You Think You Know All About the Newest Marvel Cinematic Universe Hero?

With the new Marvel movie...

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

opening September 3rd, we thought we'd show you the never-reprinted first "revamping" of the character who was created during the Kung-Fu craze of the 1970s.
While it's not as extreme as what the movie's doing, it was considered surprising and controversial at the time!

Begin the adventure unseen for over 40 years on Monday at...

Pop Art Martial Arts

The First Part of the RetroBlogs Summer Blogathon Ends Tomorrow...

...with the conclusion of the never-reprinted 1968 novel...
Captain America:
the Great Gold Steal
The Concluding Cataclysmic Chapter will be posted HERE on Monday!
(Or you could start from the beginning HERE!)
SPOILER!
There's a MAJOR reveal you'll never see coming!
SPOILER!!
Don't go any further if you don't want to know!
SPOILER!!!
You've been warned!
SPOILER!!!

The Annual RetroBlog Summer Blogathon is Under Way...

...with this long-lost, never-reprinted, Silver-Age Captain America novel!

If you haven't had a chance to read it, start HERE at the beginning!

If you've been a True Believer (as Stan the Man Lee would say) and already devoured the first six pulse-pounding chapters, click HERE on Monday and continue with Chapter 7!

It's the 4th of July! Celebrate With a "Lost" Captain America Tale!

Unseen for over 50 years, the first novel featuring the Star-Spangled Avenger!

Visit

Hero Histories

NOW to start the serialized retelling of the long-lost OOP novel!

BTW, you can read a kool short feature about Independence Day HERE!

MORE Blogathon MADNESS!

You know about the comic-based novels we're presenting in our Summer Blogathon, but what about actual comics?

Don't worry.

We have that covered...starting with a never-reprinted, over 40-year old extra-long adventure of Marvel's Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu in...where else...

Pop Art Martial Arts

during the last week of July!

Then, get comfy with the latest in our annual gothic-themed Beach Reads in...

True Love Comics Tales

...during the first week of August!

Note: this 50-year old tale was reprinted a decade ago...but in black and white!

This is it's first appearance in full color since 1971!

Finally, to wind up the Blogathon in the last week of August, we present...

...the never-reprinted, serialized, Origin of The Shadow from the never-reprinted 1960s Radio/Archie comics in
Hero Histories

And here's the kicker...they're text features...from the comics!

Yep, we start the Blogathon with...

...this novel beginning (appropriately enough)  on July 4th, and running a chapter a day at...
Hero Histories
...then continuing with the earlier-mentioned kung-fu and romance entries at
Pop Art Martial Arts
and
True Love Comics Tales

The Caped Crusader appears the second week of August, also running a chapter a day at
Hero Histories!
And winding it all up will be the (text) Radio Comics adventures of He Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men, also at
Hero Histories
...where you'll find several of his 1960s comic adventures already there and ready to read!

Here Come the DARING and DIFFERENT RetroBlog Summer Blogathons...

Our annual summer tradition continues with a twist...PROSE!

Novels featuring superheroes/superheroines were extremely-rare before the 1960s.

Besides Big Little Books, the only books based on superheroes were several reprints (in hardcover) of pulp heroes Doc Savage and The Shadow and one original hardcover novel about Superman based on both the comics and the radio show.

In the 1960s, paperback publishers unleashed reprint series of every pulp superhero/adventurer they could get their hands on!

Doc Savage was joined by The Shadow (with reprints and a series of new novels set present-day), Operator 5, The Spider, The Phantom Detective, G-8 and his Battle Aces, and Captain Future, among others!

DC and Marvel had already been reprinting comics in b/w paperback form.

But Marvel decided to go the next step, joining with Doc Savage's publisher Bantam Books to create two novels, not based on previous comic stories!
DC joined in with a couple of novels, an adaptation of the 1966 Batman feature film and an original novel!

We'll be re-presenting one of Marvel's titles, Captain America: the Great Gold Steal by Ted White in July!

