Thursday, February 29, 2024

MENACE "Walking Dead!"

"Walking Dead" didn't always refer to zombies...
...but it sure does here!
This cover-featured story from Atlas' Menace #9 (1954) came at the tail-end of the horror comic craze.
Dr. Wertham's crusade against those magazines had already taken it's toll as entire comic companies folded due to falling sales and public outcry.
Menace itself only lasted two more issues.
Luckily, Atlas (which already had a predilection for jumping onto whatever current fad was selling) had such a diverse line, that it was easy for Stan Lee and company to simply "switch gears" and replace the disgraced horror genre with other types of books.
For example, When MAD comics took off in the mid-1950s, Atlas had four MAD-clone comics; RIOT!, CRAZY!, WILD!, and SNAFU!!
None lasted more than five issues!
With the Silver Age dawning only a couple of years later, Atlas hung on long enough to become Marvel, and the rest is history...
Illustrated by John Forte with a cover by Gene Colan, the story's writer is unknown.
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Wednesday, February 14, 2024

HeartBreak Horror MENACE "Fake!"

Remember the old adage "Don't judge a book by it's cover"?
 Here's the codicil; "It goes both ways"!
Illustrated by Al Eadeh, this tale from Atlas' Menace #10 (1954) follows the classic trope of golddigger tripped up, not by her own greed, but by the fact her husband (who still loves her) is not even human!
Remember, the target audience for horror (as opposed to romance) comics was 8-14 year old boys, to whom girls were "yukky".
They were also the audience for whom Lois Lane , the nosy reporter who was always trying to either expose Superman's secret identity or trick the Man of Steel into marrying her, was the typical woman!