Sit on It, FanBoy/Girl! THE "Must-Have" Item for San Diego!

Remember San Diego on July 24th, 2010?

When reality became MORE frightening than a horror comic!

Holy Injury to the Eye Motif!

Commemorate one of the most infamous events in San Diego ComicCon history in comfort with this cozy convention blanket that'll keep your butt warm on the cold hotel or convention center floor while you're waiting in line for a panel, presentation, or autograph session.
A generous 50" x 60" (over 4 feet by 5 feet) with a totally machine-washable vintage four-color horror comic image, this conversation-starter is big enough to share with a cute cosplayer (or two)!
Order now for delivery in time for SDCC!
BTW, the art is also available on t-shirts, mugs, and other kool kollectibles!

DC announces one of their existing characters is gay...

Was Fredric Wertham right in Seduction of the Innocent?

 C'mon, you were thinking it...

The intolerant group One Million Moms thinks so...as seen HERE!

What I've done (and suggest you do) is click on the e-mail link on their page, but change the text of the letter to express your honest viewpoint.

Use their own e-mail for your opinion, not theirs!

Teen-Age Dope Slaves at Seduction of the Innocent!!

With the passing of Steve Jobs...

 ...we had to bounce our mention of the newest RetroBlog™, which debuted yesterday and runs every Thursday!

Seduction of the Innocent!!™ runs the stuff your grandparents didn't want your parents to see, starting with the notorious 1950s strip Teen-Age Dope Slaves, and continuing with other wild 1950s-1960s stuff!

Check out the

Seduction of the Innocent!!™

Comix Collectibles Shop!

Follow-Up to "Wertham Lives"

 To update yesterday's post about the "New Werthams"...
Besides sending my own version of the "protest letter", rewritten to express gratitude for the Happy Meals figures, I also emailed the Campaign For A Commercial-Free Childhood.

Hi:

Do you have any idea of who these characters are?
Why don't you praise...
the hero who tries to personify the American Ideal since 1941, Captain America..
the hero whose very existence shows that "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility!", Spider-Man...
the original pacifist hero, The Silver Surfer...
all of whom are included in the collection?

And, since you want a "commercial-free" childhood, why aren't you going after Disney, who've been corrupting childhood since 1930 with products promoting the misogynist / racist Mickey Mouse, the extremely-violent / ethnically-biased Davy Crockett , and the politically-incorrect Peter Pan (among many others)?

Best,
B

As of now, I've received no reply.
Nor do I expect to!

You, too, can express your opinion directly to them at ccfc@commercialfreechildhood.org

Wertham LIVES!

Some people have wayyy to much time on their hands...
McDonalds is launching a new line of Marvel Comics-oriented Happy Meal toys.
They've done this sort of thing with both DC and Marvel characters a number of times over the years. (I have quite a few of them on my shelves.)
However, the Campaign For A Commercial-Free Childhood (a group I've never heard of, and I've seen quite a few Wertham-esque nuts in my years in this business) seems to have suddenly discovered that Marvel Comics feature a man on fire, and large, aggressive, man-monsters!
We've known that for over 50 years!
Curiously, though they comment on both The Human Torch and The Thing, the Werti-whiners make NO mention of the oft-times mindlessly-destructive Hulk, or the often out-of-control Wolverine, both included in the collection!
Nor do they praise the hero who tries to personify the American Ideal, Captain America, nor the hero whose very existence shows that "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility!", Spider-Man! nor the original pacifist hero, The Silver Surfer, all of whom are included in the collection!
So it's obvious these loonies have no idea of what these characters are really about!
Now, here's where it becomes fun...
Want to subvert their message?
Go to their link to post a message to McDonalds...and rewrite the message to praise McDonalds!
You CAN!
The letter has a "suggested" text in place, but you can re-write it!
I've done so. I suggest you do, as well!

"Tales from ComicCon" Redux

On July 24th, 2010; reality became far more frightening than fantasy when fanboys clashed and blood drawn at the San Diego ComicCon! Invoking the "injury to the eye" motif, crazed fans proved Dr Wertham right...comics DO cause Juvenile Delinquency!
Sadly, nerd-on-nerd crime is becoming a more common problem in our society than most people realize!
It is THE Threat to Our Way of Life that Dare Not Speak It's Name...mostly because people would roll on the floor laughing hysterically.

But this is NO laughing matter, citizens!
To draw attention to this growing menace to our way of life, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have added larger image (up to 11" x 17") shirts to this line of kool kollectibles for you to display so that this incident is not quickly forgotten by a jaded populace eager for the next cheap thrill!
We were warned!
We didn't listen!
We paid the price!
Remind everyone!
DR WERTHAM WAS RIGHT!

NEW! Dark T-Shirts and collectibles (including a "cutting board" [kitchen use ONLY, please]!)

NEW! Light T-shirts

Phantom Lady Classic Cover Gallery

Some of my favorite Phantom Lady covers from my collection...

 

Yes, this is the legendary "headlights" cover Dr. Wertham complained about in Seduction of the Innocent!

