It's Almost Christmas, But the Doc's Always In...and He's STRANGE!

Initially called "Doctor Strange" scientist Hugo Strange became a superhero in Nedor's Thrilling Comics #1 by ingesting a substance he created called Alosun, obtained by distilling the atoms of the Sun, which gave him super-strength and near-invulnerability.
He couldn't actually fly, but could leap great distances like the Hulk and the Golden Age Superman.
Like his inspiration, pulp hero Doc Savage, he initially wore a standard business suit, which would become shredded during the course of that issue's adventure,
But within several months, this became dark jodhpurs, riding boots, and a red safari shirt, which quickly became a faster-to-draw red t-shirt.
Again, like Doc Savage, he didn't have a secret identity, so there was no need for a mask, but Strange did have an unusually-large pompadour to give him obvious visual distinction.
When kid sidekicks became a trend, Doc introduced Mike, who wore a similar outfit.
While he never received his own title, Doc not only ran in Thrilling Comics, but as one of the features in the anthology America's Best Comics, where the covers showed him interacting with other Nedor Comics heroes like The Black Terror and Fighting Yank. (Though inside, the heroes all had separate strips and didn't appear together!)

Doc retained the Thrilling Comics cover spot for most of his run, only losing it for two months to the patriotic American Crusader, before regaining it until #60, when a jungle heroine named Princess Pantha replaced him.
Ironically, his final cover on issue #59 showed him rescuing a jungle girl, but not, as reported, Princess Pantha!
Doc stayed as a backup until #65, when he disappeared from comics.

But you can't keep a good hero down.

In the 1990s, Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing) revived Doc as one of the Terra Obscura heroes in his Tom Strong series. (He had already used Doc as the visual template for the Tom Strong character.)

Working off the Earth-One/Earth-Two alternate-Earth concept made popular at DC Comics, Alan remade Doc Strange into Tom Strange (changing his name from "Hugo Strange" to "Thomas Hugo Strange" and making him into a Golden Age variation of Tom Strong!)

The concept proved popular enough that a spin-off book entitled Terra Obscura, starring Tom Strange and his new crime-fighting companion/wife, Princess Pantha (who had replaced Doc in Thrilling Comics!) ran for 12 issues!

Doc has also appeared in Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers series, though simply called "Doc", to avoid confusion (and potential trademark conflict) with Marvel's Doctor Strange.
We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have also revived Doc as part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line!
There are four classic covers (including his FIRST appearance) on a variety of collectibles including t-shirt, mugs, messenger bags, and other cool stuff as well as a Classic Doc Strange 2016 12-Month Calendar with a dozen different covers including his first and last!
Any of them would make great Christmas gifts, especially in conjunction with the trade paperbacks of the Project SuperPowers Golden Age revival series or Terra Obscura! (Hint, hint!)
The Doctor is in, and he's ready for action!

Make it a Kick-Butt Christmas Day!

In our ongoing quest to suggest cool Christmas gifts for our faithful fans, we of Atomic Kommie Comics™ would like to direct you to, perhaps, the most unlikely of departments--Pop Art Martial Arts™
But, when you think about it, considering how Western-based, cops-and-robbers-oriented, and military-themed toys and gifts have been part of the Yuletide for generations (I'll never forget finding my first 11.5" GI Joe under the tree one Christmas morning!) it's only natural that martial arts-oriented gifts should also be part of the holiday season!
Beyond the fact that you can't shoot your eye out with a gi, (Note: Do NOT give ninja throwing stars to kids as a present!) all these themes are based on the concept of good triumphing over evil, protecting the helpless, and having fun doing it! And, martial arts promote physical fitness! ;-)
We offer men's, women's, and kid's garb, as well as stuff to decorate your dojo.
And what a lineup! The ORIGINAL StreetFighter! Sister StreetFighter! Lady Kung Fu! Deadly China Doll! Five Fingers of Death! And, for those who want a Power Rangers-style look with rubber-suited monsters aplenty--Infra-Man!
So, make it a Merry, Martial-Arts Christmas! Ho, Ho, Ho, Hi-Yahh!

Jungle Girls--Under the Tree or Swinging thru them!

Whether it's Cave Girl...

...Tiger Girl...

...Princess Pantha...

...or Judy of the Jungle...
Atomic Kommie Comics™ has the perfect Jungle Heroine as a Christmas present for the heroine in your life!
We even have a Jungle Girls 2016 12-Month Calendar
with nine MORE Queens of the Jungle from both comics AND movies!

Order today, before they swing away!

