Saturday, November 16, 2013

Design of the Week: John F Kennedy "...ask not..."

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another.
This week, we remember the passing of President John F Kennedy on the 50th Anniversary of his assassination with this retro-style art with a red/white/blue motif and his most famous quote "ask not what youre country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.
Available as a poster, mug, t-shirt, and a host of other kool kollectibles HERE.

Friday, November 15, 2013

The Gifts are Afoot, Watson!


OK, it's a silly paraphrase of a classic line, but we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ take our Sherlockania VERY seriously...
As part of our Crime & Punishment™ collection, we've given The Greatest Sleuth of All™ his very own section!
12 different designs, including several with Basil Rathbone, the man who is to Sherlock Holmes as Sean Connery is to James Bond, not the first, but to many (including myself), the definitive portrayer!
Add to that, several classic comic book covers, a variety of other movie posters (including the campy A Study in Terror with Holmes as "The ORIGINAL Caped Crusader"!), the coolest cigar box art I've ever seen (based on William Gillette), and 1st Edition covers from A Study in Scarlet and His Last Bow!
If you're looking for a cool Christmas gift for the Holmesian, Sherlockian, or Baker Street Irregular in your life, you can't go wrong with one of these mugs, bags, shirts or other goodies!

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Reading Room: SPACE WAR "Exiled to Earth"

Usually, characters in sci-fi stories are exiled from Earth...
...but, then, those characters usually aren't Venusians!
While the writer for this story from Charlton's Space War #5 (1960) is believed to be Joe Gill, the illustrator is clearly Steve Ditko, at one of the artistic high-points in his career as he bounced between freelance assignments for Charlton and Atlas/Marvel, enjoying the diversity of work in various genres.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Reading Room: WEIRD TALES OF THE FUTURE "Survival of the Fittest"

Fiction or prophecy?
This is only 19 years away!
Read this tale and prepare for the possible mechanical Armageddon!
The penciler of this never-reprinted story from Key's Weird Tales of the Future #1 (1952) was a young Ross Andru, but the mediocre inking is clearly not his soon-to-be-partner Mike Esposito!
The identity of the embellisher, as well as the scripter remain a mystery to this day...

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Reading Room: AMAZING ADVENTURES "Space Pirates on Xarpot"

Space military/police organizations were ubiquitous in 1950s sci-fi...

...and this story was the second and last featuring the short-lived Perimeter Patrol.
Considering the two tales were done by the artists who also did SpaceBusters, we wonder if this was intended as a backup series for that title.
Illustrated by Bernie Krigstein, this never-reprinted story from Ziff-Davis' Amazing Adventures #6 (1952) is a classic example of pulp/comic space opera of the era with all the classic elements:
Scantly-clad women.
Square-jawed heroes.
Rockets & ray-guns.
And, instead of bug-eyed monsters...space pirates!

Monday, November 11, 2013

Reading Room: ALARMING TALES "Hero"

Here's a short (in more ways than one) space-opera tale...
...though you won't get the joke until the end...
This story of size and space travel from Harvey's Alarming Tales #2 (1957) was produced by writer Jack Oleck, and illustrator Marvin Stein (with what appears to be uncredited layout help by Jack Kirby).

Sunday, November 10, 2013

One Million Moms vs Dracula!

Shades of Fredric Wertham and Seduction of the Innocent...the group One Million Moms has issued a fatwa against the Prince of Darkness...Dracula!
Warning! NBC’s new program Dracula airs on Friday evenings at 10:00 p.m. ET/9:00 p.m. CT with a TV-14-SV rating.
The gory series will air on weekends when children and teens usually stay up later.
Not only is this show extremely violent, but it also includes a high level of sexual content that should be considered pornographic material.
NBC’s website describes the series with words like sex, style, mystery and adventure.
Even the previews included several brief clips of sex scenes that would be considered soft porn. This program is entirely too graphic in too many ways.
Previews of this program also included: terrifying screams, a rotted corpse, death, murder, a woman burned alive while tied to a stake, spirits, satanic and occult elements, homosexual content, tons of blood (mostly on Dracula’s face and victim’s necks) and other gore, including decapitated heads in boxes and pools of blood.
Apparently no member of One Millions Moms knows how to set the V-Chip in their own tvs, dvrs, or cable/satellite boxes!
It certainly would be a lot easier, faster, and more effective than doing what they suggest...
Urge advertisers to place the program on their “do not advertise” list in protest of the attempt to desensitize America and our children by promoting inappropriate content.
But, that would require the One Millions Moms to act like parents...something they seem incapable of doing...