Thor (vol 1) #127 Published: April 10, 1966 Cover Artist: Jack Kirby
"The Hammer and the Holocaust!" takes place following Thor's battle with Hercules. The defeated Thor returns to Asgard to find all the rest of the Asgardians defeated by Seidring, who is in full possession of the Odinpower. After several pages of strange battle including Seidring hurling meteors at Thor, and trapping him in a bubble of liquid Wolfsbane, Stan Lee comes up with a fairly innovative way for a half-depowered Thor to best a villain with the full power of Odin...
Or maybe Jack Kirby comes up with a fairly innovative way for a half-depowered Thor to do so. Lee’s plots were pretty sketchy by this point. He very well could have left that part up to Kirby.
Love that Nick Fury cover. I'm sure Jim was definitely aping Dali, as Dali was massive news in '68. Here's my contribution. All I know the cover dates from November 1939.
Love that Nick Fury cover. I'm sure Jim was definitely aping Dali, as Dali was massive news in '68. Here's my contribution. All I know the cover dates from November 1939.
Technically, this is the cover to a pulp fiction magazine, not a comic. Uncanny Tales was published under Martin Goodman’s larger magazine division (in this case Manvis Publications, Inc.), which was upstairs from the Timely offices. This particular issue is vol. 3, #2 of the title, published in 1939. I'm pretty sure the artist is Norm Saunders.
Goodman’s recently renamed Atlas Comics would later publish a comic by the same title beginning in 1952.
Happy birthday to Kelley Jones (born 6/23/62)! Everyone knows Jones for his work on Batman and Deadman, but he started out as an inker for Marvel. His first gig as a regular penciler was on Micronauts—the final issue of the original series and most of the relaunch series Micronauts: The New Voyages. I bought the first three issues and thought they were pretty good, but I rarely saw it on the spinner rack after that. Here’s his first professional cover (pencils and inks), Micronauts: The New Voyages #3 (Dec. 1984).
Alex Schomburg’s cover to Miss Fury #1 (Winter 1953-53). The Timely series reprinted Tarpé Mills’ Sunday newspaper strips, but they did their own covers, which really had nothing to do with the stories inside. Why post Miss Fury? You'll know soon enough.
40 years ago today, President Richard M. Nixon released the White House tape recordings to the special prosecutor in charge of the Watergate investigation. Four days later, Nixon resigned. So here’s a little Murphy Anderson cover (pencils and inks) for From Beyond the Unknown #17 (June-July 1972).
40 years ago today, President Richard M. Nixon released the White House tape recordings to the special prosecutor in charge of the Watergate investigation. Four days later, Nixon resigned. So here’s a little Murphy Anderson cover (pencils and inks) for From Beyond the Unknown #17 (June-July 1972).
And here we have Star-Lord's first appearance and origin from 1975:
...written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Steve Gan; inks by Bernie Wrightson and Bob McLeod. Cover by Gray Morrow.
Note that the issue also features The Sword In The Star, a short-lived science-fantasy adventure series that continues a few issues later...
No, never mind Satana! (Cover by Bob Larkin) The Sword In The Star returns as a back-up feature, and in this chapter we are treated (by Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen) to the very first appearance of Rocket Raccoon!
Weird Mysteries #4 (Gilmore Publishing) April 1953 Cover art by Bernard Baily
One of the most iconic horror covers of the 1950s by the great Bernard Baily (1916 - 1996), an artist best known as co-creator of the DC Comics characters Hourman and Spectre.
FWIW: there is no inside story in this comic that goes along with the drooling-man-ant-leaving-knife-in-skull.
Weird Mysteries #4 (Gilmore Publishing) April 1953 Cover art by Bernard Baily
One of the most iconic horror covers of the 1950s by the great Bernard Baily (1916 - 1996), an artist best known as co-creator of the DC Comics characters Hourman and Spectre.
FWIW: there is no inside story in this comic that goes along with the drooling-man-ant-leaving-knife-in-skull.