Wouldn't a Purple Claw look Kool under YOUR Christmas Tree?

PURPLE CLAW!

The name that strikes terror into the hearts of evildoers...at least to the minds of an impressionable 9-14 year old audience!
Technically, it's the name of the metal glove that imparts mystic powers to it's wearer, but some refer to the user himself (or herself) by the name...sort of like Green Lanterns and their rings.
The user in this 1950s series, which mixed horror with heroics, was Dr. Johnathan Weir, a former US Army doctor who acquired it when he crashed his plane in Africa.
After the locals rescued him from the wreckage, he used his medical knowledge to save them from a plague.
Judging him as Honorable and Worthy, they gave him The Purple Claw, which had been left in their care by it's now-deceased previous owner.

The Claw's origin and history, which Dr. Weir tried to trace, is somewhat cloudy, since it was all word-of-mouth.
What is known is that it's an ancient mystic artifact of Great Power when used for Good. (Those who attempt to use it for Evil usually come to a Bad End!)
The bearer becomes a Defender of Humanity against Occult Evil, whether they want the job or not!
The Claw's exact abilities and limitations are unknown, and Weir had to experiment to see what would and wouldn't work, always stumbling upon the right way to use it before being killed/dismembered/disintegrated by a foe. (Talk about "on the job training"!)

The series ran for only three issues, but Weir continued to fight evil as a backup feature in Tales of Horror, until the Great Comics WitchHunt of the 1950s killed almost all horror/occult-themed comics titles.

As you might have guessed, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ found it to be a perfect fit for our Horror Comics of the 1950s™ collection, even giving The Claw it's own section!

We think any of the collectibles we offer with The Purple Claw on them would make a kool Xmas stocking stuffer for the horror/occult pop culture kitch aficionado in your life!
But, remember...use them for Good...not Evil! ;-)

Make it a FURY-ous Christmas!

She wasn't the first superheroine, but she was the first to be created by a woman!
Conceived, written, and illustrated by cartoonist Tarpe Mills (who dropped her first name "June" from her published credit), Miss Fury started life in 1941 as a newspaper comic strip called "Black Fury".

Wealthy socialite Marla Drake was preparing for a costume ball when she discovered a friend was going to wear the same costume as her!
Horrors! Social ruin!
Francine, her maid, hastily suggested an alternative--she instead wear a black panther skin sent to her by her uncle, which had previously been used as a ceremonial robe by an African witch doctor.
Strangely enough, it fit Marla perfectly!
En route to the party, Marla encountered an escaped criminal and kicked his, well, you know...
Police and reporters initially referred to her as "Black Fury", but she called herself "Miss Fury" in notes attached to crooks she caught. (The name "CatWoman" was already in use! ;-) )

Two items of note:
1) The panther hide didn't give her any super-powers, as such items tend to do in comics*!
Marla was a gifted athlete, and, that combined with the visual shock value of the costume, enabled her to defeat foes. (ask another wealthy socialite, Bruce Wayne, about his similar, equally effective, strategy!)
2) Unlike most Golden Age heroines (Wonder Woman, Black Cat, Phantom Lady, et al), who seemed to wear skimpy swimsuits to battle evil, Miss Fury's costume totally covered her (but extremely tightly)!

The series spun off into comic books in 1942 published by Timely (Marvel's Golden-Age predecessor), but only as reprints of the newspaper strips (albeit with new covers by Mills).
Sadly, unlike most other newspaper adventure strips, there were no other spin-offs like movie serials, radio shows, or even a Big Little Book or two!
The book ended after 8 issues.
The newspaper strip ended in 1952, but Tarpe Mills continued to work as a comic illustrator for various publishers, including Marvel Comics! Her last published work was a new cover for a graphic novel reprint of Miss Fury in 1979. She passed away in 1988.
Miss Fury is one of numerous Golden Age characters revived by Dynamite Entertainment, both as a solo book, and as part of the ensemble of Noir (featuring her with Black Sparrow) and both Masks and Masks 2, (which features a host of well-known characters including The Shadow, Green Hornet & Kato,  The Spider, and Zorro).

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ felt such a unique character would make a great, empowered role model for today's girls, so we gave her a section of her own in Heroines!™, where the so-called "weaker" sex RULES!
She'd make a cool pop-culture Christmas gift under the tree or in a stocking for your sister, daughter, or girlfriend!
Perhaps it'll inspire them to create a character of their own...

*Another Golden Age character, Cat-Man, whom Tarpe occasionally illustrated, did receive powers including agility, night vision and the gift of nine lives from his first cat-costume!
Villains would kill him, but he'd return to life by the story's end to avenge himself.
Someone figured out the "nine lives" idea would only work for nine issues, and it was dropped, but the other super-human abilities remained.

