Monday Madness LUNATICKLE "Horrible Comic Story Behind the Horror Story Comic Books!"

I'll let the original editors introduce you to today's Monday Madness...

"This, then, is the true tale of the Comic Book Industry’s brief but shocking plunge into the Witches Brew of gore and bloodshed.

Presented herewith is an authentic documentary of how it came about and how it ended—And how it ended!
The names, dates, and places given are all factual and for real! Any reference to certain persons is strictly intentional,

Only the prices have been changed because it’s after five o’clock!
-the editors"

Created by two horror comics veterans; writer Jack Mendelsohn and illustrator Lee Elias (in a very Jack Davis-esque style), this never-reprinted story from the second (and final) issue of Whitestone Publishing's short-lived MAD magazine clone Lunatickle is a bittersweet, but amazingly-accurate look at how the comics industry almost disappeared in the mid-1950s!

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Ten-Cent Plague

The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America

The Horror! The Horror (Comics, that is)!

Monster Crime!

Now that's a title!
Yeah, they knew what budding juvenile delinquents wanted back in the 1950s!

As you might have guessed, the upcoming Halloween holiday has inspired the Atomic Kommie Comics™ crew to add like mad to our Horror Comics of the 1950s™ section.

And, what titles did we add to our kool kollectibles kollection?

Besides the aforementioned Monster Crime, there's Tales of Horror, Horror from the Tomb (see a trend?), Beware! (with a fantastic Frank Frazetta cover!), and The Clutching Hand!

We already had The Hand of Fate, Horrific!, Weird Adventures, Baffling, Challenge of the Unknown, Terror Tales, Haunted, The Beyond, Weird Terror, Weird Mysteries, Weird, Diary of Horror, WitchCraft, and Eerie!

Plus collectibles with our ghoulishly-graphic, viscerally-vintage Horror Comics of the 1950s™ logo!

BTW: the Tote Bags featuring these designs would make GREAT trick-or-treat bags!

Be the envy of all the kids on your block this All Hallows Eve!

Reading Room / Halloween Horror UNCANNY TALES "Witch in the Woods"

 Since we posted a story about people blaming horror comic books for all the world's evils...

...we thought we'd run another tale by the same writer from the same period!

As Stan Lee's somewhat snarky script for this story from Atlas' Menace #7 (1953) points out, those beloved fairy tales were as mind-rotting as the comics Wertham and the others hypocritically tried to ban!

Joe Sinnott's clean and elegant renderings keep the story from being too grotesque, helping to sell Lee's point without the extreme gore some other publishers of the period (and even Atlas itself) occasionally went for!

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Horror Comics of the 1950s

Edited by Ron Barlow & Bhob Stewart

Reading Room / Halloween Horror SUSPENSE "Raving Maniac"

People blaming pop culture (like movies and video games) for violence and evil in society is nothing new...

...as seen in this over 65-year old short story from Atlas' Suspense #29 (1953)!

Writer/editor Stan Lee is the model for the story's editor.

Though artist Joe Maneely doesn't use Dr Fredric Wertham's likeness for the screaming loon, the character is clearly based on the impression the "good doctor" made on comics industry workers whose livelihood he almost destroyed.

This was the final issue of the pre-Comics Code horror title which, initially, adapted stories from the famous dramatic radio show.

When the similarly-named Tales of Suspense debuted a couple of years later, it was a Code-approved science-fiction/fantasy title until the arrival of superheroes Iron Man and Captain America.

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Ten-Cent Plague

The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America

A Halloween Treat (No Trick!)...Horror Comics of the 1950s!

Since brick-and-mortar stores are already selling Halloween stuff, we now offer the following...

Before videogames came along, comics, tv, and movies were said to be the contributing factors to...(gasp)...JUVENILE DELINQUENCY!
Noted psychiatrist Dr Fredric Wertham SAID SO in his classic book Seduction of the Innocent!
I say...CELEBRATE the stuff your grandparents said would warp your parents' minds!
After all, they turned out OK, didn't they?
Didn't they?
Oh, well...
What could be more appropriate for Halloween than the frightening images of Horror Comics of the 1950s™ on tote bags, t-shirts, mini-buttons,and other ghoulish goodies?

Are you ready to be scared?

Click HERE...if you dare!

Britain's Fredric Wertham and the Gorbals Vampire!

Most readers of this blog are familiar with Dr. Fredric Wertham and his notorious book Seduction of the Innocent, which basically attributed 1950s juvenile delinquency to the reading of comic books, specifically horror comics!
But, did you know that Great Britain had a similar cultural phenomenon, known as The Gorbals Vampire, and they also blaming American horror comics?

Bleeding Cool, a site of such importance to all comics fanboys and fangirls (yes, that includes us) that it should be one of your PRIMARY bookmarks, has posted info on a BBC documentary about this infamous (and little-known) period of British history!

Link, read, listen, and learn.
For those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it!

