The SEQUEL to the Swinging Seventies Black Super-Hero You NEVER Heard of...ACE OF SPADES II!

In 1971, two years before The Black Panther received his own series...

...a Black Super-Hero hit the newsstands of America for a two-issue run almost nobody remembers!

Who is he?

Where did he come from?

And why don't even the most obsessive comics fans remember him?

These, and other equally-valid questions are now answered at...

Not Safe for Work Comics!

...where his final adventure is now on-line!

Warning!

The Answers May NOT Be Suitable For the Faint-Hearted!

Click HERE at Your Own Risk!

The Swinging Seventies Black Super-Hero You NEVER Heard of...ACE OF SPADES!

In 1971, two years before The Black Panther received his own series...

...a Black Super-Hero hit the newsstands of America for a two-issue run almost nobody remembers!

Who is he?

Where did he come from?

And why don't even the most obsessive comics fans remember him?

These, and other equally-valid questions are now answered at...

Not Safe for Work Comics!

...where his first of two adventures is currently on-line, and the second will follow next week!

Warning!

The Answers May NOT Be Suitable For the Faint-Hearted!

Click HERE at Your Own Risk!

Reading Room ASTONISHING TALES "Doctor Doom: ...and if I be Called Traitor--!"

Witness a Clash of Kings...

...as the evil ruler of Latveria and the heroic monarch of Wakanda face off under a Herb Trimpe-rendered "split cover"...

In Marvel's Astonishing Tales #8 (1970), writer Gerry Conway and penciler Gene Colan step into the middle of a two-part story and while Colan (who's previously-drawn both Doctor Doom and the Black Panther) does an amazing job, Conway falls flat when it comes to his knowledge of both Wakanda and Vibranium!
Despite the flaws in continuity (and simple logic), Conway does convey the differences in T'Challa and Victor's attitudes towards their respective constituencies and abstract concepts like "honor" and "responsibility", as well as the fact Doom respects the Panther both as a strategist and a fellow ruler!

Please Support Atomic Commie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Essential Super-Villain Team-Up

Volume 1

(which reprints this story...but in black-and-white!)

Reading Room ASTONISHING TALES "Doctor Doom: Tentacles of the Tyrant!"

There are some all-but-forgotten Silver and Bronze Age stories featuring the title character of...

Disney/Marvel's The Black Panther...

including this tale behind a "split cover" by penciler John Buscema and inker Frank Giacoia!

A Clash of Kings...

TOMORROW!

You'll note the cover text mentions "T'Challa", not "The Black Panther", even though he's in costume!
When this issue of Marvel's Astonishing Tales (#6) came out in 1971,  controversies involving the political movement known as the Black Panthers were at their peak, such as this murder/kidnapping trial which ended in a mistrial.
Marvel was in a bit of a bind, as they had been developing plans to give T'Challa a higher profile thanks to his ongoing appearances as a member of The Avengers (which, at that point, featured characters who didn't have their own series).
So, when the Panther guest-starred in other titles (like here), or was cover-featured in The Avengers...

...he was promoted as "T'Challa", not the "Black Panther"!
When he appeared in Fantastic Four #119 (1972), though cover-featured as "T'Challa"...

...he proclaimed himself "Black Leopard", instead of "Black Panther".
But that's a story for another time...
Meanwhile, Doctor Doom scripter Larry Lieber (who hadn't handled the Black Panther previously) seems woefully uninformed about Wakanda in general and Vibranium in particular, with the most obvious fact being the Vibranium Mound isn't a volcano!
Two trivia notes:
Larry Lieber had written and penciled the first half of Doom's full-length cover-featured story in Marvel Super-Heroes #20 (1969), which would explain why he got the nod to write the ongoing Doom strip in Astonishing Tales a year later!
Penciler George Tuska would draw Dr Doom's two-issue encounter with Marvel's other major Black hero in Luke Cage: Hero for Hire #8 & #9 (1973)

Please Support Atomic Commie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Essential Super-Villain Team-Up

Volume 1

(which reprints this story...but in black-and-white!)

