Second Cousin of SuperPowers Sunday!

For the next few Sundays, we're going to present the nifty updated designs of the Project SuperPowers characters by Alex Ross along with links to a couple of Squidoo pages of background info and links about the series and characters...
Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers
(featuring characters who've been cover-featured)
Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers Strikes Again!
(featuring the other characters)
Erik Larsen's the Next Issue Project & Savage Dragon
(featuring several of the same characters as Project SuperPowers and others, but set in a different universe!)
Plus solo pages for
The Classic Black Terror & Tim
and
The Classic Dare Devil

In addition, you can find Atomic Kommie Comics™ kool kollectibles emblazoned with the ORIGINAL 1940s classic cover art featuring these classic characters...
Amazing-Man
The Arrow
The Black Terror & Tim
The Blue Bolt
Captain Battle & Capt Battle Jr
DareDevil
(aka Death-Defying 'Devil
and Dynamic DareDevil)
The Green Mask & Domino
(in Solo Heroes)
PyroMan
Sub-Zero Man
U.S. Jones
(in Flag-Draped Heroes)
at
Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™!
Unfortunately, we've been unable to find solo cover appearances for either The Liberator or Vulcan.
If you know of any, e-mail us the issue numbers and we'll track 'em down and scan them!

And don't forget to buy the Project SuperPowers comics and collections including Black Terror, Death Defying 'Devil, Masquerade, and Project SuperPowers Volume 2!

Attack of the SuperPowers Sunday!

For the next few Sundays, we're going to present the nifty updated designs of the Project SuperPowers characters by Alex Ross along with links to a couple of Squidoo pages of background info and links about the series and characters...
Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers
(featuring characters who've been cover-featured)
Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers Strikes Again!
(featuring the other characters)
Erik Larsen's the Next Issue Project & Savage Dragon
(featuring several of the same characters as Project SuperPowers and others, but set in a different universe!)
as well as a solo page for
The Classic Blue Beetle

In addition, you can find Atomic Kommie Comics™ kool kollectibles emblazoned with the ORIGINAL 1940s classic cover art featuring these characters...
Blue Beetle (aka Big Blue)
& Sparky
Cyclone
(in Solo Heroes)
The Flame
The Grim Reaper
(in Solo Heroes)
RocketMan & RocketGirl
(aka the Zip-Jets)
Samson & David
V-Man
YellowJacket (aka Jack)
(in Solo Heroes)
at
Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™!
(Unfortunately, neither Black Venus nor The Hood had solo cover appearances, so we don't have anything on them...yet!)

And don't forget to buy the Project SuperPowers comics and collections including Black Terror, Death Defying 'Devil, Masquerade, and Project SuperPowers Volume 2!

Challenge of the SuperPowers Sundays

For the next few Sundays, we're going to present the nifty updated designs of the Project SuperPowers characters by Alex Ross along with links to a couple of Squidoo pages of background info and links about the series and characters...
Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers
(featuring characters who've been cover-featured)
Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers Strikes Again!
(featuring the other characters)
and, with his own page...
The Classic Green Lama

In addition, you can find Atomic Kommie Comics™ kool kollectibles emblazoned with the ORIGINAL 1940s classic cover art featuring these characters...
American Crusader
in Solo Heroes
American Eagle
in Flag-Draped Heroes
Captain Courageous
in Flag-Draped Heroes
The Face aka Mr Face
The Flag
in Flag-Draped Heroes
The Green Lama
Flash / Lash Lightning
in Solo Heroes
Marvelo
in Solo Heroes
Mr Raven can be found at 4 Favorites
(he never had a solo cover appearance)
The SkyMan
Super-American
in Flag-Draped Heroes
The Sword
in Solo Heroes
Unknown Soldier aka Soldier Unknown
In Flag-Draped Heroes
at
Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™!

And don't forget to buy the Project SuperPowers comics and collections including Black Terror, Death Defying 'Devil, Masquerade, and Project SuperPowers Volume 2!

SuperPowers Sunday Returns!

For the next few Sundays, we're going to re-present the updated designs of the Project SuperPowers characters by Alex Ross along with links to a couple of Squidoo pages of background info and links about the series and characters...

Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers
(featuring characters who've been cover-featured)

Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers Strikes Again!
(featuring the other characters)
Plus a solo page for...
The Classic Captain Future
(Both of them. Click on the link.
You'll see what I mean!)

In addition, you can find Atomic Kommie Comics™ kool kollectibles emblazoned with the ORIGINAL 1940s classic cover art featuring these characters (in alphabetical order)...
Captain Future (aka Zeus)
Cat-Man (was Cat, now Man-Cat)  
& Kitten
Dynamic Man
Fighting Yank
The Flame
HydroMan (now called Hydro)
Major Victory
(in Flag-Draped Heroes)  
The Owl
Silver Streak
StrongMan
(in Solo Heroes)  
The Target & Targeteers
at
Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™!
(unfortunately, The Woman in Red was never cover-featured, so there's no goodies featuring her...yet!)

And don't forget to buy the Project SuperPowers comics and collections including Black Terror, Death Defying 'Devil, Masquerade, and Project SuperPowers Volume 2!

Kevin Smith's Green Hornet--Who Will DIE?

