In the Shadow of the Atomic Age 6 6

[Harvey Dude]

I believe this was published in Nov 1950. Plastic Man 26

 

MH? Palo Alto?

 

Regardless, that's an excellent example of Jack Cole's more mature style.

 

Good eye. It is the Palo Alto copy. My goal is to try to obtain at least one of each pedigree book - pre 1960.

[adamstrange]

 

Fabulous! Does it have an interior story to match that cover!

[Scrooge]

 

I am torn. I still can't decide whom I prefer: Doris or the soldier's regular girl. Blame it on the great Quality artists to make this a tough choice! Should we set a poll?

 

Have no fear Silver that you are in company of people who relish these postings. Please we need more Romance

[esquirecomics]

Geez, the Defense Dept could not have been very happy with that series! Talk about putting military love in an unfavorable light when it comes to romance!

 

I would not be surprised if there are old 1950s Army records in the National Archives talking about how to counter the image put forth in this series.

[rjpb]

Silver - cool run you got there, the #37 is the keeper of the bunch, that's for sure. . I'll take the lazy route and repost a couple of romance books I already have scanned. I don't know where Adam finds the time to scan and post so many incredible books, but I'm glad he keeps them coming.

 

Teen-age Temptations #8 - classic Baker cover and a marijuana story - what more could you ask for.

 

[rjpb]

Keeping with Silver's military romance theme - Wartime Romance's #17 - with another nice Baker cover.

 

[adamstrange]

Enough of this romance stuff (although Baker = ), let's get in some blood-thirsty, hair-raising, two-fisted action courtesy Kinstler (cover) and Williamson/Frazetta (story).

 

Edited April 3, 2005 by adamstrange

[adamstrange]

A little Western Hero action with Johnny Thunder (Alex Toth cover and art).

 

Edited April 3, 2005 by adamstrange

[adamstrange]

Silver - cool run you got there, the #37 is the keeper of the bunch, that's for sure. . I'll take the lazy route and repost a couple of romance books I already have scanned. I don't know where Adam finds the time to scan and post so many incredible books, but I'm glad he keeps them coming.

 

Teen-age Temptations #8 - classic Baker cover and a marijuana story - what more could you ask for.

 

That's a great book all-around.

 

As for Adam, he works his fingers to the bone for you.

 

Actually, I don't think I scanned too many comics this weekend as I started the thread with books from other postings. I've spent more time reading posts and enjoying everyone's books (there's been a lot of fresh books -- at least to me) than I have scanning. In looking at my folder I've scanned 9 books, 2 pre-production items, and 2 ads. Okay, maybe I have been busy. Time for a nap.

Edited April 3, 2005 by adamstrange

[Forbush-Man]

Enough of this romance stuff

 

"the thrill is gone,....it's gone away!"

 

B.B. King I do believe!

 

Adam, you have no romance in your life!

 

[adamstrange]

Enough of this romance stuff

 

"the thrill is gone,....it's gone away!"

 

B.B. King I do believe!

 

Adam, you have no romance in your life!

 

 

But I have bit of romance in my comic collection -- I just haven't posted it yet.

[adamstrange]

I love those covers, Joanna!

 

 

Thanks to another board member who alerted me to them, I saw that Metro has a few copies of that Detective, and purchased a 5.5 copy. I'll go broke if I stay around here much longer!

 

Keeping collectors broke and addicted, that's what we live for.

 

Tell Vinny and Steve to send me my commission.

[adamstrange]

I made contributions to that thread (and so should everyone else with the right books ) and I was thinking that this thread would primarily focous on 1950-1956 (pre-Showcase 4) books.

 

Man you be fast, Adam Strange!

 

But on a more historical note, do you consider 55-56 as including the Atom Age in the comic book realm? For me early - middish '55 hearkened the end of the Atom Age with the intorduction of the code.

 

As a comic collector I tend to hold the code as the end of the Atom Age. But I also confess this is a pre-code horror collector's view, since side-by-side covers of the pre-code and post-code titles (well, those titles that survived) showed major influences and much tamer covers and even titles than the pre-code did.

