Saturday, November 19, 2011

This is NOT The Batman...

...though it is by an artist who works on Detective Comics...
It's the cover for Black Panther #529, out in February.
The current story arc is ending along with artist Francesco Francavilla's work on the title.

But he's moving on to the retro-themed Captain America & Bucky, as of #625, so don't despair!

Friday, November 18, 2011

THE GREEN SLIME Tonight on TCM!


Tonight, Turner Classic Movies performs a public service by airing a cult cinema classic at 3:30 am!
The Green Slime was an Italian-Japanese-American co-production about alien spores who attach themselves to a space station, grow to five feet tall, start ingesting the human crew with the intention to do the same to the population of Earth!
It's fast-paced, has pretty good sfx (on a par with the Godzilla and Gamera flicks of the period), and the multi-national cast features some solid actors including Robert Horton, Richard Jaeckel, and Luciana Paluzzi. (Curiously, no Japanese actors appear in the film!)
The writers of this amazing opus included Bill Finger, co-creator (with Bob Kane) of The Batman, and Ivan Reiner, screenwriter of Wild, Wild Planet and other Italian genre films!
The funkiest part is the now-legendary theme song written by Charles Fox, who previously had done the music for Barbarella!
And, after years of only being available on an OOP pan-and-scan VHS, it's finally on DVD from Warner Archive by clicking HERE.

Here's the complete theme song (only part of it is used in the flick's opening credits)...

...one of the Japanese trailers for the flick (note that the Japanese are no better at lip-synching dubbing than Americans)...

And a longer trailer with more action...


We think the poster art would fit in perfectly as a t-shirt, mug or other collectible (along with the DVD) as a retro-kool holiday gift set for your pop-culture-oriented loved one (or yourself)!
Get it...before the Green Slime gets YOU!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Now Available: 2012 Pop Culture 12-Month Calendars

There are pop culture subjects we've wanted in 12-month calendar form as presents for others (or for ourselves), but were never produced!
So, we decided to create them ourselves, using the wildest...rarest...kitchiest comic book, pulp magazine covers and movie posters we could find, each image digitally-restored and remastered from hi-rez scans of the original items, NO reprints or low-rez files! (Would we do that to you?)
Only $19.99 each!

Here are the  
Atomic Kommie Comics 
2012 12-Month Calendars 
by genre

Mystery / Crime
Sherlock Holmes: the Greatest Sleuth of All! 
Basil Rathbone IS Sherlock Holmes!
Mr District Attorney


Horror
WereWolves & Vampires
(shown above)
Horror Comics of the 1950s
Vampires of Pulps & Comics
Werewolves of the Comics & Pulps
Zombies of Comics & Pulps

Camp / Kitsch
3-D Movies
3-D Comic Books
Seduction of the Innocent!!
Jungle Girls
Good Girl / Bad Grrrl


Romance
True Love Comics Tales


Sci-Fi / Fantasy
Martians, Martians, Martians!
Art of Barsoom 
Thrilling Science-Fiction Tales 
Bugs & Creepy Crawlies of Comics & Pulps
Dinosaurs of the Comics & Pulps™ 

SuperHeroes
Captains of the Comics
Heroines!
Classic Phantom Lady

Lost Heroes of the Silver Age of Comics
Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics
Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics Team-Ups
1st Appearance Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics
Flag-Waving Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics

Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics vs HITLER
Classic Black Terror
Classic Blue Beetle
Classic Captain Future
Classic Dare Devil

Classic Green Hornet
Classic Green Lama
Classic Monster of Frankenstein

Classic SuperSnipe

Western
Western Comics Adventures
Real-Life Western Comics
The Cisco Kid and Pancho
Masked Western Heroes



Military
Captain MidNight
Aviators of the Golden Age of Comics
WAR: Past, Present & Future
Classic Korean War Comics

NOT available in stores, only on-line! Order now...before time runs out! ;-)

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Reading Room: CHILDREN OF DOOM Conclusion

Cover of the 1978 reprint which left out one page. Which one?
Returning to an Earth already devastated by man-made disaster, a pair of astronauts inadvertently doom the entire planet by using their atomic engines to land safely, causing a Doomsday Weapon (which activates when it senses any uncontrolled radioactivity) to awaken and begin it's lethal countdown...
Shortly after this issue came out, editor Dick Giordano went to DC Comics, taking a number of people including Children of Doom creators Denny O'Neil and Pat Boyette with him.
O'Neil stayed at DC, helping to revitalize several series including (with Neal Adams) Batman and Green Lantern, and carving out a long, multi-award-winning career as one of comics' best writers.
Boyette did several stories at DC, then returned to Charlton, where he continued to be one of the mainstays of the art staff until the company shut down.
For more about the highly-underrated Pat Boyette have a look HERE!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Reading Room: CHILDREN OF DOOM Part 2

The world ended.
But not by nuclear war, since a Doomsday Machine that would destroy the planet if any atomic explosion was detected, ended even testing of nuclear bombs!
Instead, a European power (implied to be Communists) manage to re-direct two meteors to strike Earth, ideally affecting only the USA!
Unfortunately, an attempt to divert the meteors using missiles results in the space rocks fragmenting and hitting all over the planet, creating devastation on an unparalleled scale!
With the Earth apparently doomed, a pair of astronauts in orbit, believing themselves the only survivors, decide to head for the nearest habitable planet...Venus!
But they don't know people have survived...but not unscathed!
Scientific note: In mid-1967, it wasn't yet known that Venus was covered with clouds of sulfuric acid and the surface was barren, so heading for it instead of Mars wasn't unreasonable.

As this issue’s “Postscripts From The Editor” (Dick Giordano) explains: “This issue may reach the stands a little late.
We had an entirely different issue ready for press, cover and all, and lost it on a legality.
We then had to get this one together in a big hurry.
We’ve always liked the idea of a black and white comic book but have been afraid of doing one in a format where everyone else is in four color.
So we mixed it up in this one! Some four color, some black and white. We like it…do you?"
The “we” was writer Denny O'Neil (under a pseudonym) and artist Pat Boyette, who produced the entire 25-page tale from concept to script to camera-ready art and color guides in less than a week!
Boyette did all the penciling, inking and lettering.
Rumor has it that O'Neil also assisted with the color guides.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Reading Room: CHILDREN OF DOOM Part 1

Presenting a comic the legendary Alan Moore considers "wonderful"...
Quoth Alan Moore from the ninth issue of the must-read mag, Comic Book Artist...
"There's still one of the books, Charlton Premiere—sort of a Showcase title—and I remember in the second or third issue of that, there was this wonderful thing called "Children of Doom" by Pat Boyette, who died recently (in 2000).
It was an incredibly sort of progressive piece of storytelling.
He was obviously, I'd imagine, looking at artists like Steranko that were coming up and messing around with the form and sort of experimenting. 
Pat decided to pitch his own hat into the ring, apparently."

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Flash Gordon Double Feature!

Click on the art to enlarge
Absolutely magnificent covers of issues #2 (below) and #3 (above) for the new Flash Gordon comic from Dynamite by Francesco Francavilla.
Nice to see the comic also utilizing a rather obvious connection between Ming and the Nazis.
(You didn't think Hitler & company developed advanced tech like rockets and jets without help, did you?  ;-)  )