Showing posts with label black americana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label black americana. Show all posts

Saturday, February 15, 2025

Space Hero Saturdays OUTER SPACE "Blueprint for Survival"

Sometimes a Space Hero is just an ordinary guy...

...or someone extraordinary pretending to be ordinary!
This never-reprinted story from Charlton's Outer Space #21 (1959) follows the standard convention of movie/TV sci-fi of the era with friendly aliens who look perfectly human, but dress better (or at least more futuristically than us!
Written by Joe Gill, penciled by Matt Baker, inked by Vince Colletta.
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Thursday, February 13, 2025

Baker Reading Room OUTER SPACE "Fall Guy"

Despite Being Published in a Comic Called Outer Space... 

...this is a totally Earth-bound story, until...




Cue the Twilight Zone theme...
Written by Joe Gill, pencilled by Matt Baker, and inked by Vince Colletta, thie never-reprinted story from Charlton's Outer Space #24 (1959) takes the whole "fraternity hazing" mindset, and tosses it in the trash where it belongs!

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Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Baker Reading Room CROWN COMICS Voodah in "Justice of the Jungle!"

When you hear the phrase "Lord of the Jungle", you visualize Tarzan or Thun'da...

...or some other White guy.
But, during the Golden Age of Comics, one such jungle lord was Black!
Debuting in Golfing/McCombs' anthology Crown Comics #3 (1945), Voodah was the first Black hero in comic books.
Illustrated by Matt Baker (who most fans know was one of the premiere Good Girl artists of the '40s-'50s, but don't know that he was one of the few African-American comic artists of the era), the idea of a non-White jungle hero seems obvious today, but was extremely-daring in the 1940s!
In fact, it was so daring that Voodah became paler, eventually becoming just another White guy bossing the locals around!
But, before he went White, Voodah had some kool adventures, including battling a dinosaur single-handed!
You'll see a couple more of them before the end of the month!
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Monday, February 10, 2025

Monday Madness OUT OF THIS WORLD "Xondu the Eternal"

A never-reprinted 1950s sci-fi tale by legendary Black artist Matt Baker...
..with a Twilight Zone-style twist ending!
OK, it's more a "Third from the Sun" than "To Serve Man" ending, but still, it's fairly effective!
(And kudos to those who didn't have to click on the links to understand what I was talking about!)
Penciled by Matt Baker and inked by Vince Colletta, this tale from Charlton's Out of This World #15 (1959) unfortunately suffers from both Colletta's rushed inking and the poor printing Charlton was notorious for.
(Unlike other comics companies, Charlton had their own printing press, which had been designed for packaging...including breakfast cereal boxes...not newsprint!)
The writer is unknown, but many believe it to be Joe Gill, who was rapidly making a name for himself with an impressive, and varied, body of work.
Penciler Matt Baker was one of the few Black comic book artists of the Golden and Silver Ages, and was easily the most prolific of them!
Though known for his "good girl" art, including the famous (and infamous) Phantom Girl stories, he handled every genre with ease, including horror, war, sci-fi, and romance!
Sadly, though, few of his stories featured Black characters...who were rare in comics until the mid-1960s!
You can read a short, but complete bio HERE!
He's also our featured artist this month in the Baker Reading Room at Atomic Kommie Comics, spotlighting his amazing cross-genre versatility!

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Saturday, February 8, 2025

Space Force Saturdays OUTER SPACE "Incredible Giants"

Though pioneering Black artist Matt Baker was best known for good-girl/cheesecake art...
...he could work in any genre, including action-packed space opera!
Inker Vince Colletta employed a number of excellent, detail-oriented pencilers like Matt Baker and Joe Sinnott to work for his studio, which "packaged" stories, series, and even book-length tales for publishers.
Unfortunately, when dealing with smaller publishers like Charlton (who didn't pay as much as DCMarvelHarvey, etc) in order to save maximize profit, Vince inked most of the work himself, usually rushing to meet deadlines!
Compare with another story, inked by long-time Baker collaborator Ray Osrin, and you see the difference inkers can make!
The same level of page layout and storytelling is obvious in both tales...but the rendering...hoo boy!
BTW, Joe Gill wrote this story from Charlton's Outer Space #23 (1959).
One important plot point was that the giant children thought the scout ship was a seed pod due to it's design...


