Friday, October 30, 2009

Mars Attacks! LIVES!!!

It's almost Halloween, and, in a fit of nostalgia, I searched the Net for Mars Attacks. (I worked for Topps when the movie came out!)
Imagine my surprise to discover...thirteen years since the movie played (all too briefly) in theatres, the Mars Attacks movie website is STILL up!
If you want to see a classic example of pre-Web 2.0 site-making, have a look!
It's retro-kool!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Design of the Week--The Cartoon Crimes of BIG TOWN!

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!
This week...
One of the coolest of our vintage Big Town / Illustrated Press designs is this one, showing the staff cartoonist illustrating a plot to kill the newspaper's racket-busting editor! (Why they couldn't just write it down is beyond me, but it makes for a great visual, eh?)
Note: the art is by the legendary Gil Kane (BlackMark, Green Lantern, Warlock, Spider-Man, etc.), who apparently used himself as the model for the artist!

Makes a great birthday or holiday gift for the graphic artist or art student in your life! (Not that we're suggesting they should plot to cause the demise of anyone..)

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

I'm Mooning over Moon Girl!

She was the princess of a far-off land, come to America after winning an athletic tournament!
She was super-strong, near-invulnerable, and could fly for short distances!
Equipped with exotic weaponry, she battled evil and constantly rescued her non-super powered boyfriend!
And, she wore a red-yellow-blue costume with a revealing top and VERY short blue shorts!
Sounds like Wonder Woman, doesn't it?
But, it's NOT!
It's MOON GIRL!
"WTF!!!" you may exclaim! "Who's 'Moon Girl'?"
Well, I'll tell you...
A young European aristocrat, known to all as Moon Girl or Princess of the Moon, is told of her family's legacy of woman warriors who can only marry men who defeat them in battle. She is also given a magic jewel (a moonstone) which enhances her already-considerable athletic abilities.
When Prince Mengu from an adjacent kingdom is smitten by the beautiful princess, he attempts to win her hand by defeating her in combat.
Good luck, Chuck!
She kicks his arse, but is herself smitten by his studliness.
Having learned Mengu went to America to get over his failure and heartbreak, she followed him to a private school where he took a teaching job under the name Lionel Manning. Moon Girl assumed the name Claire Lune, got another teaching job at the same school and reunited with Mengu / Lionel.
She agreed to help him toughen up in order to win her, and the two together romped around the city in matching tights getting exercise by battling evil menaces from gangsters to giant robots! (Beats doing laps at the gym!)

The origin tale you just read about was a backup story in the humor comic The Happy Hooligans #1. After another appearance in another humor comic, Moon Girl was given her own title.
That comic book was originally called Moon Girl & the Prince.
As of #2, it became just Moon Girl as Prince Mengu disappeared from all but the lead story in each issue.
When #7 came out, it became Moon Girl Fights Crime, the Prince was gone entirely, and the backups became true-crime tales narrated by Moon Girl. The lead stories were still Moon Girl adventures.
Two issues later (#9), the book became a romance title, A Moon, A Girl, Romance! (The final Moon Girl story appeared in the back.)
Finally, as of #13, the book shifted gears into science fiction and became Weird Fantasy!
Curiously, though almost all of EC's output over the years has been reprinted in both comic and book form, AFAIK, Moon Girl has yet to appear, except as a footnote in Weird Fantasy reprints!

Well. Atomic Kommie Comics™ is here to fill the void!

While we're not reprinting the comics (the copies we have are slabbed), we ARE offering some kool collectibles with two of Moon Girl's best covers emblazoned on them!
And if the demand is great enough, we'll offer the other six, as well!

Get in on the ground floor with Moon Girl...before she kicks YOUR butt!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Tick Tock...Time for a Clock!

With Daylight Savings Time ending on Halloween Night,
NOW is the time to consider getting a new Wall Clock!
Choose from...
...Classic Comics Covers...Graphically-Kool Logos...
...or Classic Pop Culture Imagery (like Sherlock Holmes)!

To browse, you can either click HERE, which will take you directly to our Complete Pop-Culture Clock Collection, or come to Atomic Kommie Comics™ , and browse by genre!
But act FAST!
Time waits for no one!
(Actually, the quote is "Time waits for no MAN.", but I didn't want to appear sexist!)