(If the response is good, we'll run the other 1960s book, Avengers vs the Earth-Wrecker by Otto Binder, next summer!)

August will see Batman vs the Three Villains of Doom by Winston Lyon (William Woolfolk) once more available for fans to read after 55 years!

Note, it's an interesting amalgam of the comic and TV Batman with elements of both!
If that one attracts an audience, the novelization of the '66 Batman movie, Batman vs the Fearsome Foursome will be next!

Both will be re-presented at Hero Histories.

Next week we'll have the exact dates and info on our other, comics-oriented Summer Blogathons

Did You Know a Black Artist Penciled the FIRST Graphic Novel from a Comics Publisher?

Graphic Novels are the standard format for innovative storytelling today...

The complete presentation of the first graphic novel!

But "back in the day", as they say, it was an untried concept!
Written by Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller (as "Drake Waller"), illustrated by penciler Matt Baker and and inker Ray Osrin, the digest-sized 1950 one-shot from St John Publications is a pulpish "film noir" tale at its' coolest!

Dark Horse Comics (which published a high-quality reprint available below) explained it thusly...

In 1950, writers Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller, both attending college on the G.I. Bill, envisioned a sophisticated, novel-length comic tailored to their peers. Collaborating with comics art master Matt Baker, known for singularly defining the genre of "good girl art" on titles such as Phantom Lady, they crafted a film-noir inspired masterwork of romance, intrigue, and moral relativity. When cynical newspaperman Hal Weber reunites with old flame Rust Masson, he finds the beguiling widow of a mining magnate willing to do anything to undermine the local political machine--her only opponent for total control of Copper City!

Though not specifically-mentioned, penciler Matt Baker was one of the few Black artists of both comic books' Golden and Silver Ages!
It Rhymes with Lust was the basis of our 2017 Summer Blogathon spanning several RetroBlogs!
Start at True Love Comics Tales and experience not only comics history, but Black history as well!

Note: The thanks of a grateful nation go to Kracalactaka, who found the scans of the St John first edition in the wilds of the internet, cleaned them up, and made them available!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

It Rhymes with Lust

Deluxe Reprint Edition

The Annual Countdown to Halloween Blogathon is coming...

...and, as usual we're enthusiastically-participating, starting with...

...never reprinted Silver/Bronze Age gothic and horror stories featuring The CW's favorite heroine in

Heroines!

Then, witness tales of terror from the 1950s...

...that were redone, not reprinted in the 1960s-70s...

...in

Horror Comics of the 1950s

And, finally, never-reprinted gothic romance stories from...

...the short-lived, but fondly-remembered Haunted Love in

True Love Comics Tales!

All begin the first week in October and run weekly though the macabre month!

Plus, every RetroBlog will have at one or more horror-themed posts!

BookMark and Don't Miss Them!

Most Excellent! Bill & Ted's Never-Repinted Adventure and Other Blogathon Goodies!

With the new Bill & Ted flick, Face the Music, dropping August 28th...

...we thought it only appropriate to re-present the never-reprinted hard-to-find adaptation of their first cinematic adventure...for comparison, of course!

Note: it was published as a tie-in to the videotape's (remember those?) release, after the movie appeared in theaters!

Behold this most excellent tale starting Monday the 24th at Secret Sanctum of Captain Video!

Meanwhile...

Superman gets better, but has to deal with a plethora of other Supermen at Hero Histories!

Hard-boiled lawyer Perry Mason kicks butt in "Case of the Shoplifter's Shoe" at Crime and Punishment!

The CW's favorite superheroine, Supergirl, has an unhappy anniversary at Heroines!

Surgeon X's scientist sister explains the secret of the near-future pandemics that will devastate the Earth in Medical Comics and Stories!

It's not Labor Day yet, so the RetroBlogs Summer Blogathons continue apace!

Don't Miss Them"

Can Your Heart Take the Conclusion of the Greatest Superman Story...that Nobody Remembers?

It's coming this week...

