Commie-Clobbering Kaiju GORGO "Deadlier Than Man" Part 1

Besides Konga, another cinematic kaiju who battled Commies in comic pages was...

...who was also published by Charlton, and who was often illustrated by the legendary Steve Ditko!
Let's look in on the mother and son who frightened the world for 26 issues during the 1960s!

Don't worry, the kaiju cavalry is coming!

Good thing JFK didn't have to deal with kaiju along with the Cubans and Russians during the real-world Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, eh?

Writer Joe Gill and artist Steve Ditko continue their interpretation of those events from Charlton's Gorgo #14 (1963)...

TOMORROW!

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Gorgo

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Commie-Clobbering Kaiju KONGA "Evil Eye" Part 1

We Begin Our Countdown to Halloween 2024 Blogathon participation with a non-Asian Kaiju...

...who began "life" as the star of a 1961 British movie!

To Be Concluded TOMORROW!

Konga (1961) was one of England's two entries into the blossoming kaiju genre begun with the coming of Gojira (aka Godzilla) in 1954.

(The other was Gorgo (1961), who also had an American comic adaptation from the same publisher as Konga...Charlton Comics!)
Steve (Spider-Man/Dr Strange/Captain Atom II) Ditko illustrated the first issue of Charlton's Konga, which adapted the movie, then some, but not all, of the two sequel series which ran 25 more issues!
Besides battling other kaiju and extraterrestrials, Konga fought humans, including Commies (both Russian and Chinese) as in this issue, #15 from 1963, illustrated by Ditko and likely written by Charlton workhorse scripter Joe Gill!

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Konga

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Don't Miss the Other Participants in the
Countdown to Halloween 2024 Blogathon!
Click HERE to See Them!

Russkie-Smashers CAPTAIN ATOM II "An Ageless Weapon"

When You Need Vitally-Important Defense Plans Safely-Delivered...

...Only One Man Can Do the Job...Guaranteed!

Written by Joe Gill and illustrated by Steve Ditko, this is a short-but-sweet tale from Charlton's Space Adventures #39 (1961) about beating the Commies at their own game of deceit and deception by utilizing something...or rather someone...they don't expect!

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Captain Atom

Volume 1

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Russkie-Smashers SPACE ADVENTURES "Captain Atom II '...on Planet X' "

Despite the misleading title, Our Russkie-Smashing Hero never leaves Earth orbit...

...as you'll see in this tale from Charlton's Space Adventures #36 (1960)!

WOW!

Writer Joe Gill and illustrator Steve Ditko jammed a lot into just five pages!

These days, that'd be a whole issue, if not a two-parter!

As you saw, "Planet X" was, in fact, an artificial satellite, not another planet!
But the code-name made for a catchy title for an extremely-action-packed tale, eh?

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Captain Atom

Volume 1

Chi-Com Crushing with The Duke! CRAZY, MAN, CRAZY! "Bloodshot Alley"

Technically, this is a Cold War adventure starring the legendary John Wayne...

...and though Blood Alley didn't have a comic adaptation, it did have a never-reprinted comic parody...penciled and inked (and possibly written) by none other than Jack (King) Kirby!
Warning: May be NSFW/NSFS due to ethnic stereotypes common to the era.

Appearing in Charlton's Crazy, Man, Crazy V2N2 (1956), this piece makes us wish Kirby had done some serious John Wayne comics and/or even more humor work!

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Sincerest Form of Parody
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Russkie-Smashers LIBERTY BELLE "Freedom's Star"

The Russkies continued to be a threat into the 1970s and early 1980s...

...as this never-reprinted tale from Charlton's E-Man V1N5 (1974) so aptly demonstrates!

Apparently, the audience interest wasn't there, since the concluding chapter never appeared!.

Note: I, in fact, did write in, but I may have well been the only one!
The script, besides dealing with Commies, also goes into Women's Lib, which was in its' heyday.

The character has reappeared recently, without any mention of what happened on the space station!

And, before you ask, the Golden Age DC character, also named Liberty Belle, hadn't appeared since 1947, except in a 1972 reprint, so the name/trademark was available at the time.

DC's character would reappear in new stories in 1981 and her daughter, also called Liberty Belle, would debut in 2006, sometimes working alongside her mother!
Both still appear in DC books to this day.

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Ditko Shrugged

The Uncompromising Life of the Artist Behind Spider-Man

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