Number 1571: Captain Marvel goes Mad...then Nuts

A couple of things caught my eye when I read this Captain Marvel-King Kull tale in Captain Marvel Adventures #141 (1953). First, it has walking dead. That’s good. Second, it is told in the second person, which isn’t good or bad, just different than the usual third person that Captain Marvel stories were written in by chief scripter Otto Binder.

Then there is the so-so, which is a satire on Captain Marvel, “Captain Marble Flies Again,” done for Premier’s Nuts!#5 (1954), after Captain Marvel was cancelled. The story has its moments, but it depends on your tolerance for this type of satirical treatment. (It has a hooker under a street light putting the moves on Captain Marble; that’s interesting and solidly pre-Comics Code).

You remember another story done for Mad #4, “Superduperman” (below) featuring Captain Marbles and Superduperman in battle. It was a reference to the lawsuit against Fawcett by DC for copyright infringement, which which was ultimately decided in favor of DC. Go to Apocolyte’s World of Comics for the Mad story and some bonuses.

Ross Andru drew “Captain Marble Flies Again.” He and partner Mike Esposito published their own short-lived satire comic, Get Lost!. I wonder if this story was originally something they had prepared for that book.

More about →

Number 1570: Sea Devils — the devil’s in the details

Despite dropping almost all my DC Comics purchases in '61-'62 after Marvel introduced The Fantastic Four and the rest of their early hero lineup (a fickle fan, wasn’t I?), an exception was DC’s Sea Devils. I bought it because of Russ Heath’s artwork. It’s telling that I stopped buying the book after issue #10 when other artists took over. It wasn’t that they were bad artists, just that I was buying the book because of Heath.

Looking at #1 after 50+ years makes me wonder if I just looked at the artwork without reading the stories, because I don’t remember them. Like this first story from issue #1, about a movie with a robot Octopus Man who roams the ocean floor walking a huge octopus on a leash. Then a real Octopus Man shows up. Next to this The Fantastic Four seems almost non-fiction. But there is that Russ Heath artwork, and that makes up for the implausibilities and overall silliness of editor Robert Kanigher’s scripts.

From Sea Devils #1 (1961).

More about →

Son of Dracula (PART TWO)

And now the blood suckin second half finale of the June 1975 issue of Fright #1, aka Son of Dracula #1! Click HERE for the first part in case you missed it! Hope you enjoyed this one-- I'll have another Frank Thorne illustrated terror tale coming up in our next post too!

More about →

#669 - The latest Tarzan strip reprint

Emile has been kind enough to send me the latest Tarzan story that completed its run last week. This has artwork by John Celardo, who is my favorite Tarzan artist.

This is the story where get to meet ITO's real mother. Less talking and more reading.

Download from Emile's original link and shower your thanks on him.

Enjoy the story.

More about →

Number 1569: The naked Archie

In this tale of teen tension and body dysmorphic disorder from Archie Comics #27 (1947), Archie takes a shower in front of a leering, sadistic personal trainer.  It isn’t such a big deal except for our usual expectation of more clean, wholesome fun from an Archie comic book. That cleaned-up Archie came later, when the transition from the wild-and-wooly days of Archie’s publisher, MLJ Comics, was fnally complete. This story, drawn by longtime Archie artist Bill Vigoda, is part of that earlier style.

**********

From the same issue, here’s a titillating look at Archie’s girls, Betty and Veronica. Click on the thumbnail:

More about →

Son of Dracula (PART ONE)

Kicking off May with the first in a cool two-part post from the one and only issue of FRIGHT from Atlas Comics-- it's Son of Dracula #1 (aka And Unto Dracula Was Born a Son), published in August 1975. It's a comic that seemed to have some real potential, nicely written by Gary Friedrich and of course Frank Thorne's art is always jaw dropping, sinister, and sexy. A real shame it all ended just as the blood curdling fun was beginning.

PART TWO coming up in our next post! Click HERE!

More about →