Sunday, November 9, 2014
The Thing That Devoured a Planet! / It Came from Beneath the Earth!
THOIA returns from our Halloween vacation with a double precode Atlas monsterama, both stories penned by Stan Lee-- the first tale was originally presented in the February '52 issue of Adventures into Weird Worlds #2 as "When a World Goes Mad!" featuring a wildly inspired, illustrated monstrosity by Al Hartley-- and followed by a fun little three page Winiarksi quickie that originally appeared in the November '52 issue of Adventures into Weird Worlds #12 as "The Monster!", ---both retitled and reprinted together years later in the December '73 debut issue of Weird Wonder Tales #1.
Welcome back, Karswell!
ReplyDeleteThat's a great Kane cover. These reprints are interesting, as the cover is usually a lot more Marvel style of the time (that monster might as well be the living monolith or something of the like) but what they get is very much Atlas style.
The first tale is just great; the proto-Galactus, the beautiful Hartley art, and a real sense of the scale the story requires. The second story is another fun comical quickie.
These are fine examples of Stan's writing in the period.
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ReplyDeleteWelcome back! I had those two in italian translation (in black and white, unfortunately), and I saw Mr. Lee in Lucca in 1974, or 1975 maybe. Great moustache. Great wife. There's a nice interview on youtube. Guess he was one of the first american big shots who came here...
ReplyDeleteIt's good to be back, though after experiencing a few weeks of perfect tropical weather, only to come back to midwest temps now dipping into the 20's, is a bit of a downer.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments and sticking with us during our hiatus-- lots more on the way shortly!
It's funny, only when I saw Mestiere's comment on "The thing" I thought about Steve Ditko's "Tim Boo Ba" (was this the name?) Same moral, I think: just a matter of size and perspective...
ReplyDeleteMaybe... it's also simply the age old moral of "there's always a bigger fish in the sea"
ReplyDeleteIt's funny (and not necessarily in a goofy way) that in a really out-there story like the first one, you still get that tradition of horrified people yelling "AAIIEE!!"
ReplyDeleteThe second story is so short it's a little like one of those notorious NIGHT GALLERY comedy blackout. But, I like several of those, and I like this.
ReplyDeleteOne line sounded to me at first like even more of a regional joke than it is. It's when he tells the woman "I come from the depths of the earth!" and she says "I'm form Hoboken myself."
At first I put the accent on "myself" and thought that meant "Depths of the earth? - I'm from Hoboken TOO!"
In other words, a little jab at New Jersey by (presumably) a comic writer in New York.
"Something which seems large to a smaller thing can also be considered small by a larger thing." "Woah, slow down, egghead!"
ReplyDeleteHow on Earth did these students manage to make it to university without understanding the basic concepts of size and perception?
"Thing..." seems to have been inspired by "Thang" by Martin Gardner, which you can read here: http://vintage.failed-dam.org/thang.htm
ReplyDeleteInteresting! Thanks for the continued comments on this post you guys! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you good Sir Karswell...
ReplyDeletethe second tale gave us a much needed "Laugh"....
A great evening to you good Sir....