Showing posts with label old west. Show all posts
Showing posts with label old west. Show all posts

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Nick Cardy 1920-2013

For decades, one of the most prolific artists in the industry...
...Nick Cardy was one of the unsung heroes of the business.
While never receiving the acclaim of a John Buscema or Gil Kane, Nick Viscardi produced over 1800 covers and stories (from shorts to book-length tales) for almost every major comic company from 1940 to 2008!
Every generation knew him for different things...
In the Golden Age, he was the co-creator of the long-running Senorita Rio.
In the Silver Age his work defined the look of Aquaman and the Teen Titans.
In the Bronze Age he was the primary cover artist for DC Comics, giving everything from superheroes to horror to romance to westerns his distinctive stamp.
We've featured a number of his tales on our blogs...
...and there'll be more to come, since he left such a huge body of work covering every genre.
Thank you, Mr Cardy, and rest in peace.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

RetroBlogs™ Updates...

A never-reprinted tale of the 1970s biker hero Hell-Rider...
...can be found in three parts; HERE, HERE, and HERE at Hero Histories™!

A retro-kool sci-fi love story is HERE...

A rarely-seen Masked Western Hero returns HERE...

A never-reprinted crossover between two heroes can be found at...
and

And, Gorgo (as rendered by Steve Ditko) cometh...

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

American Eagles (All Three of Them)!

Last week, we told the story of a hero called American Eagle...three times on three blogs!
...then at Hero Histories™, we introduced the Golden Age SuperHero...
...finally, the WWII Native American aviator created during the Silver Age in War: Past, Present & Future™!
It was a fun project, and you should keep an eye out on the RetroBlogs™ for another themed cross-posting...soon.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Out of the Night, When the Full Moon is Bright...

"...comes the Horseman known as Zorro!"
Click on the art to enlarge
It's so big, we had to use two blogs to tell it!
It's ZORRO!
The comic book version of the legendary Disney tv series, featuring art by the amazing Alex Toth!
For Part One, go to our TV/Movie Adaptation blog...
then, either follow the embedded link or return here to go to
for the exciting conclusion and a special video treat!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Whatever Happened to The Lone Ranger?

The budget had been approved.
The script was written (and approved) by all concerned.
The stars, including Johnny Depp as Tonto, were cast.
Sets were being built in New Mexico.
Pre-production was well underway.
Then, someone at Disney yelled "STOP!"

The producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, was told he would have to cut $40 million from his already-approved budget of $250 million.
Was it because of the less-than-stellar box office for Cowboys & Aliens?
According to the LA Times: "Cowboys & Aliens made them (Disney executives) start quaking in their boots over big budgets," said Brandon Gray, creator and president of BoxOfficeMojo.com, a website that tracks worldwide ticket sales. "It was High Noon at Buena Vista."
Oddly enough, The Lone Ranger also would've been a cross-genre western, this time with werewolves (which makes sense, since silver can slay lycanthropes, and the Ranger uses silver bullets)!

Besides the location shooting in New Mexico, The Lone Ranger had reserved several soundstages at  Albuquerque Studios which, ironically, are currently being used for another big-budget Disney film; The Avengers!

Let's see what develops...

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Cowboys & Aliens--Movie WallPaper

The complete set of "standard" (1280x1024) official wallpapers...
Click on any art to enlarge and download
Oddly, no Olivia Wilde/Ella wallpaper...

We're offering a line of Space Western collectibles, perfect for summer wear at the beach, or the movie theatre when you go see Cowboys & Aliens. (C'mon, you know you're going!)
and have a look below at some Cowboys and Aliens movie tie-ins from Amazon!

Friday, July 29, 2011

Cowboys & Aliens...the 1950s Comic Book version!

Click on the art to enlarge
Long before the new movie Cowboys and Aliens, extraterrestrials and cowpokes did battle on Earth and in space!
Read the tale that predates the new movie by fifty years, starring Buster Crabbe (Flash Gordon / Buck Rogers), and illustrated by not one, not two, but three of the greatest sci-fi artists of the 1950s (Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, and Roy Krenkel), only at our "brother" blog Western Comics Adventures™!

Monday, July 25, 2011

Cowboys vs Aliens Starring...Buster Crabbe?

