Pop Culture Messenger / LapTop / iPad / Kindle / eBook Reader Bags

With the new iPad coming out in a week, it's time to consider what you're going to carry it in...

Yeah, you could just stick it in your backpack, along with all your other books n' stuff, but think about two important things...
1) What happens if it gets damaged?
2) Where's the fun in that?

So, to
1) Protect your investment in state-of-the-art electronics!
and
2) Have some fun!
we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ offer the following option...

Our line of pop culture-themed Messenger Bags!
They have...
One front adjustable clasp closure.
Main compartment has an inside slip pocket.
Front panel has zipper compartment.
Adjustable 2" shoulder strap.
Made of sturdy (and waterproof) 600 Denier Polyester
Size: 14 1/2" x 12" x 5" (Perfect for iPad, Kindle, most other e-Book Readers, dvd player, or smaller laptops/notebooks!)

Of course, they come with our assortment of retro-kool vintage designs, many exclusive to our online store!
And, best of all, they're ONLY $29.99! (Cheaper than a pair of Doc Martens!)

We've even set up two different ways you can go directly to our kool kollection...
1) a special shop page leading you directly to the bags, separated by genre (mystery, horror, western, romance, sci-fi, etc.) Yes, we cover EVERYTHING!
or
2) you can just look thru the entire assortment (over 500 designs) at once!

(Of course, if you just want to take your time and browse thru the whole store...come in. hang out, look around! You're always welcome!)

Design of the Week--Easter with Mother Goose (by popular demand)

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

Since we've had numerous requests since it "rotated out" of Design of the Week, we thought we'd re-present an absolutely adorable piece by the legendary Walt (Pogo) Kelly featuring a puppy, kitten, and bunny with surprised looks on their faces as the egg they're painting hatches, producing yet another cute animal...a chick!

You just don't see stuff like this anymore!
So, why not order some kidswear, or even holiday greeting cards with this one-week-only graphic?
Everyone who sees it will go "Awwww."

Trent, Kelly Robinson, Bill Maxwell...they were ALL Robert Culp!

One of the underappreciated talents of the genre, actor / writer / director Robert Culp, passed away.

Best known for his genre work, he made three appearances (more than any other lead actor) on the original Outer Limits, "Architects of Fear", "Demon with a Glass Hand"*, and  "Corpus Earthling".
He even played the villain in the 1st season Man From U.N.C.L.E. ep "The Shark Affair"!


His greatest success came on the tv series I Spy, one of the many secret agent shows of the 1960s, but one with a distinctive twist...it co-starred a Black actor as an equal part of the lead duo!
Bill Cosby's Alexander Scott posed as "trainer" to Culp's "pro tennis player" Kelly Robinson, but the pair were equals in every way, including fighting abilities and opportunities for romantic entaglements, though Scott was the better-educated of the two, and Robinson was more experienced at espionage work.
Both Culp and Cosby liked improvising their wise-cracking dialogue, and, after doing a couple of takes as scripted, usually did one or two off the tops of their heads, with the resulting episode being a combination of takes.
Culp and Cosby were both nominated for Emmys as Lead Actor in all three years, with Cosby winning each time.
Culp was also Emmy-nominated for one of the seven episodes he wrote. (Culp insisted on no improv when filming those episodes!)
Like most 60s shows, there was both a reunion tv-movie I Spy Returns, and an awful updated movie version I Spy with Eddie Murphy as Kelly Robinson.
There were eight original novels (no novelizations of episodes like Star Trek) and a comic book. (Remember, there were no videotape or dvds of the show!)

After  I Spy, Culp did various tv guest-star roles as well as both starring and supporting roles in feature films, most notably Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice.

He was the first choice for Commander John Koenig on Space: 1999, but when he insisted on the opportunity to write and direct as well, producer Gerry Anderson went with Martin Landau.

He returned to genre tv in the early 1980s as old-style FBI agent Bill Maxwell in The Greatest American Hero (which,like I Spy, ran three years), and it's spin-off pilot The Greatest American Heroine.

Robert Martin Culp

August 16, 1930 – March 24, 2010

A special tribute treat: The pop-culture spy blog Mister 8 provides the I Spy comic story "The Missing Man", while the Gold Key Comics blog samples the I Spy comic "A Deadly Friend".

*There were plans by "Demon with a Glass Hand" writer Harlan Ellison to use Trent (again played by Culp) in an episode of Babylon 5 (which Ellison was serving as a creative consultant on), but they never came to fruition.

Golden Age Comic LogoWear

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ are big fans of logos.
You know, the distinctive title lettering for a book or character.

Visually, it's the main element that distinguishes one book from another, especially when they're "racked" in a traditional magazine rack so only the top 1/3rd of the cover is visible.

