Golden/Atomic Age SciFi Recommendations 2 2

[ConcreteMob181]

I am a huge scifi fan and am curious as to what the community would say the key Golden/Atomic age scifi series are? I see Planet Comics getting a lot of love. And I am personally drawn to the EC books for the art and social significance. Are these the big 2? Or are their others out there from this era that are must read/collect if you are a comic scifi fan? Many thanks!

[Point Five]

Welcome! (I was a big Concrete fan back in the day, BTW.)   

Yes, the EC titles for smart storytelling and Planet Comics for cheesecake fun... you really can't go wrong with those. Are you after quality interior stories more than covers? Basil Wolverton's sci-fi stories are really cool, but they're buried across a smattering of different titles.

 

[sfcityduck]

On 9/17/2021 at 11:54 AM, ConcreteMob181 said:

I am a huge scifi fan and am curious as to what the community would say the key Golden/Atomic age scifi series are? I see Planet Comics getting a lot of love. And I am personally drawn to the EC books for the art and social significance. Are these the big 2? Or are their others out there from this era that are must read/collect if you are a comic scifi fan? Many thanks!

Personally, I've always greatly enjoyed the early issues of Mystery in Space and Strange Adventures from D.C., the Avons include some classic GGA (as does Man 'O Mars), and I agree that there are lots of great opportunities to pick and choose classic stories by guys like Wolverton if you aren't tied by OCD to completing titles.

Edited September 17, 2021 by sfcityduck

[ConcreteMob181]

Thanks so much for the warm welcome and the response. I always suspected there were a few more Concrete fans out there!

To answer your question, while I love a great cover I will choose story over cover every time. I don’t know anything about Basil Wolverton though…where would I start?

[sfcityduck]

If you do want to stick with series, I'd suggest checking out some of the Archive HCs of the series to test the water - PS Publishing has a lot of books (low quality, but cheap when bought remaindered/overstock) that can get you a great sample of a wide array of titles.  DC published a SC sampler called Mystery in Space that is worth chasing down.  And the Atlas Masterworks are great HC with quality reproduction if you want to check out their SF content.  

[sfcityduck]

On 9/17/2021 at 12:08 PM, ConcreteMob181 said:

I don’t know anything about Basil Wolverton though…where would I start?

  You need to fix that quickly.  Fortunately, there are great books collecting Wolverton's output to let you sample his work.  Greg Sadowski's Creeping Death from Neptune and Brain Bats of Venus are excellent bios/compilations out from Fantagraphics which cannot be beat.  But, if you just want comic reprints, the Fantagraphics SC of his Spacehawk series is worth the search.

 

Edited September 17, 2021 by sfcityduck

[Robot Man]

All solid recommendations here. I have a fondness for ECs. Book for Book some of the best covers and stories. Reprints are cheap and easy to dip your toes.

And then there is Basil Wolverton. Yeah top notch and reprints are available of his stuff too.

Welcome to the boards GA section. A lot of great folks here! 

[Ryan.]

[Mmehdy]

I would recommend collecting the 3 issue run of 1940 Superworld comics, they are very undervalued, but in recent years have picked up interest, great covers by Paul; and great content ...you cannot go wrong...

Edited September 17, 2021 by Mmehdy

[frozentundraguy]

You might also want to check out Speed Carter Spaceman, Strange Worlds, Amazing Adventures, and possibly even Space Busters and Space Patrol. Most of these books are also available in reprint form.

Edited September 17, 2021 by frozentundraguy

[Spyder!]

I’m glad you’ve already got Planet Comics on your list. Doesn’t get better than that!

I agree, the Superworld Comics are pretty awesome.

I would add Science Comics, an 8 issue run of books published by Fox.

[ConcreteMob181]

These are great recommendations. Thanks much to all. I checked out Wolverton and can verify that the fact I was totally unaware of him has confirmed my status as a golden age noob. I was at least familiar with a few of the others but Science Comics, Speed Carter, and Superworld were brand new to me. I love the Kirby Amazing Adventures covers so happy to hear the endorsement.

[KCOComics]

Speed Carter is some of Everett's best cover art in my opinion. 

And that says allot considering how expansive his career was. 

[frozentundraguy]

On 9/17/2021 at 6:13 PM, ConcreteMob181 said:

These are great recommendations. Thanks much to all. I checked out Wolverton and can verify that the fact I was totally unaware of him has confirmed my status as a golden age noob. I was at least familiar with a few of the others but Science Comics, Speed Carter, and Superworld were brand new to me. I love the Kirby Amazing Adventures covers so happy to hear the endorsement.

I was thinking of the earlier Amazing Adventures series by Ziff Davis. I only have the reprints done by PS Artbooks, but those have interior pages that are very comic book like. The Silver Age series by Kirby is also excellent.

[AJD]

Welcome aboard from yet another Concrete fan!

You might also like to have a look at some of the comic strip sci-fi from the 30s and 40s. Buck Rogers is often pretty fun. You can find Buck in strip reprint volumes and in comics too. The Wikipedia list is woefully incomplete, but might get you started. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_Rogers#Comic_books

 

 

[fifties]

Weird Tales of the Future is another title that has Wolverton art.  https://www.comics.org/series/941/covers/

You can get 14 dollar replicas here; https://collectionconnection.store/collections/comic-book-replicas?sort_by=title-ascending

[KirbyJack]

Another vote of support for EC sci-fi here. 

[KirbyJack]

But whatever you do, stay away from this title. No one should be collecting these.

[Hap Hazard]

On 9/19/2021 at 1:01 PM, fifties said:

Weird Tales of the Future is another title that has Wolverton art.  https://www.comics.org/series/941/covers/

You can get 14 dollar replicas here; https://collectionconnection.store/collections/comic-book-replicas?sort_by=title-ascending

 

[Hap Hazard]

On 9/19/2021 at 2:31 PM, KirbyJack said:

But whatever you do, stay away from this title. No one should be collecting these.