Showing posts with label Atlas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Atlas. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Halloween Horrors AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES "Ghost Story"

Here's a never-reprinted 1950s comic book tale...

... that's both about law enforcement and justice from beyond the grave!
You may note the Joe Maneely-illustrated cover doesn't really match the Bill Everett-rendered tale from Atlas' Amazing Detective Cases #13 (1952)
There are several possible reasons for that.
1) the cover and interior art were done at two different points in time, sometimes months apart!
2) The cover artist didn't have copies of the interior pages as visual reference, only plot descriptions from the editor!
3) the cover was done before the interior art as a "springboard" and the actual writer/artist(s) made changes when they were creating the story!
All three of these reasons could (and did) apply to Atlas Comics' books if the story's artist didn't do the cover...as was the case most of the time!
From issues 1 to 10, Amazing Detective Cases was a "true crime" pulp magazine, then a comic, telling tales of (allegedly) real criminals!
From 11 to the final issue, 14, it became a horror comic, ending in 1952.
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Monday, December 20, 2021

It's Christmas Crime! DYNAMIC COMICS "Manhunters: Frozen Corpses for Christmas" & JUSTICE COMICS "Murder for Christmas"

Here's a true tale of cold-hearted killing at Christmastime...

...that was told twice in graphic form in tales only a year apart!
Both the writer and artist(s) for this never-reprinted tale from Superior's Dynamic Comics #21 (1947) are unknown to this day.
A year later, penciler Gene Colan and inker Sy Grudko retold the story in Atlas' Justice Comics #4 (1948)!
This wasn't exactly a "hot off the presses" story...even in the 1940s.
The murders had occurred in 1899!
Maclean's, the Time Magazine of Canada had run the story as the premiere entry of a new historical series about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (aka "Mounties") in 1930, renewing public interest in the murders!
Here's a LINK to that issue!
It's likely the editors and/or writers of both comics came across the story while researching potential plotlines for their true-crime comics!
Bonus: here's a LINK to a recent article with a lot more info that wasn't available to the writer of the 1930 story!

Friday, May 28, 2021

Justice for Asians ALL-TRUE CRIME "Tong War!"

Non "big-name" Asians and Asian-Americans (like Fu Manchu)...
....were rarely featured in crime comics, the way the Italian Mafia, Irish Westies, or other ethnically-based criminal groups were!
Writer Carl Wessler and artist Jack Keller played on numerous, already outdated, racist cliches about Chinese in America in this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' All-True Crime #51 (1952), including speech patterns, clothing, and methods, indicating that the Tong members shown were immigrants, not native-born Asian-Americans!
Unfortunately, all the Chinese shown are given the bright lemon-yellow skin coloring common in comics of the era to denote Asians.
(Note: The non-Tong Chinese are shown in contemporary American clothing and speak impeccable English.)
BTW, though this is listed as issue #51, this is the first issue of this title.
Before this, the book was titled All-True Crime Cases Comics.
Shortening the title didn't help.
The book's run ended with the next issue!
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Monday, December 21, 2020

It's Christmas Crime! JOURNEY INTO UNKNOWN WORLDS "Lady Who Believed"

Here's a Yuletide tale with a slightly-different take on Kris Kringle...

....as a Christmas crime-fighter and defender of the innocent!
This never-reprinted tale is from Atlas' Journey into Unknown Worlds #34 (1955), the first issue published under the restrictive auspices of the Comics Code Authority.
I wonder if it was originally-meant to be as gruesome as EC's legendary "...and All Through the House..."?
We'll never know the answer...but we will return in 2021 with more proof that...
Crime Does NOT Pay!
Merry Christmas
and a
Happy New Year!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

POLICE BADGE #479 "Rookie Cop"

After the whole Seduction of the Innocent mishigas in the early-1950s...
...comics went out of their way to "clean up" their image with series like this one from Atlas Comics, the predecessor to Marvel Comics.
Though the concept for Police Badge #479 could've been great, showing the possessors of the badge through history, the single issue of the title concentrated on the current cop wearing the tin, Jim Hudson.
(It's mentioned that his father was also a cop who died of a heart attack while on the job, but not that badge #479 was his, so they could've shown more of his father as, perhaps, the partner of the previous possessor of #479 or somesuch.)
At any rate, Hudson is an idealized image of a police officer and the stories, though well-told, lacked humanity, serving more as moralistic points than plotlines.
The art by Don Heck for this lead story from Police Badge #479 #5 (1955) is clean and dynamic, but the script by an unknown writer is only so-so.
Compare it with the tale we presented last week, from the same period of the 1950s, and you'll see the difference.