Number 762


The middle Atlas


Pappy reader John Kaminski gave me the germ of the idea for this post by requesting the story, "The Trap," from Atlas' Mystery Tales #42. It's only four pages and that doesn't seem like much of a post, so I looked around at some of the other Atlas post-Code comics I have. I've always seen these comics as being somewhere toward the late middle of the Timely/Atlas/Marvel progression of the 1940s to early '60s. Until the Atlas implosion of 1957 a lot of the old horror comics artists, who didn't quit comics, got work from Atlas in a severely shrunken market.

These are some examples I've chosen.

"The Trap," drawn by Bob Bean, is from Mystery Tales #42, 1956, as is "The Captive," by Jerry Robinson.

Two stories from World Of Mystery #4, from 1956: "Things In The Window" by Werner Roth, and "The Man With The Yellow Eyes" by Dick Ayers.

Rounding it out, "The Ghost Wore Armor," published in Journey Into Unknown Worlds #55, 1957, drawn by Bob Forgione and Jack Abel.

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Number 690

Russ Heath and the Monster of Moog

Here's the 4th installment for Pappy's Science Fiction Week.

Russ Heath, born in 1926, is a comic art great whose career extended for decades. He did Westerns, horror, science fiction and in the '60s many war stories. Like Joe Kubert, who also worked for editor/writer Robert Kanigher at DC, Heath's artwork never faded in quality over a long career.

"Monster of Moog" (a planet, and not a synthesizer), and "The Strange Car" both appeared in Atlas Comics' Journey Into Unknown Worlds #36 (actually #1) in 1950.

A decade later Heath would work with Kanigher on Sea Devils, a comic book I really enjoyed. (Someday I may indulge myself and show you a story featuring the Sea Devils and Pappy the trained seal.) The covers, three of which I've included here, were exceptionally dramatic. Heath did the artwork and DC's chief production man, Jack Adler, did the gray tones, giving the covers a modeled effect.

Some great Russ Heath art from a 1962 DC war comic is here.

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Number 555


"That bullet bounced off my bean and bonked a bozo behind me!"


Whatever fed Basil Wolverton's fantasies must've been very potent, because his images are unforgettable. Whether he was drawing humor or horror he was equally facile. That's why today I'm showing you examples of both.

Powerhouse Pepper was an ongoing character whose stories originally appeared in 1940s' Marvel Comics, but black and white reprints popped up for years in pages of Humorama Publications cartoon books. This one is from an issue of Wheely Nuts, an obscure cartoon book from the early '70s, and maybe one of the last of the Humorama line. I can't find my copy of Wheely Nuts, but luckily I'd made a photocopy somewhere alone the way.

I also made a copy for my friend Clark, whose mind is dirty like mine. He said, "With a title like 'A Hot Squat Shot' I was expecting something a little bit different."

Here's a really paranoid story by Daniel Keyes ("Flowers for Algernon"), and drawn by Wolverton originally for Atlas' Journey Into Unknown Worlds #15 in 1953. It's one of those "nobody believes me!" stories where the people who "don't believe" the main character are in on the conspiracy.

Giant crabs. Who'd thunk it? Only Wolverton could pull this one off and he does it in such a creepy and claustrophic way. Hey, I've been there, had that...paranoia, that is...not crabs.

I scanned this sharp black and white version of "They Crawl By Night" from Dark Horse's Basil Wolverton's Gateway to Horror, published in 1988. Karswell has "They Crawl By Night," scanned from the original Atlas comic book, today at The Horrors Of It All. Crawl on over and tell 'im Pappy sent you.

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