...as Superman faces death by disease, while Earth's superheroes face a world (in pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity) without a Superman to protect it!

Meanwhile, Supergirl faces the only super-villain worse than Lex Luthor...his niece...

...and shows Brainiac that payback is a super-bitch when he screws with her love-life!

Kung-Fu Fighter makes his debut...at DC after first appearing at Marvel!

(Weird, huh?)

Finally, in the pandemic-ridden near future, Surgeon X decides who lives and who die, via a multi-media presentation that'll blow your mind!

Plus, This Week...

The Return of Hard-Boiled Lawyer (Yes, it's a thing!) Perry Mason in Another Never-Reprinted Comic Adaption of an early Erle Stanley Gardner Novel!

POP ART MARTIAL ARTS Presents "Coming of a Dragon" in KUNG-FU FIGHTER...

This Week at Pop Art Martial Arts...

See the introduction of the DC Comics character...

...who premiered in a Marvel magazine!

(No Lie!)

The RetroBlogs Blogathon Just Keeps Going...

...with some astounding time-lost tales!

Superman, infected with a lethal (to both humans and Kryptonians ) disease nears death in this never-reprinted (and in pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity) serial...

...Supergirl goes the 1970s Wonder Woman route with a new costume...

...and a world ravaged by a pandemic witnesses the multi-media coming of...Surgeon X!

(You'll understand when you read it!)

August is just beginning!

Watch This Space!

RetroBlogs' Summer Blogathons Continue...

...with Clark Kent beating up an innocent gorilla dressed as Superman...

...a comic adapting a tv series about an ex-Confederate soldier wandering through the Old West...

...the never-reprinted Silver Age adventures of the Girl of Steel...

...and Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch introducing the tale of a doctor who catches the disease he's battling...

There's much more coming, so don't miss any of them!

Have A SUPER Summer with RetroBlogs Blogathons!

We've already begun...

...as the CW's favorite heroine, Supergirl, discovers summer camp is anything but fun!

Then, Kara uses super-computer dating to find her true love...a hero with a difference!

Next week...

More Supergirl fun as we re-present one of her wildest, never-reprinted, adventures!

PLUS: Superman experiences the Kryptonian version of Covid-19 in the first chapter of a never-reprinted, multi-part saga at Hero Histories!

The Blogathons are Under Way!

Fans of HBO's Perry Mason can check out his hard-boiled early stories HERE...

...and martial arts fans can see a never-reprinted series from 1975 HERE!

Keep your eyes peeled!

There's much more coming!

Stay Safe by Sheltering in Place with RetroBlogs' Summer Blogathons...

...we'll keep you entertained with time-lost rare and never-reprinted tales you'll find only at...

...our newest RetroBlog

Pop Culture Martial Arts!

Plus...

...controversial Western tales featuring TV's Confederate protagonists the Gray Ghost and the Rebel at

Secret Sanctum of Captain Video

and

Western Comics Adventures!

Barbaric action in the Conan/Kull tradition at

Seduction of the Innocent...

...along with the already-announced

Perry Mason...whose never-reprinted comic books will show you why the new HBO series is closer than you think to the early novels!

Check out
Crime & Punishment
for his hard-boiled adventures!

And, to make it a Super-Summer Blogathon...

The book-length saga of Superman dying from "Virus X" was one of the classic (and often reprinted) Silver Age tales of the Man of Steel!

But. that's not what we're showing...since it's been reprinted numerous times over the years (and deservedly so)!
Did you know it was re-conceived as an expanded, multi-part, never-reprinted, story in Action Comics several years later?

That's what you'll see at
Hero Histories
in July!

Plus, we're presenting not one, but two Blogathons featuring the Man of Steel's cousin in stories unseen for 50 years!

Several of Supergirl's (somewhat kinky) romances in
True Love Comics Tales!
And...

The Maiden of Might's weirdest, wildest adventures in
Heroines!
There's still more (we have to keep you entertained and safe), but you'll have to be back next Sunday to find out about them...