BTW, did we mention that ALL these covers (and six more) are available on our Classic Phantom Lady 2010 12-Month Calendar? ;-)

Phantom Lady--Pin-Up Queen of the Golden Age

One of the most famous (or notorious) Golden Age comic characters, Phantom Lady was also one of the first costumed superheroines, predating Wonder Woman (who debuted in All-Star Comics #8) in 1941 by several months!

Like a number of 1940s comics characters, she was created by an independent comic book studio (the legendary Eisner-Iger studio) for an established publisher (Quality Comics) debuting in Police Comics #1 which also featured the first appearances of Plastic Man, FireBrand, and The Human Bomb.
After a year, her strip was canceled by Quality, and the character was offered to Fox Comics, where she was promoted to her own comic, which started with #13, since it took over the numbering of an already existing title.
Her costume was modified by legendary "good girl" artist Matt Baker to expose more of her (ahem) assets and a number of covers featured her being captured and tied up by evildoers.
It is this version which became notorious by becoming one of the primary examples in Dr. Fredric Wertham's crusade against comics detailed in his book Seduction of the Innocent.
Believing both the "naughty" and "nice" versions of the character have a place in pop culture history (and your collections), Atomic Kommie Comics™ has included the classic superheroine in not one, but two different sections of our store!
In the Heroines!™ collection, we have the G-rated "empowered" version, kicking evil butts right and left!
And, in Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™, we have the PG-13, more risque version, including the famous cover included in Dr. Wertham's book!
She's also featured on both our Heroines and Good Girl / Bad Grrrl 2010 12-Month Calendars as well as her own Phantom Lady 2010 12-Month Calendar with a dozen of her best Golden AND Silver Age covers!

If you're looking for classy, yet kitchy, gifts, you can't go wrong with our selection of Phantom Lady goodies for the pop culture / comics aficionado in your life!
Let him (or her) unwrap Phantom Lady!
They'll thank you for it! ;-)

"...there are pictures for children who know how to look..."

--Fredric Wertham, M.D.
Seduction of the Innocent

...and it turns out, the whole controversy was a FAKE...from 2004!
Nothing EVER dies on the Internet, especially a lie!

Kombat Kleavage!

Take a look at this cover.
At first glance, a variation on the Starship Troopers theme of armored infantry.
Note that two of the three soliders are also wearing helmets.
The third one isn't, presumably because she's the protagonist, and we have to see her face to identify her.
It's not the brightest move to go into combat without protection to your head; but, again, there is "marketing logic" to doing so.

Now take a look at the "alternate" cover...
1) She's looking in one direction and firing in another (hopefully not hitting one of her comrades in the process).
2) She's shooting left-handed. The other cover shows her as right-handed. Is she ambidextrous?
3) Where's her helmet? There are no other characters present, so just having her name on her chestplate should cover identifying her character!
4) Slight problem with my solution to #3--she doesn't have a chestplate! What sort of idiots armor every square inch of a body except the head and chest?
Hormonally-driven idiots who want to see a buxom woman's cleavage--even if it gets her killed!

Curiously, on the inside of the book, her armor comes all the way up to her chin, and she has a helmet, which she wears when facing the enemy!
It's sloppy cover art direction, it's misleading, and it's gratutitous.

This is exactly the sort of prurient-interest image an up-and-coming Wertham would use to start another Seduction of the Innocent crusade!

Don't the creators believe that their story and characters are good enough to attract the target audience without resorting to this sort of bullsh!t?

And, the real killer is that this is a relatively-mild example of this sort of thing!

Ghost Rider by Frank Frazetta

He began life in the late 1940s as The Calico Kid, a masked hero whose secret identity was a lawman who felt justice was constrained by legal limitations. (There were a lot of those heroes in comics and pulps of the 40s including our own DareDevil and Blue Beetle!)
But, with masked heroes in every genre doing a slow fade-out, and both westerns and horror on the rise, the character was re-imagined in 1949 as comics' first horror / western character!
The Ghost Rider himself was not a supernatural being.
He wore a phosphorescent suit and cape, making him glow in the dark, appearing as a spectral presence to the (mostly) superstitious cowboys and Indians he faced.
And, since the inside of the cape was black, he'd reverse it, and appear in the dark to people as just a floating head, usually scaring a confession or needed information out of them.
Note: some covers, like the one here, show the inside of the cape to be white! Chalk it up to artistic license (and face it, it looks damned good).
BTW, that cover was by the legendary Frank Frazetta! He did several of them, three of which are included in our collection!
In the series' early days the villains were standard owlhoots or, like the Rider, people pretending to be supernatural beings.
That changed around 1952, when he started facing real mystic menaces including Indian spirits, vampires, and even the Frankenstein Monster (though not the one from Prize Comics.)
Unfortunately, it was about this point in time that Dr. Wertham began his crusade against comics in general and horror comics in particular...
By 1954, the Ghost Rider had lost his series. The next year he disappeared entirely.
But, over 50 years later, Atomic Kommie Comics™ brought him back, digitally-restored and remastered on a host of kool kollectibles to go with our other masked Western heroes including The Lone Rider, The Red Mask, The Black Phantom, and The Masked Ranger.

If you're a fan of Westerns, horror, masked heroes, or all three genres, take a long, lingering look at The Ghost Rider!
You'll not see his like again!