What's better than a SuperHero under the Christmas tree? A WHOLE GROUP OF SUPERHEROES!

"If ONE hero on a cover sells books, stick a BUNCH of 'em on the cover, and we'll sell even more copies!"

That was the philosophy behind anthology comics like America's Best Comics, Big 3 Comics, and 4 Favorites.

Originally, comic anthology covers would feature one hero in action, with other characters' heads in little inserts along the side or bottom of the cover. Each hero would rotate as the main cover character every few issues.
At some point, an editor, trying to keep track of which character went on which issue, probably said "Hell, this month put them ALL on it!" and the first multi-hero cover burst onto the newsstands of America!
Sales skyrocketed, and covers featuring hordes of heroes became the standard!

Even though these multi-hero covers featured the characters interacting, inside the comic, the heroes only worked together in text stories, if at all!
In fact, sometimes the covers were just symbolic designs (like the patriotic one above) to showcase which characters' strips were inside!
The comic stories inside the book were individual strips of those cover-featured heroes.
( It wasn't until All-Star Comics #3, featuring a framing sequence about a meeting of heroes linking the various characters' strips together, that the first true super-hero group, The Justice Society of America, was born.)

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have always been suckers for covers showing heroes (and heroines) working together to defeat a common foe, rescuing innocents, or just hanging out!
So, we've assembled some of the best multi-hero covers in our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ section!
America's Best Comics, Big 3 Comics, and 4 Favorites featured the top characters of their respective lines, much as World's Finest featured Superman and Batman & Robin, and All-Winners displayed Captain America, Sub-Mariner, and The Human Torch for DC and Marvel, respectively. (BTW, most of America's Best Comics, Big 3 Comics, and 4 Favorites have NEVER been reprinted! Talk about your buried treasures!)
We've digitally-restored and remastered them directly from the original books onto a plethora of potential pop culture presents including mousepads, blank sketchbooks, t-shirts, and other collectibles.

Think what your graphic-novel-reading loved one will say when he (or she) finds these kool retro-style tchochkies under the Christmas Tree or in their stocking!

Plus: think of the value! A half-dozen heroes for the price of one!
It was a bargain 70 years ago; and still is, today!

Don't Ya Just LOVE Christmas?

It's great to be in love!

It's even better to be in love at Christmas Time!
There's something about the scent of evergreen, the twinkling lights, the jollyness of the season that makes romance even better!

If your loved one is both an incurable romantic and a fan of pop culture kitsch, you can't go wrong with one of Atomic Kommie Comics™ funky True Love Comics Tales™ collectibles! Besides the usual t-shirts and tchochkies, we also offer matching intimate tops & bottoms and other cute clothes for the fairer sex!
PLUS: we have a kool 12-month calendar featuring the best of our collected covers! (It's cheaper than flowers or candy and much longer-lasting!)

So give us a look at True Love Comics Tales™!
Then give her (or him) a kiss under the mistletoe for us!

It's Crime Time at Christmas Time!

Ah, Christmas...

What do we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ think of?

Peace on Earth!

Good Will towards Men!

25-to-Life at Sing-Sing!

What...?
Yep, you heard right!
For a subject-specific gift for the lawyer, or other legal professional in your life, the crew at Atomic Kommie Comics™ suggests you have a look at the Daring District Attorneys and other Legal Eagles section of our Crime & Punishment™ collection, featuring the long-running radio/tv character Mr. District Attorney!
Inspired by the racket-busting exploits of New York City DA Thomas E. Dewey (who later became Governor of New York State), law student-turned radio writer Ed Byron created a nameless "everyman" DA who maintained law and order in an unnamed Big City (implied to be NYC).
The stories, while rarely based on actual cases (like rival show GangBusters) followed actual legal procedures to the letter, even introducing CSI-style "lab boys" to analyze evidence and present testimony during courtroom sequences!
A couple of kool trivia items:
The narrator was known as "The Voice of the Law" who defined both the DA's case at the beginning of the episode and pronounced the criminal's sentence at the end of the show. (A conceit picked up by rival radio / tv show Dragnet!)
Though several actors played Mr. District Attorney, the DA's secretary, Edith Miller, was played by the same actress, Vicki Vola, for the entire run of the show both on radio and tv (1939-1953)!
The comic book series, from which we draw our imagery, was packaged by the Bob Kane comic book studio. Bob Kane was the co-creator (with Bill Finger) of the most famous fictional detective of the 20th Century--The Batman!
We offer four different classic comic book crime-busting covers on items ranging from mugs to mousepads to t-shirts.
And, if attorneys aren't your thing, we also have Real Life Criminals, Police--the REAL Heroes!, Sherlock Holmes, Top Secret--Images without Words, All-True Detective Cases, Crimes by Women, Gangsters, Private Dicks, and G-Men T-Men & Spies!
Use them responsibly this Yuletide season, citizens!

