Number 1585: Man of the atom

By way of announcement, beginning with the month of June I am cutting my posts by 25%, going from four postings a week to three. I will post on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Many of you won’t even notice. It is time to cut back on the work. And yes, this is work. Nobody pays me, but it’s work.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled post...

Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom was created by Gold Key comics to compete against the popular superheroes of the day. At the time I liked the first three issues, finding them well drawn in a more sophisticated, illustrative style, but lost interest when Dr. Solar gained a costume. I just didn’t think he could go toe-to-toe with what was coming from Marvel Comics. But I was wrong; the costume was what fans were clamoring for.

Jerry Bails, the godfather of comics fandom in the early '60s, had a letter in Doctor Solar Man of the Atom #7 in 1964, praising Gold Key for putting Dr. S. in a costume. Jerry was a bit more conservative about villains. He said, “Nothing destroys a super-hero faster than fantastic villains.” I’m reasonably certain the readers of superheroes wanted those fantastic villains...as Marvel Comics had proved.

The story is from that aforementioned issue #7. Script credited to Otto Binder by the Grand Comics Database, and art attributed to Frank Bolle.

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Number 1482: Captain Venture and the Land Beneath the Sea

Dan Spiegle was a comic book artist who did his journeyman work mostly for Dell/Gold Key. When Gold Key shut down Spiegle moved on to other publishers, including a stint on Blackhawk for DC, and even working on Hanna-Barbera comics like Scooby-Doo. Spiegle's earliest work was mostly in Westerns, and for a long time he was the go-to artist for television adaptations like Lawman and Maverick.

Spiegle not only drew horse operas, he could draw space operas with equal skill. He drew Space Family Robinson (later Lost in Space, to cash in on the popular TV series which had lifted the premise of Space Family Robinson.) The Captain Venture strip was a backup in Space Family Robinson/Lost in Space, from issues #6 to #30. Later Gold Key reprinted two issues of reprints of these strips. What I’m showing today are the reprints from issue #1 (1968).

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Number 1473: Throwing some light on Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows was a very successful daytime soap opera during its five-year run, but I never saw it! In my area the local ABC affiliate decided to show local programming instead of Dark Shadows, so those greedy bastards station executives wouldn’t have to share advertising revenue with the network. Even though I didn’t see it I couldn’t escape hearing or reading about it, including the comic book version.

I'm showing Dark Shadows #1 (1968) from Gold Key. It’s drawn by Joe Certa, who might be just as well known as the artist on the long time “Manhunter From Mars” feature for DC Comics. Before that Certa had drawn horror comics for Harvey, so he was no stranger to the macabre, as this splash page of original art from Witches Tales #12 shows. (Thanks for Heritage Auctions for the scan.)

I don’t believe Certa used photo references for the characters. They look enough like them, I guess, to satisfy whomever was in charge of licensing the comic. Jonathan Frid (Barnabas) was a tall and distinguished actor, and in places in the comic he is drawn curiously stunted and out of proportion.

Frid crowns Miss American Vampire. This is the kind of job being a TV star of a cult show gets.

Maybe more than just Certa worked on this comic book. While Grand Comics Database gives Certa credit for pencils and inks I believe that John Celardo may have assisted with the inks. They look more his style. Just sayin'. You don’t need to bite my neck if you disagree.

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