Click on the art to enlarge
Yes, that's Buster Crabbe, beloved movie serial (Flash Gordon / Buck Rogers) and b-movie star in his own 1950s comic book.
And, yes, he's battling lizardlike aliens while wearing full cowboy regalia over 40 years before Cowboys and Aliens, the graphic novel!
And, yes, that's a beautiful alien woman with a ray gun at his side, zapping lizardlike aliens!
(You didn't think Spurs Jackson had a monopoly on this sort of stuff, did you?)

For an explanation, and the complete, uncut, never-reprinted comic story, click on over to our "brother" blog Western Comics Adventures™ where the Old West is not only wild, it's weird!

We've taken the art from the cover of this issue, digitally-remastered and restored it, and emblazoned it on a variety of kool komic kollectibles!
Check out our online store...
...for Cowboys vs Aliens 
duds and provisions!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

YouTube Wednesday: THE LONE RANGER

Click on art to enlarge
From 1949 to 1958, The Lone Ranger (with Tonto, natch) dominated tv as the Western show for kids.
It was also ABC-TV's first hit series, winning it's time period consistently.
In 1955, it was decided to film the b/w series in color for it's final (1956-57) season.
Before shooting for the season itself began, both a tv special celebrating the character's anniversary and a feature film were shot using the new color equipment. Then filming began on the final season, which also required reshooting all the previous outdoor stock footage (which was b/w).
Ironically, ABC began airing the color-filmed episodes (including the anniversary special) before the movie opened in theatres...but aired them in b/w, so this movie is, chronologically, the character's first color appearance!
Clayton Moore is still considered the definitive Lone Ranger, and Native American actor Jay Silverheels played Tonto as smarter than most cowboys he encountered, despite the character's problems with adjectives.
Here's the trailer from the first movie...

And here's the opening from the second feature film, Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold, which synopsizes his origin in two minutes! 
(It takes a whole movie to do it these days, and not as well!)

We're presenting these classic clips to alert you to a related Internet first...a serialized story carried across multiple blogs!
We're re-presenting as a 4th of July holiday treat, the 60-page-plus comic adaptation of the 1956 Lone Ranger feature film, illustrated by Tom Gill (with inking by Joe Sinnott), which has never been reprinted!
The first two parts run today and tomorrow at Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™, then parts three and four on July 1st and 2nd at Hero & Heroine Histories™, with the last two on July 3rd and 4th at Western Comics Adventures™!
Join us as we make cyber-history! ;-)

Monday, May 16, 2011

Visit the NEWEST RetroBlogs™ for Sci-Fi/Western/Good Girl Fun!

We've recently-introduced several new blogs to the RetroBlogs™ Family...
...the newest one, features action-packed tales of the Old West by such stalwarts as Simon & Kirby, Graham Engels, Dick Ayers, and many others who also did superhero and horror work.
Plus, there'll be appearances by masked heroes including the Original Ghost Rider, RedMask, The Lone Rider, and The Masked Ranger, and the occasional little green man from Space Western Comics!

Then, there's...
...now, before you go "ewwww", consider whose work you'll see here:
some of the finest "good girl" artists in the business, including Matt Baker, Wally Wood, and Bill Ward doing scantily-clad women!
Sure you don't want to see that?

Finally, for the hardcore sf / fantasy fan, there's...
The Secret Sanctum of
So far, we've covered Captain Video (surprise!), The Time Machine, Dr Who & the Daleks, and Space: 1999!
Starting on Tuesday, we present...
by Bruce Jones (writer) and the legendary Al Williamson (artist)!

So, what's your excuse not to, at least, take a look (or bookmark the sites)?
(They're all Safe For Work / School!)
Click now or regret it later!  ;-)

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Design of the Week--Space Cowboy

Cowboy hero vs bug-eyed monsters from outer space!
You think Cowboys and Aliens was the first?
It sure as hell wasn't the first comic / graphic novel that presented the concept!
59 years ago, comic books were telling tales of how resourceful Westerners defeated invaders from beyond the stars!
And this week, you and your kids can collect (and wear) the stuff they should have had in the Five & Dimes back in 1952, but didn't!
We're talkin' kids' and adult t-shirts, mugs, magnets, buttons, etc.!
But order now, because the Space Cowboy is headin' outta town in one week!
And he may never be comin' this way again!