BONUS: A FREE Christmas present, to you, our faithful readers: mp3s of the Mr District Attorney radio show!

Ride the Halloween Night with the Classic GHOST RIDER!

He began life in the late 1940s as The Calico Kid, a masked hero whose secret identity was a lawman who felt justice was constrained by legal limitations. (There were a lot of those heroes in comics and pulps of the 40s including our own DareDevil and Blue Beetle!)
But, with masked heroes in every genre doing a slow fade-out after World War II, and both the western and horror genres on the rise, the character was re-imagined in 1949 as comics' first horror / western character!

The Ghost Rider himself was not a supernatural being.
He wore a phosphorescent suit and cape, making him glow in the dark, appearing as a spectral presence to the (mostly) superstitious cowboys and Indians he faced.
Since the inside of the cape was black, he'd reverse it, and appear in the dark as just a floating head, usually scaring a confession or needed information out of owlhoots.
Note: some covers, like the one here, show the inside of the cape to be white! Chalk it up to artistic license (and face it, it looks damned cool).

BTW, the artistically-astute among you can tell that cover above was by the legendary Frank Frazetta!
He did several of them, three of which are included in our collection!

In the series' early days the villains were standard owlhoots or, like the Rider, people pretending to be supernatural beings.
That changed around 1952, when he started facing occasional real mystic menaces including Indian spirits, vampires, and even the Frankenstein Monster (though not the one from Prize Comics.)
Unfortunately, it was about this point in time that Dr. Wertham began his crusade against comics in general and horror comics in particular...
By 1954, the Ghost Rider had lost his series. The next year he disappeared entirely.
But, over 50 years later, Atomic Kommie Comics™ brought him back, digitally-restored and remastered on a host of kool kollectibles to go with our other masked Western heroes including The Lone Rider, The Red Mask, The Black Phantom, and The Masked Ranger.

If you're a fan of horror, masked heroes, Westerns, or all three genres, take a long, lingering look at The Ghost Rider!
You'll not see his like again!

Give the Pop Culture Fan in Your Life a Customized 12-Month Calendar that Begins (and Ends) on Their Birthday Month!

Perfect for office, dorm, or bedroom!The IDEAL gift for the hard-to-please pop culture fan in your life (or yourself)!
And they can be customized for birthday months!
 You can customize any of these calendars to show, for example, September 2015 to September 2016 (if your birthday guy or gal has their natal day in September)...or give them a 2016 12-month calendar early!

Sherlock Holmes: the Greatest Sleuth of All!™

Basil Rathbone IS Sherlock Holmes!™

WereWolves and Vampires™

Vampires of Pulps and Comics™

Werewolves of the Comics and Pulps™

Zombies of Comics and Pulps™

Plus MANY MORE!

Classic comic book and pulp magazine covers and movie posters, scanned from the originals and digitally-remastered and restored!

Now Available: 12-Month Pop-Culture 2016 Calendars!

Perfect for office, dorm, or bedroom!The IDEAL gift for the hard-to-please pop culture fan in your life (or yourself)!

WereWolves and Vampires™

Vampires of Pulps and Comics™

Werewolves of the Comics and Pulps™

Zombies of Comics and Pulps™

Plus MANY MORE!

Classic comic book and pulp magazine covers and movie posters, scanned from the originals and digitally-remastered and restored!
NOT available in stores, only on-line! Order now...before time runs out! ;-)

Now Available: 12-Month Pop-Culture Calendars for 2016!

Perfect for office, dorm, or bedroom! 
The IDEAL gift for the hard-to-please pop culture fan in your life (or yourself)!

Basil Rathbone IS Sherlock Holmes!™

Sherlock Holmes: the Greatest Sleuth of All!™

WereWolves and Vampires™

Vampires of Pulps and Comics™

Werewolves of the Comics and Pulps™

Zombies of Comics and Pulps™

Plus MANY MORE!

Classic comic book and pulp magazine covers and movie posters, scanned from the originals and digitally-remastered and restored!
NOT available in stores, only on-line! Order now...before time runs out! ;-)

Now Available: 2016 12-Month Pop-Culture Calendars!

