Weird Science-Fantasy #1: "Fish Story"

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Back in the old days, before the comics industry felt the need to censor its own product, EC Comics produced some of the finest science fiction comics ever published. One of the reasons why Weird Science, Weird Fantasy (and later, Weird Science-Fantasy) were so good was the work of a lanky young man named Al Williamson. At 21, Williamson was the youngest of the EC family, but everyone was in awe of his draftsmanship. Williamson could draw bravura science fiction adventure like no one else, though it didn't hurt that he had the likes of Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel, and Angelo Torres assisting him with backgrounds and inking.

After the collapse of the EC line of comics. Williamson worked for such companies as ACG, Atlas, and Harvey, to name just a few, bringing to the stories what he did for their SF and mystery titles the same superb rendering and palpable sense of atmosphere that made his EC work so memorable. In addition to the comic books he did, Williamson also made significant contributions to the art of the comic strip, ghosting several weeks of Flash Gordon for Dan Barry, and assisting John Prentice on Rip Kirby. These last two assignments are particularly ironic when you consider that it was Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon that inspired Williamson to become a comics artist in the first place. Indeed, Williamson had been the primary proponent of heroic realism in comics, and is the rightful heir to the Flash Gordon mantle of Alex Raymond, something Williamson proved with his superb work on the King Flash Gordon title of the mid '60s, and on the Flash Gordon movie album adapted from the (otherwise wretched) DeLaurentiiss film.


"Fish Story" is reprinted from Weird Science-Fantasy (EC, 1954 series) #23 (Spring 1954), which is courtesy of Russ Cochran.



Credits

Cover: Wally Wood
Script: Albert B. Feldstein
Pencils: Al Williamson
Inks: Al Williamson

Reprinted:

• From Weird Science-Fantasy (EC, 1954 series) #23 (Spring 1954)
  

Mad #11: "Flesh Garden!"

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In the company of Dale Arden, Flash Gordon embarked for the planet Mongo in 1934. That was in the Sunday funnies in a page drawn by Alex Raymond and written anonymously by former pulp-fiction editor Don Moore. This space opera became one of King Features Syndicate's most popular features, and Raymond's illustrative art was to have a strong influence on many of the young artists who began drawing for comic books in the late 1930s and the early 1940s—Tom Hickey, Sheldon Moldoff, Jack Lehti, George Papp, Mac Raboy, Dan Barry, etc.

Flash Gordon entered comic books early in 1936 by way of reprints in King Comics. His battles with the merciless Ming, a sort of galactic Fu Manchu, unfolded in the magazine from the first issue.

In the early 1940s Dell began issuing now and then Flash Gordon reprint titles. Later in the decade came an occasional comic-book offering Flash adventures "especially written and drawn for this magazine." The artist was Paul Norris, who also began drawing the Jungle Jim newspaper page in 1948.

Harvey Publications tried reprinting the Raymond material in 1950 and 1951, giving up after a few issues. King Features experimented with publishing comic books in the late 1960s. These used original material, and the Flash Gordon book made use of such artists as Al Williamson, a devoted Raymond disciple, Gil Kane, and Reed Crandall. When King quit, Charlton took over and finally Gold Key. The final Flash Gordon comic book was printed in 1982. He reappeared briefly in 1987 as part of a team that included Mandrake and the Phantom in the TV-inspired Defenders of the Earth.

Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood spoof Flash Gordon below.


Credits

Cover art: Basil Wolverton
Script: Harvey Kurtzman
Pencils: Wally Wood
Inks: Wally Wood
Colors: Marie Severin

Reprinted:

• in Mad Reader, The (Ballantine Books, 1954 series) #93
• in Mad About the Fifties (Little, Brown & Co., 1997 series) #[nn]
• Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad (EC, 1997 series) #4
  

Below is Frank Brunner's curious spoof from Unknown World of Science Fiction #1:

Mad #12: "Starchie"

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After so many heavy stories featuring the horror and sword-and-sorcery genre, I thought some humor in a jugular vein was in order. After all, this blog's name used to be "Tales of Swords and Veeblefetzers." Now, I wasn't even alive when this hilarious parody of Archie Comics was first published, but sometime in the early 1970s, Mad Magazine began to publish reprint comics of their classics and included them stapled inside their main publications. I snapped these up left and right as I thought vintage Mad were the funniest things ever, but don't take my word for it and I challenge everyone over 40 to not laugh at this one. You have been so challenged!

Now in his second century as a teenager, Archie first appeared in publisher MLJ's Pep Comics #22 (May 1941). The magazine was then an enclave of serious-minded heroes such as the Shield and the Hangman, but the intrusive freckled, redheaded Archie would eventually change all that. He was created, with some input from others, by cartoonist Bob Montana. Archie, along with Jughead, Betty, Veronica, and Reggie, has been attending Riverdale High for close to seventy years.

Teenagers were coming into their own in the early 1940s, both as a target for manufacturers and a source of inspiration for entertainment. Henry Aldrich, the well-meaning but bumbling teen who was the prime inspiration for Archie, had first appeared in 1938 in Clifford Goodrich's Broadway play, What a Life. Henry had jumped to radio and then into movies. MLJ decided that a comic-book version of Henry Aldrich and the various other wacky teens who were proliferating in the media would appeal not only to teenage readers but to kids who were eager but had yet to reach their teens. Archie Andrews led the same sort of problem-ridden life as Henry Aldrich, Andy Hardy, and the rest and got entangled with the same sort of pretty girls.

Characters: Starchie Standrews, Bottleneck, Mr. Weathernot, Little Orphan Melvin (cameo), Cookie Bumstead (cameo), Salonica, Biddy, Wedgie Van Smelt, Mr. Standrews, Mrs. Standrews, Dick Tracy (cameo).

Synopsis: Bottleneck frames Starchie so that Starchie goes to prison and Bottleneck can take over the girls and rackets at the high school.


Credits

Script: Harvey Kurtzman
Pencils and inks: Will Elder

Reprinted:

• in Mad Reader, The (Ballantine Books, 1954 series) #93.
• in Mad About the Fifties (Little, Brown & Co., 1997 series) #[nn].
• in MAD Special [MAD Super Special] (EC, 1970 series) #18.
• in Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad (EC, 1997 series) #4.
  

Mad #15: "Gasoline Valley!"

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Inside many a serious illustrator there is a zany satirist waiting to break out. Will Elder was one such. After inking straight adventure stuff with penciler John Severin for Prize Comics Western and then various EC titles, he broke loose when his old high school buddy Harvey Kurtzman started Mad in 1952. "I was always a cut up," he once explained, "and I felt if I could expose this zaniness, this bottled up zaniness in me, I would really burst forth... Mad gave me a tremendous amount of license."

When Kurtzman and Mad parted company in the middle 1950s, Elder left, too. He worked with Kurtzman on his next three unsuccessful magazine—Trump, Humbug, and Help. In 1962 the two of them cooked up Little Annie Fanny for Playboy. Elder stuck with that project for well over a score of years.

Credits

Script: Harvey Kurtzman

Pencils: Will Elder

Inks: Will Elder

Colors: Marie Severin

Reprinted:

• in Mad Reader, The (Ballantine Books, 1954 series) #93.