Put a Super Green Beret under Your Evergreen this Christmas!

Never failing to capitalize on a pop culture trend, several comics publishers, noticing the 60s popularity of the hit single Ballad of the Green Berets (by Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler & Robin Moore) quickly launched series featuring the elite Army unit.
Most were standard war comics, but one stood out from the rest for sheer weirdness...
What do you get when you combine...
1) Green Berets (and the VietNam War) with...
2) Teenagers...
and 3) SuperHeroes?
Why, SUPER GREEN BERET, of course!

Green Beret Roger Wilson saves a Vietnamese monk from a wild boar, and in return the grateful priest attaches a pin to his beret which makes it glow.
Home on leave, Roger gives the glowing beret to his teenage nephew Tod Holton, who discovers that, when he puts it on and salutes, he's transformed into a super-powered adult dressed in a soldier's uniform!
Using his new-found powers of teleportation, telepathy, telekinesis, transmutation, time travel, invulnerability, and super-strength, Tod decides to fight Enemies of Our Country, mostly in present-day Asia, but also the American Revolution and World War II, during his two-issue run!
Yes, it's as hokey as it sounds!

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ felt that we couldn't let such an outrageous character and concept be forgotten, so, as part of our War: Past, Present, & Future™ line, we incorporated Super Green Beret as a light-hearted example of 1960s funkiness to contrast with the seriousness of the World War II and Korean Police Action material (plus we wanted an excuse to make some kool SGB collectibles for ourselves)!

So stick Super Green Beret under the tree or in a stocking for your loved one! It's the next best thing to an original 11.5" GI Joe! (And I should know, since I received one of the first Joes at Christmas, many years ago!)

FREE BONUS: An early Christmas present for you: a link to the never-reprinted origin of Super Green Beret!

It's GOOD to be BAD at Christimastime!

Well, the Christmas shopping season is more-or-less underway (Remember when it didn't begin until after Thanksgiving?), so we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ are going to offer you a daily guide to reasonably-priced pop culture collectibles that would make great gifts for the hard-to-please person in your life!
First off is a kool, retro, 1950s comic cover image from our Seducton of the Innocent™ section.
Quick side note: Seduction of the Innocent was a book written in the 1950s by Dr. Fredric Wertham, a psychiatrist who postulated that, because juvenile delinquents read comic books, comics caused juvenile delinquency!
(Psychiatrists today claim the same thing about video games, in the '80s and '90s about horror movies, in the '60s and '70s about tv shows, etc.)
So our collection's title is tongue-in-cheek and somewhat snarky, not prurient!
As we put it..."Proudly show the stuff your grandparents didn't want your parents to see!"
This particular image is a cutting commentary on the belief that New York City is a den of sin, a modern Sodom (if not Gomorrah), and that only MidWestern small-town values are the RIGHT values!
It's available on a variety of items including mugs, messenger bags, t-shirts, tops, and other goodies along with eleven other comics covers and almost TWO DOZEN naughty movie posters!
So, let's put the "X" back in Xmas! ;-)
Shop now!
Avoid the Christmas rush!
It's good to be BAD at Christmastime!

Holiday Reading Room: SNOW QUEEN "What Happened at the Snow Queen's Palace and What Happened Afterwards"

It's all been leading up to this...

...the reunion of Gerda and Kay, the boy spirited away by the Snow Queen and taken to her icy palace in the Arctic!

Now, the conclusion...

THE END

Written by Gaylord Du Bois and illustrated by Lea Bing, this never-reprinted tale from Dell's Fairy Tale Parade #9 (1943) is the only comic book adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale that serves as the (very loose) basis of the wildly-popular Disney movie Frozen!

Adaptation writer Gaylord DuBois was one of the most prolfic (yet unknown) scribes in comics history with over 3,000 tales to his credit.

Artist Lea Bing was one of the few women working as a creative (instead of an editorial or production staffer) during the Golden Age.
From 1940 to 1954, she rendered several stories a year, usually adaptations of classic novels or fairy tales, with an occasional funny animal story.
Regrettably, nothing is known of her pre or post-comics career.

Holiday Reading Room: SNOW QUEEN "Lapp Woman and the Finn Woman"

When Last We Left Our Heroine...

Kay, an innocent little boy, was affected by tiny shards of an evil mirror accidentally imbedded in his skin.

Now cruel and mean, the lad tormened his playmates, including his best friend Gerda, who, though confused by his actions, still loved Kay.

While involved in a snowball fight, Kay was swept away by the immortal Snow Queen, who took him to her ice palace.

Gerda, worried and despondent, decided to go in search of Kay, and, after various perils, nears her destination...

