The Boy Who Saved The World by Alex Toth (1952)

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Fantastic Worlds #6 , November, 1952, Literary Enterprises, Inc.
Art by Alex Toth


... Toth couldn't help but design cool characters...!

... plus,
fun sun science facts from the same issue:

Al Williamson Art Show & Tribute: Scranton, PA, Oct. 8-11, 2010

Al Williamson Postcard Sample 1 of 5. Available For Free at the Exhibit. © 2010 Al Williamson Estate. They will be given away free to all those who attend.

Celebrate the art and career of Al Williamson at a special exhibit at Marywood University’s Mahady Gallery in Scranton, Pennsylvania from October 8-11, 2010. “Al Williamson: A Tribute” will showcase over 60 original works spanning five decades. More than ten pieces will represent each decade from 1950 to 2000.

The event also doubles as a memorial service of sorts. Al would not have liked a day of maudlin sentiment, but would have approved of his friends getting together to look at great art, although I'm sure he'd have rather that folks were looking at a wall of Krenkel's or Foster's!

Featured will be original art done for comics, posters, trading cards, preliminary sketches, family birthday and Christmas cards, as well as drawings he did for his own pleasure. Comic pieces include finished pages for Flash Gordon, Star Wars pages and covers, Secret Agent Corrigan strips, and comic pages for Eerie magazine (“The Jungle”). Examples of Al’s pages from Weird Science (“Captivity”), Classics Illustrated (The World Around Us: Prehistoric Animals), Blade Runner, Dark Horse Presents (“One Last Job”), his Sub-Mariner story, as well as inked pages completed for Marvel Comics, and more, will be on display.

The exhibit reception will be held on Friday, October 8 from 6-9 PM. The Mahady Gallery is located on the Marywood Universtiy campus in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Gallery hours and directions. More details are available here.

Flesk Publications has donated copies of Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic and Al Williamson Archives, Vol. 1 for the reception. All proceeds from the sales of these titles will go towards the Al Williamson Scholarship Fund at the The Joe Kubert School. Those unable to make the show and would like to make a donation can send a check to:

The Joe Kubert School
37 Myrtle Avenue
Dover, NJ 07801
Attn: Al Williamson Scholarship Fund

Link from Flesk Publications

The Dinosaur in Times Square (1961) By Mort Meskin

Cover pencils: Dick Dillin; inks: Sheldon Moldoff


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House of Secrets #41 (Feb. 1961) © DC Comics
Pencils by Mort Meskin; inks by George Roussos

The Moon Monster by Bernard Baily (1960)

A nice story by Bernard Baily, co-creator and long time artist on The Spectre & Hourman.

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House of Mystery #97, April 1960 © DC Comics
Art by Bernard Baily

Abstract: By using high-resolution altimetric measurements of the Moon, we produced a catalog of all impact craters 20 kilometers in diameter on the lunar surface and analyzed their distribution and population characteristics. The most-densely cratered portion of the highlands reached a state of saturation equilibrium.

Large impact events, such as Orientale Basin, locally modified the prebasin crater population to ~2 basin radii from the basin center. Basins such as Imbrium, Orientale, and Nectaris, which are important stratigraphic markers in lunar history, are temporally distinguishable on the basis of crater statistics.

The characteristics of pre- and postmare crater populations support the hypothesis that there were two populations of impactors in early solar system history and that the transition occurred near the time of the Orientale Basin event.

Ref.: Global Distribution of Large Lunar Craters: Implications for Resurfacing and Impactor Populations. 2010. James W. Head, III, et al. Science 329: 1504-1507.

The Lost Kingdom of Athala by Wally Wood (1951)

From 1951, The Atomic Surgeons have polished up this great Wally Wood tale for your edification. Say, as a minor, did Tommy sign a waiver form for this trip? No? Why, what could possibly go wrong?

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Strange Worlds #4 (Sept., 1951) © Avon
Art by Wally Wood

Too bad about Tommy, but the Time Machine would have been a bit crowded on the way back!

Marvel's First Mutant (Nov. 1959)

Pencils: Jack Kirby; Inks: George Klein

Behind this typical-for-era Jack Kirby monster cover hides a story that introduces the concept of mutants with special powers that must remain hidden from a suspicious humanity - 3 years before Lee & Kirby debuted the same concept in X-Men #1 in Sept. 1963!

The Atomic Surgeons aren't up of the X-Men universe, but surely some scribe has retroed this story into continuity?

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Tales of Suspense #6 (Nov. 1959) © Marvel Comics.
Art by Joe Sinnott; unknown scripter.

Steve Ditko's First Changing Man (1960)

Steve Ditko’s Shade: The Changing Man debuted in 1977 from DC Comics, with story and art by Ditko, and dialogue by Michael Fleisher. Many creators have recycled old ideas more than once, and we can’t help but wonder if Ditko recalled this old story he did for Marvel when he came up with the initial concept for Shade.

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Tales of Suspense #8 (March 1960), © Marvel Comics
Art by Steve Ditko

Presented below is a mash-up of what a Changing Man book might have looked like if it came out from DC during the early 60’s.

Shade: The Changing Man © DC Comics

…And once again, The Atomic Surgeons step back into the Time Bubble…