Atomic Kommie Comics' Goodies for YOUR Easter Basket!

Back in the 1940s and '50s, comic book companies produced a prodigious number of holiday annuals and one-shots.

For example, a multitude of Christmas-themed comic books flooded America's magazine racks every November and December!
(In fact, a large part of our popular Cool Christmas collection is based on them.)
But, did you know that several publishers also did Easter-oriented books?
And, that noted comics illustrators including Walt Kelly (Pogo) contributed art to them?
Believing that there's always room for more classic comics collectibles, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ added a new line of goodies to our Happy Holidays section entitled Exciting Easter!
Yes, it's eggs, bunnies, chicks, and other fuzzy animals galore digitally-restored and remastered from Baby Boomer-era classic comics covers on baby bibs, infant creepers / onesies, toddler and kid t-shirts, greeting cards, mugs, and a plethora of kool kollectibles!
They make great Easter basket stuffers! (And they won't rot your kids' teeth like marshmallow chicks or chocolate bunnies!)
So click over and see what's in our basket!

Reading Room: SPACE ACTION "Flight from Destruction"

Here's an apocalyptic tale of the future with a twist...

...direct from the Cold War!

(Considering it was published in 1952, that's not suprising!)

While the writer is unknown, the art for this tale from Ace's Space Action #3 (1952) is attributed to "Jim McLaughlin", who had a short-lived comics career doing work primarily for Ace!

After that publisher dropped comics in 1955 to concentrate on paperbacks, he did a couple of stories for Atlas/Marvel, then a run of Dell's adaptation of the TV series Gunsmoke.

Then "Jim McLaughlin" disappeared.
Totally.
Unlike most comic book artists who went on to do commercial art or newspaper strips, there's no trace of "Jim McLaughlin" after his brief foray into four-color publishing...and no background about his pre-comics career!
Here's another interesting point...his art style altered considerably during his career.
In this story, the inking looks a lot like the work of long-time artist Jim Mooney!
In fact, a number of panels resemble Mooney's work on the DC strip Tommy Tomorrow, which Jim Mooney was both penciling and inking during the same period as "Jim McLaughlin's" work for Ace!
In McLaughlin's later work (particularly his Gunsmoke art), while the layouts look similar, the inking style is totally-different!
Was "Jim McLaughlin" a pen-name for a penciler working with at least two (if not more) different inkers?

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The Future WAS Fantastic!

Comics Collectibles Store!

Reading Room: LOST WORLDS "Worlds Apart"

"Submitted for your approval, a romantic triangle with unequal sides..."

"...because one point of this scalene triangle is firmly entrenched...in the Twilight Zone!"

(It works if you read it in a Rod Serlingesque voice.)

Cue Twilight Zone theme music...

While the writer for this story from Standard's sci-fi anthology title Lost Worlds #5 (1952) is unknown, the art is by Nick Cardy, who began his career in the Golden Age and still does the occasional comics cover today at the age of 91!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Reading Room: FANTASTIC WORLDS "Ace of Space"

Not to be confused with Space Ace (who went through several different incarnations)...

...this guy is a Cold War fighter pilot transplanted to a Star Wars setting!

Darn those aliens!
Sending robot "drones" to do their fighting instead of going man-against-lizard as God intended!
Though the scripter for this tale from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #7 (1952) is unknown, the artwork is by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, with a couple of panels redrawn by Mike Sekowsky!

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The Future WAS Fantastic!™ 

Comics Collectibles Store!

Reading Room: OUTER SPACE "His Own Little World"

After co-creating Spider-Man and Dr Strange, Steve Ditko left Marvel in 1967...

...for reasons still unknown to all but the parties involved.

For the next few years, he went on to work for everyone but Marvel, including Charlton, where he returned to Captain Atom, created a new Blue Beetle, and did a plethora of one-off tales like this one!

Is this device a matter-creator (which would create items from scratch) or a teleporter (which would move already-existing things from their origin point to Rudd's location)?

If it created things purely from his brain-patterns, it would look exactly like the photograph, no matter how old the pic was!

Maybe I'm just over-thinking the whole thing.

At any rate, this story from Charlton's one-shot Outer Space #1 (1968) was penciled and inked by the extremely-busy Ditko, but the writer is unknown.

BTW, the printing on this particular issue was pretty bad.

In fact, Charlton was noted for the poor quality of it's printing,  since they used old printing presses that were designed to print boxes and other packaging that used cardboard and plastic, not newsprint!

When the story was reprinted over a decade later, it came out somewhat cleaner, as you can see HERE.

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The Future WAS Fantastic!

Comics Collectibles Store!

BLACK BEETLE #1 Goes to Second Printing!

He's a NEW pulp-style character so popular that his #1 is already being reprinted...

...and #2 is due out on Feb 20th!

 So what are you waiting for, Bunkie?

Zombies Return to TV...

...Tonite at 9pm (EST) on AMC.

Daryl vs Merle!

Rick vs the Governor!

Let the blood flow!

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Zombie comics store!