It's a New Year...Start Saving Money NOW!

Because it's become the most popular sale we've ever run, we're bringing back the

2017 12-Month Calendar Sale
with all titles at a 25% discount!
Only $14.99 instead of $19.99!
Perfect for work, home office, dorm, or bedroom!
The IDEAL gift for the hard-to-please pop culture fan in your life (or yourself)!
A FULL YEAR OF GRAPHIC FUN! 
Choose from...

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!
And, until January 20, 2017, they're FIVE BUCKS CHEAPER!
Normally $19.99, they're ONLY $14.99!
Order now...before time runs out!

Put the "X" Back in Xmas!

Believing that Christmas gifts can have a somewhat risque side, here's a kool, retro, 1950s comic cover image from our somewhat-naughty Seduction of the Innocent™ section.
Quick side note: Seduction of the Innocent was a book written in the 1950s by Dr. Fredric Wertham, a psychiatrist who postulated that, because juvenile delinquents read comic books, comics caused juvenile delinquency! (Psychiatrists today claim the same thing about video games!)
So our collection's title is tongue-in-cheek and somewhat snarky, not prurient!
As we put it..."Proudly show the stuff your grandparents didn't want your parents to see!"
This particular image is a cutting commentary on the belief that New York City is a den of sin, a modern Sodom (if not Gomorrah), and that only MidWestern small-town values are the RIGHT values!
It's available, along with eleven other comics covers and almost TWO DOZEN naughty movie posters, on a variety of items including mugs, messenger bags, t-shirts, tops, and other goodies, not to mention a couple of kool 2017 12-month calendars; Seduction of the Innocent and Good Girls & Bad Grrrls!
So, let's put the "X" back in Xmas! ;-)
It's good to be bad at Christmastime!

The clock striking "12" signals the appearance of Santa and...

...Captain Midnight!

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ are big fans of retro pop culture.
And in the 1940s-1950s one of the biggest pop cult phenomenons was Captain Midnight!
Books, Comics, Movies, Radio, TV...He was EVERYWHERE!

Created for radio in 1938, the patriotic aviator ran the Secret Squadron, what we today would call a "black ops" team, supported by the government but functioning outside of legal rules in dealing with spies, saboteurs, and (after the war) criminals!
Trivia note: the Secret Squadron originally used the code "SS" on their messages, decoders, and uniform patches, but changed it to "SQ" after World War II began to avoid reference to the notorious Nazi SS stormtroopers!
Cap replaced Little Orphan Annie as the flagship show for Ovaltine, carrying on the tradition of issuing mail-in collectible premiums in return for Ovaltine labels and jar seals, taking it to far greater levels than any other radio series in history! (The phrase "Captain Midnight Decoder" became synonymous with mail-in premiums.)
The show ran Monday thru Friday in 15-minute segments, with storylines running for several months at a time, ending each episode with a coded message which required a Captain Midnight Decoder to translate.
A series of Big Little Books, a newspaper comic strip, and two different comic book series quickly followed, as well as a 15-chapter movie serial.
You can read a couple of stories from the 1940s comic book HERE.
The radio show ended with a bang in 1949, as Cap's archenemy Ivan Shark (an evil aviator) was killed in the final episode! Talk about "closure"!

Ovaltine revived Cap (but not Ivan Shark) in 1954 as a weekly tv series with a heavier science fiction emphasis.
Midnight was now a civilian adventurer operating out of a mountaintop base in the SouthWest US, battling criminals and the occasional Communist spy.
Though it only ran for 39 episodes, the show reran continuously until the mid 1960s.
Trivia note: the syndicated version was retitled Jet Jackson: Flying Commando because Ovaltine owned the "Captain Midnight" trademark and didn't sponsor the reruns!
One actor redubbed "Jet Jackson" over everybody (men, women, children) when they said "Captain Midnight", producing some rather surreal moments in the syndicated reruns!

Ovaltine continued to use "Captain Midnight" on advertising and occasional tie-in premiums until the late 1990s, when they finally abandoned the trademark.
He's now part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics group with six different vintage designs including five classic covers and his stylish logo!
As a unique Xmas gift for collectors of pop culture kitch, you can't go wrong with one of our klassy and kool kollectibles as a stocking stuffer!

Our FREE Early Christmas Present to you: downloadable mp3s of the Captain Midnight radio show!
BONUS FREE Early Christmas Present: downloadable episode of the Captain Midnight tv show, complete with commercials!
EXTRA FREE BONUS Early Christmas Present: Another downloadable episode of the Captain Midnight TV show, complete with commercials!

