Saturday, March 4, 2017

Holiday Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Candy Egg"

Here's a (literally) sweet, never-reprinted Walt (Pogo) Kelly short...
...from Dell's Four Color Comics: Easter with Mother Goose #220 (1948)!
Imagine getting one of these 52-page annuals in your Easter basket along with jellybeans, chocolate bunnies and marshmallow Peeps!
Several 7-10 page stories, a number of 1-3 page features, games, and, usually, a wraparound cover!
Would've kept the 5-8 year-old me occupied in those dark days before TV (much less the Internet)!
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Friday, March 3, 2017

Reading Room STRANGE TALES "Zzutak: the Thing that Shouldn't Exist!!" Part 2

Sci-fi magazine cover artist Frank Johnson, desperate to top his previous efforts, tries out a set of "three-dimensional paints" offered by a mysterious sttanger, that cause whatever he draws to not only exist as a three-dimensional object...but also to come to life!
Accepting the paint set as a gift, he is suddenly-compelled to journey to a remote part of Mexico, where he paints his greatest monster of all, Zzutak, on a giant canvas!
But...why?
Now all shall be revealed!
You'd think the colorist of the cover for Atlas' Strange Tales #88 (1961) didn't communicate with the colorist for the story itself, since he transposed the coloring for Zzutak and his unnamed adversary...
...except the two colorists were the same guy, Stan Goldberg!
I can only speculate the cover and interior were colored at two different times and, in the confusion, someone lost track of who was orange and who was green!
When the story was reprinted in Marvel's Fear #3 (1971), the unknown colorist got the second monster right, but still got Zzutak wrong!
 
When the story was reprinted in Germany, a new, painted cover got Zzutak's color right, though not all the details of his design/anatomy!
Poor Zzutak is postitively unreocognizable on his most recent reprint appearance in Marvel's Monster Menace #3 (1994), even though he's rendered by the guy who inked his story back in 1961...Steve Ditko!
(And he's portrayed correctly in the "character box" in the upper left corner of the cover!)
As you may have guessed, Zzutak is the cover-featured monster on the current issue of Marvel's Monsters Unleashed with this superb Francesco Francavilla cover...
Monsters Unleashed looks like a lot of fun, so get it at your local comic shop...NOW!
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Monsters Unleashed: Prelude
(which, sadly, doesn't include Zzutak's premiere appearance!)

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Reading Room STRANGE TALES "Zzutak: the Thing that Shouldn't Exist!!"

What could be kooler than a Kirby Kreature tale?
Answer: a Kirby Kreature tale inked by Steve Ditko!
Since plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, penciler Jack Kirby, and inker Steve Ditko ended this chapter of the two-parter from Atlas' Strange Tales #88 (1961) at this point, we'll pause until tomorrow before continuing!
As you may have guessed, Zzutak is the cover-featured monster on the current issue of Marvel's Monsters Unleashed!
And. is this a great Francesco Francavilla cover, or what?
Monsters Unleashed looks like a lot of fun, so get it at your local comic shop...NOW!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order...
Monsters Unleashed: Prelude
(which doesn't include Zzutak's premiere appearance!)

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Reading Room ATOMIC SPY CASES "Operation H. M."

Think we're paranoid about "the enemy" discovering our secrets?
Look at how nutso we were back in the 1950s!
(BTW, the "Based on TRUE Stories" caption is a total lie!)
The lead story from this Avon Comics 1950 one-shot (with a Norman [Mars Attacks] Saunders cover) exemplifies the "Commies under the bed" paranoia that's making a comeback today...except it's "Islamist Terrorists under the bed"!
Regrettably, neither the writer nor artist(s) are known.
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Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Reading Room COSMIC BOOK "UFO and the Perts vs Experts"

Feeling just a wee bit paranoid?
Feel like the world just doesn't make any sense at all?
Well, you ain't alone, kiddo!
While it's been reprinted several times, this version from Wandering Star Press' Cosmic Book #1 (1986) is the only time it's been presented in color!
The Cosmic Book was a personal obsession for Pat Boyette who packaged it (as well as doing the covers and a couple of tales inside), then shopped it around to numerous publishers until Ace Comics agreed to co-publish it.
Though there were rumors of a second issue, it never appeared.
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Monday, February 27, 2017

SECRET HITLER...a Game for Our Time?

Max Temkin, a co-creator of Cards Against Humanity...
...is sending a copy of his newest role-playing card game, Secret Hitler, to every sitting Senator in Washington DC!
(Wonder which ones will accept the gift, which ones will send it back, and which ones will simply trash it?)
Secret Hitler is a social deduction game for 5–10 people about finding and stopping the "Secret Hitler" among them!
Players are secretly divided into two teams - liberals and fascists.
Known only to each other, the fascists coordinate to sow distrust and install their cold-blooded leader.
The liberals must find and stop the Secret Hitler before it’s too late.
Each round, players elect a President and a Chancellor who will work together to enact a law from a random deck.
If the government passes a fascist law, players must try to figure out if they were betrayed or simply unlucky.
Secret Hitler also features government powers that come into play as fascism advances.
The fascists will use those powers to create chaos unless liberals can pull the nation back from the brink of war.
Can you guess why Max thought it was relevant to the current situation in Washington DC as well as 1930s Germany?
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Sunday, February 26, 2017

Holiday Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Easter Egg Hunt with Mother Goose"

Here's another never-reprinted example of Walt Kelly's superb art (and puzzle-creating skills)...
...from Dell's Four Color Comics: Easter with Mother Goose #220 (1949)!
Imagine getting one of these 52-page annuals in your Easter basket along with jellybeans, chocolate bunnies and marshmallow Peeps!
Several 7-10 page stories, a number of 1-2 page features, games, and, usually, a wraparound cover!
Would've kept the 5-8 year-old me occupied in those dark days before TV (much less the Internet)!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics