Atomic Kommie Comics

Monday Mecha Madness SHOGUN WARRIORS "Starchild" Conclusion

2026-04-13T07:00:00.092-04:00

We Have Already Seen...

...Ilongo Savage, piloting Dangard Ace, tries to divert a recently-hatched alien from heading for populated areas.
But, the creature has some hidden surprises...

The Mecha Meyhem Continues in May as Genji (aboard Combatra) Battles...Whatever the Heck That Is!
(I was going to call it "A Big Hand for the Little Lady!", but I resisted.
Oh, wait...I did say it...)

Lunar Reading Room: RACE FOR THE MOON "Thing on Sputnik 4"

2026-04-12T07:00:00.022-04:00

Now That Aretmis II has Safely Returned...

...let's look at a tale created during early days of space travel, before Man had made it beyond the stratosphere, when we had NO idea of what awaited us "out there", but it was so kool to speculate...

From Harvey's Race for the Moon #2 (1958).
Beautifully-rendered by Jack Kirby and Marvin Stein.
It's both amazing and depressing to see what we hoped to achieve in the (then) near-future

Then to see what we actually did...

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Space Hero & Heroine Saturdays ASTONISHING "Menace from the Moon!"

2026-04-11T07:00:00.006-04:00

Congratulation to the Artemis Crew for a Successful and Safe Trip to the Moon and Back!

But what if something had happened while they were on the Far Side, totally out of communication with Earth?

OK, this tale from Atlas' Astonishing #5 (1951), written by Hank Chapman and illustrated by Cal Massey is a tad silly.

They claim the ship was lost five years earlier, yet speculate the crew was still alive and coming home?
C'mon, even a kid in the 1950s would find that concept...well...DUMB!!!
(And that's being polite!)

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Friday Fun SPACE MOUSE "Reservation to the Moon!"

2026-04-10T07:00:00.000-04:00

Sometimes the heroic Space Mouse ventured into outer space to fight menaces...

...sometimes the menaces commuted to Earth!

And, sometimes, very rarely, there is no menace...just misunderstood alien visitors!

Writer/artist Frank Carin told this never-reprinted tale of misinterpreted Moon-people motives in Avon's Peter Rabbit #31 (1956)!

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Reading Room AMAZING ADVENTURES OF BUSTER CRABBE COMICS "Science Lore"

2026-04-09T07:00:00.005-04:00

Who says comics ain't educational?

One and two-page featurettes, based on the science known at the time, offer fascinating insight into the mindset of the sci-fi/comics writers and what info they had to work with!

This never-reprinted, Pete Morisi-illustrated piece from Lev Gleason's Amazing Adventures of Buster Crabbe #3 (1954) is typical of the era, except for the fact all the spaceship designs, combining real and fictional vessels are from different eras!

Among them are a Mongo warship from the Flash Gordon comic strip, a ship from the movies Destination Moon and/or Conquest of Space, and what's described as a "WAC Corporal", but is rendered as a German V-2!

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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder TRAGG AND THE SKY GODS

2026-04-08T07:00:00.057-04:00

Man-Gods From Beyond the Stars Wasn't the Only Comics Project Based on Chariots of the Gods!

Art by Jack Kirby and Frank Giacoia
The best-known (and most successful) was Jack Kirby's Eternals series, which he began when he returned to Marvel in 1975!

In fact, the series was going to be called "Return of the Gods" with a logo using the same font as the Chariots of the Gods books!
But there was another series, also utilizing the theme of "ancient astronauts interacting with our ancestors" launched about the same time...but it didn't start out that way...

Art by Jesse Santos

Writer Don Glut and artist Jesse Santos had conceived a tale about Tragg, a prehistoric caveman in a world where a crashed alien ship leakd chemicals into a lake which turned a human who drank from it into a proto-werewolf!
You can read it HERE!
Glut and Santos tried to promote Tragg again, this time facing a shaman who utilized herbs to control others.
That story appeared HERE.
When neither tale prompted the editors to greenlight Tragg as a series, a new approach was taken, combining Tragg with Chariot of the Gods-style aliens...and that was OKed as a new series...

