#01 Rain of the Missile Men!
#01 Rain of the Missile Men!
Published May 1963
The Metal Men, which have been a part of the comic book scene for nearly four decades, started out as a scheduling glitch. When The Atom moved out into his own book, no content was ready for the 37th issue of Showcase (Mar-Apr 1962), the DC Comics title where new concepts were tried out before being given series of their own — and the issue was due at the printer in two weeks. Writer-editor Robert Kanigher created a band of adventuring robots and scripted a story for them over a single weekend, and handed it to a pair of speed demon artists, penciller Ross Andru and inker Mike Esposito, the team that had been drawing Wonder Woman and The War that Time Forgot under Kanigher’s editorship for several years. They made their deadline with days to spare.
Since Kanigher never expected there to be a second Metal Men story, he killed them off at the end.
Cover pencils by Ross Andru, inks by Mike Esposito. Rain of the Missile Men!, script by Bob Kanigher, art by Ross Andru; The Metal Men battle the Missile Men. 36 pgs. $0.12. Cover price $0.12.
Rain of the Missile Men! • Made Simple Self-Teaching Encyclopedia • Justice League of America; The Flash • Tootsie Roll • Brave and the Bold; Strange Sports Stories • Metal Facts and Fancies! • Missile Attack • Metal Scraps • Grit Newspaper • Jaro Stamps; Maxim Stamps • 104 Kings’ Knights • 100 Toy Soldiers • 147 Famous Automobiles • American Body Building Club • American Seeds (lots of ads!)
