Kool Retro Comic Book-Themed Valentine's Day Gifts!

Comics aren't just about spandex-clad heroes and heroines in battles of cosmic import!

They also tell intimate tales of heartbreak and true love, betrayal and redemption, and misery and sheer joy!

With than in mind, Valentine's Day is coming!

And what says "True Love" better than a kool, kitchy gift from TRUE LOVE COMICS TALES™? (Plus, it's both longer-lasting AND cheaper than a dozen roses!)

Choose from over 50 heart-rending designs in categories including...

All You Need is Love...

Confessions

Dear Beatrice Fairfax

(The ORIGINAL LonelyHearts Columnist)

Diaries and Letters

Lovers Lane

Mod Love

(from the 1960s)

School of Love

(or is that Love in School?)

Tender Love Stories

(from the 1970s)

Weddings

Western Love

...on greeting cards, teddy bears, calendars, shirts/tops/intimate wear, diaries, and many other kool kollectibles!

A public service announcement for all lovers and would-be lovers from your BFFs at Atomic Kommie Comics™

Trump Reading Room "Sinner"

If you wonder what sort of mindset would allow "God-fearing" evangelicals...

...to support a proven heathen like Don da Con, as The Chosen of the Lord, perhaps this over half-century old tale will offer some insight...

In case you have trouble reading the marker, here it is...enlarged...

Originally published in the wonderful Silver Age prozine, Witzend #1, in 1966, this Archie Goodwin-scripted and illustrated tale has also appeared in Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction Special #1 (1976) and Epic Illustrated #2 (1980), never losing it's impact!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Best of Witzend

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder WOLFF "Sorceress of the Red Mist"

Return to the barbaric, post-apocalyptic future Earth of Wolff...

...where technology and magic are both considered "dark arts" by the majority of inhabitants of this barbaric future!
Yeah, we know we said it before, but it bears repeating!

Esteban Maroto rendered this tale, co-written by Luis "Sadko" Gaska, from New England Library's Dracula #3 (1971) with his usual superb storytelling and masterful linework.

Not sure who colored it, though..

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Dracula Annual
The Incredibly-HTF British Hardcover with all 12 issues of the Comic!
Paid Link

Reading Room LOST WORLDS "Visitors from Space" and "Space Platforms--Way Stations of the Future!"

Besides comic stories, comic books often ran one-page features like these...

Standard's Lost Worlds #5 Art by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito

...based on historical or scientific information available at the time...

Standards' Lost Worlds #6 Art by Rocco Mastroserio

...or speculation about future developments, again, based on then-current knowledge!

(I love that third panel, showing spacesuit-garbed scientists on a balcony on the satellite!)

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder WOLFF "World of the Witches"

Return to the post-apocalyptic future Earth of Wolff the Barbarian...

...where technology and magic are both considered "dark arts" by the majority of inhabitants of this barbaric future!

Is it just me, or does the Sorceress of the Red Mist remind you of our previous Wednesday Worlds of Wonder feature, the sexy space heroine Agar-Agar, who was also published in the Dracula anthology magazine (and was also written by Wolff co-scripter Luis Gasca under the pen-name "Sadko")?

Or was that eye-makeup thing just a European fashion trend in the early 1970s?

This tale from  New English Library's Dracula #2 (1971) was superbly-illustrated and co-written by Esteban Maroto.
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Buy...

Wolff et la Reine des Loups

(aka Wolff and the Wolf Queen)

French Graphic Novel reprinting this storyline with superb printing!

Friday Fun HOMER THE HAPPY GHOST "Meet the Neighbors!"

What if Stan (the Man) Lee had written Casper the Friendly Ghost?

Well, he did!

Sort of...

Due to the success of Casper in both animation and comic books in the early 1950s, numerous companies jumped on the friendly phantom bandwagon with clones barely different enough to avoid copyright and trademark infringement lawsuits!

Writer/editor Stan Lee and artist Dan de Carlo presented Atlas Comics' take with this never-reprinted 1955 premiere tale which combines Lee's snarky Catskill vaudeville humor with de Carlo's polished animation-style artwork!

Homer the Happy Ghost ran until 1958 (22 issues, plus a 2-issue spinoff, Adventures of Homer Ghost)!

In 1968, Atlas' successor Marvel (you might have heard of them) signed a new distribution deal freeing them from the sixteen-title per month limit they had during most of the Silver Age under the previous contract.

Lee brought back Homer in reprint form, hoping to run new material if the book sold well.

Whether it was due to poor sales or Harvey Comics (which was at its' peak with over two-dozen Casper titles) finally laying the copyright/trademark law down, this incarnation only lasted four issues without ever getting to run new stories!

Homer hasn't been seen since!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Harvey Comics Classics Volume One

Casper the Friendly Ghost
Paid Link

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder WOLFF "Path of the Dead"

Welcome to one of the best "barbarian in a post-apocalyptic future Earth" strips...

...as we present the saga of Wolff the Barbarian.

Written by Luis Gasca (under the pen-name "Sadko") & Esteban Maroto, illustrated by Maroto.

Published in England in Dracula (1971), a 12-issue partworks magazine* by New English Library, the first 6 tales made their American debut in Warren Publishing's HTF Dracula TPB in 1972 which reprinted #1-#6 of the British Dracula's run.

The remaining tales from #7-#12 have never been published in the US.

We'll be running the complete Wolff strip (including the never-seen in US tales)!

Watch for it!

*Partworks magazines are a limited series issued from weekly, fortnightly, or monthly.

They usually run 12-24 issues for each volume.

When the final issue in a volume is published, the publishers offer a wraparound cover to make the complete set into a hardbound book. 

The buyer is offered the option to bind the magazines themselves or send the set to the publisher who professionally-binds the mags and sends the bound volume back to the customer.

This concept is extremely popular in Europe, but has never caught on in America, despite numerous attempts.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Dracula Annual
(The Incredibly-HTF British Hardcover with all 12 issues of the comic)

Best of Holiday Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Mummers from Mercury"

70 years ago, the world almost ended on New Year's Day...

...but it was saved by the participants of the annual Mummers Parade!

This never-reprinted story from Charlton's Space Adventures #1 (1953) was illustrated by Albert Tyler and Dick Giordano.

The writer (who was probably from Philadelphia) is unknown.

The Mummers Parade is usually held every New Years Day in Philadelphia.
Mummers tradition dates back to 400 BC and the Roman Festival of Saturnalias where Latin laborers marched in masks throughout the day of satire and gift exchange.
This included Celtic variations of “trick-or-treat” and Druidic noise-making to drive away demons for the new year.

Reports of rowdy groups “parading” on New Years day in Philadelphia date back before the revolution.
Prizes were offered by merchants beginning in the late 1800s.
January 1, 1901 was the first “official” parade offered about $1,725 in prize money from the city.
January 1, 2021 was the 120th Anniversary of the event, but, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was cancelled.
The Parade returned in 2022, and will happen on New Years Day, 2024!

Best of Reading Room ASTONISHING "The Scientists"

We re-presented a later version (by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko, no less) of this tale on Tuesday!

This original version is a page longer and has a couple of rather witty touches which put the lie to the concept "If our meddling with time changed anything, we'd notice!"

This never-reprinted story, penciled by Harry Lazarus and inked by George Klein, from Atlas' Astonishing #9 (1952) is based on one of the basic rules of time-travel; "don't change anything in the past, or you'll alter the future"...which is in direct contradiction to another of the basic rules of time-travel; "no matter what you do, you can't change the future".

Hey, I'm just telling you the rules.

I never said they made sense...