Saturday, November 26, 2022

Space Hero Saturdays THE SECRET ORIGIN ( NO LIE) OF FLASH GORDON!

Because it's Thanksgiving weekend, and we're out shopping...

..due to the Dreaded Deadline Doom, we're re-presenting a classic (but rarely-seen) Flash Gordon tale...
...the untold story of Flash Gordon's first encounter with the inhabitants of Mongo!

Wow!
Writer Mark Schultz and artist Al Williamson pulled off what many these days would consider to be impossible...a retcon that doesn't contradict any of the previous stories, nor requires a reboot of the character's entire history!
(I thought only Rascally Roy Thomas was capable of such a feat!)
Not only that, but it includes visual Easter Eggs relating to various past versions of Flash, including the Clay People from the second movie serial, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, spaceships from the 1930s serials and the 1979 animated series, Flash's father (named "Alex" after artist Alex Raymond) looking remarkably like Buster Crabbe (the actor who played Flash in all three serials), and a young Dr Zarkov based on Al Williamson himself!
You can read the entire mini-series from the start by clicking HERE!
It's well worth your time to do so!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Buy...
(which reprints the mini-series, but in black-and-white!)

Friday, November 25, 2022

Friday Fun LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND

Since there's a new movie on NetFlix, Slumberland, based on it..

...here's a Thanksgiving-themed page from the legendary Winsor McCay comic strip, Little Nemo in SlumberLand from November 26, 1905.

Click on image to enlarge to see the spectacular detail!
(Note the giant turkey, the lake of cranberry sauce and forest of celery stalks!)
Oddly, the movie doesn't credit the source comic strip or its' creator/writer/artist in any way!
Talk about turkeys...
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Buy...

Thursday, November 24, 2022

Holiday Reading Room EVERY DAY IS A HOLLY DAY "Thanksgiving Day" & HUMBUG "Like How to Carve Turkey"

A look at Thanksgiving...including before it was Thanksgiving!
Note there is a historically-inaccurate aspect below...
Interestingly, this page from Brevity Inc's one-shot giveaway Every Day is a Holly Day (1956) plays up the fallacy that turkeys were served at the first Thanksgiving, when the primary dish was eel!
In fact, Benjamin Franklin wanted the wild turkey to be America's official bird and you don't eat your official bird!
Why is this comic entitled "Every Day is a Holly Day" instead of "Every Day is a Holiday"?
Because it was given away to kids by grocers who sold Holly Sugar!
Illustrated by John Rosenberger, it's a unique pamphlet covering a number of American holidays, including both Lincoln and Washington's Birthdays (before they were combined into "Presidents' Day"), Mothers' Day (though not Fathers' Day), Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and a couple of holidays we've largely abandoned...Pan-American Day and American Indian Day!
We'll present the other chapters on the dates they fall upon.
Watch for them!
Now, let's switch from reverence to sarcasm, with a never-reprinted one-pager by Arnold Roth from Humbug Publications' Humbug #5 (1957) covering a major culinary conundrum...
Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ROBOTMEN OF THE LOST PLANET "Chapter Two: the Robots Rule the Earth!"

...just five years and we've lost all sense of fashion?
(And what weapons were they using to kill the large mammals that provided those big pelts?)
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Next Wednesday:
The Astounding Finale as We Witness...
Rise of the Humans!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...

Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Reading Room: DAN HASTINGS "Radium Raiders from Earth's Core"

Originally a Flash Gordon clone, even using Alex Raymond art swipes....
...by the time the wandering strip took up residence in Scoop Comics, it had gotten away from interplanetary adventures to intraplanetary tales!
I suspect this tale from Dynamic's Scoop Comics #1 (1941) was meant to be an interplanetary adventure with several panels redrawn/relettered to make it a "civilization at the earth's center" story.
Both writer and artist(s) are unknown.
Originally proposed as a newspaper strip packaged by the Harry A Chesler Studio in 1937, Dan Hastings was reworked into comic book format when comics using new material instread of strip reprints took off in 1939!
The series went thru several different publishers, starting at Chesler/Dynamic, moving to Centaur, then MLJ (later Archie), finally back to Chesler/Dynamic, with minor modifications to cast and premise at each company.
This tale was the first of his final run at Chesler/Dynamic, where he faced more Earth-bound foes, including thinly-disguised Axis surrogates (with more advanced tech than the real-life Germany and Japan).

Monday, November 21, 2022

Monday Madness CHRISTMAS WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Tale of Chip-Chop and His Christmas Good Deed"

Besides shoehorning existing fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters into holiday-themes tales...

...Walt (Pogo) Kelly occasionally did stories featuring totally-new characters and situations!
Sadly, this never-reprinted story from Dell's Four Color Comics: Christmas with Mother Goose #201 (1948) is Chip-Chop's only appearance anywhere!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics this Christmas!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Sunday, November 20, 2022

Thanksgiving's Almost Here...Time for CHRISTMAS!

The Christmas shopping season has been more-or-less underway since Halloween.
(Remember when it didn't begin until after Thanksgiving?)
In order to make your Yuletide shopping a breeze, we're offering a guide to reasonably-priced pop culture collectibles that would make great gifts for the-hard-to-please person in your life!
You think the economic situation is bad now?Go back 84 years ago, to November 1938 and see...elves were picketing Santa's WorkShop for better pay!
(You'll note that the cover is dated January, 1939. But it was actually on sale in November, 1938! Publishers used to cover-date comics and pulps two to three months ahead of the actual on-sale date to keep the books on the stands for as long as possible!)
Thus do we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ offer another retro-styled collectible for your Christmas gift-giving consideration, and offer you a bit of media history at the same time!
In this case, we proudly present one of our Christmas in the Comics line from our Cool Christmas collection: numerous digitally-remastered comic covers featuring classic characters celebrating Christmas, including The Green LamaFast Willie Jackson, SuperSnipe, and Edison Bell: Boy Inventor, as well as two long-out-of-print versions of The Big Man, Santa, himself!
Available on a multitude of memorabilia including greeting cards, mugs, hoodies, face masks, and other goodies, these pop-art collectibles are NOT available in any brick-and-mortar stores, only on-line thru us!

There's something for everyone under the tree at Atomic Kommie Comics™!