Thank You for making it our BEST Halloween EVER!

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ wanted to say 'thank you" to all who ordered our ghoulish goodies and creepy collectibles for Halloween!
It's nice to see so many like-minded monsters and creatures out there! ;-)

NOTE: You can still order Halloween stuff, but, if you want it to arrive on time, you'll have to do Priority or Express Mail to get it!

Big Town with Steve Wilson, Fighting Newspaper Editor!

Most of the time, editors sit behind a desk and send reporters and photographers out to cover stories, sometimes making them risk life and limb.
Not Steve Wilson, managing editor of Big Town's The Illustrated News!
From 1937 to 1952, Steve personally used the Power of the Press on the weekly radio series Big Town.
Aided by assistant editor/society editor-reporter Lorelei Kilbourne, Steve didn't hesitate to roll up his sleeve and dive into the thick of things, somehow always managing to meet deadlines despite the fact he was rarely in the office!
Wilson was technologically-savvy, using then-state-of-the-art equipment (mostly listening devices, wiretaps, mini-cameras, and even radio phones like the one seen on the cover above) in his battles against evil.
Once he had the info he needed, Wilson would contact District Attorney Miller and turn the info over to him, usually in exchange for an exclusive on the story for The Illustrated Press, and a chance to participate in the "take-down"!

The first radio Steve Wilson was none other than Edward G Robinson, who managed the weekly live broadcast from Hollywood despite an incredibly-hectic movie career!
He finally had to give it up in 1942, when the show moved to New York City for the remainder of it's run.

Like most successful radio shows, Big Town became a multi-media franchise including a comic book series, four B-movies, and a tv series that ran simultaneously with the radio show from 1950 to '52 (when the radio series was cancelled), and stayed on the air until 1956.

Trivia:
The comic book (from which we derive our images) featured some of the best artists in the business including Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, and Alex Toth.
The four B-movies featured Hillary Brooke (later the beautiful comic foil on The Abbott & Costello Show) as Lorelei Kilbourne!

Big Town is the headline feature in Atomic Kommie Comics' ™ newest kool kollectible collection Newpapermen (& Women) Against Crime™ with no less than three different designs!

If you have a media mogul in the family, here's a perfect (and relatively inexpensive) birthday or holiday gift for them.
Remind them of the way it used to be (and could be, again)!

Special Treat: Link to mp3s of the Big Town radio show (Some eps with Edward G Robinson!)

AND DON'T FORGET...
Atomic Kommie Comics™

FREE Shipping*
on any orders $40 and up
FINAL DAY: October 23, 2009
Use Coupon code: SHIP4FREE at CheckOut

*Free Economy or Standard shipping for CafePress.com purchases of $40 or more, excluding shipping charges and applicable sales tax. Delivery address must be within the United States and cannot be a PO Box. All orders will be Economy shipping unless the order is not eligible for Economy shipping (e.g., order exceeds Economy weight restrictions). Coupon code must be entered at check out. Promotion starts on October 21, 2009, at 12:00 a.m. (PST) and ends on October 23, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. (PST). Cannot be combined with any other CafePress.com coupons or promotions and this offer may change, be modified or cancelled at anytime without notice.

Design of the Week--Friday Foster (and Coupon)

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!
This week...

She was the FIRST Black character to have her own national comic strip!

There was even a movie about her starring action film star Pam Grier!

Now you can have the retro-style Friday Foster collectibles they never made during her too-brief 1970s run by clicking HERE!

AND DON'T FORGET...
Atomic Kommie Comics™

FREE Shipping*
on any orders $40 and up
TWO DAYS REMAINING: October 22 – October 23, 2009
Use Coupon code: SHIP4FREE at CheckOut

*Free Economy or Standard shipping for CafePress.com purchases of $40 or more, excluding shipping charges and applicable sales tax. Delivery address must be within the United States and cannot be a PO Box. All orders will be Economy shipping unless the order is not eligible for Economy shipping (e.g., order exceeds Economy weight restrictions). Coupon code must be entered at check out. Promotion starts on October 21, 2009, at 12:00 a.m. (PST) and ends on October 23, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. (PST). Cannot be combined with any other CafePress.com coupons or promotions and this offer may change, be modified or cancelled at anytime without notice.

