Number 1177: The atomic nightmare

Atomic War #1 (1952), a paranoid classic from Ace Comics, is the stuff of my childhood nightmares. I dreamed about being in an atomic blast. Maybe more of my generation, and our parents' and grandparents' generation, did also. We were very propagandized in the 1950s. I remember hearing the words from a teacher in my elementary school that shocked me: "It's not IF, kids, it's WHEN," in a classroom discussion on how to avoid death when the Big One was dropped on us.

Now we know it was all part of the big lie told to us naïve children, trusting that our adults would know how to protect us. By that time the destruction of cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki had shown if you were in a certain radius there was nothing left of you but vapor, and even outside that radius your days left on Earth were few. An article tells the grim story.

But even in those days of of feeling an attack was inevitable, we knew for it to happen the Russians had to fly in and drop those bombs on us without themselves being shot down by the U.S. Air Force. It was a sliver of hope! Our brave airmen would protect us! Yay!

Artwork is credited by the Grand Comics Database to Ken Rice. Without further ado, my childhood atomic nightmare:

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The king's kollection

Two pages excerpted from a longer article.

When King Farouk of Egypt was deposed in 1952 and went into exile much was made of his collections, unearthed during searches of his palaces. Life magazine ran an article, lavishly illustrated in color, in its November 24, 1952 issue, showing some of what was found. To the general public in 1952 comic books and pulps, found in a closet, would have been evidence (along with a massive porn collection) of a lowbrow addiction to sleaze.

What a difference sixty years makes. When I look at the picture of some of Farouk's collection, everything I see (except for the bronze likeness of Farouk himself) I'd want. Even the nudie-cutie paintings look campy and collectible. Does any of it still exist? I don't know.

My guess is for illustration purposes photographer David Douglas Duncan chose items from the closet that would have made the ex-king look foolish. As we see in the photo, besides pin-up magazines, Farouk read Timely publications' funny animal kiddie comics and Millie the Model. He most likely had other comic books, too. The article says he had "hundreds of comic books and pulp magazines."  Who knows? Maybe Action Comics #1. Maybe even copies of Life. As I said, what a difference...yesterday's trash, today's treasures.