YouTube Wednesday Reux: IRON MAN "Enter Hawkeye" (& Black Widow)

While everyone's familiar with Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, and Captain America, most don't know...

Hawkeye and the Black Widow!
Hawkeye the Marksman first appeared as a misunderstood hero in Iron Man's series in Tales of Suspense #57, where he met the already-ongoing villainess (yes, villainess) Black Widow!
That story and it's follow-ups in Tales of Suspense #60 & 61...

...were the basis for the cartoon from the Marvel SuperHeroes Show (1966) below!

The previous episode in the Iron Man series had introduced the Black Widow in a tale adapted from Tales of Suspense #46 (the first Crimson Dynamo story)...

  ...and Tales of Suspense #52 (the sequel which featured the Black Widow's first appearance)!

The episode features one of the characters actually dying on screen (A rarity in 60s cartoons)!

Enjoy!

YouTube Wednesday: THE AVENGERS "Molto and the Invasion of the Lava Men"

Adapted from Journey into Mystery #97..

 and Avengers #5 (1964), this combined tale was done as an episode of Mighty Thor! on the Marvel SuperHeroes Show (1966)!

Avengers-based stories were adapted into all the heroes' series except Sub-Mariner! (who was edited out of the animated versions of stories he did appear in, like "Return of Captain America", which adapted Avengers #4!)
Featuring Mighty Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk, and Giant-Man & the Wasp (who I really wish were in the movie since Hank Pym is my favorite Marvel character...)
Both tales by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby.
(The animated version also uses some Don Heck and Joe Sinnott art to fill in continuity gaps.)

and go see the movie this weekend!

YouTube Wednesday AVENGERS...1966!

With the new movie opening next week, let's look at some early adventures based on the comics and featuring stats of the original art with limited animation...

They didn't adapt Avengers #1 into animated form, but several other Avengers stories became Captain America, Thor, Hulk, and Iron Man tales.
Today, we're going to present a story starring Captain America where a group of Avengers plays a critical part...



Oddly, Goliath is called Giant-Man! (Yes, it's the same guy, Hank Pym, in the costume, but in the comic, he's called "Goliath" in this blue/yellow costume, not "Giant-Man" as when wearing the earlier red/blue garb.)
And it's almost all Jack (King) Kirby art!

Bonus: The origin of Hawkeye (with the Black Widow) from the Iron Man series...

Art by Dashing Don Heck with a little Gene Colan and Jack Kirby thrown in!

YouTube Wednesday: The John Carter Movies that Never Were...

You might have heard about a new John Carter of Mars movie...

...bud did you know about the movie versions that went as far as having test reels produced?

In 1931, legendary animator Bob Clampett worked with John Coleman Burroughs (Edgar Rice's son) to create the following piece...

No movie studio was interested in backing the project.
Most told Clampett that their audiences has no interest in "realistic" animation!
(The Fleischer Brothers proved them wrong with Superman in 1941...)

In 2004, Kerry Conran pitched a John Carter movie done in almost total CGI...

...like the movie he just completed, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow!
If Sky Captain had done better business at the box office, Kerry undoubtedly would have been given the green light.
But, it didn't, and he wasn't.

The film that finally was produced after years of delays, rewrites, and changes in writers, directors, and cast, opens March 9th...

Looks good, and I'm hopeful it'll begin a franchise...

Support Small Business!

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Art of Barsoom™
 Collectibles Corner

Fantastic Femmes--Parminder Nagra

This page has been updated and moved...

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Fantastic Femmes: Junie Hoang

She's talented!
She's cute!
She's controversial!
She's Junie Hoang, and she's complaining that her career was ruined by the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) because they revealed her real age!
She's 41, and doesn't look it!

She's 41? So what? She's HOT!

While she's never had a big break, Junie has been working pretty regularly since 1992, including a lot of animation voice work!
She even voiced Chun Li in Street Fighter 2: Victory!

We wish you the best, Junie, and hope to see (or hear) you on the screen soon!

Genre credits include:

Ginger DeadMan 3: Saturday Night Cleaver (Sandy) / GingerDeadMan 2: Passion of the Crust (Ensign Del Rio)

Note: Junie plays two different characters since #3 is a time-travel story transporting the villain back to the 1970s.

 1000 Ways to Die "Gratutity Violence"

Tropic Thunder (Day Player, scene deleted)

Back on Topps (Tough Asian)

Spirits Among Us (Jennifer)

Adventures of Zion Man & the Supreme Comander (Queen Lucealot)

Z: a Zombie Musical (Zombie Mailwoman)

 Macross:

Eve of Destruction / When Worlds Collide / Fallen Angels

(additional voices)

Voodoo Dolly (Stephanie Hung / Ms Fix-It / Tool Time Lad)

 All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku TV (additional voices)

Street Fighter II: Victory (Chun Li)

BubbleGum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 (additional voices)

Martian Successor Nadesico (Eri / additional voices)

Check out...

Junie's official WebSite!