 

But you know what? As a horror movie poster collector from the 30's through the 50's I see an continuation of images that while being published as a movie poster, would not be published as a comic book.

 

It brings up a really interesting issue. Why would movie posters be allowed to show, for example, creppy Moile People carrying off classic Good Girl Art women in the post comic code 1956 Mole Poeple?

 

Man - the more I type the more intriguing this whole post-code thing becomes in light of a D. J. Skal socialological perspective.

 

Whatever! I hope both of our threads do well. And I hope these threads will enhance the late 40's/early 50's comic experience!

 

Regarding ages and this thread, I wrote "up to Showcase 4" because most collectors consider Showcase 4 the start of the Silver Age. So if you have a 1955 book that's post-code, the SAers won't want it their thread. This then was a home for the mis-fit comics.

 

I use the ages terms in conversations/posts, but I don't know that they are that important. You can cut and slice comic history in a number of different, useful ways. Since most comic collectors are super-hero centric, you had the ages originally defined only based on Superhero waves (GA,SA). Also, while I do think that SA started with Show4, it was very slow start. There were only a handful of SA books in in 1956, and not that many in 1957. At that same time, there were a lot of interesting titles during this time that get no press because they are post-code AND non-superhero and aren't pictured in Gerber. For comic collecting, the 50s is still the lost decade.

 

RE: Movie Posters. I think the reason they cracked down on the comics was that they were viewed as only read being read by kids and were displayed everywhere (drugstores, newstands) in large quantities. I don't think the B movie posters had quite the same reach, but I'd love to hear from you or others who more knowledgeable if I'm incorrect on this.

[Forbush-Man]

I made contributions to that thread (and so should everyone else with the right books ) and I was thinking that this thread would primarily focous on 1950-1956 (pre-Showcase 4) books.

 

Man you be fast, Adam Strange!

 

But on a more historical note, do you consider 55-56 as including the Atom Age in the comic book realm? For me early - middish '55 hearkened the end of the Atom Age with the intorduction of the code.

 

As a comic collector I tend to hold the code as the end of the Atom Age. But I also confess this is a pre-code horror collector's view, since side-by-side covers of the pre-code and post-code titles (well, those titles that survived) showed major influences and much tamer covers and even titles than the pre-code did.

 

But you know what? As a horror movie poster collector from the 30's through the 50's I see an continuation of images that while being published as a movie poster, would not be published as a comic book.

 

It brings up a really interesting issue. Why would movie posters be allowed to show, for example, creppy Moile People carrying off classic Good Girl Art women in the post comic code 1956 Mole Poeple?

 

Man - the more I type the more intriguing this whole post-code thing becomes in light of a D. J. Skal socialological perspective.

 

Whatever! I hope both of our threads do well. And I hope these threads will enhance the late 40's/early 50's comic experience!

 

Regarding ages and this thread, I wrote "up to Showcase 4" because most collectors consider Showcase 4 the start of the Silver Age. So if you have a 1955 book that's post-code, the SAers won't want it their thread. This then was a home for the mis-fit comics.

 

I use the ages terms in conversations/posts, but I don't know that they are that important. You can cut and slice comic history in a number of different, useful ways. Since most comic collectors are super-hero centric, you had the ages originally defined only based on Superhero waves (GA,SA). Also, while I do think that SA started with Show4, it is was very slow start. There were only a handful of SA books in in 1956, and not that many in 1957. At that same time, there were a lot of interesting titles during this time that get no press because they are post-code AND non-superhero and aren't pictured in Gerber. For comic collecting, the 50s is still the lost decade.

 

RE: Movie Posters. I think the reason they cracked down on the comics was that they were viewed as only read being read by kids and were displayed everywhere (drugstores, newstands) in large quantities. I don't think the B movie posters had quite the same reach, but I'd love to hear from you or others who more knowledgeable if I'm incorrect on this.

 

American Pop Culture, in itself, is intriguing/addictive, to say the least. Just MHO.