Art by Jesse Santos

With the concept locked in, Tragg and the Sky Gods launched at the same time as The Eternals, but lasted only eight issues.
The aliens from the planet Yargon apparently didn't believe in a non-interference Prime Directive, and manipulated the DNA of a pair of cavewomen to "improve the species", then left, returning 25 years later to check on their now-grown offspring, Tragg, his mate Lorn, and Tragg's older brother Jarn (born before the Yargon altered his mother's DNA).
The Yargonites themselves were a mixed bag of altrusitic scientists and power-hungry soldiers, whose differing motives constantly produced problems among themselves, and resulted in conflict with the humans!
Note: Jesse Santos did the interior art for the "tryout stories" listed above and the first two regular issues, but continued doing covers for the remainder of the run.
Dan Spiegle took over the art the stories for the remainder of the series.
Unlike The Eternals (whom Kirby deliberately kept separate from the rest of the Marvel Universe), Tragg was incorporated into an already-existing universe of characters at Gold Key also written by Don Glut, including present-day mystic Doctor Spektor and ancient warrior Dagar the Invincible, even doing crossovers through space and time with those other characters!
We're not going to re-present the tales in Wednesday Worlds of Wonder (which would end up running from now to Autumn non-stop), but here are links to the entire series....

Spawn of Yargon

Part 1, Part 2
Day the Earth Thundered
Part 1, Part 2
Race Against Death
Standalone Story featuring Lorn
Slaves of Fire Mountain
Part 1, Part 2
Project: Sabre: Fang
Part 1, Part 2
Attack of the Man-Apes
Part 1, Part 2
Death-Duel
Part 1, Part 2
Battle for a World
Part 1, Part 2
Master of the Living Bones
(Crossover story with Dagar the Invincible & Dr Spekor)
Part 1, Part 2
Where Prowls the Devil Shark
Part 1, Part 2
Plus: Three Text Stories
"Tragg and the Jaws of Death", "Valley of the Shadow" & "Spotlight on Keera"
Next Week: A New "Flashy" World of Wonder!

Lunar Reading Room & Theatre WALT DISNEY'S MAN INTO SPACE

2026-04-07T07:00:00.098-04:00

Walt Disney Was a Major Supporter of America's Space Program...

...so much so that, even before Sputnik launched the Space Race, he devoted a number of episodes of his various TV series to then-infant American space program!

The original plan to send men to the Moon involved first creating a space station as shown above to serve as a launch platform for lunar-bound ships.

Obviously, that never occurred, but a lot of what was presented by Disney, based on info from such authorities as Wernher von Braun and Willy Ley, was to become fact years later!

Written by Don F Christensen and illustrated by Tony Sgroi, this section from Dell's Four Color Comics: Man into Space #716 (1956) adapts part of one of the first episodes of Magical World of Disney devoted to the then-infant Space Program, "Man and the Moon" scripted by William Bosche, John W. Dunn, and director Ward Kimball, which aired Dec 28, 1955.

And. because the servicable (but hardly spectactular) artwork above doesn't do justice to the concepts involved, here's the actual segment of the episode combining live-action, minature SFX, and animation in a tour-de-force only Disney could bring to TV at the time.
BTW, though it initially-aired in b/w, the episode was shot in color, because Disney knew color TV for the mass-market was only a few years away!
Reruns from the early 1960s onward were broadcast in color...
Trivia: the voice of the narrator is Dick Tufeld, best-known as the voice of The Robot on Lost in Space!

Note the "state of the art" technology used on the spacecraft.

In reality, the actual tech used in the Mercury and Gemini space programs was barely a few years ahead of this stuff!

It's a miracle they survived those flights!

