Number 1591: Earth people good, space people bad

After surviving the shock of Wednesday’s post with the devious Earthmen preying on the innocents of another planet, we get back to fare we are more used to. When it comes to people who live on other planets we are xenophobic. We’re xenophobic with those who live on our own planet as well, but here we have alien stand-ins. Tradition in science fiction returns: we are the good guys, they are not.

The two stories today come from Avon’s Strange Worlds #7 (1952). Gene Fawcette signed “The Space Gods of Planetoid 50”, but the artist(s) of “Sabotage on Space Station 1” gets a “?” from the GCD.

This ends our week of skiffy stories.

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Number 685


The Hot Flame Goddess!


Until I saw this story, attributed by the Grand Comics Database to Sid Greene, I didn't realize Sid could draw such great-looking babes.

My familiarity with Greene, besides one Target story I showed in Pappy's #540, is from the Silver Age science fiction he did at DC, like this story from Pappy's #527, and for various inking jobs which I thought were very distinctive.

Shelia is a sexy chick in a pin-up fan's delight of a story. From Avon's Strange Worlds #3, 1951.

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Number 462


What the Heck...?



I was never a big Don Heck fan, but I like the job he did on this well-drawn strip. It's obvious he put a lot of work into this five-pager from Strange Worlds #1, 1958. You'll probably recognize the last panel of this story It's a tale told in various forms over the years, with the same punchline.

I've now posted all of the stories from Strange Worlds #1, which was the reintroduction of the old Atlas line after a hiatus of over a year, when publisher Martin Goodman sold his Atlas distributing company.

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Number 430


I Am Robot


"I am robot hear me roar, in numbers too big to ignore..."

Oh, sorry...that ungodly croaking you hear is just me singing. The title of this story reminds me of an old song.

"I Am Robot" is from Strange Worlds #1, December 1958. It was the first comic published after the 1957 implosion of what was formerly Atlas Comics . Publisher Martin Goodman sold his Atlas distributing company, then made a deal with DC Comics for distribution of his comic books. It was a deal with conditions, like limiting how many comic books he could publish per month.

The story is drawn, according to the Grand Comics Database, by Bob Powell and Joe Sinnott. It was a nice pairing of styles, and I wish there were more stories from this team. If there are I'm not aware of them. Oddly, the usually knowledgeable Atlas Tales web site gives no credits for the artwork.

It has a typical Stan Lee plot device, something he used a lot. Aliens invade earth, and the first thing they encounter gives them some sort of resistance. They assume the whole earth is like that so they leave. They traveled unknown hundreds or thousands of light years, have technology far in advance of ours, yet when their first attempt doesn't work they are too stupid to try something else. Uh-huh. We buy that.

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Number 391


The scourge of Atlantis


Dick Ayers returns to Pappy's with a soggy tale from Strange Worlds #2 from 1959. The first issue of Strange Worlds was the first title published after a hiatus when Martin Goodman, publisher, sold his Atlas Distribution company, then had to seek distribution from his competition, DC Comics. Strange Worlds is post-Atlas, but pre-Marvel Comics. "I Am The Scourge Of Atlantis" is obviously not part of the Sub-Mariner/Marvel Universe. It owes its ending to "Ping Pong" in Mad. Oops. Should I have posted a SPOILER ALERT tag before telling you that?

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This is one of those novelty company ads from comic books. Some of these items seem almost terroristic: Hot Seat! Sneezing Powder! Itching Powder! Exploding fountain pen! How about scaring the crap out of your parents with a hypo needle that seems to plunge into your arm? "Mom! Dad! Watch me jolt up some heroin, yok yok!" Weapons of mass destruction: a sling shot with "riflelike accuracy. Excellent for targets or small game." Balanced throwing knives...little brothers watch out. You will be a target.

Of course we have the famous X-Ray Specs and "Throw Your Voice" gizmo. I'm sure plenty of kids threw them down in disgust when they realized they'd been duped.

Nowadays we need stuff like Fake Muslim Beard, Exploding Cell Phone, Shoe With Fuse. Real laugh-out-loud fun stuff.

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Number 362


My favorite Ditko



As a Steve Ditko fan from way back, I thought some of his best work was on these fantasy stories for Atlas, later Marvel Comics. He did a lot of them, and at the time I looked for them. He also drew for Charlton Comics, and I bought a lot of otherwise crappy comic books to get his work. I felt they didn't seem to have the same flair as what he was doing in stories like "I Captured the Abominable Snowman."

You might have seen this story before, because it's been reprinted a couple of times in various Marvel comics. It comes from Strange Worlds #1, from 1958. It was the first comic book published under an agreement by publisher Martin Goodman with DC Comics to have them distribute his comic books, after the Atlas Comics implosion of 1957 which temporarily suspended the line.

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Number 151


"I Discovered The Secret Of The Flying Saucers!"


Sixty years ago today, June 24, 1947, pilot Kenneth Arnold was flying his private plane over the Cascade Mountains in Washington State when he saw a flight of what he described as "crescent-shaped craft." It caught the public's attention in a big way. From the early news reports grew the legends, stories and mythology of flying saucer lore. Nowadays we call them UFOs, but I still like the term "flying saucers." So did Jack Kirby, who did this story for the resurrection in 1958 of Atlas Comics.

Here's how I understand the events: In 1957 comic book publisher Martin Goodman sold his distribution company, and went with another distributor that went out of business.  No comic books were produced until Goodman made a deal with his main competitor, DC Comics. DC agreed to distribute Martin Goodman's comic book line as long as he kept it to six titles a month. The first of those titles, which is dated December, 1958, was Strange Worlds #1, with the cover and lead story by Jack Kirby.

In retrospect this is the comic book that led to the creation of the Marvel Comics line as we know it today. No writer is listed but it was probably Stan Lee, working with art provided by Kirby.

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