According to reports, someone dies in Kevin Smith's Green Hornet #3!

Is it Green Hornet (Junior)?

Is it Kato (Junior)?

IS it Green Hornet (Senior)?

IS it Kato (Senior)?

Judging from the Alex Ross cover to #4 (above) both the Juniors survive!

SO, will Britt Reid or Kato join the Choir Eternal?

NOTE: In the NOW Comics version (which also had a female Kato), Britt Reid died...

For KSGH #3, I'm betting on Kato (Senior)

BONUS: Penciler Michael Netzer discloses details about the four covers on his blog!
(Now there's a name I haven't seen in a long time! Welcome back, Mike! You've still got the touch!)

Samson Classic Cover Gallery

Besides being one of the characters to be revived by both Erik Larsen (in Next Issue Project: Fantastic Comics #24) and Alex Ross (in Project SuperPowers), Samson was the FIRST demigod characters to receive his own comic, predating Marvel's Mighty Thor by several decades!
(And yes, I'm looking forward to Natalie Portman as Jane Foster in the new Mighty Thor movie!)

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

The Dart & Ace: Time Lost Hero and Present-Day Partner

2200 years ago, Caius Martius was an ancient Roman superhero known as The Dart, using his cape as a glider to swoop down, or "dart", at his opponents.
Unfortunately, one of them, Marius, was a sorcerer who managed to entomb the hero in a boulder for over 2,000 years.
Managing to finally extricate himself from the boulder, which had been transported to an American museum, Caius entered the then-present day world of 1940, where the first thing he saw upon leaving the museum was a drive-by shooting of a teen boy's parents!
"Darting" down, Caius transported the traumatized boy to safety, then struck a bargain with him.
The kid, Ace Barlow, would teach him of the amazing world of the "future", and Caius would train the kid in use of ancient weapons, martial arts, and how to "dart", in order to track down the killers of the lad's parents!
Three months of training (and one page) later, the newly-outfitted team of The Dart and Ace, the Amazing Boy found and captured the gang who had done the heinous deed!
Caius, now much more familiar with the "future" of 1940, took the name Caius Wheeler, and became an antiques dealer to make money for the duo's living and operating expenses as they battled present-day evil with ancient weapons.

All this in one eight-page story in Weird Comics #5!
From that appearance to #20 (the final issue of the title in 1942), The Dart was the book's lead feature, usually taking the cover slot as well.


But since then, nothing...until 2008, when Alex Ross included the duo among the plethora of Golden Age superheroes revived in Project SuperPowers! (In fact, Ace is now one of the teen-hero group known as The Inheritors!)

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ also revived the Daring Duo in a line of kool kollectibles including t-shirts, messenger bags, mugs, and other goodies featuring the cover from Weird Comics #10!

"Dart" on over to The Dart and Ace, the Amazing Boy now, before they "dart" away!

Phantasmo: Master of the World!

Once more, we journey to Tibet, birthplace of literally hundreds of superheroes from the Golden Age of Pulps and Comics to the present including The Shadow, The Green Lama, and Doctor Strange.
Lamasaries in pulps and comics did a thriving business in training Westerners who crashed on, stumbled into, or sought out their mountaintop locales to receive physical and / or mental training which they then used to fight evil back in their homelands.
(Oddly enough, very few Asian characters bothered to go to the Himalayas to learn mystic or martial arts! But I digress...)

A rich, but disillusioned, American who had spent over two decades living in Tibet, seeking enlightenment from the monks, learned the lamas' secrets of "ultimate control of their mental processes."
Returning to the USA, he took a new civilian identity, "Phil Anson", and began a war on crime as Phantasmo! (We never learned his original name or why he was so disenchanted with his previous life.)
Like The Spectre, Phantasmo was actually an astral projection who could take solid form when separated from his "host" body.
His abilities included super-strength, flight, near-invulnerabilty, and penchant for growing / shrinking tricks.
Also like The Spectre,  Phantasmo wore just shorts, boots and a cape. (astral bodies apparently don't get cold.) Unlike The Spectre, who wore green, Phantasmo wore yellow with gold highlights. This had the unfortunate side-effect of making him look like he wasn't wearing anything at all if the Magenta printing plate got screwed up, which happened from time to time! (Warning: NSFW)
While his astral form ran around doing heroic feats, his human form was unconscious and helpless. Phil hired Whizzer McGee, a bellhop at the hotel Anson lived in, to guard his body while it was "unoccupied".

Debuting in The Funnies #45, Phantasmo was the first superhero character from Dell Comics, who had previously done reprints of newspaper strips like Dick Tracy.
From his premiere, Phantasmo was the cover feature of The Funnies until #57,  when he shared the cover with up-and-coming superstar Captain Midnight, who forced him off the cover as of the next issue!
"The Master of the World" remained as a backup feature until #63, when The Funnies became a funny animal book and Captain Midnight got his own title.
Phantasmo literally disappeared for several decades, until revived (in flashbacks) in Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers mini-series a year or so ago!
We suspect he'll be showing up in the present-day storyline, in due course.

In the meantime, we're re-presenting him on a line of kool kollectibles including t-shirts, mugs, messenger bags and other nifty tchochkies.
So, check out "The Master of the World", as Phantasmo was described on the covers, before he catches a cold. ;-)