YouTube Wednesday: A CHRISTMAS CAROL

The Definitive Animated version...

...starring Alistair Sim as the Voice of Scrooge!

It won both the Oscar and Emmy for best animated short subject...

AND...IT'S NOT AVAILABLE ON DVD or BLU-RAY!

Support Small Business this Christmas!

Visit the

A Christmas Carol / Scrooge

Collectibles Store!

YouTube Wednesday: The Avengers (Past & Present)

With all the attention the new trailer for...

Click on art to enlarge and download

The Avengers

..is getting, I fondly remember when Earth's Greatest Heroes were animated directly from Jack Kirby's original art (or photostats of it)!

 Oddly, Giant-Man and the Wasp were not in this animated version of Avengers #6, though they were major players in the original story!

And, now, here's the trailer for the new flick (which also doesn't have Giant-Man or The Wasp [sob])...

YouTube Wednesday: CAPTAIN AMERICA!

The Living Legend of World War II is coming to movie screens on July 22nd...

But Cap's been popping up on movie screens since 1944!

Yeah, there's no Red Skull, or Bucky, or shield, or even wings on his cowl!

But DAMN, that's exciting!

Cap's next appearance was on TV, as part of the Marvel SuperHeroes Show...

...which used the actual Jack Kirby artwork (as well as Stan Lee's scripts) for the most-accurate adaptations EVER from comics to film/TV!

In the late 1970s, with successful live-action series featuring both the Hulk and Spider-Man running on CBS, Marvel tried pilots of other characters including Dr Strange and Captain America...

In fact, they tried Cap twice...

..but despite the presence of legendary baddie actor Christopher Lee, the show never went to series.

Cap continued to guest-star on other animated shows, but his next solo appearance was in 1990.

Don't remember it?

It's ok, no one else does, either!

See you at the movies...
 Check out the

Movie Serial Captain America Shirt
or these kool dvds and video cassettes from Amazon...

YouTube Wednesday: Go APE!

The Apes return with a vengeance...

After a failed attempt in 2001 by Tim Burton to revive the franchise, a new take on the premise is due this summer.

Before that, the last attempt was a one-season animated tv series that hewed closer to the concepts of the original novel than any other version.

The live action tv series that preceded it was limited in being able to show adult themes or violent action by being a "family hour" show.
Yeah, it was dull!
So here's a clip from the Japanese tv movie Time of the Apes, also done in 1973, which was a helluva lot more fun! Condensed from the 26-episode tv series Saru no Gundan (Army of the Apes) which lasted longer then the actual Apes series (which was canceled after only 14 episodes).

We'll end this entry with the promo reel for the first (1968) Planet of the Apes, featuring great concept art and a primitive makeup test starring Edward G Robinson as Dr Zaius, James Brolin as Cornelius and Linda Harrison (Nova in Planet and Beneath) as Zira!

YouTube Wednesday: GREEN LANTERN

Today we look at various media incarnations of Green Lantern/Hal Jordan...

GL from his first solo cartoon appearance on 1967's Superman/Aquaman Adventure Hour.

Gerard Mohr as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern.

Green Lantern also appeared in the Justice League of America shorts.

Hal Jordan/Green Lantern's origin as shown on Challenge of the Super Friends.

Michael Rye is Hal/GL in all his Super Friends apperances.

The first live-action Hal Jordan was Howard Murphy in 1979's Legends of the SuperHeroes specials.

Hal Jordan temporarily takes John Stewart's place in Justice League Unlimited "The Once and Future Thing, Part 2: Time, Warped" during a dimensional shift.
Hal was voiced by Adam Baldwin.

Hal Jordan/Green Lantern in Duck Dodgers "The Green Loontern".
In addition, Hal has appeared on Justice League: New Frontier, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Green Lantern: First Flight, Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, The Batman, Batman: the Brave and the Bold, and Young Justice.
and this little thing you might have heard of...

Comix Class featuring MOVIEMAKING ILLUSTRATED

Starting today, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™ will present a complete chapter each Monday from this long out-of-print handbook which utilizes Marvel Comics artwork to demonstrate cinematography in storyboard fashion.
In fact, noted comic and animation artist Scott Shaw! used it in his storyboarding class...

I used to teach a class in storyboarding for the animation union here in Los Angeles. At the time, there was a tremendous influx of comic book talent from the Philippines come to work in animation. Many of these artists had no previous experience working in this field, plus there was a certain learning gap due to language and culture. Although this book really isn't particularly well-done (comics and film AREN'T as similar as some folks think), I frequently used pages from it when trying to help my Filipino students. Once they figured things out, many of 'em went on to do LOTS of professional storyboard work in the animation biz.

Considering how many current artists have problems grasping the essentials of storytelling (not illustrating, storytelling), perhaps an updated version of this should be standard reading.
Until then, this will have to do.
Class convenes today.
Don't be late and bring an Apple (iTouch or iPad will do) for the teacher. ;-)

YouTube Wednesday: Thor vs the Destroyer!

