The Stranger-Reed Crandall-1956

The backup stories in Atlas western comic books of the 1950s are often better drawn than the main stories, featuring art by such as Doug Wildey, Gray Morrow, Al Williamson and, as seen here, the great Reed Crandall. This particular story is also of interest due to the fact that it could be said someday that the stranger here may well be Deadpool's great-great-great grandfather, Marvel's original Wade Wilson!

Elke Sommer-John Calnan-1975

Elke Sommer--actress, model, comedienne, game show panelist, international sex symbol. In spite of all that, artist John Calnan seems to have been unfamiliar with her as I never in a million years would have guessed this was her in this comic. See below. 

The Patriot-1943

In retroactive continuity, this guy became one of several Captain America replacements after Steve Rogers got frozen in the ice. He's also known for sometimes having a mask with his helmet and sometimes not. In this case, it's "not" for the splash and then "with" in the rest of the story.

The Dodo and the Frog-Otto Feur-1953

Welcome to another lucky Friday the 13th. Let's go back now to one some 63 years ago and visit with some long-gone funny animal friends.

The Terrible Time Machine-Jack Kirby-1959

I'm a sucker for a time travel story. This one's short and sweet with an unusual twist. Of course, the real question is why colorist Stan Goldberg gave the protagonist purple hair!

Pascal the Rascal-Joe Maneely-1956

From time to time, we've posted stories here of various comic book ripoffs of Hank Ketcham's DENNIS THE MENACE (as well as a real DENNIS story or two) and stories by artists who worked with, were inspired by, or were simply aping Hank Ketcham's style. Hat tip to the great cartoonist Milton Knight for pointing me toward this hilarious one by the now legendary Joe Maneely with Stan--not yet the Man--Lee.

Cat Man-Charles Quinlan-1942

One of my absolute favorite second string superhero duos is Cat-Man and Kitten! It was a long running strip that appeared in a couple of titles and Kitten even appeared in her own series co-starring out of costume with the sidekick of the Deacon, another Cat-Man Comics hero.