Number 343

Man O' Mars

The cover above is one of my favorites. The Grand Comics Database guesses it's by Sid Check, but it looks more like Gray Morrow to me. It looks like it was inspired by Famous Funnies #212, a Buck Rogers cover by Frazetta. Man O' Mars is a reprint of a Fiction House one-shot from the early '50s. The original cover from Fiction House is also good, but I'm not sure of the artist on that one either. Maybe Maurice Whitman?

While the 10-page lead story, "Man O' Mars" looks to have been new in 1953, the rest of the comic is made up of reprints from Planet Comics.

I.W. Comics (later Super Comics) was Israel Waldman, who would buy printing plates and the rights to reprint from the original publisher, then issue the books three to a bag for 25¢. Since he wasn't going through newsstand distribution channels he didn't have to deal with the Comics Code. I have great affection for these comics. I bought the I.W. comics in 1959. I was too young to have read their original printings, so they were my introduction to those wicked pre-Code comics. I became an innocent seduced!