Reading Room WORLD OF SUSPENSE "Very Old Man"

Despite Marvel Entertainment's extensive reprinting program...

...there's an incredible amount of Timely/Atlas material that hasn't seen the light of day since the 1940s-50s!

This is one such tale...

Edited (and likely plotted) by Stan Lee, and penciled by Sol Brodsky, this never-reprinted story from Atlas' World of Suspense #8 (1957) is a typical morality tale from the Comics Code-controlled era.

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3

Reading Room WORLD OF FANTASY "It Stands in the Snow"

We've presented abominable snowman stories before...

...but none that ends like this one!

We guarantee it!

OK, did you follow the surprise ending?

Admittedly, it's a little difficult due to the final panel being drawn sideways.

Let's run the final panel the way it should be shown...

Now that works!

Was this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #2 (1956) a four-pager that was re-worked into three pages?

Only artist (and Atlas/Marvel production whiz) Sol Brodsky and the unknown writer knew...

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

Cover Gallery SPEED CARTER: SPACEMAN & SPACE SQUADRON

Here's a look at the covers for the complete run of Speed Carter: SpaceMan...

Art by Bill Everett

Oddly, though they're really nice pieces of art, they never relate to the stories inside the book!

Art by Carl Burgos & ?

Art by Bill Everett

Art by Mike Sekowsky & ?

Art by Mort Lawrence

Art by Joe Maneely

Bill Everett (who didn't do any inside art) did two covers, and Joe Maneely (who did all the Speed stories in the first three issues finally got to do a cover with the last issue!

Here are the covers for Space Squadron.

Note the variants in foreign editions with retitled and redrawn covers...

Art by Sol Brodsky & Christopher Rule.

Vignettes at bottom by George Tuska.

Art by Werner Roth

Canadian Edition

Easily one of the worst recompositing jobs I've ever seen!

Art by Werner Roth

British Edition

Why were the aliens' second heads removed?

Art by Werner Roth

Canadian Edition

Now, this is how you recompose a cover!

Art by Sol Brodsky & Joe Maneely

Art by Sol Brodsky

British

Art by Sol Brodsky &?

We've decided to keep Space Force Saturdays at least through Halloween, so watch this space (pun intended) next week!

Friday Fun WILD "Frozen North"

A never-reprinted story from one of Atlas Comics' many MAD clones...

...is our snowbound story for today, as a heat wave continues to cover most of America!

Did you catch the cameo by the Golden Age Human Torch on page 3 panel 3, asking if this book was Young Men Comics (where he was appearing in 1954)?

This tale from Wild! #1 (1954) was illustrated by Sol Brodsky, who, while better-known to aficionados as Atlas/Marvel's production manager than as an artist, actually had over 1,000 stories and covers to his credit!

(He inked Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four #3 and #4 as well as Kirby's iconic cover for Avengers #16!)

Sadly, little of the material from Atlas' four humor titles from the 1950s has been reprinted, despite the fact that some of their "big names" like Bill Everett, Joe Maneely, Gene Colan, and Russ Heath all contributed stories that went far afield from their usual "realistic" styles...with amazing results!

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Sincerest Form of Parody

Best 1950s MAD-Inspired Satirical Comics

Space Force Saturday SPACE SQUADRON "Judgment of Boz!"

Behind this spooky (if off-model) Sol Brodsky/Joe Maneely cover...

...from the never-reprinted Atlas' Space Squadron #5 (1952) is an apocalyptic tale about a delusional, obese, but dangerous potential dictator in the 21st Century!

(Who does that remind us of?)

If this tale was produced today, it would be a book-length story with full and double-page splashes!
Yet artist Allen Bellman and the unknown writer pulled it off in only five extremely-crowded pages!

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Mysteries in Space

The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics

Space Force Saturdays SPACE SQUADRON "Terror from the Deep!"

Let's blast-off for excitement (if not scientific accuracy) in the year 2000...

...as the Space Squadron journeys to the "water world" of Neptune!

Until the Voyager 2 flight in 1989, little was known about Neptune except for it's size and color, so sci-fi went all over the place speculating about what lay under the bright blue atomosphere.

Because of the name, derived from the Roman god of the sea, most tales (like this one) portrayed the planet as an aquatic world with a breathable atmosphere and amphibian, reptilian, or fish-like inhabitants.

The artists for this tale from Atlas/Marvel's Space Squadron #3 (1951) are penciler Werner Roth and inker Sol Brodsky.

The scripter is unknown, though in his case, it might be best to remain anonymous.

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Complete Adventures of Lucky Starr

by Isaac Asimov

(under the pen-name "Paul French") Omnibus of ALL Six Space-Opera Sagas!David Starr: Space Ranger, Pirates of the Asteroids, Oceans of Venus, Big Sun of Mercury, Moons of Jupiter, Rings of Saturn

Reading Room VENUS COMICS "Escape from Death"

We recently presented "Escape to Death"...

...so here's the counterpoint (at least in title)...

So Kallam ends up escaping to death...

This never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Venus Comics #15 (1951) was mild compared to the really intense horror-themed stuff some of the other publishers were running!

While the writer is unknown, the artist was Sol Brodsky, who was originally a journeyman artist during the Golden Age and the first editor of Cracked magazine, but is best known as Marvel's overworked production manager during the Silver Age before founding the short-lived, but rather entertaining, Skywald comic and magazine line in 1970.

He returned to Marvel in 1974, where he took on the dual roles of Vice President of Operations and Vice President Special Projects before passing on in 1984.