Fantastic Femmes--Cote de Pablo (& Coupon)

Note: this page has been updated with NEW info HERE!

Best-known as Mossad (Israeli Secret Service) agent Ziva David on NCIS, Cote de Pablo is actually Chilean!
Her family moved to the US while she was a child, and she attended arts-oriented schools including Carnegie Mellon University, where she majored in Theater.
Cote began her tv career as a host on the Univision series Control, but soon went on to guest appearances on several comedy and drama series, then starring roles on the short-lived The Jury, and, currently, NCIS.
Trivia: Cote performed the song "Temptation" on the NCIS episode "Last Man Standing". The complete performance is on the NCIS soundtrack cd.
She also appeared on Broadway in The Mambo Kings!
Cote is bi-lingual (Spanish-English), but uses a linguistics coach to help her with Ziva's Hebrew and Yiddish dialogue, which she does phonetically (and sounds pretty convincing). NOTE: Ziva's also been shown to speak French, German, Russian, Turkish, and Arabic, all of which Cote does phonetically.

Genre appearances include...
NCIS (Mossad Liaison Officer, now Probationary Agent Ziva David)
The Jury (Marguerite Cisneros)
TOCA Race Driver [VG] (Melanie Sanchez)
Check out...
Cote's bio on CBS's NCIS Pages

Cote de Pablo Network (FanSite)
Cote de Pablo.org (FanSite)

ATTENTION!
We interrupt our usual drooling over beautiful women to bring you a special offer from
Atomic Kommie Comics™

FREE Shipping*
on orders $40 and up
THREE DAYS ONLY: October 21 – October 23, 2009
Use Coupon code: SHIP4FREE at CheckOut

*Free Economy or Standard shipping for CafePress.com purchases of $40 or more, excluding shipping charges and applicable sales tax. Delivery address must be within the United States and cannot be a PO Box. All orders will be Economy shipping unless the order is not eligible for Economy shipping (e.g., order exceeds Economy weight restrictions). Coupon code must be entered at check out. Promotion starts on October 21, 2009, at 12:00 a.m. (PST) and ends on October 23, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. (PST). Cannot be combined with any other CafePress.com coupons or promotions and this offer may change, be modified or cancelled at anytime without notice.

It's almost Halloween! Here's Santa Claus (and some Martians!)

He's the Jolly Old Elf in a red suit!
They are BIG Green Men from Mars with an even BIGGER robot!
Before Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, they were the ingredients for the weirdest Christmas movie ever!
And, since they include some of Halloween's traditional monsters--notably Martians, we thought we'd represent this cross-holiday classic NOW!
(Besides, most brick-and-mortar stores are already promoting Christmas stuff! Why can't I?)

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians was filmed in 1964 in that bastion of cinema, Long Island, New York (in an unused aircraft hangar).
Starring a host of tv and b-movie actors including handsome-but-stiff Leonard Hicks as the good Martian leader Kimar, 60s villain/voiceover artist Vincent Beck (who did lots of work for Irwin Allen's sci-fi shows) as the film's mustache-twirling Martian villain, Voldar, and John Call as a pretty damn convincing Santa Claus, the flick is touted these days as the debut of future talentless chantuse Pia Zadora as Martian Kid Girmar. (Thankfully, she has rather limited screen time.)

