Frazetta's THUN'DA Goes Boom! - Origin Story

Hello, Comics Fan!

I am

THE APOCOLYTE!

Here I share my love for comics, comic artists, and classic comic story scans!

[There are many wonderful comics blogs and sites such as this, and many of my favorites (which are probably many of yours) are listed down the right hand column of this blog. What might set this blog apart from many of the others is the fact that I spend several hours each week digitally restoring old comic book scans in order to present them here to you in their optimum glory! Like you, I share a love and affection for these classic comics and their artists, and my goal is to present them in the best possible light, apart from reprinting them. The Apocolyte's digital restoration project hopes to present these comic art classics as if they were freshly purchased this very day, for your viewing enjoyment.]

Today's digitally restored classic is what I consider one of the milestones of Golden Age comics, 

Frank Frazetta's classic THUN'DA! 

In 1951, Frank Frazetta was doing comic work for National/DC and Magazine Enterprises/M.E., and due to the positive feedback Frazetta was getting from the fans, M.E. decided to let Frazetta create his own comic. The result was Frazetta's THUN'DA!

In Frazetta's own words, from the book Frank Frazetta, ICON:

"I came up with this Tarzan-like character who gets trapped in a lost world. They brought in Gardner Fox to write the script based on my idea and the first story in the book followed my plans pretty closely. Then the editor, Ray Krank, had Fox take everybody out of the prehistoric setting by the end of the third story in the book and ruined the entire concept; they turned it into just another cardboard jungle comic."

THUN'DA #1 was published in 1952, and holds the distinction of being the only complete comic book Frazetta ever drew. The first story he describes above is the one we will see here, the origin of

THUN'DA!

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There is more amazing artwork by the brilliant and talented Frank Frazetta posted on my other comic art blog

BLACK 'N' WHITE AND RED ALL OVER!

-click here or on the image below!

Also, to see the black and white version of Frazetta's THUN'DA origin story, click here!

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Thank you for stopping by!

I'll be back with more great comic art, stories, and scans for you!

ROBOT WEEK Day 5 - A Ditko Double Feature!

Hello, friend!

I am

THE APOCOLYTE!

I don't know if you've heard this yet, but

That means one thing...

and lots of 'em!

Today's Robot du jour is a double helping,

twice the nice at half the price!

Two delectable Ditko mini-masterpieces!

These stories come out of Marvel's pre-hero days, when Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and others were filling pages with plenty of monsters, creatures, science fiction, and mystery (with a dash of westerns and romance here and there)! 

First up:

A space traveler and his ROBOT encounter trouble!

From JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #65, 1961, it's

"FEAR IN THE NIGHT!"

- Digitally Restored Comic Art -

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Wait!

Did you see...?!

There was a ROBOT and a man,

and the man...

and then the ROBOT...

but the ROBOT was...

...and the man was a...

Oooooh, those wacky Marvel twist endings!

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Time for our second act!

Sometimes these ROBOTS get a little pushy! 

Nobody likes a bossy ROBOT!

From TALES TO ASTONISH # 18, 1961, 

LOOK OUT!

It's a

"ROBOT ON THE RAMPAGE!"

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Hey, there's more cool ROBOT Comic Art over at

BLACK 'N' WHITE AND RED ALL OVER!

Just click to check it out!

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I'll be back tomorrow with more awesome comics 

and more ROBOTS, because it's

See you then!

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ROBOT WEEK Day 4 - Weird Wednesday with MARVEX The Super Robot

Hello Comics Fan!

I am

THE APOCOLYTE!

You have entered into Day 4 of

It also happens to be a Wednesday, 

and the comic for today is a little bit...different...so we are going to have

Golden Age comics are, through the natural passage of time, a bit odd to the modern comic enthusiast. Sure, all the die-hard comics fans like us love them for what they are, but Golden Age comics can't help it sometimes that they come off quite often as...well, weird.

Today's Robot post fits that description.

MARVEX The Super Robot had only three Golden Age appearances. We will look at his origin, from Marvel's DARING MYSTERY COMICS #3, April 1940. This was the era of the infancy of comics, as well as the infancy of ROBOTS as characters in comics, so Marvex was one of the earliest ROBOT heroes.

According to sources like the GCD and Atlas Tales, the artwork was done by Hal Sharp, and if Doc V says so, that's good enough for me. I don't know much about Hal Sharp other than he drew GA Flash and Mr. Terrific for DC in the early 40's, but his simpler Golden Age style here adds to the weirdness quality.

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Whoa, big fella!

If were not going to be more than friends, 

you can just go ahead and put those clothes back on!

You may have noticed that Marvex is a grey toned metal person, yet on page 5 the colorist made a boo-boo and colored him like a normal human. Marvex is also a vicious son-of-a-bitch who has no problem killing people (he smashes one bad guy into some rocks, throwing him by his hair, and he throws Von Cragg through a wall to fall 13 stories to the street below..Von Cragg though was clearly a villain, as evidenced by his monacle)!

It is also clear that both Marvex and Clara have relationship issues.

She says he is her only friend, and he begins to strip down for some apparent ROBOT nastiness. 

Cue wah-wah guitar music.

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That'll do it for now.

See you tomorrow for more

comics, stories and artwork!

For more ROBOT WEEK Robots Comics, check out what I have over at

BLACK 'N' WHITE AND RED ALL OVER!