Space: the FInal Frontier (for Christmas Gifts)!

Since the 1890s, and the heyday of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, science fiction-themed presents have found a place under the Christmas tree and in Xmas stockings for the young (and young at heart)!
Continuing that entertaining tradition, Atomic Kommie Comics™ is proud to offer our line of retro-design sci-fi/fantasy collectibles, The Future WAS Fantastic!™, for both kids AND adults!
We're talking 12-month calendars, mousepads, mugs, magnets, t-shirts, sweatshirts and other goodies featuring some of the niftiest illustrations from the comic books, pulp magazines, and movie posters of the 1930s-1960s, all digitally-restored and remastered!

Spaceships with wings and big fins!

Ray Guns that can zap an entire army in a flash!

Slimy Aliens!

Killer Robots!

Heroes in bubble-helmeted tight spacesuits!

Heroines in even tighter space suits!

Never did the future look so...stylish!
If you're looking for something in the vein of Star Wars or Star Trek (You did know that George Lucas wanted to remake Flash Gordon, but King Features didn't want to trust a young director whose biggest credit at that point was American Graffiti, didn't you?), here's the stuff that provided the visual inspiration for today's hi-tech flights of fantasy!
Enjoy, and may your rocket tubes never overheat...

Design of the Week CYBER-SANTA

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

This week...Future Santa (note the four arms!) meets his replacement...Cyber-Santa!

In the late 1950s-early 1960s we thought there was nothing science couldn't improve...including Santa Claus!

Galaxy Magazine's primary artist (both covers and interiors) in this era was Ed Emshwiller, who signed his work "Emsh".

Known for both detail and playfullness, Ed did a series of Christmas covers from 1951 to 1960 featuring a four-armed Santa in the future celebrating the Yuletide with humans and aliens alike!

Enjoy this final one in the series on mugs, t-shirts and other kool kollectibles!

Make it a STAYCATION CHRISTMAS! Enticing AND Economical!

From Asia...

...to Europe...

...to Africa...

...to the Americas (North AND South)

...you can travel the world (or at least look like you did) with our line of retro collectibles including mugs, wall clocks, clothing, and many other tchochkes (including faux luggage stickers!) emblazoned with vintage advertising and luggage sticker art from the 1920s thru the 1960s, digitally-restored and remastered!
AND, they'll make great Christmas gifts for the would-be world traveler in your circle!

Make Christmas a Staycation (with style) this year!

Design of the Week Redux YULETIDE HOMICIDE

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

(Unless it sells really well, as this design has!
Then we give it another week!)

This week...it's a Yuletide homicide!

A never-reprinted cover from the 1960s featuring the police investigating the apparent demise of Kris Kringle!

Whodunit?

We have no idea, but it'll be a crime if you don't order a kool kollectible using this artwork for a loved one (particularly one in law enforcement) as a fun stocking stuffer!

Make Yuletide 2017 a Kick-Butt Christmas!

In our ongoing quest to suggest cool Christmas gifts for our faithful fans, we of Atomic Kommie Comics™ would like to direct you to, perhaps, the most unlikely of departments--Pop Art Martial Arts™

But, when you think about it, considering how Western-based, cops-and-robbers-oriented, and military-themed toys and gifts have been part of the Yuletide for generations (I'll never forget finding my first 11.5" GI Joe under the tree one Christmas morning back in the 1960s!), it's only natural that martial arts-oriented gifts should also be part of the holiday season!

Beyond the fact that you can't shoot your eye out with a gi, (Note: Do NOT give ninja throwing stars to kids as a present!) all these themes are based on the concept of good triumphing over evil, protecting the helpless, and having fun doing it!
And, martial arts promote physical fitness! ;-)

We offer men's, women's, and kid's garb, as well as stuff to decorate your dojo.

And what a lineup!
Kung Fu Vampires!
The ORIGINAL StreetFighter!
Sister StreetFighter!
Lady Kung Fu!
Deadly China Doll!
Five Fingers of Death!
And, for those who want a Power Rangers-style look with rubber-suited monsters aplenty--Infra-Man!

So, make it a Merry, Martial-Arts Christmas! Ho, Ho, Ho, Hi-Yahh!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Super Infra-Man

The (Absolutely Insane) Uncut Version!

Design of the Week YULETIDE HOMICIDE

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

This week...it's a Yuletide homicide!

