The Boy Who Ate Stress For Breakfast

Anti-War Pulp Art

It took me a few seconds to catch on that the uppermost layer of the archaeological site of ancient Earth battlefields being studied by the lizard scientists was radioactive slag.

Witchy Woman

Fate #26 (February 1973).

Graduation Present of DEATH!

Vince Colletta, the "Go-To Guy" when you had a printing deadline in the comics biz, did some pencils of his own once upon a time. The line art for this story in My Own Romance #39 (August 1954) isn't bad and is a little more representative of what the man could do as an artist when not applying his economical touch to the pencils of other artists.

But a few of the images are a little confusing and reveal some of the issues many fans have when the subject of Colletta is brought up. I know some people that are still fuming about his inks over Kirby's Tales of Asgard work.

The odd perspective of the splash page has me thinking this love story would end up as a murder mystery. The graduate student in the panel below could just as well have been getting strangled as preparing for a kiss. This could be forgiven once you consider how scripts were done in the old days. A creator sometimes never knew what magazine the story would ultimately be published in and could draw it in such a way as to have multiple endings. There were more than a few romance stories of the era that began as a typical love tale that took an unexpected and sudden turn into the fantastic or mysterious.


Then there is this panel from the exciting conclusion.

Amy looks thrilled, doesn't she? Again, reading the entire story leads me to believe the original script or idea Colletta worked from diverged from the end result by the time the art was completed. But it was just as likely that Coletta was contacted Tuesday night and asked if he could come up with something by Friday morning and worked from the barest outline.

"Vinnie? It's Stan. I need eight pages from you. I don't know...There's a girl, see? She's leaving school and she meets a guy, he might be a bimbo. The girl doesn't know if she should give up her telephone switchboard job for marriage. I'll figure that out later."

"Yeah. I'll have it to you by Thursday."

A lot of people have very little respect for the output of Vince Colletta. But one fact that needs to be taken into consideration in any critque of his work is that without him many of the classic books (and not so classic titles produced mainly to saturate the news stand with their brand) that helped create the modern comic book industry would never have made it to the printers on time or at all.

Cop for Sale: Cheap!

The Family Circle Magazine (July 1938).

Touched by an angel

Amazing Stories (November 1952).

Redhead vs Redhead

Crown Comics #4 (Winter 1945).

Drama Teen

Teen #33 (October 1954).

ROM, Wraith-Slayer

Why don't you just hang out a sign?

Has anyone apologized for the 70s yet?

The National Police Gazette (May 1977).

January 20th: The New Independence Day

My method saves you a dollar

From various 1950s comic books.

The Human Powerhouse

Nice Steve Ditko panel of "The Human Powerhouse" defeating a horde of Lovecraftian aliens bent on infecting the planet Earth.

Printed on heavy stock, this panel makes a sweet bookmark.

Strange Suspense #48 (July 1960).

Gripping Drama

TV Teens #5 (Oct-Nov 1954).

Kang-Fu Grip

Marvel Super Heroes - Secret Wars coloring book (1984).

Petticoat Gamblers

National Police Gazette (April 1970).

Spirographs are scary

I don't think the creators of the Spirograph would ever have thought that the designs rendered by a children's toy could ad a touch of menace to the macabre, take the level of psychosis up another notch for the disturbing or convey the odd, alien and unfathomable to science fiction.

A 12-Course Meal Would Probably Kill You

Advertisement placed in the premiere issue of Life Magazine (November 1936).

Click the picture to make it as big as that spot on your lungs the Doctor found on the X-Ray.

I'd be surprised if anyone attending that meal made it to the New Year. Lying, lying, lying Government-enabled Corporate monsters. If only they would have gone the way of the housing market.

Cleaver. Cleaver. Chop. Chop.

Twisted Nerve (1968).

You may recall the tune from the Kill Bill films.

Better than Jodi

A Rankin-Bassinized Hayley Mills as The Little Mermaid.

Self-Diagnostic complete

Jerk-circuits working at optimal efficiencies.

Rom #27 (February 1982).

From the Award-Winning OGN

Copies of The Hayley Mills Story Official Movie Comic Book adaptation are available in the Hayley Mills Celebratory Complex Giftorium!

You know your life is empty without a copy of your own, what are you waiting for?

Eternally adorable

Jerk-Circuits

Robo Force (1985).

Take a girl like you

Agent of C.U.T.E.

Happy New Year, Miss Bliss

Sigh.