OUT OF THE NIGHT

Once again I ended up with a comic book that was not on my want list. This one is OUT OF THE NIGHT #1 from ACG (American Comics Group). ACG was one of those companies that outlasted most of the other second-tier publishers and was creating comics long after so many others had packed it in and ceased publication. They went toe to toe with Marvel and DC and finally bit the dust in 1967 during the superhero boom.

This book was one of their horror titles. ACG was one of the first comics publishers to capitalize on the horror genre with their title ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN. This book, OUT OF THE NIGHT, was obviously created to cash in on the popularity of horror comics.

I was attracted to it for several reasons. Among those is that it's a first issue, and it has a really cool, garish cover. But the main thing that made me grab this copy (other than the low price I got on it) was the Al Williamson, Harold LeDoux artwork inside. The two illustrate a werewolf story that's pretty weird and the illustrations sparkle. 

Publishing information inside indicate that this book was published in 1951.

Williamson's style was striking. Frazetta could ape it, but few others could match the flowing lines of his pencil.

The werewolf in this tale is largely human, initially lacking fur.

Yes, this was a horror comic.

The strange plotting of a werewolf against his victims! "Good Heavens!"

BLAST OFF!

In the 1950s, Kirby did a comic book called RACE TO THE MOON for Harvey Comics. It ran for only three issues, despite having some great artwork and a decent concept. Apparently, Harvey had intended a fourth issue, but cancelled the book. Still...they had some unpublished artwork featuring Kirby's "3 Rocketeers" characters--that art stayed at Harvey for some years.

Then, in 1965 Harvey decided to finally publish those brief stories, along with some other material they had on hand as BLAST OFF #1. Although Harvey had moved into the very young children's market with titles like RICHIE RICH, CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST, WENDY THE WITCH, LITTLE DOT, etc., they had once published all sorts of comics, including adventure stories. So this was likely a move to test the waters and see if they could generate some income with that kind of project once again.

However, sales must not have been very good, despite the fact that all of the art in this issue is about as good as it gets. The Jack Kirby stories were inked by the ultra-talented Al Williamson. And there are backup stories in the book completely illustrated by Williamson. So as an art-lover's book, it's a true gem of a comic.

My copy of BLAST OFF #1!

The combination of Jack Kirby and Al Williamson produced some stunning work!

What came first? These images, or Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots?

Kirby creatures and technology as inked by Williamson! What joy!

And all published by Harvey Comics! What's not to love?

Comics from the 40s through the mid 60s would often include two pages of text stories. One old pulp writer I used to know (Ryerson Johnson) wrote a lot of these for both Dell Comics and DC Comics. He said that they were included because of an obscure rule in Postal regulations that gave cheaper postage rates for publications that had a certain amount of text, as opposed to just comic images. Thus, it was profitable for publishers to pay authors to pen these short-shorts for their books. A lot of great writers worked in this form for the publishers in the day, but the lion's share of them seem to have been written by Otto Binder, who was half of the "Eando Binder" pen-name...the brothers Earl and Otto Binder, most famous for the great pulp novel ADAM LINK: ROBOT.