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Monday Mecha Madness SHOGUN WARRIORS "Starchild" Part 1

2026-04-06T07:00:00.084-04:00

When Last We Left Oceanographer (and Dangard Ace's Pilot), Ilongo Savage...

...he and fellow oceanographer Judith Johns had discovered an alien egg!
(And yes, Easter was yesterday, but this ain't a holiday treat!)

You'll see Dangard Ace take on the Starchild Next Monday...

...when the first thing you see will be this calamitous cover by Herb Trimpe and Al Milgrom!

The latest never-reprinted chapter in this story arc from Marvel's Shogun Warriors #9 (1979) is by usual stalwarts writer Doug Moench, penciler Herb Tripe, and guest inker Jack Abel!

EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE Cover Gallery

2026-04-05T07:00:00.003-04:00

From 1946 through 1949, Dell produced an Easter with Mother Goose annual..

...with all-new stories and art by Walt (Pogo) Kelly!

Here's several of the best covers (also by Kelly)!

Space Hero Saturdays MEN INTO SPACE "Space Probe"

2026-04-04T07:00:00.052-04:00

Just as the #Artemis Crew are Currently "Taking the Jalopy Out for a Test Drive"...

...the astronauts who will soon travel to the Moon in this amazingly-realistic TV series from the early days of the Space Race needed to see how their ship will handle in space and "work out the bugs" before heading all the way to a lunar landing!

Adapted by writer Gaylord DuBois and illustrator Murphy Anderson from the episode's screenplay by Arthur Weiss, you may note there are some differences between the comic and the episode as aired, as you'll see when you click HERE to open a new window to see the actual episode!
That's because, with the long lead-time to produce a comic (about 3 months from script and art to production to printing), DuBois and Anderson had to work from an early draft of the script!
Trivia: Angie Dickenson played Col. McCauley's wife Mary in this episode, but Joyce Taylor portrayed Mary in the other eight episodes the semi-regular character appeared in!

Note: We already re-presented the comic adaptation of the show's second episode, "Moon Landing" HERE and HERE at our brother RetroBlog Secret Sanctum of Captain Video, our usual locale for comic book/graphic novel adapatations of movies/TV shows/radio shows!

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Good Friday KING OF KINGS "Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday"

2026-04-03T07:00:00.019-04:00

You may be wondering "Where's Parts 1 & 2?"...

Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus Christ

...and the answer is; we haven't run them yet!

Since it's Good Friday, we're presenting the Dell Comics adaptation of the final part of the 1961 movie, covering the period from Palm Sunday to the Resurrection.

We'll run the first part around Christmas, and the second shortly after that.

While the writer for this movie adaptation from Dell's Four Color Comics King of Kings #1236 (1961) is unknown, the artist is Gerald McCann, a pulp artist who moved to comics in the early 1950s and did numerous Classics Illustrated covers and stories including "Abraham Lincoln" and "Ben-Hur".

Who says comics ain't educational?

Lunar Reading Room MEN INTO SPACE "Perils of Outer Space" and "What Is on the Moon?"

2026-04-02T07:00:00.155-04:00

Before We Actually Launched People into Space...

...the newly-formed NASA was incredibly-concerned about "real-world" problems most sci-fi stories never addressed!

Both pages above written by Gaylord DuBois, illustrated by Murphy Anderson

When you look back on it, it's astonishing how much info we did have when the only tools we were utilizing were ground-based visual telescopes and spectrometers!

The only satellites we (or the Russkies) had at that point were just metal-hulled shells with radio transmitters and radiation detectors (like geiger counters)!

One thing the scientists were adamant about, even then, was first taking the vehicle that would orbit and land on the lunar surface and "field-test" the ship as much as possible before actually landing!

In fact, the surprisingly scientifically-accurate 1959 TV series Men into Space did exactly that in the series' premiere episode, "Space Probe", which was adapted into comic form...

We're running that tale in Space Hero Saturdays this coming Saturday!

