BEACH BUM COMICS : CHILLING POST-APOCALYPTIC SERIES -- CHARLTON COMIC'S DOOMSDAY +1 !!!

Doomsday +1 chilling cover thoroughly captured my attention!

Doomsday + 1 was a post-apocalyptic (before it was so trendy) comic-book series published by Charlton Comics, running six issues. Two years after its cancelation, Doomsday +1 was revived as an all-reprint series with issues #7-12.

The series was created by prolific writer Joe Gill and penciler/inker John Byrne. Bruce Patterson (as Byrne Robotics) provided some inking on #4-#6.

The terrific series takes place in a near future in which a South American despot named Rykos launches his sole two atomic missiles on New York City in the U.S. and Moscow in the U.S.S.R. The two superpowers, each believing the other has launched a first strike, retaliate. By the time American president Cole and a Russian premier with the first name Mikhail have realized their errors, their fully automated nuclear-missile systems can not be countermanded.

Neal Adams does Doomsday +1!

Only hours before the apocalypse begins, a Saturn VI rocket launches bearing three astronauts: Captain Boyd Ellis, United States Air Force; his fiancée, Jill Malden; and Japanese physicist Ikei Yashida. Weeks later, after the post-apocalyptic radiation has subsided to safe levels, their space capsule lands upon a melting Greenland ice field, where the three ally themselves with Kuno, a 3rd-century Goth revived from his ice-encased suspended animation.

The four encounter a Russian scientist/cyborg in Canada, where they commandeer a futuristic jet plane; undersea dwellers; and brutish U.S. military survivors, among others.

Doomsday +1 #1
"They Live Again"
After General Rykos starts a nuclear war, three NASA astronauts return to a devastated Earth and find a caveman frozen in the ice.

Doomsday +1 #2
"A Faceless Foe"
Dr. Vladislav Yomorov sends his robots to destroy Boyd and his crew.

Doomsday +1 #3
"The Peace Keepers"
An alien race investigates what has happened on Earth and finds Boyd and his crew.

Doomsday +1 #4
"Hidden Empire"
Captain Ellis and his crew are captured by a race of fish-men and are rescued by another underwater race.

Back-up feature art by Steve Ditko!

Doomsday +1 #5
"Prologue"
"Rule of Fear"
Captain Boyd and his crew come across a missle silo that is still inhabited.
The U.F.O.'s That Aren't There
Fact page, art by Steve Ditko.
My favorite cover in the series!

Doomsday +1 #6
"All the Beautiful People"
Captain Boyd and his crew are taken to an alternate Earth.

Charlton Bullseye #4 Doomsday +1 "There Will Be Time..."

Charlton Bullseye #4 & #5 printed a two part Doomsday +1 story, "There Shall Be Time...".
A mysterious woman, who identifies herself only as Cameo, saves the crew from a dinosaur and takes them to The Aerie.
Written by John Byrne
Art by John Byrne & Bob Layton

Ad for Tom Sutton's unpublished Doomsday +1 #13!

With sales of the reprint issues strong, Tom Sutton was assigned to write and draw a 15-page story scheduled to run as issue #13. As sales of the reprint series tapered off, the project was canceled. While the script became lost, Sutton's pencil-and-ink art for the story, "The Secret City," eventually surfaced, with the cover and the first page published in the magazine Charlton Spotlight #6.

All six original stories plus the two-part Charlton Bullseye story were reprinted as the Fantagraphics comic-book series The Doomsday Squad #1-7, with new covers by Byrne (#1-2), Neal Adams (#4), and Gil Kane (the remainder.)