The plot's pretty simple.
The children of Mars are in a funk.
The adult Martians deduce it's due to the childrens' strict and sterile upbringing, and that to "normalize" them, the kids must have fun!
And what could be more fun than celebrating Christmas?
But, to do a proper Christmas, you need a Santa Claus!
Thus, the Martians journey to Earth to kidnap Santa Claus and force him to create a Christmas celebration on Mars!
Then, as they say in TV Guide, hilarity ensues! (well, sorta)

As an example of low-budget filmmaking, it's actually pretty effective.
Every penny (what few of them they had) is up on the screen.
The costuming and Santa's Workshop and Mars sets are as good as those of tv shows of the period.
(The Martian robot is probably the weakest element from a design and execution standpoint, but nobody's perfect!)
There's good use of stock footage (from Dr. Strangelove, no less).
And, the idea to utilize the then-popular Wham-O Air Blaster toy guns as Martian weapons was either a stroke of marketing genius or clever use of limited funds. Either way, sales of the guns shot thru the roof after the film hit the kiddie matinee circuit!

If you're between 3-9 years old, the flick's a lot of fun.
If you're between 10 and whatever the local drinking age is, it'll drive you nuts, especially the theme song!
If you're over the local drinking age, do so before watching! It's available on a host of public domain dvds as well as one of the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 snarkfests.

And you just knew we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ were going to include Santa Claus Conquers the Martians in our Cool Christmas collection on stuff including kid and adult sweatshirts and hoodies, mugs and coasters, tree ornaments, and greeting cards!
BTW: The image is from the comic book tie-in. There was also a 45 single of the theme, a spoken-word LP album of the movie's dialogue, and a novelization!
Now I can't get that damn theme our of my head..."Hoo-ray for Santy Claus..." AARRRGGGHHH!

FREE: either a Halloween trick or an early Christmas gift (interpret as you will) from us to you: a link to a download the film in various formats!

Fantastic Femmes--Heather Langenkamp

Sometimes it's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
Heather Langenkamp was attending high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, near the location filming for the movie The Outsiders.
While hanging around the location, she was offered the chance to be an extra, and then a small speaking role.
From there she went on to full-time performing, including the tv series Just the 10 of Us and three of the Nightmare on Elm Street films.
Recently, she's gone behind the camera doing film production and directing, including sfx work on Evan Almighty, Dawn of the Dead (2004) and Cabin in the Woods (2011) as well as directing the segment "Jessica" in the new horror anthology film Prank.
Trivia: Much of the plot for the film Wes Craven's New Nightmare is based on Heather's experiences with an Elm Street-obsessed stalker.
She runs an environmentally-friendly candy company!

Genre appearances include...
Perversions of Science "Ultimate Weapon"
Never Sleep Again: the Nightmare Legacy (as self)
Wes Craven's New Nightmare (as Heather Langenkamp playing Nancy Thompson)
Shocker (Victim)
Nightmare on Elm Street / Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (Nancy Thompson)

Check out...
Heather's MySpace Page
Heather's candy company: the Malibu Gum Company

Other actresses to play Nancy Thompson include...
Rooney Mara in Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Newspapermen (& women) Against Evil!

"Newspapermen" in comics tended to be the alter-ego of a costumed crusader.
Look at Clark Kent aka Superman, Peter Parker aka Spider-Man, or Britt Reid aka The Green Hornet.
In each case, the reporter / photographer / editor-publisher served basically as an information provider for the costumed identity to go out and crush evil. ("Hmm...this teletype says Luthor is using a giant robot to destroy Star Labs! This looks like a job for Superman")
But...what if the reporter / photographer / editor-publisher was the actual hero?
What if these crime-crushers had no powers, save The Power of the Press!

That's what Atomic Kommie Comics' ™ newest kool kollectible collection Newpapermen (& women) Against Crime is all about!
Featuring...Big Town's Steve Wilson the managing editor of The Illustrated Press
Casey: Crime Photographer for The Morning Express
Jane Arden: Crime Reporter
and Dick Quick: Ace Reporter
battling corruption, racketeering, and even sabotage, on t-shirts, messenger bags, mugs, and other nifty stuff, these classic images evoke a period when we could trust those who provided the news to give us not only unbiased reporting, but occasionally kick serious ass on our behalf!
(Note: We covered Jane previously, and we'll be doing Hero(ine) Histories for the others shortly.)

If you have a media mogul in the family, here's a perfect (and relatively inexpensive) birthday or holday gift for them.
Remind them of the way it used to be (and could be, again)!