(W) Stan Lee (A/CA) Bill Everett
The 1950s boom in horror comics saw Atlas Comics' entrée into the genre. Beginning in March 1952, Amazing Detective Cases began detailing cases where justice was served in supernatural fashion and beginning in May 1953, the adventures in Men’s Adventures were taken over by ghosts, murderous revenge, and psychological terror. The cream of Atlas’ artistic line-up — including recent EC stars and future Marvel staples – rose to the grisly challenge of the horror genre. Each issue is crammed with four condensed tales of creeping dread, ironic comeuppance, or startling twists, all from a different artist or team.Among the short, sharp shocks included in this volume are the mini masterpieces The Eerie Escape by B. Krigstein, The Torture Master! by Russ Heath, The Drowning Witch by Reed Crandall and The 3rd Corpse by Bill Everett. Stories by Gene Colan, John Romita, Joe Sinnott, Dick Ayers, Jim Mooney, Paul Reinman and George Tuska, all of whom remained through the shift to Marvel Comics, additionally fill out these issues, along with Atlas regulars Fred Kida
(W) Dr. Michael J Vassallo (A/CA) Bill Everett
In the late 1940s, the first half of the Venus series from Marvel Comics predecessors Timely and Atlas Comics was published as a lighthearted romance comic about the goddess Venus taking a job on Earth at a beauty magazine. Never a company to miss a trend, Atlas began introducing more science fiction elements in the 1950s, and eventually turned Venus? dating adventures into a straight-out horror anthology.Collected here, 70 years later and for the first time ever, is that swift-changing second half of the 19-issue run. Future Marvel stars Bill Everett (seven issues) and Werner Roth (three issues) take Venus to heights of four-color weirdness and pre-Code horror ghastliness. Everett in particular is given free rein and seizes the opportunity: writing, drawing, and lettering twenty ghoulish and goofy masterpieces, including classics like Hangman's House, The Day Venus Vanished, The House of Terror, The Sealed Spectors, Tidal Wave of Terror, and the phantasmagorical Cartoonist's Calamity! These stories showcase the brilliant draftsmanship
Over 200 pages of neverbefore-reprinted work from Golden-Age-Of-Comics legend Bill Everett. Spanning the years 1938-1940 and culled from such magazines as Amazing Mystery Funnies and Amazing-Man Comics, Heroic Tales features vintage characters such as Amazing-Man, Hydroman, Skyrocket Steele, The Chameleon plus many more. This is a stunning companion to Fantagraphics' critically acclaimed 2010 Everett retrospective, Fire and Water, and features beautifully restored, full-color stories plus an introduction about the man, his art, the history of the era, and his relationship with Marvel Comics.