FESS PARKER: DANIEL BOONE "Murderer's Cave"

Yes, the cover title actually was Fess Parker: Daniel Boone...

...because, by the time this TV show debuted in 1964, there had been several other comic book series about the legendary frontiersman and the comic's publishers wanted readers to know this comic was based on the TV series starring the guy who previously-played Davy Crockett!

As this never-reprinted tale from Gold Key's Fess Parker: Daniel Boone #2 (1965) demonstrates, racism was a part of the fabric of America from the very beginning!

Admittedly, the authorities are British, since the story takes place before the American Revolution, but even our Declaration of Independence calls Native Americans “the merciless Indian savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.”
So it's not surprising the judges take the word of disreputable, uneducated White settlers instead of the sworn testimony of an Oxford University graduate who was half-Cherokee/half-British!
It's rumored that this story, written and illustrated by Fred Fredricks, was based on an unused TV series plot.
It certainly reads as more sophisticated than the usual comic based on a movie or TV show.
Note: writer-artist Fredricks had produced all the stories in issues 1 and 2 (including this one).
Issue #3 had one story by him...which was partially-redrawn, and then he was gone from the series which ran another twelve issues.

Coincidence?

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Do You Know About LOBO...the FIRST Black Character to Star in His Own Mainstream Comic?

In 1966, the year The Black Panther debuted in Marvel's Fantastic Four #52...

...Dell Comics went them one better, introducing the first Black hero to get his own comic!

Other Black characters had their own series (one one-shot features) in anthology titles, but Lobo was the first to have his name AS the comic's title!

Lobo combined a couple of popular plot concepts...

Man on the Run for a Crime He Did NOT Commit

Exemplified by then-hit tv series The Fugitive, Lobo was framed, but couldn't prove his innocence.

Lone Western Hero

A loner wandering the Old West, righting wrongs was an especially popular genre in tv Westerns.

Variations on the theme included gamblers (Maverick) and martial-arts experts (Kung Fu)

Note: the tv series Branded also combined both the Loner and Man Framed themes!

...as well as a new concept:

Prominent Black character

Black characters (except for sterotypes like Amos 'n Andy) were few and far between on tv until the mid-1960s, and even then only as supporting characters (usually servants).

1960s urban dramas like Naked City and East Side, West Side, which dealt with current social themes had Black guest stars including James Earl Jones and Diana Sands, but no Black regulars.

Star Trek (1966) had both a Black regular (Lt. Nyota Uhura) and Black actors in prominent roles as scientists and high-placed officers/officials (admirals, etc,).

But, at that point, there were no tv series with a Black lead or Black title character!

(Diahann Carroll's groundbreaking series Julia didn't debut until 1968, two years later!)

So, Lobo was, to say the least, a daring experiment, albeit one with as many popular themes as possible to maximize sales potential!

Dell writer/editor Don (DJ) Arneson and artist Tony Tallarico felt the time was right, and managed to convince their publisher to take a chance.

You can read Arneson's tale of Lobo's creation HERE.

Unfortunately, it didn't work.

Many vendors refused to put a comic with a Black hero on their racks, and the book had an almost 90% return rate.

Lobo the comic ran only two issues.

It's rumored that a script and unfinished art exist for a third issue, but that's never been confirmed.

You can read both issues of Lobo 

#1

and 

#2

CoronaVirus Cowboy Comics TOMAHAWK "Village of Death!"

Lethal epidemics are not a new phenomenon!

 In fact, they used to be fairly common until the mid-20th Century!

Westerns featured a number of pandemic/epidemic tales involving both Indians and settlers, but rarely one detailing whites deliberately exposing Native Americans to things like smallpox which occurred in real life!

This never-reprinted tale from DC's Tomahawk #125 (1969) is technically not a Western!

His series was set in the period during and after the American Revolution but before the Louisiana Purchase, so Americans had no access to land west of the Mississippi.

However, it featured Indians and, what is now the MidWest was the wild frontier at that point, so series like this and ones involving real-live personalities like Davy Crocket, Daniel Boone, et al, are at least related to Westerns, if not exactly being Westerns!

(For the last year of its' existence, the book changed to Son of Tomahawk and detailed the adult adventures of his offspring in the early Old West!)

Artist Frank (Red Sonja) Thorne is known to most comics aficionados, but writer Howard Liss is another matter entirely.

During his too-brief 1966-1970 sojurn into comics, Howard worked almost-exclusively on DC's military and Western comics!

Outside of comics, he'd written several dozen books about athletics with the best-known and best-selling being Giant Book of Strange but True Sports Stories.

(Oddly, he never worked on any of the sports one-shots like Strange Sports Stories that DC did from time to time in the Silver Age!)

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Tomahawk

Cowboys + Dinosaurs = CHRISTMAS FUN!

Art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito

They just don't make comics like this anymore!

Masked cowboy hero vs gunslinger riding a pterodactyl...and a bright magenta pterodactyl at that!
It's the sort of concept a nine-year old would come up with while playing with his (or her) newly-unwrapped action figures under the Christmas tree, mixing the dinosaurs with superheroes and cowboys!