...an element cover artists Charles Nicholas and Rocke Mastroserio didn't follow though on with their re-do of the story's splash panel for the cover!
Were they not informed, or did the editor deliberately insist on a more traditional ship design?
We'll never know the answer!

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Monday, February 3, 2025

Monday Madness CALVIN: Marvel's FORGOTTEN Black Headliner!

The Black Panther was not the first Black Marvel character to get a cover-featured series!
He wasn't even the second!
He was the third!
First was Luke Cage, who received his own title...
...and was the star of his own Netflix series!
Note: Though the series ended, three of the stars have gone on to headline other shows...
Simone Missick (Misty Knight) on All Rise, Mike Colter (Luke Cage) on Evil and Rosario Dawson (Clare Temple/Night Nurse) on Ahsoka!
(BTW, Luke Cage is now available on Disney+!)
The second character was...
WHO???
Several months before Prince T'Challa took over a reprint book, Jungle Action, and began a memorable series that served as part of the plot of the billion-dollar blockbuster movie...
...this character took over another reprint book and began a series that nobody remembers!
But you can read every never-reprinted tale featuring Calvin and his buddies by clicking HERE!
What makes the strip even more fascinating, beyond the vaudeville-level humor, is the identity of the writer-artist behind it!
"Kevin Banks" was not a pseudonym for an already-established creative, but an editorial staffer at Marvel in the early 1970s who received his "big break" with this strip!
Trivia: Kevin was the first (and so far, onlyMarvel creator to have a head shot illustration on an on-going series!

Even ever-amazing comics researcher Nick Caputo could find little about the mysterious Mr Banks, as seen HERE.
What did Banks did after working at Marvel?
Did he work in advertising?
Become an art instructor?
Switch careers and become an accountant or fireman?
To date, we don't know!
Do YOU???

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Black Angel vs the KKK!

Can this African-American/Native-American Aviatrix Take On the Klan?
You Bet Your A$$ She CAN!
Check her out on Monday, at

And Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics and Heroines!
Visit Amazon and Buy...
There's no English-Language hardcover/trade paperback edition...as of now!
and/or, you can buy...
(in French)
Paid Links

Sunday, February 4, 2024

Who is...BLACK ANGEL aka BLACK SQUAW???

...and why is she called that???
She's the kool character you've likely never heard of...even though there are four graphic novels starring her!

Inspired by a TRUE story!
Discover her secret at
HEROINES on February 5th!

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Celebrate America's Pastime...Baseball...with "Jackie Robinson Story" Collectibles

Baseball's back, and better than ever!
Celebrate with...
Poster
...the poster and lobbycards from the first movie about the first Black player in the major leagues (which starred Jackie Robinson as himself), now offered as posters and prints, digitally-remastered and restored from the actual poster and cards!
The originals are worth hundreds, even thousands of dollars!
But these affordable reproductions can put these HTF examples of classic Baseball Americana in your den, study, game/media room, bedroom or wherever you want at reasonable cost!

Sunday, November 13, 2022

Retro-Style Christmas Collectibles!

It's time to reveal the coolest Christmas goodies ever, exclusively for your shopping pleasure! (Don't ya just love soft-sell?)

Ornaments, greeting cards, clothing, mugs, throw blankets, shopping bags, magnets, and many other items with stylish retro graphics that will make great under-the-tree gifts or stocking stuffers!

More than a dozen different 1960s Kris Kringle designs that will bring back nostalgic memories of your Baby Boomer childhood!
Along with St. Nick, our frosty friend is one of the most recognizable symbols of Winter and the Christmas Season!
5 different Frosty designs!
A Christmas Carol brought to life with images from...
the very FIRST edition EVER
and the 1951 movie starring Alastair Sim!
Bah, Humbug!
Designs featuring famous comic characters celebrating Christmas!
Green Lama!
Fast Willie Jackson!
Edison Bell: Boy Inventor!
Two different SuperSnipe designs!
Santa's Elves on Strike!
Western Rider Rusty!
3-D First Christmas Comic!
and MORE!

Happy Holiday Shopping from 
Atomic Kommie Comics™