By Bill Everett, Werner Roth & Various
Edited by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo
Published by Fantagraphics Books
One of the most interesting comic book titles put out by Atlas Comics, the company that would become Marvel Comics during its post-superhero years, between 1948 and 1952, has to be Venus.
In no small part, this is due to some lovely artwork by Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett, who started out better than most comics artists and just kept improving over the years.
Originally a romance comic, Venus morphed into a superhero comic, a sci-fi comic, and then, at the peak of the EC New Trend,
This volume, the second in the very welcome Atlas Library series curated by Timely /Atlas expert Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, picks up with issue 10 and reprint all the stories—including the texts (and some ads) up through issue 19.
Apparently, the earlier issues had already been reprinted by Marvel.
I think most readers would consider these ten issues to be the peak issues, though. Many of the stories are extremely wordy and some are pretty slight but the lovely art throughout more than makes up for it.
It wouldn’t be Atlas if we didn’t have appearances from, among others, Russ Heath, Joe Maneely, Gene Colan, Dave Berg, Syd Shores, Werner Roth, and Manny Stallman. It’s Everett who more than steals the thunder, though.
Being a completist from way back, I should be glad to see that the book reprints the entirety of all 10 issues as far as stories—even the one-off non-Venus stories and the required two-page text stories. Even some of the advertising. I have to say though, that here a lot of that felt out of place and unnecessary.
I’m torn, but I think I would have preferred to have had only the stories of Venus herself.
A few of the non-Venus tales are okay but it’s the main character, of course, who we want to see. Venus is literally Venus, the Roman goddess of love, come to earth in human form where she works for a magazine publisher who lusts after her. Sometimes she has Lois Lane-type adventures and sometimes she has to call on other gods like Jupiter or Neptune to get her out of more other-worldly jams. Although Norse, not Roman, an early and very different version of Thor comes into play a couple of times, as does a rather satanic-looking Loki!
Once Everett’s stories start, things begin to go a little bit more insane, and they had already been pretty insane!
“Smooth” is a word I would use to describe Everett’s art in this period. I suppose one would have to say that it was his very recognizable smoothness, combined with Maneely’s heavily detailed work and the cruder work of Carl Burgos, that defined the overall look of Martin Goodman’s comics line in the fifties.
Handsome men, ugly monsters, and beautiful women, especially Venus herself, were the artist’s trademarks. He also did his own lettering, which adds immeasurably to his stories, particularly in their titles. To my mind, the best story in the book is “The Cartoonists Calamity,” which gives us everything that makes Everett Everett all in one place. Much fun as Venus co-creates a hero to defeat a cartoonist’s wacky characters come to life.
After a well-known bout with alcoholism, Bill Everett returned to his Sub-Mariner in the 1970s for what would prove to be his last and best comics work ever. During that too-brief run before his passing, he also revived Venus! I was only vaguely familiar with the character at that time but with this volume I’ve finally learned just why he had any nostalgia for her.
His stories here may be the most entertaining out of everything Atlas published in the 1950s.
Booksteve recommends.
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