A never-reprinted cover from the 1960s featuring the police investigating the apparent demise of Kris Kringle!

Whodunit?

We have no idea, but it'll be a crime if you don't order a kool kollectible using this artwork for a loved one (particularly one in law enforcement) as a fun stocking stuffer!

Design of the Week THE FIRST CHRISTMAS...in 3-D!

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

This week...it's a never-reprinted comic cover from the 1950, which not only offers a tasteful and beautiful painting of the Nativity scene by legendary sci-fi artist Kelly Freas, but also a kool, kitchy element with the fact it's the cover of a 3-D comic!

Available on mugs, buttins, t-shirts, tote bags, literally dozens of kool kollectibles that would make great stocking stuffers!

BTW, you can read the tale behind the cover HERE!

(Make sure you have your 3-D glasses!)

Design of the Week Redux! SANTA'S ELVES ON STRIKE

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 we extend it for another week!

This week...Go back 79 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!
Why not pick up this kool design on mugs, greeting cards, and other Christmas collectibles NOW!
Christmas will be here before you know it!

Make your Christmas tree SpaceMan Jet's landing pad!

Flash Gordon!

Buck Rogers!
Brick Bradford!
Even...Rocket Kelly!
Have you ever noticed that space-faring heroes almost NEVER have a first name like "Dave" or "Melvin"? (Yeah, there was DAN Dare, but his last name was "Dare" for chissakes!)
It's always something dramatic and/or futuristic!
Makes you wonder what their parents were thinking when they filled out the birth certificate..."Yeah, "Brick"! That's a good name for the kid!"

Jet Powers was one of the last of that breed of high-adventure heroes, a kick-butt, blast-first-and-ask-questions-later kinda guy who crossed space and time like you and I cross the street!
As rendered by Bob Powell, one of the most versatile illustrators of the Golden Age (He did everything, sci-fi, romance, war, horror, etc), Jet was a ruggedly-handsome guy with distinctive white hair and a nose that had been broken and reset! (Think of a combo of Bruce Willis and Peter Graves.)
Besides being good in a fight, Jet was a scientific wiz with his own mountaintop base and spacecraft!
He operated as a freelance agent for the United States, meeting the President himself at least once just to receive orders!
In four issues of his own title Jet battled Mr Sinn, an evil scientist equal to himself, who was colored bright green, but like Ming the Merciless, was an alien variation of the "Yellow Menace" villain stereotype.
Powers also met, rescued, and fell in love with Su Shan, formerly a servant of Sinn. Of course, Sinn wanted her back, so Jet had to keep rescuing her for the entire series!
You can read his exciting adventures by clicking HERE!

Atomic Kommie Comics™ has returned him to interplanetary action as SpaceMan Jet, along with the SpaceBusters, in our The Future WAS Fantastic!™ series, even giving him his own section.where all four of his spectacular star-spanning covers adorn mugs, shirts and a plethora of other goodies!

For the special someone in your life with a taste for retro sci-fi / fantasy, you can't go wrong with one of these items as a Christmas present!
(Heck, if I didn't already have them, I'd want 'em!)

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics at Christmas!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Bob Powell's Complete Jet Powers

Cowboys + Dinosaurs = Christmas FUN!

Art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito

They just don't make comics like this anymore!

Masked cowboy hero vs gunslinger riding a pterodactyl...and a bright magenta pterodactyl at that!
It's the sort of concept a nine-year old would come up with while playing with his (or her) newly-unwrapped action figures under the Christmas tree, mixing the dinosaurs with superheroes and cowboys!

Why not?
That's what makes it so KOOL!
It's so darn silly, yet fun, you just have to look at it and think "what the--?"

That's exactly the sense of wonder we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ still feel!
We want to live in a world where anything can, and does, happen!
In pop culture, we call this sort of tale "cross-genre", where a story draws elements from disparate categories of fiction.

Sometimes there's a certain logic to it.
One of my favorite books involves fiction's greatest detective dealing with the first alien invasion!
Since he lived in London at the time the invasion took place, it seems only (dare I say it) elementary, that Sherlock Holmes would witness and analyze the Martian invasion of 1898!
That's the basis of the superb pastiche, Sherlock Holmes' War of the Worlds by Manly Wade Wellman & Wade Wellman!
That novel, to me, defines KOOL!
(The fact the story also includes another of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic characters; Professor Challenger from The Lost World and other sci-fi novels, is a cross-genre bonus!)
Track down a copy.
If you're a Holmes, Challenger, and/or War of the Worlds fan (I'm a fan of all three), it's well worth the effort!