Design of the Week NEGRO ROMANCE

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

This week...with Valentine's Day rapidly-approaching, here's a unique design for your loved one!

In the mid-1950s, with superheroes and horror stories all but eliminated from comics, other genres dominated!

Westerns, war, sci-fi, teen humor, and romance now filled the comics racks.

The big problem was finding a way to stand out from the crowd!

Fawcett (and Charlton, who bought a lot of Fawcett properties when they went out of business) were willing to take a crack at the untapped African-American teen/young adult audience.

Sadly, the book only ran four issues.

But, you can read the stories that appeared in this issue HERE!

Note: This design is the only comic art cover in the series (the rest were photo covers using models).

Besides being a kool retro romace cover, suitable as a Valentine's Day gift, it would also make an appropriate gift for someone celebrating Black History Month!

Check out the whole line of Kool Kollectibles HERE!

If Archie was Black, he would have been Fast Willie Jackson!

Though it looks like it, Fast Willie Jackson was not published  by Archie Comics, but by Black-owned publisher Fitzgerald Publications who had previously published the Golden Legacy non-fiction comic series about Black history.
Fast Willie was their entry into the mass-market comics market.
Though not Comics Code-approved, it received newsstand distribution, and sales were climbing for each successive issue.
Unfortunately, it reached break-even only with the seventh (and final) issue, when other matters caused Fitzgerald Publications to cease producing new material for an extended period. When Fitzgerald resumed publishing, Fast Willie was not among the titles.
We've incorporated Fast Willie into our Classic Comix collection featuring digitally-remastered and restored oversized (up to 11 x 17) vintage images emblazoned on sweatshop-free American Apparel and Anvil Knitwear shirts and tote bags.
Can you dig it?

The FIRST Black Comic Strip Heroine: Friday Foster

On January 18, 1970, Friday Foster became the FIRST mainstream syndicated comic strip to star a Black woman as the title character.
(Jackie Ormes' legendary Torchy Brown was, unfortunately, limited to black-owned newspapers which had relatively-limited circulation.)
It was also the FIRST mainstream comic strip to star a Black title character, male OR female!
(The humor strip Quincy by Ted Shearer debuted later in 1970!)

Writer Jim Lawrence was no stranger to adventure strips, having previously written Captain Easy and Joe Palooka.
(After his stint on Friday, he scripted a revived Buck Rogers comic strip based on the 1980 tv series!)
And, he penned a 1970s paperback novel series, Dark Angel, about a Black woman private eye!
Artist Jorge Longaron had done a number of comic strips in Europe, but was unknown in America. Friday was his Stateside strip debut.

The series was a combination of adventure, soap-opera, and social commentary, about former fashion model-turned-photographer's assistant (and later professional photographer) Friday Foster.
Supporting characters included photographer Shawn North (her boss and later business partner) and millionare playboy/romantic interest Blake Tarr.

The strip lasted until late 1974, with some of the final sequences illustrated by DC Comics legend Dick Giordano and a then up-and-comer named Howard Chaykin (American Flagg, The Shadow)!

Besides the strip, there was a one-shot comic book in 1972, and a feature film in 1975 (a year after the strip was canceled) starring action-movie goddess Pam Grier as Friday, Thalmus Rasulala as Blake Tarr, Yaphet Kotto as Detective Colt Hawkins, plus Eartha Kitt, Jim Backus, Godfrey Cambridge, and in one of his earliest roles, Carl Weathers, as an un-named assassin!
While there was a soundtrack album, curiously, I've never seen a novelization (and, in the '70s, they did novelizations of movies that weren't even released in the US, just shown overseas)!

If you're looking for a cool gift for the Black History aficionado or grrrl hero fan in your life, you can't go wrong with a Friday Foster mug, bag, shirt or other goodie from Atomic Kommie Comics™!

Note: only the comics graphic at top is available on products from us. The poster isn't.