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Gorbals Vampire

Design of the Week Redux: HALLOWEEN HOLE-IN-THE-HEAD!

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another...unless it sells really well, then it goes "Redux" for one more week, like this one!
With Halloween coming, it seems only appropriate that we go with scary themes for the next few weeks.
Kicking off our compilation of creepy collectibles is this ghoulishly-graphic image from one of the types of comic books that gave Dr Fredric Wertham such fits in the 1950s!
(Wertham was the psychiatrist who claimed that horror comics caused juvenile delinquency, resulting in the demise of the genre and the near-death of the comic book industry. Despite his heroic efforts, juvenile delinquency continued to flourish!)
Yeah, it's gruesome, but in a campy, cartoonish fashion!
Isn't that exactly what you're looking for in Halloween-wear?

Design of the Week: HALLOWEEN HOLE-IN-THE-HEAD!

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!
This week...
With Halloween coming, it seems only appropriate that we go with scary themes for the next few weeks.
Kicking off our compilation of creepy collectibles is this ghoulishly-graphic image from one of the types of comic books that gave Dr Fredric Wertham such fits in the 1950s!
(Wertham was the psychiatrist who claimed that horror comics caused juvenile delinquency, resulting in the demise of the genre and the near-death of the comic book industry. Despite his heroic efforts, juvenile delinquency continued to flourish!)
Yeah, it's gruesome, but in a campy, cartoonish fashion!
Isn't that exactly what you're looking for in Halloween-wear?

Reading Room MENACE "Walking Dead"

As we pointed out yesterday, "Walking Dead" didn't always refer to zombies...

...but it sure does here!

This cover-featured story from Atlas' Menace #9 (1954) came at the tail-end of the horror comic craze.

Dr. Wertham's crusade against those magazines had already taken it's toll as entire comic companies folded due to falling sales and public outcry.

Menace itself only lasted two more issues before disappearing.

Luckily, Atlas, which already had a predeliction for jumping onto whatever current fad was selling, had such a diverse line, that it was easy for Stan Lee and company to simply "switch gears" and replace the disgraced horror genre with other types of books.

(For example, When MAD comics took off in the mid-1950s, Atlas had four MAD-clone comics; RIOT!, CRAZY!, WILD!, and SNAFU!!

None lasted more than five issues!)

With the Silver Age dawning only a couple of years later, Atlas hung on long enough to become Marvel, and the rest is history...

Illustrated by John Forte with a cover by Gene Colan, the story's writer is unknown.

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Marvel Masterworks

Atlas Era

Menace

Holy Halloween, Batman! Wertham Was RIGHT!

New Pics on Just Jared Say it ALL...

In Seduction of the Innocent, Dr Fredric Wertham claimed, "The Batman type of story may stimulate children to homosexual fantasies, of the nature of which they may be unconscious" and "Only someone ignorant of the fundamentals of psychiatry and of the psychopathology of sex can fail to realize a subtle atmosphere of homoeroticism which pervades the adventures of the mature 'Batman' and his young friend Robin."

There's a delightfully-snarky article about Wertham's conclusions HERE.

And catch the Halloween ep of Modern Family tonite on ABC!

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Seduction of the Innocent

by Fredric Wertham

Reading Room STRANGE JOURNEY "Space is a Secret"

Before you read this tale, go HERE...

..because this is the second version of this story!

Like almost all other comics publishers, Ajax/Farrell was hit hard by the Seduction of the Innocent witch-hunt of the 1950s.

They survived where many others didn't by kow-towing to the sometimes inane restrictions placed on them by the censor agency created by the industry itself...the Comics Code Authority!

This story, from Ajax/Farrell's Strange Journey #2 (1957) is a classic example of how extreme the Code took matters.

Every page has alterations, including changing the ending (in the original version, the Earthmen never escape)!

The final version, taken back to it's original level of horror...and beyond...can be found on our "brother" RetroBlog, Seduction of the Innocent!

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Four Color Fear

Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s

Ride the Halloween Night with the Classic GHOST RIDER!

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 after World War II, and both the western and horror genres 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.
Since the inside of the cape was black, he'd reverse it, and appear in the dark as just a floating head, usually scaring a confession or needed information out of owlhoots.
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 cool).

BTW, the artistically-astute among you can tell that cover above 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 occasional 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 horror, masked heroes, Westerns, or all three genres, take a long, lingering look at The Ghost Rider!
You'll not see his like again!

San Diego "Tales from ComicCon" 5th Anniversary Shirts & Stuff!

On July 24th, 2010, at the San Diego ComicCon, reality became far more frightening than any horror comic book!
Thankfully, the victim survived, and  a suspect was quickly taken into custody.

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 produced this line of kool kollectibles for you to display at conventions 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!

Naughty OR Nice at Christmastime? Have We Got a Grrrl for You...