[esquirecomics]

Regarding ages and this thread, I wrote "up to Showcase 4" because most collectors consider Showcase 4 the start of the Silver Age. So if you have a 1955 book that's post-code, the SAers won't want it their thread. This then was a home for the mis-fit comics.

 

I use the ages terms in conversations/posts, but I don't know that they are that important. You can cut and slice comic history in a number of different, useful ways. Since most comic collectors are super-hero centric, you had the ages originally defined only based on Superhero waves (GA,SA). Also, while I do think that SA started with Show4, it is was very slow start. There were only a handful of SA books in in 1956, and not that many in 1957. At that same time, there were a lot of interesting titles during this time that get no press because they are post-code AND non-superhero and aren't pictured in Gerber. For comic collecting, the 50s is still the lost decade.

 

This thread got me thinking about when exactly did even the term or designation "Atom Age" originate. So I started looking through my old OS editions.

 

From the 28th edition (1998):

 

"This period of comics has been suggested by Jon Berk, Matt Schiffman, Steve Sibra and others, and is introduced in this edition for the first time. The first atomic bomb was exploded in 1945, ushering in a new era. With World War II also ending in that year, 'atomic' theme comic books began to appear in 1946 and are today highly prized. Also after the war, the comics market shifted gears and began moving away from the superhero-themed anthologies to other genres. By 1948, crime, love, western, good-girl art, horror and teen-age comics began cramming the newsstands! With the addition of war, science fiction and comics based on popular television shows beginning in 1950, the consumer had more variety than ever from which to choose. Today, all of these books continue to have a strong demand. The few super-hero books still surviving as well as the Fox love, good-girl art, crime and horro books are the most popular, with strong sales last year. The hottest artists are L.B. Cole, Matt Baker, Steve Ditko, Simon & Kirby, Frazetta, Feldstein and Kamen, to name a few."

[Harvey Dude]

I posted this in the only graded thread but it fits nicely in this thread.

 

[Joanna]

Adam, I've posted the review of the first story in Wonder Woman #25 for your (and anyone else's) reading pleasure. There aren't a lot of panels in this one. I got more ambitious with later reviews.

 

-- Joanna

[jbcomicbox]

This thread got me thinking about when exactly did even the term or designation "Atom Age" originate. So I started looking through my old OS editions.

 

From the 28th edition (1998):

 

"This period of comics has been suggested by Jon Berk, Matt Schiffman, Steve Sibra and others, and is introduced in this edition for the first time. The first atomic bomb was exploded in 1945, ushering in a new era. With World War II also ending in that year, 'atomic' theme comic books began to appear in 1946 and are today highly prized. Also after the war, the comics market shifted gears and began moving away from the superhero-themed anthologies to other genres. By 1948, crime, love, western, good-girl art, horror and teen-age comics began cramming the newsstands! With the addition of war, science fiction and comics based on popular television shows beginning in 1950, the consumer had more variety than ever from which to choose. Today, all of these books continue to have a strong demand. The few super-hero books still surviving as well as the Fox love, good-girl art, crime and horro books are the most popular, with strong sales last year. The hottest artists are L.B. Cole, Matt Baker, Steve Ditko, Simon & Kirby, Frazetta, Feldstein and Kamen, to name a few."

 

Reply: Take it directly from this horse's mouth. I, Jon Berk, never used or suggested the term "Atom Age". Actually, I suggested for this '49/'50-'56 period the term "Dark Age"....many of the books were "dark"......horror....crime ....etc....Also as used in historical terms the Dark Ages preceded the Renainnace ....(Silver Age)....BUT DESPITE being known historically as the Dark Age some very fine work....art, math etc. was done......So my suggestion was and had been for this time period in the comics: "The Dark Age" (not that anyone cares but my term for the present age.....with the mania of slabbing....is the "Plastic Age" of Comics...jb

[Scrooge]

Aaah, traveling pets:

 

[jbcomicbox]

Enough of this romance stuff (although Baker = ), let's get in some blood-thirsty, hair-raising, two-fisted action courtesy Kinstler (cover) and Williamson/Frazetta (story).

 

 

 

or Geronimo