Friday, April 29, 2011

Reading Room: SPURS JACKSON in "Death from U-235"

 As we promised earlier,  here's another exciting, never-reprinted adventure featuring cowboys and aliens from Space Western Comics #40.
Ah, for the days when a cowboy's devotion to the good 'ol USA overrode living in luxury on another world with a beautiful space princess...
(Never thought you'd read that sentence on the 'Net in 2011, eh?)
Don't worry, owlhoot.
There's lots more space-spanning, six-shooting action to come, so keep us bookmarked!


We're offering a new line of Space Western collectibles, perfect for summer wear at the beach, or the movie theatre when you go see Cowboys & Aliens. (C'mon, you know you're going!)
and have a look below at some Cowboys and Aliens movie tie-ins from Amazon!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Design of the Week--They Call Me the Space Cowboy...

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!
This week...instead of the politically-incorrect cowboys and indians,  let's play cowboys and ALIENS!
Yeah, it's the name of a new summer blockbuster starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde as little green men replace big red men as the antagonists harassing a small Old West town.
But it's also a concept that goes back at least to the 1950s, when Charlton Comics published a year's worth of a title called...Space Western Comics!
It's a slight misnomer, since the book was set in the then-present, and most tales also included interaction with US armed forces, as seen on the cover above.
But in the 1950s, when Westerns were the dominant genre in American fiction in every media, it was an innovative idea to incorporate elements of the flying saucer fad that was briefly sweeping the nation.
And it gave us some kool graphics, like the cover above, that we're emblazoning on items from mugs to iPod shells to kidswear for one week!
Check 'em out, pardner!

Tune in Tomorrow, when we'll be presenting a Hero(ine) History for the lead character, Spurs Jackson (along with his first appearance, which was written by The Shadow's pulp creator, Walter Gibson!)

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Bad Grrrls, Bad Grrrls, What'cha Gonna Do...?

Western Comic Adventures™ has expanded the Women Outlaws section!
Twice as much female mayhem set in the Old West as before!
Twice as much gunplay!
And now...catfights!
(and there are those who say we're not subtle at Atomic Kommie Comics™!)

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

The Cisco Kid & Pancho for Cinco de Mayo

The Cisco Kid was the first Hispanic multi-media superstar, featured in books, movies, radio, comic books, newspaper strips, and eventually, television, predating Zorro in each media (except Zorro never had a radio show)!

As created by legendary writer O Henry, in the short story "The Caballero's Way" in 1907. the Kid was neither Hispanic nor a hero!
A 1914 silent movie of "The Caballero's Way" altered the character to the version that's became famous...a wandering hero, called "The Robin Hood of the Old West", who, with his sidekick, righted wrongs without killing (but with lots and LOTS of shooting) just like the Lone Ranger!
Over two dozen more films followed, as well as a long-running radio series, a newspaper strip, several comic book series, and a 156-episode tv show famous for being the FIRST American tv series filmed in color!
Some of the films and tv series episodes are on dvd.
Note that not all dvds have color tv episodes, some have have b/w versions!
(All the movies were b/w!)
In the 1990s, Jimmy Smits and Cheech Marin starred in a very well-done tv-movie pilot for a new series that, unfortunately, wasn't picked up (and isn't available on dvd).
But, there's talk of a new big-budget film version of the character sometime in the next couple of years!

Just in time for Cinco de Mayo, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ are proud to reintroduce the classic Western character to a new audience in our Western Comic Adventures™ line.
Just go to The Cisco Kid & Pancho for a look at 6 different designs, including his 1st comic appearance on t-shirts, mugs, messenger bags and other goodies including a kool 2010 12-month calendar!
They'll have you going "Oh, Cisco!" "Oh, Pancho!" just like Duncan Renaldo & Leo Carrillo did in the classic tv series!

And, to make a really kool Cinco de Mayo gift set, why not add one of the NEW Cisco Kid graphic novels from Moonstone Books?

For our faithful fans...a FREE early Cinco de Mayo present...over 200 episodes of the radio show!