I remember Bailey primarily for having drawn a lot of those one-page community service pages that appeared in DC Comics during the 60's, usually on the inside covers. And that he did a lot of stories in House Of Mystery and House Of Secrets during the 50's and 60's. I only saw him do one superhero story in all that time (apart from reprints of those early Hourman and Spectre stories) and that was a Brave & Bold team-up of the Flash and the Martian Manunter -- which was quite good and became a personal favorite of mine. It's a shame they didn't draft him for more of those.
Weird Mysteries #4 (Gilmore Publishing) April 1953 Cover art by Bernard Baily
One of the most iconic horror covers of the 1950s by the great Bernard Baily (1916 - 1996), an artist best known as co-creator of the DC Comics characters Hourman and Spectre.
FWIW: there is no inside story in this comic that goes along with the drooling-man-ant-leaving-knife-in-skull.
God help us!
It's a drooling, elf-eared BLACK man-ant!
If he's a commie, too, he's all the 1950s fears rolled into one.
Personally, I think Baily was better suited for drawing horror stories than superheroes. He drew ugly faces much better than he drew pretty faces. Here’s one of his best covers, Weird Tales of the Future #7 (May 1953).
Yesterday at my LCS I saw this book on the wall. It’s one of the most unintentionally hilarious books I’ve ever looked through, and I just had to share. Without further ado, I give you Hansi: The Girl Who Loved the Swastika (1976) with artwork (cover and interiors) by Al Hartley.
If the name Al Hartley sounds familiar, he was a regular at Atlas during the ’50s, primarily on the Pasty Walker series. He wasn't comfortable with doing superhero work, so when Marvel shifted that direction he moved on to do a ton of work for Archie Comics.
Spire Christian Comics were always available at religious bookstores in the 1970s. Most of them seemed to have been drawn by Hartley. I can remember a comic about Tom Landry and the Dallas Cowboys; a comic version of the religious book (and later movie) The Cross and the Switchblade; a comic book about a Vietnam War POW; and several titles where the Archie characters were involved in religious-themed adventures (I could never understand that, from a theological or a publishing rights perspective).
Because the titles weren't dated, but instead were meant to be perpetually for sale (like books), I'm sure there are a lot of Spire comics in attics or church basements. I remember when my mother took us to our local Christian bookstore, I always made a beeline to the Spire spinner rack.
Hartley became a born-again Christian in ’67, which is when he began working for Archie. He would sometimes add in religious aspects to those stories (to the point where editorial asked him to dial it back), which is what spurred the publisher of Spire to call him about doing the adaptation of The Cross and the Switchblade. He then went on to write and draw nearly every book Spire published. His prior connection to Archie helped Spire acquire the license to use the Archie characters—presumably to help Spire “relate” to teenagers.
Comments
From December 1968
cover art: Jim Steranko (possibly aping Salvador Dalí)
Here's my contribution. All I know the cover dates from November 1939.
Goodman’s recently renamed Atlas Comics would later publish a comic by the same title beginning in 1952.
...written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Steve Gan; inks by Bernie Wrightson and Bob McLeod. Cover by Gray Morrow.
Note that the issue also features The Sword In The Star, a short-lived science-fantasy adventure series that continues a few issues later...
No, never mind Satana! (Cover by Bob Larkin) The Sword In The Star returns as a back-up feature, and in this chapter we are treated (by Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen) to the very first appearance of Rocket Raccoon!
April 1953
Cover art by Bernard Baily
One of the most iconic horror covers of the 1950s by the great Bernard Baily (1916 - 1996), an artist best known as co-creator of the DC Comics characters Hourman and Spectre.
FWIW: there is no inside story in this comic that goes along with the drooling-man-ant-leaving-knife-in-skull.
Sept 1954
Trojan Magazine
Cover art by Myron Fass
Pre-Code Horror Comic Mag
It's a drooling, elf-eared BLACK man-ant!
If he's a commie, too, he's all the 1950s fears rolled into one.
If the name Al Hartley sounds familiar, he was a regular at Atlas during the ’50s, primarily on the Pasty Walker series. He wasn't comfortable with doing superhero work, so when Marvel shifted that direction he moved on to do a ton of work for Archie Comics.
Because the titles weren't dated, but instead were meant to be perpetually for sale (like books), I'm sure there are a lot of Spire comics in attics or church basements. I remember when my mother took us to our local Christian bookstore, I always made a beeline to the Spire spinner rack.