Tomorrow, the Conclusion:

What Happened at the Snow Queen's Palace and What Happened Afterwards

Written by Gaylord Du Bois and illustrated by Lea Bing, this never-reprinted tale from Dell's Fairy Tale Parade #9 (1943) is the only comic book adaptation of the Hand Christian Andersen fairy tale that serves as the (very loose) basis of the current Disney movie Frozen!

In December 2011, following the success of Tangled, Disney announced a revival of the Snow Queen project with both a new title, Frozen, and new creative team.
The film would be computer-animated in stereoscopic 3D, with Chris Buck (Tarzan) directing and John Lasseter (Toy Story and Monsters, Inc) producing.
The main problem confronting the creatives was the character of the Snow Queen, which in the earlier version of the film, was an out-and-out villain.
The team decided to reconceive the film's protagonist, Anna (based on Gerda), as the younger sibling of the now-misunderstood Elsa (based on the Snow Queen), effectively establishing a family dynamic.

The results can currently be seen on tv screens all over the planet...

Holiday Reading Room: SNOW QUEEN "Little Robber Girl"

What Has Gone Before...

Kay, an innocent little boy, was affected by tiny shards of an evil mirror accidentally imbedded in his skin.

Now cruel and mean, the lad tormented his playmates, including his best friend Gerda, who, though confused by his actions, still loved Kay.

While involved in a snowball fight, Kay was swept away by the immortal Snow Queen, who took him to her ice palace.

Gerda, worried and despondent, decided to go in search of Kay, and, after meeting an old witch and young prince & princess, she encounters even more danger...

Tomorrow:

The Lapp Woman and the Finn Woman

Written by Gaylord Du Bois and illustrated by Lea Bing, this never-reprinted tale from Dell's Fairy Tale Parade #9 (1943) is the only comic book adaptation of the Hand Christian Andersen fairy tale that serves as the (very loose) basis of the current Disney movie Frozen!

In the late 1990s, buoyed by the incredible success of their adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid, Disney started work on an adaptation of Snow Queen, but the project was scrapped completely in late 2002, despite the fact it was headed by Glen Keane, who had directed Little Mermaid!

The project was revived again around 2008 under the title of Anna and the Snow Queen, and was planned to be traditional cel animation.

Less than two years later, the project was abandoned when the writers and artists failed to find a way to make the story and the Snow Queen character "work" for a modern audience.

More tomorrow...

Holiday Reading Room: SNOW QUEEN "Prince and the Princess"

We Have Already Seen...

Kay, an innocent little boy, is affected by tiny shards of an evil mirror accidentally imbedded in his skin.

Now cruel and mean, the lad torments his playmates, including his best friend Gerda, who, though confused by his actions, still loves Kay.

While involved in a snowball fight, Kay is swept away by the immortal Snow Queen, who takes him to her ice palace.

Gerda, worried and despondent, decides to go in search of Kay, and encounters a witch who wants to keep the girl in her enchanted garden, forever.

But, the resourceful child escapes and encounters a talking crow who knows of a little boy who sounds like Gerda's missing friend...

Tomorrow:

The Little Robber Girl

Written by Gaylord Du Bois and illustrated by Lea Bing, this never-reprinted tale from Dell's Fairy Tale Parade #9 (1943) is the only comic book adaptation of the Hand Christian Andersen fairy tale that serves as the (very loose) basis of the current Disney movie Frozen!

In fact, you may be wondering what the heck is going on since none of this plotline is in Frozen!

In 1943, Walt Disney and Samuel Goldwyn had considered the possibility of collaborating on a film biography of Hans Christian Andersen, wherein Goldwyn's studio would shoot the live-action sequences of Andersen's life and Disney would create the animated sequences.
But, due to creative differences, the project was cancelled.

Goldwyn went on to produce his own live-action film version in 1952, entitled Hans Christian Andersen, with Danny Kaye as Andersen.

But, the Disney studio didn't give up on adapting Andersen's stories into animation, as we will see tomorrow...

Holiday Reading Room: SNOW QUEEN "Flower Garden of the Woman Who Knew Magic"

We Have Already Seen...

Kay, an innocent little boy, is affected by tiny shards of an evil mirror accidentally imbedded in his skin.

Now cruel and mean, the lad torments his playmates, including his best friend Gerda, who, though confused by his actions, still loves Kay.

While involved in a snowball fight, Kay is swept away by the immortal Snow Queen, who takes him to her ice palace.

Gerda, worried and despondent, decides to go in search of Kay...

Tomorrow:

The Prince and the Princess

Written by Gaylord Du Bois and illustrated by Lea Bing, this never-reprinted tale from Dell's Fairy Tale Parade #9 (1943) is the only comic book adaptation of the Hand Christian Andersen fairy tale that serves as the (very loose) basis of the current Disney movie Frozen!