Saturday, November 8, 2008

G-Men, T-Men & Spies Lurk under the Christmas Tree!

In our continuing quest for cool Christmas presents for the pop culture aficionado in your life, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ wish to offer you yet another exciting possibility for gift-giving...Secret agents have been a part of pop culture for centuries, but spying didn't really become a glamorous profession until World War I.
Since then, the image of the spy has been of a heroic figure fighting off foreign evildoers while holding a girl in one arm and a martini (shaken not stirred) in the other...
In that stylish vein, we offer a line of collectibles that present our government's heroic G-Men, T-Men & Spies on classic comic covers in our Crime & Punishment™ collection.
Note: "G-Men" is slang for "Government Men" or F.B.I. agents. "T-Men" were Treasury agents.
Protecting us from threats both internal and external, these brave fictional American men (and women) fought enemies ranging from Communists, to the Mafia, to Iranians (perceived as a threat even in 1955!), and looked good doing it! (The most famous spy in fiction, James Bond, isn't American! He's a member of MI-6, the British Secret Service!)
Choose from 9 different designs including Cloak & Dagger, Date with Danger, Atomic Spy Cases, Al of the F.B.I. (later Al of the Secret Service), T-Man, and GangBusters!
Make it a Merry Christmas for your loved one...and the entire Free World!

Friday, November 7, 2008

"The Gifts are Afoot, Watson!"


OK, it's a silly paraphrase of a classic line, but we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ take our Sherlockania VERY seriously...
As part of our Crime & Punishment™ collection, we've given The Greatest Sleuth of All™ his very own section!
12 different designs, including several with Basil Rathbone, the man who is to Sherlock Holmes as Sean Connery is to James Bond, not the first, but to many (including myself), the definitive portrayer!
Add to that, several classic comic book covers, a variety of other movie posters (including the campy A Study in Terror with Holmes as "The ORIGINAL Caped Crusader"!), the coolest cigar box art I've ever seen (based on William Gillette), and 1st Edition covers from A Study in Scarlet & His Last Bow!
If you're looking for a cool Christmas gift for the Holmesian, Sherlockian, or Baker Street Irregular in your life, you can't go wrong with one of these mugs, bags, shirts or other goodies!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

The Blue Bolt!

In the 1940s, comic books were the equivalent of videogames today. Everybody started publishing them, even the staid Saturday Evening Post! Their comics line was Novelty Press, and to create the lead character, they commissioned young up-and-coming writer/artist Joe Simon.
Simon came up with the concept, plot, and character designs and produced the first issue. But, by the second issue, his workload between this and other projects was so overwhelming, that to stay on deadline (Yes, there was a time when comics artists actually MET deadlines!), he partnered with another young up-and-comer, Jacob Kurtzburg.
You know him as...Jack Kirby!
(In the '60s he would, with Stan Lee, co-create The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor...basically 95% of Marvel Comics' Silver Age line-up, almost all of whom are still going strong today! Yeah, THAT Jack Kirby!)
Thus, with The Blue Bolt, the legendary Golden Age team of Simon & Kirby born!
As to the character himself...he was a football star who was struck by lightning (twice), recovered, flew his private plane to get help, crashed it so hard that it fell thru to the center of the Earth where the inhabitants of an advanced civilization used radiation to save and improve him, was given a costume and weapon, and sent to battle the local super-villain, The Green Sorceress.
And that was just the origin story!
Then things really got busy!
It took a year for Blue to both fall in love with, and finally defeat, Greenie. Then realizing World War II was under way, he went to the surface to battle the Axis.
Simon & Kirby moved on to create other, even higher-profile, projects (Captain America, Newsboy Legion, Young Romance, etc.) but Blue Bolt chugged on, surviving until the early 50s, when, after changing from a superhero to horror title, it was laid to rest as a result of a public outcry against comics led by Dr. Wertham.
We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have resurrected the valiant hero as part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line, including his first appearance, his (in our opinion) BEST cover, and his final Golden Age cover appearance!
For a fan of the Golden Age of Comics, Jack Kirby, or the Blue Bolt himself, any of our shirts, mugs, mousepads or other goodies would make great Christmas gifts! Show the fanboy (or fangirl) in your life you know what they like!

Monday, November 3, 2008

"...an apartment in New York...wild life she's been leading..."

Well, the Christmas shopping season is more-or-less underway (Remember when it didn't begin until after Thanksgiving?), so we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ are going to offer you a daily guide to reasonably-priced pop culture collectibles that would make great gifts for the hard-to-please person in your life!
First off is a kool, retro, 1950s comic cover image from our Seducton of the Innocent™ section.
Quick side note: Seduction of the Innocent was a book written in the 1950s by Dr. Fredric Wertham, a psychiatrist who postulated that, because juvenile delinquents read comic books, comics caused juvenile delinquency! (Psychiatrists today claim the same thing about video games, in the '80s & '90s about horror movies, in the '60s & '70s about tv shows, etc.) So our collection's title is tongue-in-cheek and somewhat snarky, not prurient! As we put it..."Proudly show the stuff your grandparents didn't want your parents to see!"
This particular image is a cutting commentary on the belief that New York City is a den of sin, a modern Sodom (if not Gomorrah), and that only MidWestern small-town values are the RIGHT values!
It's available on a variety of items including mugs, messenger bags, t-shirts, tops, and other goodies along with eleven other comics covers and almost TWO DOZEN naughty movie posters!
So, let's put the "X" back in Xmas! ;-)
Shop now!
Avoid the Christmas rush!
It's good to be BAD at Christmastime!