I was Face-to-Face with the Forbidden Robot by Lee, Lieber and Heck
Atlas Comics of the late 1950s are known for a couple of things. One, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko drew an awful lot of monster stories that were fun to read. Two, Atlas was the precursor to Marvel Comics and Fantastic Four No. 1.
And I’ll add to that the work of illustrator Don Heck. Not quite the stylistic powerhouse that Kirby and Ditko were, but he was great at thrillers and action drawn in a more realistic manner. Heck was always best when he inked himself as this fine example from Tales to Astonish No. 11 shows, cover dated September 1960. It is hands down my favourite Atlas story, and I would love to see a couple of Don Heck-focussed collections like we’ve seen for Kirby and Ditko.
New colour by me.
Page 4 as published
Scan of the original art for page 4, the only one I’ve come across for this story.
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