Holiday Reading Room RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER "The Reindeer Who Saved Christmas!"

It's Almost Christmas and Santa is Desperate...

...that's as concise a synopsis as you'll ever read, so on to the story with all requisite speed...

The copy we're using doesn't have a final page.

So we'll use the original hand-drawn layout!

 

Written by Robert L May and illustrated by Denver Gillen, this beloved tale was actually an advertising promotion designed to lure customers into doing Christmas shopping!
We hope you've enjoyed this bit of holiday history, and keep checking us out for more Christmastime fun!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics this Christmas!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

75th-Anniversary Edition

(a replica of the original 1939 book we're re-presenting on this blog!)

Holiday Reading Room RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER "The Plot (and the Fog) Thickens!"

When Last We Left Santa Claus and Rudolph...

...Rudolph lived a sad existence, shunned by his peers because he was "different".

But, on Christmas Eve, when Santa Claus, hindered by severe fog, making him hours behind schedule, delivers gifts to Rudolph's home, he literally sees the solution to his problem...

Thursday:

The Reindeer Who Saved Christmas...

Written by Robert L May and illustrated by Denver Gillen, this beloved tale was actually an advertising promotion designed to lure customers into doing Christmas shopping!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics this Christmas!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

75th-Anniversary Edition

(a replica of the original 1939 book we're re-presenting on this blog!)

Holiday Reading Room RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER "Who He Is and How He Came to Be!"

Much as Disney's versions of classic fairy tales have become the "accepted" ones...

...the 1964 stop-motion animated TV special of Rudolph is the one everyone knows.

But, this is the real story...

Next Tuesday:

The Plot (and the Fog) Thickens...

Written by Robert L May and illustrated by Denver Gillen, this beloved tale was actually an advertising promotion designed to lure customers into doing Christmas shopping!

True!
You can read about it HERE!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics this Christmas!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Deluxe 50th-Anniversary Edition

(of the stop-motion animated TV special, which is considerably-different from this tale!)

Design of the Week...REDUX! SANTA'S WORKSHOP IS A SWEATSHOP???

Normally, each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!

In this case, the response has been so overwhelming, we're going to keep the design up until Christmas!

(BTW, 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!)

Pick up this kool design on mugs, greeting cards, and other Yuletide collectibles NOW!

Christmas will be here before you know it!

Design of the Week! SANTA'S WORKSHOP IS A SWEATSHOP???

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!

This week...go back 85 years ago, to November 1938 and see...when elves were part of the 99%!

(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!)

And it looks like the elves aren't going to settle for sweatshop wages and conditions at the North Pole anymore!

Pick up this kool design on mugs, greeting cards, and other Yuletide collectibles NOW!

Christmas will be here before you know it!

Space Hero Saturdays FANTASTIC COMICS "Space Smith and the Headless Men of the Gold Comet"

Newspaper comics had Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Brick Bradford...

...but comic books had the even wilder exploits of adventurers like Space Smith!

Wow!

Dianna's no mere helpless female sidekick, as this tale from Fox's Fantastic Comics #4 (1940) proves!

Fletcher Hanks was no stranger to visualizing assertive women.

His Fantomah strip in Fiction House's Jungle Comics presented a jungle heroine with super-powers on a par with Wonder Woman (whom she pre-dated by a year)!

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I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!

by

Fletcher Hanks

Space Hero Saturdays FANTASTIC COMICS "Space Smith and the Leopard Women of Venus"

Prepare yourself for a redefinition of "space opera" as we again enter the imagination of Fletcher Hanks!

BTW, if you want to even vaguely understand what's going on, read HERE and HERE before continuing...

Some call Fletcher Hanks the "Ed Wood of comics", but there's no mistaking the sheer imagination behind the deceptively-primitive art.

When comic books featuring new material (they were initially comic strip reprints) first appeared in the late 1930s, it was an "anything goes" market as publishers would run whatever they could lay their hands on from comic strip and pulp magazine professionals as well as talented (read "cheap") amateurs.

Some, like Siegel & Shuster, Simon & Kirby, and Finger & Kane created what would become American icons.

Others. like Hanks, were like mayflies, briefly appearing...then disappearing, leaving little behind.

Even comics geeks had forgotten about Hanks' material, which sat un-reprinted for over half a century, until Fantagraphics produced a couple of books collecting his work from the various anthology titles it appeared in!

We're now presenting the entire Space Smith series in Space Hero Saturdays, including Hanks' work and the later, more conventional tales by others (including a few surprise contributors).

Watch for them...

Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Buy..

I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!

by

Fletcher Hanks