Sometimes there's no real logic to it except--"why not?"
That's the category where something like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians goes!
And that's where the cover shown above goes.
This particular design was so cross-genre we put it in two wildly-different sections--Dinosaurs!, and Masked Western Heroes, because, hey, it fits both categories, so--"why not?"

Keep the Sense of Wonder alive!
Give a Christmas gift that keeps inspiring the imaginations of both the young and the young-at-heart!

There's Nothing That Says "Christmas" Like LUST!

If you've been a faithful reader of this blog, you're well aware we have a section in Atomic Kommie Comics™ called Seduction of the Innocent™ featuring risque pop culture subjects in both comix and film. In that vein, we present today's tawdry tale...
"She was greedy, heartless and calculating.
She knew what she wanted and was ready to sacrifice anything to get it"
Before Gil Kane's Blackmark, before Will Eisner's A Contract with God, there was It Rhymes with Lust, considered by many to be the FIRST Graphic Novel!
Created in 1950 by writers Arnold Drake (Doom Patrol, Guardians of the Galaxy) and Leslie Waller (numerous crime novels) under the pseudonym "Drake Waller" and artists Matt Baker (Phantom Lady) and Ray Osrin, the digest-sized b/w comic was a pulp noir potboiler about a steel-producing town (like Pittsburgh) and a manipulative woman named Rust who will use ANY means to control it. (It's a rather adult book, though not pornographic! Think "soft R" rating!)
Trivia: Leslie Waller, besides writing numerous crime novels, also penned the novelization of Close Encounters of the Third Kind!
The "Picture Novel" series (Lust was the first title) published by pulp/comic company St. John Publications, only ran for two books before being cancelled due to poor sales.
The book has been reprinted twice in recent years, first by Fantagraphics in the magazine The Comics Journal #277, then, in it's original format by Dark Horse Comics with a new intro by Arnold Drake. Both are available at your local comic shop or online.
Why do we tell you all this?
Because we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ believe that other companies occasionally produce kool collectibles, and in the Spirit of Christmas, we want to promote stuff that we ourselves would want under the tree. (Significant Other, please take note...)
Of course, the fact that we ourselves also produce It Rhymes with Lust collector's items like mugs, mousepads and mens'/women's clothing that would make great accompanying items in a themed gift package for a loved one who's into Graphic Novels this Yuletide never occured to us!
Nope, never!
Didn't even cross our minds! ;-)

Holiday Reading Room FIRST CHRISTMAS IN NEW SUPER 3DIMENSION Conclusion

When Last We Left the Messiah...

...he had just been born!

So get out those red-blue glasses and let's continue..

This never-reprinted 1953 comic from Fiction House was one of numerous Bible-themed titles put out by various comics publishers to try to counteract the growing tide of anti-comics sentiment created by Fredric (Seduction of the Innocent) Wertham and his ilk, showing comic books could also be wholesome entertainment.

You can see Atlas/Marvel's version of the Nativity HERE, and DC/EC's take on the story HERE.
The writer and artist are unknown, but it's a sure bet they were part of the Iger Studio which "packaged" (provided editorial and art) for Fiction House's comics division.
The cover is by legendary sci-fi pulp and book illustrator Kelly Freas!

MERRY

CHRISTMAS!!!

Holiday Reading Room FIRST CHRISTMAS IN NEW SUPER 3DIMENSION Part 1

Get out those red-blue 3-D glasses, kiddies...

...because we're about to add a whole new dimension to Christmas comics!

Be here Christmas Eve for the astounding conclusion.

Spoiler: the comic, while chronologically going beyond the usual Christmas narrative, does not cover Jesus Christ's entire life story.

This never-reprinted 1953 comic from Fiction House was one of numerous Bible-themed titles put out by various comics publishers to try to counteract the growing tide of anti-comics sentiment created by Fredric (Seduction of the Innocent) Wertham and his ilk, showing comic books could also be wholesome entertainment.

You can see Atlas/Marvel's version of the Nativity HERE, and DC/EC's take on the story HERE.

For Fiction House, unfortunately, it turned out to be one of the last titles the comics division published, closing up in early 1954.

Fiction's pulp magazine department struggled until early 1955 when it, too, passed into oblivion.