During the seventies there was a real boom in the black & white comic magazine market with long established publishers getting challenged not just by Marvel but also newcomer Atlas/Seaboard. Storming on to the racks with no less than 21 four colour titles Atlas also launched a number of more "adult-orientated" mags. Today we'd mark them for "mature readers".
Previously I have picked up both issues of Devillina and an edition of their horror mag Weird Tales of the Macabre but until now had not read this rather interesting anthology Thrilling Adventure Stories.
With five stories and a couple of film related features this did show promise as it covered a variety of genres.
Starting with Tigerman and the Flesh Peddlers readers are drawn into the seedy world of prostitution with a mainstream superhero that appeared in Atlas/Seaboards four colour line and this story would probably have not passed the Comic Codes Authority censors in that format.
Next up is Sting of Death, a one-off tale of a handful of survivors of a plain crash complete with betrayal, racism and heroism. Oh and did I mention cannibals?
Kromag the Killer is one of those improbable stories set in a time when men and dinosaurs lived side by side (which of course they didn't) but were popular at the time. This was set to be one of two on-going features.
The other on-going feature was a dramatisation of Lawrence of Arabia with art by Frank Thorne which was probably a result of the popularity of the film of the same name which I remember seeing.
Finally a war story in the form of Escape from Nine, a POW story which sees the Nazi snitch get his comeuppance.
The mag only lasted two issues and Atlas/Seaboard went out of business almost as quickly as it appeared. There remain some gems amongst their output depending on individual tastes.
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