Perfect for office, dorm, or bedroom!The IDEAL gift for the hard-to-please pop culture fan in your life (or yourself)!

Sherlock Holmes: the Greatest Sleuth of All!™

Basil Rathbone IS Sherlock Holmes!™

WereWolves and Vampires™

Vampires of Pulps and Comics™

Werewolves of the Comics and Pulps™

Zombies of Comics and Pulps™

Plus MANY MORE!

Classic comic book and pulp magazine covers and movie posters, scanned from the originals and digitally-remastered and restored!
NOT available in stores, only on-line! Order now...before time runs out! ;-)

Give a Loved One a Customized 12-Month Calendar that Begins (and Ends) on Their Birthday Month!

25% OFF all
Atomic Kommie Comics™
2015-2016 12-Month Calendars 
Perfect for office, dorm, or bedroom!
The IDEAL gift for the hard-to-please pop culture fan in your life (or yourself)!
And they can be customized for birthday months!
 You can customize any of these calendars to show, for example, July 2015 to July 2016 (if your birthday guy or gal has their natal day in July)...or August 2015 to August 2016...etc!

Sherlock Holmes: the Greatest Sleuth of All!™

Basil Rathbone IS Sherlock Holmes!™

WereWolves and Vampires™

Vampires of Pulps and Comics™

Werewolves of the Comics and Pulps™

Zombies of Comics and Pulps™

Plus MANY MORE!

Classic comic book and pulp magazine covers and movie posters, scanned from the originals and digitally-remastered and restored!
Normally $19.99!
From NOW to Midnight July 11, all customizable calendars are only $14.99!
NOT available in stores, only on-line!
Order now...before time runs out! ;-)

The Clean-Cut, All-American Hero!

Perhaps the first comic strip to be created as a military recruiting tool...

Don Winslow U.S.N. was launched in 1934 to encourage enlistments in the U.S. Navy, which at that point had reached an all-time low.

A clean-cut role model for American Youth, Don battled spies, saboteurs, and criminals on the home front, and even made brief forays to both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of war!

The strip proved to be a big success, not only improving Naval enlistments, but launching a series of novels, comic book series from several publishers, a dramatic radio show, and two movie serials (Don Winslow of the Navy and Don Winslow of the Coast Guard)!
Don finally retired from service in 1955.

Atomic Kommie Comics™ has returned Don Winslow to active duty as part of the War: Past, Present & Future™ line's enhanced World War II section of classic cover art collectibles which also includes Women of World War II and Aviators.
Any of the shirts, fridge magnets, mugs, or other kool kollectibles in these series would make fun retro-style 4th of July gifts for the veteran in your life!
(I sent a set of all four Don Winslow mugs to my Dad, a retired swabbie! He loved them!)

A Free pre-4th of July bonus from us to you: downloadable mp3s of the Don Winslow dramatic radio show!

RIP Earl Norem (1924-2015)

One of the prolific, yet unsung, painters who helped define the visuals of sci-fi/fantasy of the 60s-2000s...

...whose true genius in design and illustration was often obscured by poor design work.

(They really couldn't have put the lightsaber in front of the logo?

The printed cover looks like he's holding up a sign, for chrissakes!)

Besides numerous romance and "mens' adventure" paperback and magazine covers, Earl Norem was one of the mainstays of the Marvel b/w magazine line of the 1970s, doing everything from Planet of the Apes to Savage Sword of Conan to Tales of the Zombie with equal aplomb.

He also did paperback novel covers for DC characters including Batman.

He never achieved the notoriety of fellow cover painters like Boris Vallejo, or Bob Larkin, but we art directors knew of his talent to work from sometimes very rough concepts with minimal reference and ability to meet almost-impossible deadlines.

(I used him on several comics covers for licensed properties, where sometimes nit-picky changes had to be made to get approvals.

He always came through without complaint.)

Though suffering from arthritis, he continued to do occasional projects after most people would have happily retired.

In fact, at the time of his passing, Earl was working on a trading card assignment for Topps' Mars Attacks!

Aviators of the Golden Age of Comics Cover Gallery

An amazing assortment of aviators who flew thru the four-color pages of the Golden Age of Comics including AirBoy...

...The Black Commander (who appeared with AirBoy in Air Fighters Comics!)

...Captain Aero...

...Captain Flight...

...and Captain Wings!

BTW, did we mention that ALL these covers (and seven more including Captain MidNight) are available on our Aviators of the Golden Age of Comics 2015-2016 12-Month Calendar? ;-)