And nowhere were logos more distinctive than during The Golden Age of Comics.
So, it's with pardonable pride that we present a line of kool kollectibles featuring the best of classic comic book logos in our line of logowear!

We've included some of the niftiest lettering ever to grace t-shirts, messenger bags, mugs and other goodies including Amazing-Man Comics, The Black Terror, The Blue Beetle, Captain Future, Captain MidNight, Captain Science, Captain Video, Cat-Man Comics, DareDevil, Doc Strange, The Face, Fighting Yank, The Flame, The Green Hornet, Green Lama, Monster of Frankenstein, The Owl, Phantom Lady, Samson, and SkyMan!
We're also featuring our own retro-themed Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ logo in it's own line of logowear!
There'll be more to come, so check us often!

The Red Menace vs...the Avenger!

There's an interesting sub-genre of superheroes, known as the "inspired-bys".
These are characters who are inspired by other characters to take up the mask and seek justice.
Usually they're family members who take up the same identity as their predecessor (The Phantom, Black Canary, Silk Spectre of The Watchmen, The Black Hood, HourMan, etc.)
Sometimes, as in this case, they're inspired by an unrelated hero who just happened to be published by the same company!
The best-known example is WildCat, inspired by the Golden Age Green Lantern to become a crimefighter.

The Avenger had a similar origin.
When his brother is taken hostage by Communist spies who wanted his prototype StarJet aircraft, inventor Roger Wright is inspired by stories of the Original Ghost Rider to take up a masked identity to rescue him!
Proclaiming himself "an Avenger against the evils of Communism",  Roger dons a red costume in defiance (Communists were often described as "the Red Menace" because their flags were predominiantly red) and uses his StarJet to attempt a rescue.
Unfortunately, his brother, who had attempted to escape, was already dead!
Roger captured the spies, and declaring "No man can be complacent while such as you are bent on enslaving all Mankind", began a one-man war against Communists everywhere!

The war lasted only four issues.
The Avenger, like Nature Boy and several other mid-1950s heroes came along just before the audience was ready for the return of superheroes, who had all but disappeared from comics in 1949!
It wasn't until an updated version of The Flash appeared in Showcase #4 (a year after the last issue of The Avenger) that the Silver Age of Comics, and the resulting explosion of superhero books, got under way.

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have digitally-restored and remastered what we believe to be his first and best cover appearance on an assortment of pop-culture collectibles, including t-shirts, messenger bags, mugs and other goodies, in the Solo Heroes section of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line!

Show you believe in capitalism and buy an Classic Avenger goodie or two.
You don't want him thinking you're a Communist, do you? ;-)

Note: this character is in no way related to the earlier pulp/comic character The Avenger published by the same company as Doc Savage and The Shadow, and currently being revived by both DC Comics and Moonstone Publishing.

Britain’s Frederic Wertham!

Seems we're on a bit of a Brit culture kick the past few days...
Most readers of this blog are familiar with Dr. Fredric Wertham and his notorious book Seduction of the Innocent, which basically attributed 1950s juvenile delinquency to the reading of comic books, specifically horror comics!

But, did you know that Great Britain had a similar cultural phenomenon, known as The Gorbals Vampire, also blaming American horror comics?

Bleeding Cool, a site of such importance to all comics fanboys and fangirls (yes, that includes us) that it should be one of your PRIMARY bookmarks, has posted info on a new BBC documentary about this infamous (and little-known) period of British history!

Link, read, listen, and learn.
For those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it!

Law & Order: UK...now on Region 1 DVD!

In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups.

The police who investigate crime, and the Crown Prosecutors who prosecute the offenders.

These are their stories.

Sound familiar?
It's the opening narration of the most recent version of the long-running Law & Order franchise.
In fact, it's now in it's second season!
But, if you live in the US, you haven't seen it...until now!

It's Law & Order: UK, produced in England.
Creator Dick Wolf is overseeing the whole thing, but the main writer / producer is former TorchWood and Life on Mars staffer Chris Chibnall.
Plus, it features several genre performers as regulars, including Jamie Bamber (BattleStar Galactica), Harriet Walter (Lord Peter Wimsey / Harriet Vane Mysteries) and...

Fantastic Femme Freema Agyeman (Dr. Who, TorchWood, Survivors)! (Looks good in her barrister's robes, eh?)

 (Here's a shot in her "civilian" garb.)

Anyway, I was going thru the Sunday papers (which I pick up after 9pm on Saturday night) and I glanced thru the sale flyers.
The Target Stores flyer usually has a page of new cds and dvds. Sometimes they have exclusives.
They sure did this week...Law & Order:UK for only $26.99!
I went online to target.com and noticed that, after this week, it'll be 39.99, so I'm going to grab it at my local store on Tuesday!
Maybe I'll see you there!