Please support Atomic Kommie Comics this Christmas!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Captain Midnight

the Movie Serial!

(which would make a great present with one of our Captain Midnight collectibles!)

Noel Neill (1920-2016)

She was a newspaperman's daughter in real life...

Kirk Alyn (Clark Kent/Superman) and Noel Neill (Lois Lane) in Superman (1948)

...and she ended up playing the most famous newspaperwoman in fiction on both the movie and TV screens!

Noel Neill (Lois Lane) and George Reeeves (Clark Kent/Superman) in The Adventures of Superman (1950s)

I had the pleasure of meeting Ms Neill in Cleveland, at the 1988 International Superman Expo (celebrating Superman's 50th Anniversary), and she was absolutely delightful and gracious, the very model of what we used to call, in the pre-PC days, a "classy lady".

Trivia: Noel and Phyllis Coates (who was the first TV Lois Lane, both appeared in in the B-movie Rocket Attack U.S.A. (1952), but had no scenes together.

Martians! Martians! Martians! (Or what Jan Brady said when she saw War of the Worlds)

Halloween is coming up fast, so what do I think of?

Martians!

I've always been a big fan of War of the Worlds, whether it's the H.G. Wells novel, Orson Welles' radio adaptation, the '53 movie, the 80s tv series (Year One or Year Two), Jeff Wayne's remarkable concept album, or the many variations, sequels, and pastiches (like my favorite: Sherlock Holmes' War of the Worlds!)
So, I added a line of shirts. mugs, messenger bags, and tchochkes to Atomic Kommie Comics' already bulging sci-fi collectibles section entitled Martians! Martians! Martians! (Or: what Jan Brady said when she saw The War of the Worlds!)
From benevolent visitors to arrogant invaders to an EarthMan turned Martian, we have them all! See The Devil Girl from Mars, Lars of Mars, Man O' Mars, John Carter: WarLord of Mars, and of course, the War of the Worlds' various incarnations!
(BTW, the Tote Bags make great trick-or-treat bags!)
We even have a three-way battle between Earth, Mars, and Venus as well as the campy cult classic Santa Claus Conquers the Martians!
So whether it's for Halloween, Christmas, a birthday, or anytime you feel the urge for alien antics, choose Martians! Martians! Martians!™
As the Martians in Mars Attacks! would say..."Ack! Ack! Ack!"

It's Elementary! Sherlock Holmes Calendars are the Perfect Gifts!

The IDEAL gift for the hard-to-please Sherlockian or Baker Street Irregular in your life (or yourself)!

Sherlock Holmes: the Greatest Sleuth of All!™

Basil Rathbone IS Sherlock Holmes!™

Plus MANY, MANY MORE!

Classic comic book and pulp magazine covers plus movie posters and lobby cards, scanned from the originals and digitally-remastered and restored!
Perfect for office, dorm, or bedroom!
NOT available in stores, only on-line! Order now...before time runs out! ;-)

Reading Room ADVENTURES INTO TERROR "Ant World"

"The Man in the Ant Hill", which spawned Ant-Man, was not Timely/Atlas/Marvel's first ant-themed tale...

...but I'm betting this never-reprinted tale from Adventures into Terror #43 (1950) is the first!

So there's elements of what would later be "Man in the Ant Hill" as well as the 1957 novella "The Fly" by George Langelaan, which became the basis for movie series in 1958 and 1986!

GCD attributes the art to Mike Sekowsky, but it doesn't match his work on Speed Carter: Spaceman only a couple of years later as shown HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Either he radically modified his style within a very short timeframe (which is possible), or the guys at GCD got it wrong, which happens occasionally.

In any case, I'm going to stay with both the writer and artists of the story as "unknown", until somebody can provide proof otherwise.

Though this issue of Adventures into Terror was listed in the indicia as #43, it's actually the first issue since the book was previously-known as Joker Comics!

Apparently, the Post Office caught on, since by the third issue, the numbering was corrected to #3, indicting a new second class mailing permit had been issued.
The classic example of this sort of bait-and-switch by comics publishers to avoid paying for a new second class mailing license (which each periodical needed) was EC's Moon Girl series.
The first issue was Moon Girl and the Prince.
As of #2, it became just Moon Girl.
When #7 came out, it became Moon Girl Fights Crime, adding true-crime tales narrated by Moon Girl. (The lead stories were still Moon Girl adventures.)
Two issues later (#9), the book became a romance title, A Moon, A Girl, Romance! (The final Moon Girl story appeared in the back of #9.)
Finally, as of #13, the book shifted gears into science fiction and became Weird Fantasy which ran from 13-17.
Then, since it had five issues under the Weird Fantasy title, the Post Office forced EC to buy a new mailing permit for the series, and continue the numbering with #6.
It ran until #22, when it merged with Weird Science into Weird Science-Fantasy.
(This explains why Weird Fantasy has two #13, #14, #15, #16, and #17 issues a couple of years apart!)
Since both Science and Fantasy ended with #22, it's uncertain which series' mailing permit was used from that point until Weird Science-Fantasy became Incredible Science Fiction as of #30!
Got it?