Why not?
That's what makes it so KOOL!
It's so darn silly, yet fun, you just have to look at it and think "what the--?"

That's exactly the sense of wonder we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ still feel!
We want to live in a world where anything can, and does, happen!
In pop culture, we call this sort of tale "cross-genre", where a story draws elements from disparate categories of fiction.

(BTW, you can read the tale behind the cover HERE!)

Sometimes there's a certain logic to it.
One of my favorite books involves fiction's greatest detective dealing with the first alien invasion!
Since he lived in London at the time the invasion took place, it seems only (dare I say it) elementary, that Sherlock Holmes would witness and analyze the Martian invasion of 1898!
That's the basis of the superb pastiche, Sherlock Holmes' War of the Worlds by Manly Wade Wellman & Wade Wellman!
That novel, to me, defines KOOL!
(The fact the story also includes another of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic characters; Professor Challenger from The Lost World and other sci-fi novels, is a cross-genre bonus!)
Track down a copy.
If you're a Holmes, Challenger, and/or War of the Worlds fan (I'm a fan of all three), it's well worth the effort!

Sometimes there's no real logic to it except--"why not?"
That's the category where something like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians goes!
And that's where the cover shown above goes.
This particular design was so cross-genre we put it in two wildly-different sections--Dinosaurs!, and Masked Western Heroes, because, hey, it fits both categories, so--"why not?"

Keep the Sense of Wonder alive!
Give a Christmas gift that keeps inspiring the imaginations of both the young and the young-at-heart!

50 Years Ago: LOBO, the FIRST Black Character to Star in His Own Comic!

In 1966, the year the Black Panther debuted in Marvel's Fantastic Four...

...Dell Comics went them one better, introducing the first Black hero to get his own comic!

Other Black characters had their own series in anthology titles, but Lobo was the first to have his name AS the comic's title!Lobo combined a couple of popular plot concepts...
Man on the Run for a Crime He Did NOT Commit
Exemplified by then-hit tv series The Fugitive, Lobo was framed, but couldn't prove his innocence.
Lone Western Hero
A loner wandering the Old West, righting wrongs was an especially popular genre in tv Westerns.
Variations on the theme included gamblers (Maverick) and martial-arts experts (Kung Fu)
Note: the tv series Branded also combined both the Loner and Man Framed themes!
...as well as a new concept:
Prominent Black character
Black characters (except for sterotypes like Amos 'n Andy) were few and far between on tv until the mid-1960s, and even then only as supporting characters (usually servants).
1960s urban dramas like Naked City and East Side, West Side, which dealt with current social themes had Black guest stars including James Earl Jones and Diana Sands, but no Black regulars.
Star Trek (1966) had both a Black regular character (Lt. Nyota Uhura) and Black actors in prominent roles as scientists and high-placed officers (admirals, etc,).
But, at that point, there were no tv series with a Black lead or Black title character!
(Diahann Carroll's groundbreaking series Julia didn't debut until 1968, two years later!)
So, Lobo was, to say the least, a daring experiment, albeit one with as many popular themes as possible to maximize sales potential!
Dell writer/editor Don (DJ) Arneson and artist Tony Tallarico felt the time was right, and managed to convince their publisher to take a chance.
You can read Arneson's tale of Lobo's creation HERE.
Unfortunately, it didn't work.
Many vendors refused to put a comic with a Black hero on their racks, and the book had an almost 90% return rate.
Lobo the comic only ran two issues.
It's rumored that a script and unfinished art exist for a third issue, but that's never been confirmed.
You can read both issues of Lobo HERE and HERE.

ALERT: VALLEY OF GWANGI, LETTERBOX, UNCUT, AND COMMERCIAL-FREE !!!

We interrupt this blog to alert you!!!

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) on Saturday Morning!
November 9th, 6:45 AM (Eastern)

NOT AVAILABLE ON DVD!

Heat up the DVRs or DVD recorders!

PLUS, you can read the comic book adaptation of the movie HERE!

THE LONE RANGER Comic Cover Art

One of the rarest Lone Ranger comics wasn't sold on newstands...

Art by Murphy Anderson

...but in connection with the reissue of the 1960s model kits seen above!

Thse kits originally came out at the time of the first Lone Ranger cartoon series, which is why "Taka the Eagle", (who only appeared in the cartoon series) is shown with Tonto!

In the mid-1970s, Aurora re-released many of their comic-themed kits with new cover art plus newly-created comic book inserts under the name Comic Scenes.
Besides the Ranger and Tonto (both of whom featured art by Gil Kane), all the exisiting DC and Marvel kits were re-released with new art by stalwarts like John Romita Sr, Dick Giordano, and Herb Trimpe.
The cover to the Lone Ranger comic is below...

And here's the original art for this kool Gil Kane cover...

"Calculating Killer"

Here's a short tale that redefines "armed and dangerous"...

...originally presented in Dell's Wagon Train #5 (1960), but not using any of the characters from the tv series!

Illustrator Alex Toth did a number of these 4-page "fillers" for Dell's Western comics, which were used whenever the page count for a book came up short.

You can see other examples HERE and HERE.

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