Atlas/Marvel covers are decorated with more giant monsters in January 1960: Rro! and Taboo! Another thing I’m noticing with Marvel stories from this era is that these anthological tales are now getting sequels, such as “Return of the Martian” features another tale of “Zetora the Martian” in Journey into Mystery #58. Clear indications that the […]
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Atlas / Marvel Comics continue to populate its fantasy/horror/sci-fi comics with giant monsters. December 1959’s tasty selection is Diablo (The Demon from the Fifth Dimension) and Droom (the Living Lizard).
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More Marvel giant monsters in November 1959. This time we have Orogo and Gorgolla, which sounds like something I might order in an Italian restaurant.
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Remember when I mentioned before how Atlas Comics was starting to morph into Marvel Comics near the end of the 1950s, featuring crazy-big and strangely-named monsters on its covers? Yeah well October 1959 is a really good example of that, so move over Godzilla, this month’s Marvel Monster Mash-Up gives us Zog, Grottu and Monstro!
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Though Atlas Comics has not renamed itself “Marvel Comics”, Tales of Suspense #6 (July 1959), contains a pretty cool glimpse into the future. In the story “The Mutants and Me”, Vincent Farnsworth has an argument with Henry Marsh, who claims that mutants with powers must exist and hide among us. Later that evening, Vincent is […]
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In late 1950s, Atlas Comics had not yet transformed into Marvel Comics, but its fantasy and sci-fi titles started featuring more outlandish covers replete with fantastical creatures in both shape and names. In Strange Worlds #3 (January 1958), we get a nice early example of this with “The Creature from Planet X”. The cover features […]
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In Challengers of the Unknown #4 (August 1958), it’s hard not to see Jack Kirby angling towards complex, fantastical world-building alongside and team-building between characters, as the Challengers find themselves traveling through time in a scientist’s “time cube”. Very Fantastic Four! And what I love the most are those giant, single-page splashes, like this one […]
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A nice little archaeological find in DC’s Tales of the Unexpected #16 (June 1957): Jack Kirby brings us a short story called “The Magic Hammer”. In it, a nasty prospector discovers Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, and uses it to summon rain and build himself a crooked fortune. Eventually Thor comes to claim the hammer, telling the […]
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Jack Kirby continues to lay the groundwork for the Marvel era. In Yellow Claw #3 (October 1956) an alien named UFO from Alpha Centauri is befriended by the Yellow Claw and turned against Americans. He has the ability to manipulate tremendous cosmic energy, which he yields against the Americans until he is shown the error […]
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In Yellow Claw #2 (Aug 1956), Jack Kirby takes a crack at Marvel’s latest super-villain, the Yellow Claw. More examples of early “Kirby Krackle” as well as wonderfully intricate layouts like the above Inception-like warping of space. In “Concentrate on Chaos”, the Yellow Claw has kidnapped six mutants with powers that can skew people’s perceptions […]
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