Before Ant-Man...There Was FLY-MAN!

Actualy, there were two of them!

A Golden Age superhero...

who only appeared twice!

And this longer-running Silver Age hero...

...who was co-created by Jack Kirby, Ant-Man's co-creator!

Read about them at our "brother" RetroBlog; Hero Histories!

Design of the Week: ASIAN MONSTER / DINOSAUR!

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another.
This week, we ask the question: What kid doesn't love dinosaurs?
The idea of being a huge, unstoppable creature rampaging, devouring, and stepping on everything and everybody in your path has an undeniable appeal to little ones, who usually feel helpless in a world too big for them! (Why do you think the new Jurassic World flick had such a great opening day or that Godzilla is still going strong after 50 years?)
This week we say...

Dinosaurs!
Once they ruled the planet!
Now they'll dominate your wardrobe!

Available on t-shirts, mugs, and all sorts of kool kollectibles!

Snap them up...before they snap you up!

RIP Patrick Macnee (1922-2015)

Remember the kool British spy tv series The Avengers and the team of Steed & Keel?

"Wait, you mean 'Steed & Peel', right?"

Nope, I meant "Steed & Keel"!

That's how the series was meant to be!

Read about how the show would never have "crossed the pond" if it had stayed with it's original, somewhat dull, concept HERE.

If it hadn't, we wouldn't be mourning the passing of actor Patrick Macnee, who made the somewhat stereotypical character of John Steed the distinctive cult icon he is today...

Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, EVERYWHERE!

Jurassic World ain't the only movie to feature dinosaurs, y'know...

...there was One Million Years, B.C., as we showed HERE!

The dinosaur is behind Raquel Welch (like you're complaining???), and he was animated by no less a genius than sfx legend Ray Harryhausen!

For those who wanted cowboys with their dinosaur, there was Valley of Gwangi (as seen HERE), also featuring the animation work of Ray Harryhausen!

(Before CGI, Ray was the go-to guy for this sort of thing.)

And, if you like your dinosaur to be something totally-new (like the Indominus Rex in Jurassic World), there's Gorgo (as shown HERE)!

TomorrowLand is coming...

With the new movie TomorrowLand opening this week...

...we're going to take a look at a classic comic used when Disneyland opened in 1955 (60 years ago) to promote the theme park attraction that inspired the new flick.

Note that the first things listed after Main Street and The Hub are the primary elements of TomorrowLand; Space Station X-1, Rocket Pylon and Autopia Freeway.

It was the only part of the theme park not based on previous movies, cartoons, or live action tv shows.

(However, the year it opened, the Disney TV series [also named Disneyland] ran several episodes dedicated to science and future technology.)

Tomorrow, join Mickey and his nephews as they are given access to TomorrowLand the day before Disneyland opens!

RIP Gary Owens (1934-2015)

He was Space Ghost, Roger Ramjet, and the announcer on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In...

You may not know his face, but you cetatinly knew his booming voice!

Now he's gone...but his voice will live on...

It's GOOD to be BAD at Christimastime!

Well, the Christmas shopping season is more-or-less underway (Remember when it didn't begin until after Thanksgiving?), so we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ are going to offer you a daily guide to reasonably-priced pop culture collectibles that would make great gifts for the hard-to-please person in your life!
First off is a kool, retro, 1950s comic cover image from our Seducton of the Innocent™ section.
Quick side note: Seduction of the Innocent was a book written in the 1950s by Dr. Fredric Wertham, a psychiatrist who postulated that, because juvenile delinquents read comic books, comics caused juvenile delinquency!
(Psychiatrists today claim the same thing about video games, in the '80s and '90s about horror movies, in the '60s and '70s about tv shows, etc.)
So our collection's title is tongue-in-cheek and somewhat snarky, not prurient!
As we put it..."Proudly show the stuff your grandparents didn't want your parents to see!"
This particular image is a cutting commentary on the belief that New York City is a den of sin, a modern Sodom (if not Gomorrah), and that only MidWestern small-town values are the RIGHT values!
It's available on a variety of items including mugs, messenger bags, t-shirts, tops, and other goodies along with eleven other comics covers and almost TWO DOZEN naughty movie posters!
So, let's put the "X" back in Xmas! ;-)
Shop now!
Avoid the Christmas rush!
It's good to be BAD at Christmastime!

