Showing posts with label animation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animation. Show all posts

Sunday, October 20, 2024

CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST "Premiere"

Here's the first appearance of a comics legend (over 100 comic series with his name in the title)...
...who, at the time this came out, was already an animation mainstay!
Utilizing story elements from Casper's first cartoon (1945's Paramount NovelToon "The Friendly Ghost", written by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo) this opener written by Isadore Klien and likely illustrated by one of the cartoon series' animators appeared in St John's Casper the Friendly Ghost #1 (1949)
Interestingly, though Harvey Comics acquired the character rights from Paramount Pictures and continued the series after St John went out of business, they never reprinted the covers or stories of the five issues by St John!
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Sunday, April 21, 2024

Tomorrow is Earth Day...

...so, we're doing a double-post!

The comic book adaptation of the first episode of the 1990s animated series Captain Planet and the Planeteers at
Plus:
The cover-featured tale from the 50th Anniversary revival of the legendary ecology-themed comic anthology...
Slow Death
Right Here at
Atomic Kommie Comics!
We're always entertaining, right to the end...which may be a lot sooner than you think!

Sunday, November 26, 2023

See It NOW, Before It Goes to Broadway...and becomes a LOT MORE EXPENSIVE!

Legendary cartoon character Betty Boop has returned to pop culture prominence in a big way...

(Hey, it worked for Little Orphan Annie!)
Photo: Mark Seliger
Starring gorgeous Broadway veteran Jasmine Amy Rogers as the embodiment of Betty,
...the show looks like an absolute hoot!

With award-winning creatives handling writing, directing, and production
(including effects like transitioning the cast and sets from black and white to color on stage), the production should appeal to old (who remember the cartoons) and young, who will be introed to the pop art icon!
If you're in the Chicago area now through Christmas Eve, see
Boop! the Musical!

Sunday, November 5, 2023

November: the Month Betty Boop Returns...

Legendary cartoon character Betty Boop returns to pop culture prominence in a big way...

(Hey, it worked for Little Orphan Annie!)
Photo: Mark Seliger
Starring Broadway veteran Jasmine Amy Rogers as the embodiment of Betty,
the show looks like an absolute hoot!
With award-winning creatives handling writing, directing, and production
(including effects like transitioning the cast and sets from black and white to color on stage), the production should appeal to old (who remember the cartoons) and young, who will be introed to the pop art icon!
As for us, we're turning our "sister" RetroBlog, Heroines, over to Betty for November, beginning tomorrow with Betty's first comic strip...which wasn't really her strip!
(Don't worry, we'll explain tomorrow!)
The week of November 13th, you'll see the appropriately-entitled 1990 one-shot comic...
by comics pros (and major Betty-philes) Leslie Carbaga, Joshua Quaqmire, and Milton Knight!
Finally, starting the day after Boop! the Musical's November 19th premiere, you'll see the first couple of months of Betty's actual comic strip!
Check Out
Heroines!
starting tomorrow
and, if you're in the Chicago area over Thanksgiving, see
Boop! the Musical!

Saturday, February 26, 2022

DUCK & COVER: THE MOVIE!

WARNING!
This is NOT for the Faint of Heart!
Now see what misled millions of innocent young schoolchildren who thought they'd survive an atomic attack by simply ducking and covering...
Amazing what the government would lie about, eh?

Monday, February 22, 2021

Monday Madness HEAVY METAL "Mara's Edge"

Here's a retro-kool short story illustrated by one of the most underrated comic creators currently working...

As you might have guessed, Knight was heavily-influenced by 1920s-40s animators including the Fleisher Brothers, Tex Avery, and Chuck Jones.
He's worked in comics, animation, magazine illustration, commercial art, even CD and LP album cover graphics!
Though he collaborated with writer Steve Riggenberg on this tale never-reprinted tale from Heavy Metal V9N7 (1985), Knight usually scripts his own material.
Check out his website HERE!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order...
Volume 3
(Featuring Milton Knight Jr's graphic adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston's classic "Poker!")

Thursday, January 23, 2020

It's 2020, and the Dinosaurs are About to Return...

...according to the sadly OOP series Xenozoic Tales!
Why hasn't this series, which combined the apocalypse, classic cars, and prehistoric monsters along with excellent writing and art, ever been a multi-media, mass-market favorite like Walking Dead or Game of Thrones?
How did all this come about?
This video (ironically, from the video game) explains quite succinctly how in 2020 the world we know will end!

