Check it out, Groove-ophiles! The third and final issue of Atlas/Seaboard's far-out and funky Planet of Vampires
(April 1975)! John Albano was going wild (in a very cool way) with this
"B"-Movie sci-fi mini-masterpiece, but this would be all we'd ever get!
You'll notice that artist Pat Broderick doesn't provide the art for
this ish. Disappointing 'cause Pat's so awesome, but not so
disappointing 'cause his replacement is Russ Heath, who is one far-out
artist in his own right! Ol' Groove really digs the way Heath was
respectful to Broderick's character designs for the PoV gang.
"The Blood Plague!" shows just how cool (and freaky, as you'll see with
the spider attack! eeeeeeewwwwwww!) Atlas/Seaboard's wares could be if
they'd only had a chance to last longer...
I never got into Atlas comics back in the day, but after reading some of the 'Untold Stories' book I did some research. Great art and writing, While I'm not into vampires and such, I actually saw this issue on the stands back in the day and found the cover very, very sexy.
ReplyDeleteI finally discovered it on a site a year or so ago and picked it up off eBay. Still nice reading, but LOVE the cover.
Dear Ol' Groove,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for putting online what I consider to be the best of the Atlas comics ( and I'm a huge Ditko fan but POTV was the best by far ).
I remember reading this in a French marvel/Atlas comic compilation and this one stood up to Marvel POTA as well as being a fascinating universe in its own right...Looking back at the horror/scifi post-90s line of movies we had this has withstood the test of time very well, what a shame the series were suspended.
Elektrikdke
Heath is great on war comics, of course, but it's always a pleasant shock when he ventures into fantasy. I was surprised to note that the Marvel Essentials Horror collection includes art that was censored out of that final issue of Son of Satan he illustrated. Beautiful work.
ReplyDelete