Introducing Captain Atom!

1960








That's one of the neatest origin stories in all of comics. And yes the outfit was blue in that first tale. Steve Ditko and Joe Gill were at the top of their games when they created this iconic Atom-Age hero in Space Adventures #33 from 1960.

1965
The story was reprinted later in Strange Suspense Stories #75 which after three issues of Captain Atom reprints became Cap's own magazine in the 1960's.

1978
It was reprinted by Charlton again in the late 1970's in a revived run of Space Adventures.

2004
Prototype Cover
DC Comics reprinted the story in its first Action Hero Archives some years ago in this decade.



Above are a some reprints of the classic cover image.


This story would take at least six months and as many issues of a full comic to tell today and it would still lack the power of this Charlton gem.


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The Avengers 1952!

This is entirely too cool. I might be late discovering this, but I find it more fun than a bag of cats!

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Getting Wired!

Dick Ayers & John Severin
Mike Zeck & Bob McLeod
These two covers, especially the Howling Commandos cover, really make much out of the barbed wire mesh that frames the images so to speak. It's an interesting way to compose an image and I'm surprised I haven't come across it more often.

I've been noticing that the Fury comics from this era really had some curious and inventive cover designs by Dick Ayers and John Severin. I wish I'd bought more of them.

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Everything You Want To Know About Adolf!

I've never heard or read of this magazine before. The web location where I stumbled across this cover image had this to say about the magazine:

"Photo News Features Hitler #1 is the full title. 1974. The RAREST Marvel magazine publisher![sic] Cover to cover 76 pages of everything you ever wanted to know about Hitler with over 100 photos. Published by Stan Lee!!! This is the only cope[sic] I've ever seen! Your Marvel collection is not complete without this one."

Sheesh! Anyone have one?

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Not Quite The King's Cap!

Ron Garney
The poster above is by Ron Garney, and his mission seems to have been to take a classic Jack "King" Kirby cover image and "modernize" it. That's all I can think of.

Jack Kirby & Syd Shores
This cover image has been an iconic one for decades, used many times over as the gallery below demonstrates.





I'm not quite sure what Marvel is trying to accomplish with the new poster. Perhaps they think the classic Kirby image lacks some punch somehow. Seems like the original would work fine for a poster. One detail that struck me is that while the Cap figure is larger in the Garney version, the shield is the same size in both. Hmmm.

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A Savage Original!

This awesome cover by Big John Buscema, at the height of his powers, launched the brief Doc Savage run at Marvel. While Ross Andru was the artist on the interiors and Jim Steranko and later Gil Kane would do the subsequent covers in the series, this debut portrait of the Man of Bronze in action has the typical raw energy so natural to a Buscema image of this period.


Here's the original artwork to this wonderful cover. If anything, Buscema's graceful hand is even more in evidence on this black and white version.

But one detail on this original did jump out at me.


I'm not aware of any Kull cover that Buscema did during this time. The debut Kull the Conqueror cover was done by Marie Severin (over another Ross Andru interior no less). Perhaps Big John did a rejected Kull cover for that book. If so, I'd love to see it, if in fact it exists.


The artwork was repurposed a few years later when the debut two-parter was reprinted in the "Giant-Size" version of the comic. Doc has been altered here to resemble the model being used in the black and white magazine at the time.

All in all a very successful bit of labor for Big John Buscema, and Mighty Marvel.

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Most Spectacular Comic Cover Ever!

Neal Adams
I'd likely consider this the most spectacular and wonderful comic book cover I've ever seen. It's a product of its time for sure. This Neal Adams masterwork graced one of DC's glorious 100-Page Spectaculars, Bronze Age treasure troves of Golden, Atomic, and Silver Aged goodness. Here's a link to a key with all the heroes identified.

Frank Harry
At the time of this cover, these kinds of poster shots were exceedingly rare. This cover itself hearkens back to this All-Star cover from the Golden Age. In the modern comics world, it takes thirty heroes to have brunch, so these assemblies are not that significant. But to see this many heroes on one cover was breathtaking at the time.

Dick Giordano
The cover art must've been lost or damaged, because when this comic book was reprinted in the 90's, Dick Giordano was contracted to "recreate" the image. I was going to point out some of the distinctions between the two versions but at this link there is a detailed comparison of the two covers and the minor differences.

I only own the reprint, and Giordano's cover is magnificent. But that original was something else when it hit the stands so many decades ago. That's a beacon to adventure if I ever saw it.

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