, 42, opening next week...
...let's look at the superb covers for the short-lived (and never reprinted) groundbreaking comic book series from Fawcett Comics that ran from 1950 to 1952, now being offered as posters and prints, digitally-remastered and restored from the actual covers, by a good friend of ours!
Collect all six for a kool wall display!
They'll also be doing reproductions of the poster and lobby cards for the first Jackie Robinson movie The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), starring the man as himself (in his only movie appearance) along with Ruby Dee as Rachel "Rae" Robinson, and Minor Watson as Branch Rickey.
Here's the complete movie...
 
In the new movie, Chadwick Boseman is Jackie Robinson, Nicole Beharie is Rachel Robinson, and Harrison Ford is Branch Rickey.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Carmine Infantino (May 24, 1925–April 4, 2013)

Licensing art original by Infantino and Murphy Anderson
The man who visually-redefined DC Comics in the Silver Age, first as an artist, then as art director, finally as publisher, has passed away.
(Mind you, that's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of his work, but it's the most prominent aspect, and the one that Baby Boomers like myself will talk about.)

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Reading Room: WEIRD TALES OF THE FUTURE "Ten Thousand Years Ago"

Here's the "pilot" for an ongoing comic series that never came about...
..but did see publication in Key's Weird Tales of the Future #1 (1952)!
It's an interesting premise, and the publishers even gave the story the coveted cover slot...
Art by Ross Andru and ?
...yet next issue, Jerry and Jill were nowhere to be found!
So, what happened?
With a cool (if somewhat implausable) story by an uncredited scripter and pencils (and possible inks) by Ross Andru, it seemed like the sort of ongoing feature that could anchor a title.
Was a second story comissioned?
We'll never know...

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Reading Room: WEIRD THRILLERS "SandFlower of Venus"

Alien worlds have potentially-lethal animals and plants...
...but the most dangerous creature in the Universe is...Man!
I take it back.
The most dangerous creature in the Universe is Woman!
This never-reprinted tale from Ziff-Davis' Weird Thrillers #1 (1951) was probably illustrated by a round-robin of Dan & Sy Barry, Murphy Anderson, and Frank Giacoia.
The writer is unknown.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Reading Room: SPACEHAWK "Martian Election Mayhem"

If you think elections on Earth are hotly-contested...
...wait'll you see how things are handled on the red planet, Mars (which, oddly, is now green!)
This action-packed tale from Novelty's Target Comics #9 (1940) was written, illustrated, and lettered by the one-and-only Basil Wolverton.
The sheer unfettered imagination of the man was astounding, creating vistas and aliens far beyond anything the technology of moviemaking at the time (except for animation) could match.
With the current fascination for high adventure and fantasy, SpaceHawk would be an ideal project for either theatrical or direct-to-home video, and I'm surprised no one is doing it!

Monday, April 1, 2013

Reading Room: TIPPY TEEN "KIss and Tell"

In the 1960s, besides sci-fi and superhero comics, most of us also read "teen humor" comics...
...like Tower's Tippy Teen, which featured this tale that started off with the heroine reading a romance comic...
If the plotting and art style on this tale from Tippy Teen #17 (1967) reads like an Archie Comics story, that's because many Archie writers and artists (who were freelancers) including Sam Schwartz, Harry Shorten, and Dan DeCarlo, also worked on Tippy strips for Tower Comics' short-lived company in the 1960s!

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Holiday Reading Room: PICTURE STORIES FROM THE BIBLE "New Testament: Story of Jesus Part 2" Death & Resurrection

Art by Don Cameron
...betrayed by Judas Iscariot, one of his own disciples, Jesus Christ is convicted on trumped-up chrarges and sentenced to death by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate...
Written and edited by Montgomery Mulford, illustrated by Don Cameron.
Initially-published under the All-American Comics imprint, Picture Stories from the Bible was carried-over to publisher Max Gaines' new company Educational Comics, when he sold All-American outright to Detective Comics (which became National Peroidical Publications after the merger) in 1946.
EC Comics continued to reprint the Bible series both as single issues and as hardcover compilations of the complete seven-issue series and separate Old and New Testament editions.
The series inspired a host of copycats from other publishers including Atlas (Marvel), Living Bible Corporation, Nedor/Standard. and Eastern Color Corp, none of which lasted as long as EC's series.