Plotwise and chronologically, this story from Kitchen Sink's Xenozoic Tales #1 (1987), written and illustrated by Mark Schultz, is the first story in the series, featuring Hannah Dundee's introduction to the people of the City in the Sea.
Note: A tale (entitled "Xenozoic") introducing the series to the public, but published a couple of years earlier in Kitchen Sink's Death Rattle #8 (1985) takes place after this story.
When the entire series was reprinted in story-chronological order in Dark Horse hardcovers in 2003, the Death Rattle tale was placed between two stories in Xenozoic Tales #2.
The comic inspired a video game and well-done, but short-lived, animated TV series.
Despite those successes, it still has yet to hit the public consciousness the way other graphic novel properties have.
Perhaps now's the time to revive it?
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Friday, December 13, 2019

Friday Fun A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1971)

The Definitive Animated Version...
...starring Alistair Sim as the Voice of Scrooge!
It won both the Oscar and Emmy for best animated short subject.
Based on the illustrations for the first edition of the book by John Leech, animator Richard (Pink Panther movies) Williams' film is a superb condensation of the novella into only 25 minutes!
And both Alistair Sim (as Scrooge) and Michael Hodern (as Marley) reprise their roles from the classic 1951 live-action movie!
Go "full screen" and enjoy!

AND...IT'S NOT AVAILABLE ON DVD or BLU-RAY!
Support Small Business this Christmas!

Saturday, August 12, 2017

Our KOOL Theatrical Posters Gallery

We're re-presenting a whole line of long out-of-print theatre, movie and tv posters as affordable prints perfect for students' dorm or bed rooms, house stagers who need a way to personalize a home they're selling in a kitchy (but not tacky) way or pop-culture aficionados who don't want to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars for a display piece!
Our Theatre Posters gallery has retro-kool 3-D movie posters, superhero (live action AND animated) film art, and HTF sci-fi-on-Broadway prints.
Talk about "something for everyone"!

Tomorrow: the Golden Age comic book cover gallery!

Saturday, August 5, 2017

Man of Animated Celluloid Steel!

In 1941, Max and Dave Fleischer, the animators who had previously brought Popeye and Betty Boop to the silver screen, presented Superman's first movie appearance in full-color cartoon shorts.
Meticulously-following co-creator Joe Shuster's character designs, the cartoons also contributed several elements to the Superman mythos including; changing clothes in a phone booth, Superman actually flying (Up to this point, he had leaped from point to point) and the catch phrase "Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!"
Voices were provided by the dramatic radio Superman / Clark Kent (Bud Collier) and Lois Lane (Joan Alexander) who would also reprise the roles in the first tv Superman cartoons in 1966!
Trivia: Though nominated for several Oscars, the Superman shorts lost each time!
We're proud to present one of the koolest of the original 1940s advertising posters for the cartoon series, digitally-restored and remastered, both as a limited-edition print and as a collectible t-shirt!
The bold graphic, though deceptively-simple, leaps off the page at you with it's power!
It's also the only Fleischer Superman poster we've seen that commissioned new art, rather than use existing comic book or animation art!
And best of all, it's in Swedish!
Perfect as a gift for an animation aficionado or Superman fan (or someone who's both)!

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Previous Men of Steel!

With a "rebooted" Man of Steel currently in release...
...I thought we'd take a look at the previous live-action movie versions!
First up, Kirk Alyn's highly-underrated serial hero...

Then George Reeves' Superman, who first appeared in the movies...

...and, though he popped up almost continuously on the small screen, the Last Son of Krypton didn't reappear on the big screen until 1978...
..restored scene from Superman II explaining how he got his powers back!

...after two awful sequels, Superman didn't come back to movies until 2006 in a sincere, but flawed, attempt to continue the story from the end of Superman II...
And now, a total reboot!
Check out

Man of Celluloid Steel

Friday, June 14, 2013

Before MAN OF STEEL was SUPERMAN!

Man of Steel, opening today, is only the latest version of Superman to hit movie screens
The first one was an Academy Award-nominated flick...

...the first of 17 tales rendered in astonishing animated form!
When you go to see the newest celluloid Superman (and you know you will), remember the first one...

Thursday, May 2, 2013

YouTube: Iron Man & the Mandarin: the Early Years!

Art by Jack Kirby and Sol Brodsky
It took almost 50 years, but Iron Man finally gets a crack on the big screen against The Mandarin.
But, the Golden Avenger battled his arch-enemy several times in his first screen appearances on the 1960s Marvel SuperHeroes Show, based on scripts by Stan Lee and art by Don Heck and Gene Colan (with a few inserts of Jack Kirby's art)
Art by Don Heck

(Yes, the subtitles are non-removable, but they're the cleanest copies I could find.)