Saturday, July 1, 2017

Captain America Isn't the ONLY Patriotic Super-Hero!

"I'm NOT Captain America, or Superman, you sieg-heiling swine!
I'm Super-American!"

Yes, you know about Captain America, but you might want to have a look at the other star-spangled heroes introduced during the Golden Age of comic books!

You did know Captain America was not the first superhero to wrap himself in the "colors that never run", didn't you?
The very first flag-wearing hero was Archie (then MLJ) Comics' The Shield who predated Cap by over a year!
Then, between 1940 and 1945, dozens of stars-and-stripes-wearing heroes (and heroines) flew, leaped, punched, kicked, and back-flipped thru the four-color newsprint world of comic books!
(Technically, Superman wore red, YELLOW, and blue, so he wasn't visually a flag-waving hero.
But Wonder Woman's Amazon garb was meant to show alliance with America's values and beliefs!)

In that virtuous vein, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ want to tell you about a plethora of patriotic pummelers at Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ in our Flag-Draped Heroes line of kool kollectibles!
We're talking about
American Crusader
American Eagle (now Burning Eagle)

Captain Battle & Captain Battle Jr
Captain Courageous
Captain V
The Conqueror

The Eagle & Buddy

The Flag

Fighting Yank
Major Victory

Man of War

Miss Victory

Stars & Stripes

Super-American

Unknown Soldier (now Soldier Unknown)

U.S. Jones

V-Man

Yank & Doodle

Yankee Doodle Jones & Johnny Reb

on t-shirts, mugs, messenger bags, and other goodies!

So fly the flag (or The Flag himself) this 4th of July with Flag-Draped Heroes ONLY at Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™!

Friday, June 30, 2017

Friday Fun BIG APPLE COMIX "Hi There! I'm Paranoia!"

As I ride the subway to various events this long 4th of July weekend...
...I fondly remember Big Apple Comix's back cover by Ralph Reese, personifying the response we New Yorkers tend to have to even the most outrageous occurrences!
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Thursday, June 29, 2017

The Forgotten Silver Age DC Comic!

...and asked if anyone could identify what DC comic it was from.
Nobody could!
The answer is this...
DC's Teen Beam #2 (1968)!
Yeah, it doesn't look like a comic, but it was comic-sized, and DC produced it!
From '66-'69 several comics companies took a shot at doing mixed-format comics/teen mag titles...
Tower's Teen-In
Charlton's Go-Go
Harvey's Pop Comics
Warren also tried their hand with two b/w mag titles...
Freak Out, U.S.A. and
Teen Love Stories!
Oddly, Marvel, once noted for their tendency to jump on trends, didn't do one of these!
DC advertised their attempt with this...odd...ad...
...featuring the mascot character Teeny and, presuming it would appeal to the target teenage girl audience, a grungy hippie!
The first issue featured Teeny introducing articles about various heart-throbs...
...but no other comics-type material!
The incredibly-popular mag they based the title on...
...immediately threatened a trademark infringement lawsuit!
So, DC hastily-altered the title in their ads and the book's logo to Teen Beam...
...and added comic pages along with the articles!
It didn't help, since distributors, unwilling to anger the insanely-hot Tiger Beat, refused to rack the title!
(as the ad points out, you had to ask for it,since it was now, as they used to say "under the counter" along with porn magazines!)
The second issue was the last!
You'll be seeing the other comic strips throughout the summer.
Watch for them!
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Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Reading Room FANTASTIC WORLDS "Space Treasure"

What's it like to be just another working stiff doing his job...but in outer space?
This tale from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #5 (1952) offers some insight...
Lovingly-rendered by Murphy Anderson, the story was created between his stints on the Buck Rogers newspaper strip, and certainly has the "look" of the legendary comic!
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Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Reading Room SKATEMAN COMICS "FutureWorld"

Here's a "lost" tale by a talented artist nobody remembers...
...from a 1980s comic most people would rather forget!
With story and layouts by Jack Arata, inks by Andy Kubert, this never-reprinted tale from Pacific's SkateMan #1 (1983) is one of three sci-fi stories from Arata's brief comics career that spanned less than two dozen tales from 1982 to 1986.
A graduate of the Kubert School, he worked mostly for DC before returning to his farming roots in California, where he passed away in 2013.
As to why SkateMan the comic is so...well...reviled...this synopsis may explain it to those who didn't, like myself, live through it.
Oddly, despite its' reputation, the book is now extremely Hard to Find...and pricey!
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Monday, June 26, 2017

We're GLOWing this Summer...

With the success of GLOW on Netflix...
...we thought we'd look back at the original version, via their short-lived, (and very HTF) magazine from 1986-87!
(Try finding it on eBay or Amazon!)
Lord, was it 30 years ago?
I feel so old...
 The mag featured both in-character pieces and behind-the-scenes features as well as lots of pix!


BTW, Jackie Stallone is Sylvester's mother!
She played the manager of the "good" wrestlers!
We'll be doing a mini-marathon of the best of the magazine's features and photo spreads on our "sister" RetroBlog Heroines! (when fighting women in tights are the very reason for the blog's existence) during our annual RetroBlog Blogathon in July and August!
It'll be Hot...Hot...HOT!
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Note: this is a VHS, but unlike the DVD-R produced from it, the VHS is complete!

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Steve Savage: Battling North Korean Commies over 60 years later!

One of the benefits of running Atomic Kommie Comics™ is being able to do customized presents for birthdays, holidays, and joyous events like bridal and baby showers (and, at cost, yet)...
I was preparing items for one such baby shower whose invite had...unusual...suggestions for nursery decor gifts; aircraft, specifically fighter aircraft!
(The baby will be a boy, and his dad is in the Air National Guard!)
"No problem", we thought!
After all, Atomic Kommie Comics™ has a whole section on War: Past, Present, & Future™!
So, we planned several customized items, including a bib, newborn onesie, wall clock, and 12-month wall calendar, all with the required fighter theme!
However, a quick glance revealed a minor problem; while we had over a dozen covers with military aircraft, we had only nine with fighters! The others were bombers!
We needed twelve for the calendar!
A quick look thru the extensive Atomic Kommie Comics™ archives showed a whole set of classic comics we hadn't yet touched...Captain Steve Savage and his Jet Fighters!
BINGO!
We selected the three best covers and loaded them up to the calendar template to give us an even dozen images!
Problem solved!

After doing the baby's calendar, we decided to add all three Captain Steve Savage covers to our Korean Police Action kool kollectibles collection for the perusal (and purchase) of all you veterans, relatives of vets, and / or war comics fans!
With North Korea still rattling sabers at the rest of the world (at least when the Mid-East isn't exploding into the headlines), it seemed like the right time (just before the 4th of July!) to return Steve Savage to duty!

Get Steve Savage in your sights, before he gets his sights on you!