Don't Miss It!

Note: We already re-presented the comic adaptation of the show's second episode, "Moon Landing" HERE and HERE at our brother RetroBlog Secret Sanctum of Captain Video, our usual locale for comic book/graphic novel adapatations of movies/TV shows/radio shows!

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Easter & April Fool's Day Reading Room SPEED BUGGY COMICS "Magic Easter Candy"

2026-04-01T07:00:00.002-04:00

Here's a never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Speed Buggy #3 (1975)...

...a rather appropriate April Fools Day post during the Lent/Easter season!

Scripted by Mike Pellowski and illustrated by Alan James Hanley (not to be confused with the NYC comic book store owner), this was one of numerous one-off text features created to fulfill the second-class (magazine) privilege requirements for subscription copies when they didn't have a letters page or short story based on the specific comic's characters!

Lunar Reading Room CONTACT COMICS "Moon Express"

2026-03-31T07:00:00.024-04:00

Before We Actually Put Anybody into Space...
...we had to figure out how we would get them out there!

The hopeful author of this feature from Aviation Press' Contact Comics #12 (1946) believed we'd have a rocket reaching the Moon by 1950!
(In fact, the first rocket, the Russian 'Luna 2', didn't reach the Moon until 1959.)

The writer also believed legendary science fiction writer/editor John W Campbell to be a "uranium expert"!
(Campbell did have a BA in Physics, and, as an editor, pushed his writers to be as scientifically-accurate as possible.)
This 80 year-old never-reprinted story should give you an idea of how the concept of reaching somewhere outside of our atmosphere has captivated humans for centuries, and returning there a half-century later can still grab our attention!

Monday Mecha Madness GRAPHIC STORY MAGAZINE "Adam Link's Vengeance" Part Two: Vengeance

2026-03-30T07:00:00.235-04:00

We Have Already Seen...

...actually, this scene appears later in this chapter!

Robot Adam Link, after realizing Humanity doesn't trust him (despite being innocent of committing the murder of his creator/"father", Dr Charles Link), decides to end his existence.

but another scientist, Dr Paul Hillory, aborts the process.

The scientist agrees to help Adam construct a mate, Eve.

But Dr Hillory isn't acting out of benevolence!

In assisting Adam, the scientist learns how to manipulate and control both the robots!

He then forces Adam to rebuild Eve in a larger, deadlier form...

Despite the downbeat ending, Adam Link continued to help humanity.

The original prose series ran for another seven stories, which were eventually combined into a "fix-up" novel...

Note the Isaac Asimov quote!

Before this particular adaptation, EC Comics attempted an ongoing comic series in Weird Science Fantasy.

Scripted by Otto Binder and illustrated by Joe Orlando, there were three stories directly adapted from the pulp tales; I, Robot in Weird Science Fantasy #27, Trial of Adam Link in Weird Science-Fantasy #28, and Adam Link in Business in Weird Science-Fantasy #29 (all 1955).

The cancellation of the comic due to the Werham-led Seduction of the Innocent anti-comics mania ended the series.

After the novel Adam Link: Robot was published, Binder and Orlando tried again, this time with Warren Publishing in the b/w Creepy magazine!

They re-conceived the three previously-published comics with a re-designed Adam Link, then adapted five more stories (including Adam Link's Vengeance), so,etimes as two-parters, before Warren ended the strip, which ran from Creepy #2 to Creepy #15 in 1966-7.

Both the EC and Warren versions are available in Weird-Science Fantasy and Creepy reprints!

Neither had been reprinted in standalone Adam Link books.

Next Week: the Return of...

It's Palm Sunday! Did You Know the Very First Captain of the USS Enterprise...

2026-03-29T07:00:00.001-04:00

...was Jesus Christ?

Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus Christ in King of Kings (1961)

Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike with Leonard Nimoy as Mr Spock in Star Trek "The Cage" (1964)

Here's"six degrees of separation" trivia in only five degrees:

John Huston, who later did a prequel movie, The Bible: In the Beginning, directed Moby Dick, using a screenplay adapted by Ray Bradbury from the Herman Melville novel.
Ray Bradbury wrote the voiceovers in King of Kings spoken by Orson Welles.
Welles' The Shadow and Mercury Theatre radio series co-star Agnes Moorehead served as dialogue coach to Jeffrey Hunter (Jesus Christ) in King of Kings.
Jeffrey Hunter later played Christopher Pike, the first captain of the Starship Enterprise in the pilot episode of Star Trek, "The Cage".
Star Trek did an episode, "Bread and Circuses", about a planet where parallel evolution produced a society that resembled a 20th Century version of the Roman Empire, complete with it's own "Christians" and Jesus Christ (who doesn't appear on-camera, but is mentioned in dialogue)!

Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN SCIENCE "Traitors to the Earth"

2026-03-28T07:00:00.002-04:00

It's only his second story, and already Captain Science has his hands full...

...any way you look at it, it's a helluva way to begin your career!

Cap destroyed a threat by humans (including Adolf Hitler) using alien tech and picked up a hot babe in the process!
Not bad for the first day on the job.

Note, though it's only mentioned in a caption, it takes Gordon Dane months to prepare for his new career (though it's never explained how a guy on a teacher's salary can afford to cobble together the equipment he needs)...
The art on this never-reprinted story from Youthful's Captain Science #1 (1950) is by Gustav Schrotter.
The writer is unknown.

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Easter Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Fun and Games"

2026-03-27T07:00:00.075-04:00

Besides numerous single-page, two/three page, and longer stories...

...Dell's annual Easter with Mother Goose books by Walt (Pogo) Kelly usually included a game/puzzle page centerfold!

Three of the four issues from 1946 thru 1949 had them, and none have ever been reprinted!

...but we have them for your reading (and playing) pleasure, you lucky duckies!

Enjoy!

All written and illustrated by Walt Kelly, from Dell's Four Color Comics #103 (1946), #140 (1947) and #220 (1949)!

Reading Room WORLDS BEYOND "Twice Alive!"

2026-03-26T07:00:00.001-04:00

Here's a horror story with a sci-fi slant...

Art by Sheldon Moldoff

...that the cover doesn't really convey, from the HTF anthology Fawcett's Worlds Beyond #1 (1951).

Did the writers of the movie Fantastic Voyage read this tale when they were younger?

The art is by comics legend Bob Powell, but the writer is unknown.

The cover, by Sheldon Moldoff, shows a cavern (with bats!) instead of the inside of a human being, and probably was meant for another story, but it conveys the mood of "Twice Alive", if not the plot points.

Worlds Beyond was retitled Worlds of Fear with #2 and ran for another nine issues.

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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder MAN-GODS FROM BEYOND THE STARS Conclusion

2026-03-25T07:00:00.095-04:00

We Have Already Seen...

In the far-distant past...

...technologically-advanced aliens visit the Earth on a missionof exploration.

Their mandate is to observe, but not interfere.

In the present (1975)...

...scientists discover ancient cave paintings that tell of god-like beings who came down among the primitive humans.

But, the paintings don't tell the whole story, for the aliens are far more human than even they suspect!

Were an Alien Father and Neanderthal Mother the Parents of the First Cro-Magnon?

This tale, written by Doug Moench, illustrated by Alex Nino was likely a "pilot" for an ongoing series, but, due to Jack Kirby's return to Marvel with his similarly-themed Eternals, this ended up being merely an all-but-forgotten one-shot!

Here's a short feature listing both the books produced by Von Däniken and various related books movies and TV shows up to time of publication in 1975!

In Two Weeks:
The other (besides Jack Kirby's Eternals) comic series based on all this mishigas!
(Next Wednesday is April Fools Day)

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Easter Reading Room LIFE OF CHRIST: EASTER STORY "Resurrection"

2026-03-24T07:00:00.001-04:00

Under this Scott McDaniel cover...