 Since one of the main "set pieces" in the new Thor movie is a battle with The Destroyer, let's look at it as dramatized using Jack Kirby's art on the Marvel Super Heroes Show...

C'mon admit it, it's KOOL!

YouTube Wednesday: Megas XLR Pilot, 1st Ep and more...

If you haven't seen it, just watch it.
You'll thank me later.
If you have seen it, you might as well watch it again here, since it's not rerunning on cable and isn't available on DVD.
First up, the 7-minute pilot (an intro, not the origin)

Then, the first 23-minute episode of the ongoing series, "Test Drive", which IS an origin episode!

Bonus: the complete theme song...

Check out the

Generic Giant Japanese Robot

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Plus have a look at these goodies available thru Amazon...

YouTube Wednesday: THE HUMAN TORCH

Continuing our weekly feature "YouTube Wednesday"...

 With the death of Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch II, let's take a look at several of his various media incarnations...
He first appeared in the 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon...

BTW: the voice of Galactus is Ted Cassidy (Lurch from the The Addams Family tv series.) and The Silver Surfer is Vic Perrin (the Control Voice/narrator of the original Outer Limits.)


He also "appearared" on several lp albums including Golden Records "Amazing Spider-Man #1", "Fantastic Four #1" (Note: the most bizarre thing about these records is all the sound effects in the story were actually spoken with an echo effect.
So, when the cosmic rays hit the spacecraft, you hear an actor saying "RAK-TAK-TAK!"),

 and the Power Records book and record series including "The Way it Began"

His next "appearance" was audio-only when Bill Murray (SNL, GhostBusters, Groundhog Day, etc.) portrayed him on a 1975 13-episode radio series modeled after the dramatic shows of the 1930s-50s!

Fantastic Four: "Menace of the Mole Man" radio show mp3

or if you want "visuals" with your radio show...

Johnny did not appear in the 1978 FF animated series, replaced by Herbie the Robot (The Jar Jar Binks of FF history)..

Jack Kirby's original model sheet for H.E.R.B.I.E.

BTW, Johnny was replaced because The Human Torch was optioned for a live-action tv pilot which never got beyond Development Hell, not because the network thought kids would immolate themselves imitating him!

And finally, the trailer for the low-budget 1994 Roger Corman movie version starring Jay Underwood as Johnny! (The music is from Battle Beyond the Stars!)

BONUS: the ONE scene of Johnny in action as the Human Torch!

Interestingly, his animated form seems based on the Fleisher Brothers Superman from "The Mad Scientist" (the first cartoon)!

Our NEW 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!

Back to School with Classic Animation Designs!

Traditional values!
That's what we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ espouse!
And with our G-Rated Tykes, Toddlers & Tiny Tots (and Their Mommies)!™ section, we restore the classic animated cartoon/comic book style that Disney, Warner Brothers, the Fleischer Brothers, and others in the 30s, 40s, and 50s did so wonderfully, to a new line of kiddie clothes and accessories!
Funny animals (including SuperDuper Mouse, Cosmo Cat & SuperDuper Cat), clowns, cowboys, spacemen, robots, and much more in the retro style your parents and grandparents wore when they were little!

Available on
Organic Clothing from American Apparel
Bibs
Onesies / Creepers / Infant BodySuits
Infant / Toddler T-shirts
Kids' T-Shirts
PLUS
Diaper Bags / SchoolBags
Shopping / Tote Bags
Nursery / Kids' BedRoom Clocks
Mugs
MousePads
Nursery / Kids' BedRoom Calendars
Refrigerator / BedRoom Magnets

Give your child something that SCREAMS "cute"!
You'll thank us when you show off the pix of them wearing our kidswear!

SyFy Silliness--"Rocket Robin Hood" Redux!

Among the new shows announced by SyFy...
Sherwood. In this "Robin Hood" story for the 23rd century, a young man of privilege teams up with a misfit spaceship crew to right the wrongs of his family.
Like this...?

It's an animated series from 1967 called Rocket Robin Hood, done by the many of the same creative personnel who did the first Spider-Man cartoon and The Marvel Super-Heroes anthology cartoon series.

The Canadian-produced series had limited distribution on US tv, but VHS and DVD releases have given it new life among both animation and Robin Hood aficionados!
Considering the "creators" Damian Kindler, Martin Wood, and Amanda Tapping of SyFy's new Sherwood are all Canadian (and, no doubt, saw RRR as kids), one can only hope they make their futuristic "re-imagining" of the Robin Hood legend different from the previous  futuristic re-imagining!
We'll see...

Design of the Week--Giant Anime Robot!

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!
This week, we stay with our Asian graphics motif and go mecha with Giant Anime Robot! featuring a kool mechanical man and it's motorcycle-riding pilot from a 1970s series never shown in the USA!
It's colorful and exciting, but non-violent, so it's suitable for tots and toddlers as well as older kids and adults!
More anime fun to come...

Fantastic Femmes--Jennifer Lopez

Note: this page has been updated with NEW info  
HERE!