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Calendars Keep On Comin'...

MORE pop culture calendars are here including...
The all-new Captains of the Comics™ 2010 12-Month Calendar includes a dozen dynamic defenders, all with the rank of "Captain" 'cause the BEST military rank to have in sci-fi/fantasy is Captain!
"Sgt America" just doesn't have the ring of "Captain America", does it?
This clutch of cool, collectible captains includes Captain Trumph! Captain Science! Captain Fearless! Captain Future! Captain Cross! Captain Battle! Captain Video! Captain Flash! Captain Midnight! Captain Rocket! Captain Courageous! Captain Hazzard!
Stand to attention and buy it...NOW!
Classic Doc Strange™2010 12-Month Calendar including his FIRST and LAST cover appearances, as well as 10 more as he fights demons, aliens, Nazis...and COWBOYS???

PLUS: Look for these already-posted first-timers...
Classic DareDevil™ 2010 12-Month Calendar, which includes Silver Streak Comics #7 (DD's first cover appearance), DareDevil Comics #1 (the famous DareDevil vs Hitler issue), DareDevil Comics #13 (the FIRST Wise Guys), DareDevil Comics #31 (Final appearance of the Claw), and several other classic covers showcasing Charles Biro's amazing design sense!
Extra Bonus: The Splash Panel from page 1 of DareDevil Comics #1!

Classic Captain Future™ 2010 12-Month Calendar, which includes BOTH Captains Future--the original pulp hero who was renamed "Major Mars" in his comics incarnation in Exciting Comics, and the totally-new character created for Startling Comics (He's the one now known as "Zeus" in Project SuperPowers). We have all three first appearances as well as numerous other covers!

Classic Amazing-Man™ 2010 12-Month Calendar, featuring a dozen spectacular covers by Bill Everett and Sam Glanzman, including John Aman's first and final appearances!

Classic Cat-Man™ 2010 12-Month Calendar, with his first cover appearance (but second actual comic appearance) in Crash Comics, as well as ten of his own title, and an Australian Cat-Man cover for good measure! And there's lots of Kitten here as well, good-girl fans!

Classic Monster of Frankenstein™ 2010 12-Month Calendar, with a dozen Dick Briefer covers spanning both the humorous and macabre incarnations of Mary Shelley's character!

Captain Midnight™ 2010 12-Month Calendar, displays the best of his covers spanning his appearances in The Funnies to his own title, including Captain Midnight #1 with the Golden Age Captain Marvel introducing him to the readers! SHAZAM!

Mr District Attorney™ 2010 12-Month Calendar, submits 12 law-abiding covers by the Bob Kane Studios (Y'know, the guys who did ALL the Batman comic books until Carmine Infantino took over in 1965!) featuring one of the greatest radio-tv crimebusters of the 40s-50s!

Celebrate Sherlock Holmes in general, and Basil Rathbone in particular, with the Basil Rathbone IS Sherlock Holmes™ 2010 12-month calendar featuring a Baker Street dozen movie posters and lobby cards featuring Rathbone as Holmes along with Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson and Dennis Hoey (yeah, I thought it was "Hooey", too) as Inspector Lestrade!

Jungle Girls™ 2010 12-Month Calendar, where a dozen dynamic damsels like Princess Pantha, Luana, Rulah, and Judy of the Jungle (wha?) fight fiends, fantastic fauna and funky foliage while barely wearing any clothing on these classic comic covers and movie posters!

Masked Western Heroes™ 2010 12-Month Calendar stampedes a dozen Golden Age comic book covers featuring Western heroes who know that to fight for Justice beyond the Law, sometimes you must wear a mask!
See The ORIGINAL Ghost Rider, Red Mask, Black Phantom, Lone Rider, Masked Ranger, and others, including a special Christmas appearance by...!

Aviators of the Golden Age of Comics™ 2010 12-Month Calendar puts on parade the greatest fictional aviators of World War II & the Korean War including AirBoy, Captain Midnight, Black Commander, Captain Wings, Steve Savage, Captain Flight, and others!

There's also lots of revised versions of previous calendars!!
Buy 'em! Trade 'em! Collect them ALL! (just kidding!)