...is one of the most unusual tales Marvel Comics ever told!

(And that's saying a lot!)

Written by Louise Simonson, pencilled by Mary Wilshire and Colleen Doran, and inked by Bill Anderson, this 1993 one-shot, co-published by Thomas Nelson Publishers is a companion volume to The Christmas Story by the same creative team, published earlier that year.

Easter Story tells the tale from Christ's entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to this final chapter, though we're running only the section taking place on Easter itself here.

If you'd like to buy a copy of the HTF comic, you can find it HERE.

Interestingly, Marvel.wika.com postulates Christmas Story and Easter Story link Jesus Christ into the Marvel Comics Universe!

Monday Mecha Madness GRAPHIC STORY MAGAZINE "Adam Link's Vengeance" Part One: the Rebirth of Adam Link

2026-03-23T07:00:00.160-04:00

Last Time...

...we presented background information on sci-fi's first robot with his own ongoing series!

...and now, we re-present this graphic tale about him, unseen since since 1971.

This was the chapter break during the story's initial publication in Fantasy Illustrated #1 (1963), so we'll pause here until next Monday.

(The tale's original readers had to wait three months to see the conclusion!)

This is from the complete story reprint in Bill Spicer's Graphic Story Magazine #13 (1971).

Publisher/editor Spicer scripted this adaptation of Otto "Eando" Binder's novella, which was illustrated by long time pulp and comic illustrator D Bruce Berry, best known to most current fans for initially-working as Mike Royer's associate inking Jack Kirby's art during the King's 1970s DC period, eventually taking over entirely when Royer's commitments on other projects forced him to give up working on Kirby's material for a while.
There's a fascinating article about Berry at The Comic Journal HERE!

Easter Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Hickory and Dickory Help the Easter Bunny"

2026-03-22T07:00:00.002-04:00

Though the rodent duo in this tale are named after the classic nursery rhyme "Hickory, Dickory, Dock"...

...the nursery rhyme featured only a single, anonymous, mouse...and there's no one named "Dock" in this story, either!

Walt (Pogo) Kelly scripted and illustrated this story from Dell's Four Color Comics #220: Easter with Mother Goose (1949), which was the mouse duo's second (and last) appearance!
The first was several months earlier, in Dell's Four Color Comics #201: Christmas with Mother Goose (1948), where they assisted (as you might have guessed) Santa Claus!
You'll see that one this Christmas...

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Space Hero Saturdays MYSTERY IN SPACE "Gremlins"

2026-03-21T07:00:00.096-04:00

The Cover is a...Tad...Misleading...

...about who the actual Space Hero is in this story from DC's Mystery in Space #113 (1980)!

Editor/writer Len Wein got the very busy Joe Kubert to contribute both the cover and the three-page story to the struggling 1980 revival of the sci-fi anthology Mystery in Space, which had been cancelled in 1966!
(Kubert did all the covers from the first new issue, #111, to #115.
The final two covers were by Jim Starlin and Dave Cockrum.)
But the main reason I'm running this piece is the superb coloring by the late Tatjana Wood, the first comic book colorist to receive national attention when she passed!
Her mastery of the pre-computer 64-color palette is beautifully-shown here both "inside the lines", where everything is clearly-separated within the panels, to her use of negative (white) space to emphasize Kubert's weightless humans and gremlins!

Friday Holiday/Fairy Tale Fun EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Mother Hubbard's Cupboard"

2026-03-20T07:00:00.005-04:00

Walt (Pogo) Kelly loved to incoporate well-known characters...

...(in this case, from a classic nursery rhyme) into his seasonal holiday stories!

This fun, never-reprinted featurette, written and illustrated by Kelly, appeared in Dell's Four Color Comics: Easter With Mother Goose #220 (1949).

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