Early Thanksgiving Turkey SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS

He's the Jolly Old Elf in a red suit!
They are BIG Green Men from Mars with an even BIGGER robot!
Before Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, they were the ingredients for the weirdest Christmas movie ever!

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians was filmed in 1964 in that bastion of cinema, Long Island, New York (in an unused aircraft hangar).
Starring a host of tv and b-movie actors including handsome-but-stiff Leonard Hicks as the good Martian leader Kimar, 60s villain/voiceover artist Vincent Beck (who did lots of work for Irwin Allen's sci-fi shows) as the film's mustache-twirling Martian villain, Voldar, and John Call as a pretty damn convincing Santa Claus, the flick is touted these days as the debut of future talentless chantuse Pia Zadora as Martian Kid Girmar. (Thankfully, she has rather limited screen time.)

The plot's pretty simple.
The children of Mars are in a funk.
The adult Martians deduce it's due to the childrens' strict and sterile upbringing, and that to "normalize" them, the kids must have fun!
And what could be more fun than celebrating Christmas?
But, to do a proper Christmas, you need a Santa Claus!
Thus, the Martians journey to Earth to kidnap Santa Claus and force him to create a Christmas celebration on Mars!
Then, as they say in TV Guide, hilarity ensues! (well, sorta)

As an example of low-budget filmmaking, it's actually pretty effective.
Every penny (what few of them they had) is up on the screen.
The costuming and Santa's Workshop and Mars sets are as good as those of tv shows of the period.
(The Martian robot is probably the weakest element from a design and execution standpoint, but nobody's perfect!)
There's extensive use of stock footage (from Dr. Strangelove, no less).
And, the idea to utilize the then-popular Wham-O Air Blaster toy guns as Martian weapons was either a stroke of marketing genius or clever use of limited funds. Either way, sales of the guns shot thru the roof after the film hit the kiddie matinee circuit!

If you're between 3-9 years old, the flick's a lot of fun.
If you're between 10 and whatever the local drinking age is, it'll drive you nuts, especially the theme song!
If you're over the local drinking age, do so before watching! It's available on a host of public domain dvds as well as one of the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 snarkfests.

And you just knew we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ were going to include Santa Claus Conquers the Martians in our Cool Christmas collection on stuff including kid and adult sweatshirts, hoodies, mugs and coasters, tree ornaments, throw blankets and snugglies, and greeting cards!
BTW: The image is from the comic book tie-in. There was also a 45 single of the theme, a spoken-word LP album of the movie's dialogue, and a novelization, all of which are HTF and expensive when you do find them!
Now I can't get that damn theme our of my head..."Hoo-ray for Santy Claus..." AARRRGGGHHH!

FREE: a couple of early holiday gifts from us to you:
LINK to the suprisingly well-done comics adaptation of the movie!
LINK to a download the film itself in various formats!
Now it can drive YOU nuts, too!

Robin WIlliams (1951-2014)

He could've played it safe.
He could've just done schitck, and made an easy fortune.

Instead, he took creative chances no one else dared to do, like this...

"I yam what I yam" said it all for this one-of-a-kind talent.

Reading Room MARVEL PREVIEW "Sword in the Star: Stave Two: WitchWorld"

He, along with Groot, is the breakout star of the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie...

...but Rocket Raccoon had a far more inauspicous debut than most of his co-stars.

It began in Marvel Preview #7 (1976), in the second part of a space opera about a somewhat thick-headed space prince called Sword in the Star, as the lead character looked around on a new world for something to eat...

That's not Rocket in Panel 3...

And, that's not Groot in Panel 3 of this page...

It was, in fact, the final installment of Sword in the Star.

The "sticky wicket" created by writer Bill Mantlo and artist Keith Giffen was never resolved.

Mantlo explained the problem in a text feature at the end of the issue (which you can click on to enlarge and read)...

When next we saw Rocket Raccoon, it was several years later in the pages of Incredible Hulk (also written by Mantlo)...minus his British accent and without an explanation as to how he survived.

(BTW, Wayfinder also returned...in the pages of the Mantlo-scripted Micronauts, where he travelled into the distant past to become the founder of the Microverse!