Showing posts with label spies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spies. Show all posts

Monday, February 24, 2025

Russkie-Smashers PHANTOM LADY "Television Spies!" 2.0

The Phantom Lady Usually Punched Nazis, but in This Case...
...she did so in a totally-redrawn version of a previous Phantom Lady tale! which now has her taking on Russkie spies!
In the original 1948 version of this tale, the tv images were in full glorious color, and television was just beginning to enter American households, so few people had actually seen a tv screen!
But, by the time of this story in Ajax/Farrell's Phantom Lady #3 (1955), almost half the households in America had tvs, but they were almost all b/w sets.
As a result, the tv screens shown in this version of the story were b/w, the way most Americans experienced video at the time.
Plus, in the original tale, it wasn't made clear if it was industrial spying or international spying!
The artist (or artists) of this tale are unknown, but the writer is probably editor Ruth Roche, as usual.
Support Hero Histories
Visit Amazon and Buy...
Crime Never Pays!
(With a new Adam Hughes cover!)
Paid Link

Monday, January 13, 2025

Russkie-Smashers OPERATION: PERIL "Time Travelers in 'Amazons of Venus' "

"We must beat the Communists to Venus..."
"...in order to prevent the atomic war predicted by Nostradamus!"
The first Time Travelers tale was a fairly-straightforward 1950s sci-fi story.
But this one goes wayyyy out there with numerous cliches of the era including...
Cavemen and dinosaurs co-existing in prehistoric times!
Venus as a vegetation-covered world ruled by beautiful, half-clad women who keep their males subservient!
Commie spies in business suits...even when they're on another world!
Travel between planets taking about the same amount of time as the average morning commute!
Written by Richard Hughes and illustrated by Ken Bald, this story from ACG's Operation: Peril #2 (1950) expands the strip's concept to include space and time travel by integrating the time technology into a spacecraft provided by the US government.
As a result, the emphasis will switch from Communist threats to alien attacks.
Despite this, the series' title will remain "Time Travelers" for the entire run.
Support Hero Histories
Visit Amazon and Buy...

Volume 1
Paid Link

Monday, July 29, 2024

NoKo Crushers MADAM ZERO "Rockets of the Red Mist"

Perhaps Falwell was inspired by this forgotten  heroine's never-reprinted final tale from Fiction House's Fight Comics #84 (1952)!
Anonymous Commie-buster Madam Zero made only three appearances in her short-lived career!
A mistress of disguise, she always surprised the (also anonymous) secret agent who narrated these stories and who played the helpless "Steve Trevor" to her plain-clothes "Wonder Woman"!
Nothing is known about her real identity, motivations, or even which department she worked for!
Support Hero Histories!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Monday, May 15, 2023

Russkie-Smashers HUMAN TORCH COMICS "Atomic Ray Gun Toy Terror!"

The Human Torch's return to his own title in 1953...
...after several appearances in other books featured this tale about the perils of toy ray guns!
(I kid you not!)
Though this story from Atlas' Human Torch #36 (1953) was illustrated by Dick Ayers, Carl Burgos (the character's creator/original writer-artist) redrew both the Torch and Toro's flaming forms!
Trivia: Though a number of the 1950s Torch and Toro tales were reprinted (with minor modifications) in the 1970s (after the Comics Code loosened up), this story was too violent to reprint until the 2000s!
Please Support Hero Histories!
Visit Amazon and Order...
(which features this tale)

Monday, March 6, 2023

Russkie-Smashers T-MAN "Death Trap in Iran" & "Trouble's Double"

What happens when you combine Russkies and Iran in a kick-ass 1950s spy story?
But, that's not all!
There's also this sanitized-for-your-protection, Comics Code-modified reprint from Quality's T-Man #31 (1956), which waters down all the kool hard-boiled elements from the original tale...and makes the Russkies into generic "Communists"!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Our

Friday, June 29, 2012

Reading Room: JET DREAM "Demon Dogfight"

...as a public demonstration of prowess goes awry due to evil intent!
Story by Dave Wood, art by Joe Certa.
This new story from Man from U.N.C.L.E. #22 (1968) backs up a reprinted U.N.C.L.E. tale, so most people (myself included) thought it was a reprint as well.
Good thing I took a look inside the book! ;-)
There's one more never-reprinted Jet Dream story to tell, but you won't find it here.
It will appear on our "sister" blog Heroines™ blog in daily installments on the week of August 13th, along with another long-unseen tale with an unusual history!

And, as of our next post, this blog's title is altering to Hero Histories™...although the feed and addy will remain the same.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Reading Room: JET DREAM "Terror of Ting-a-Ling"

What happens when an innocent stumbles upon a heroine's secret hq?
Ask Johnny Kai, Ting-a-Ling's boyfriend, when he ends up in "No Man's Land"!
"Stray dog"?
Jet doesn't have a very high opinion of men in general, does she?
Story by Dave Wood, art by Joe Certa.
This new story from Man from U.N.C.L.E. #21 (1968) backs up a reprinted U.N.C.L.E. tale, so most people (myself included) thought it was a reprint as well.
Good thing I took a look inside the book! ;-)

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Reading Room: JET DREAM "Menace of the Feathered Warriors"

The time had come for Jet Dream's final battle...
...and it's against her evil doppelganger...who's also her only recurring foe!
Well, so much for recurring foes...
Story by Dave Wood, art by Joe Certa.
We thought this story from Man from U.N.C.L.E. #20 (1968) was her final strip chronologically, but we've just found out that it's not the case!
While the final issues (#21 and #22) of the title reprint earlier U.N.C.L.E. tales, the Jet Dream stories in both issues are not reprints but new stories!
Those two tales will appear over the next couple of weeks.