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

Like a number of 1940s comics characters, she was created and packaged by the Eisner-Iger comic book studio for an established publisher (in this case, 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 that both the "naughty" and "nice' versions of the character have a place in pop culture history, 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 suitable for even the youngest would-be heroine in your family!
In Seduction of the Innocent!!™, we have the PG-13, 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 12-Month Calendars as well as her own 12-month calendar!

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 this Christmas!
They'll thank you for it! ;-)

Under the X-Mas Tree: Behold...the Blue Bolt!

In the 1940s, comic books were the equivalent of videogames today. Everybody started publishing them, even the staid Saturday Evening Post! Their comics line was Novelty Press, and to create the lead character, they commissioned young up-and-coming writer/artist Joe Simon.
Simon came up with the concept, plot, and character designs and produced the first issue of Blue Bolt. But, by the second issue, his workload between this and other projects was so overwhelming, that to stay on deadline (Yes, there was a time when comics artists actually MET deadlines!), he partnered with another young up-and-comer, Jacob Kurtzburg.
You know him as...Jack Kirby!
(In the '60s he would, with Stan Lee, co-create The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor...basically 95% of Marvel Comics' Silver Age line-up, almost all of whom are still going strong today! Yeah, THAT Jack Kirby!)
Thus, with The Blue Bolt, the legendary Golden Age team of Simon & Kirby born!
As to the character himself...he was a football star who was struck by lightning (twice), recovered, flew his private plane to get help, crashed it so hard that it fell thru to the center of the Earth where the inhabitants of an advanced civilization used radiation to save and improve him, was given a costume and weapon, and sent to battle the local super-villain, The Green Sorceress.
And that was just the origin story!
Then things really got busy!
It took a year for Blue to both fall in love with, and finally defeat, Greenie. Then realizing World War II was under way, he went to the surface to battle the Axis.
Simon & Kirby moved on to create other, even higher-profile, projects (Captain America, Newsboy Legion, Young Romance, etc.) but Blue Bolt chugged on, surviving until the early 50s, when, after changing from a superhero to horror title, it was laid to rest as a result of a public outcry against comics led by Dr. Wertham.
We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have resurrected the valiant hero as part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line, including his first appearance, his (in our opinion) BEST cover, and his final Golden Age cover appearance!
For a fan of the Golden Age of Comics, Jack Kirby, or the Blue Bolt himself, any of our shirts, mugs, mousepads or other goodies would make great Christmas gifts!
Show the fanboy (or fangirl) in your life you know what they like!

One Million Moms vs Dracula!

Shades of Fredric Wertham and Seduction of the Innocent...the group One Million Moms has issued a fatwa against the Prince of Darkness...Dracula!

Warning! NBC’s new program Dracula airs on Friday evenings at 10:00 p.m. ET/9:00 p.m. CT with a TV-14-SV rating.
The gory series will air on weekends when children and teens usually stay up later.
Not only is this show extremely violent, but it also includes a high level of sexual content that should be considered pornographic material.
NBC’s website describes the series with words like sex, style, mystery and adventure.
Even the previews included several brief clips of sex scenes that would be considered soft porn. This program is entirely too graphic in too many ways.
Previews of this program also included: terrifying screams, a rotted corpse, death, murder, a woman burned alive while tied to a stake, spirits, satanic and occult elements, homosexual content, tons of blood (mostly on Dracula’s face and victim’s necks) and other gore, including decapitated heads in boxes and pools of blood.

Apparently no member of One Millions Moms knows how to set the V-Chip in their own tvs, dvrs, or cable/satellite boxes!
It certainly would be a lot easier, faster, and more effective than doing what they suggest...

Urge advertisers to place the program on their “do not advertise” list in protest of the attempt to desensitize America and our children by promoting inappropriate content.

But, that would require the One Millions Moms to act like parents...something they seem incapable of doing...

Does Popular Culture Corrupt Kids?

For the answer, you must read...

...by Max Allan Collins with EC Comics-style illustrations by Terry Beatty and pulp-style cover by Glen Orbik!

Ironically, the subject matter is just as relevant today as it was back in the 1950s...

COMIC BOOKS ARE CORRUPTING AMERICA’S YOUTH! Or so the esteemed Dr. Werner Frederick would have people believe—people like the Congressmen holding hearings on banning violent crime and horror "funny books." And when the crusade provokes a most un-funny murder, Jack Starr—comics syndicate troubleshooter—has no shortage of suspects. Was it the knife-wielding juvenile delinquent or the naked seductress? Perhaps a frustrated publisher or an outraged cartoonist. Or was it a comic book reader...?
(You can read an excerpt HERE!)
Inspired by the real-life 1950s witch-hunt against crime and horror comics (much like the present crusade against video games and movies), Max Allan Collins' crime novel SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT gives you a slightly-skewed, but based on the facts, view of the history of comics loaded with Easter Eggs for any pop culture aficionado.
I'd offer you a link to buy a copy, but Amazon.com refuses to allow me to do so because I'm a resident of Illinois and New York, which charge Internet sales tax, so Amazon doesn't allow residents of either state to use their Associate program.

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