KOOBA COLA...the Soda Pop That NEVER Existed!

In 1940, Victor Fox, publisher of WonderWorld Comics, Mystery Men Comics, Weird Comics, and other titles featuring The Blue Beetle, Samson, and The Flame, among others, conceived an audacious marketing scheme.

Inspired by the success of Pepsi Cola and Coca-Cola, he decided to promote Kooba Cola, "The World's Newest and Best-Tasting Soft Drink!" in ads across his entire line of comic books!

It was also "Delightfully Refreshing" and "Contained 35 USP units of Vitamin B-1 for the Sake of Health and Nutrition!"

And, when Fox's The Blue Beetle starred in a short-lived radio show that summer, he was sponsored by Kooba Cola!

Wait a second...
What's that?
You've never even heard of Kooba Cola?

That's because it didn't exist, except as a logo, a couple of mocked-up bottles used as props in ads and some art reference for illustrators.

(You'll note they couldn't even figure out what the color scheme for the label was!

It changed from ad to ad!)

Fox thought he could create a demand for Kooba, then license the name to one of the big soft drink companies, let them do the work of actually creating, bottling, and shipping the stuff, then he'd rake in royalties on the name!

It didn't work.

The "buzz" never developed.

The soda pop was never actually produced.

Even Kooba's "sponsorship" of The Blue Beetle radio show was just part of the show's script, not paid ads! (One of the reasons the show only lasted four months!)

But, such visionary hucksterness should not be forgotten!

(Besides, the ads were rather kool.)

So we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ decided to re-present the Soda That Would Not Die on collectibles ranging from Beachwear to mugs, messenger bags (and the irony of doing bags with "Kooba" on them hasn't escaped us!) and hoodies at KoobaCola 1 and KoobaCola 2!

So celebrate what could have been one of the bubbliest success stories of soft drink entrepreneurship, but instead fizzled out and fell flat!

(You just knew we were gonna do a pun like that, didn't you?)  ;-)

Attack of the SuperPowers Sunday!

For the next few Sundays, we're going to present the nifty updated designs of the Project SuperPowers characters by Alex Ross along with links to a couple of Squidoo pages of background info and links about the series and characters...
Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers
(featuring characters who've been cover-featured)
Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers Strikes Again!
(featuring the other characters)
Erik Larsen's the Next Issue Project & Savage Dragon
(featuring several of the same characters as Project SuperPowers and others, but set in a different universe!)
as well as a solo page for
The Classic Blue Beetle

In addition, you can find Atomic Kommie Comics™ kool kollectibles emblazoned with the ORIGINAL 1940s classic cover art featuring these characters...
Blue Beetle (aka Big Blue)
& Sparky
Cyclone
(in Solo Heroes)
The Flame
The Grim Reaper
(in Solo Heroes)
RocketMan & RocketGirl
(aka the Zip-Jets)
Samson & David
V-Man
YellowJacket (aka Jack)
(in Solo Heroes)
at
Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™!
(Unfortunately, neither Black Venus nor The Hood had solo cover appearances, so we don't have anything on them...yet!)

And don't forget to buy the Project SuperPowers comics and collections including Black Terror, Death Defying 'Devil, Masquerade, and Project SuperPowers Volume 2!

Samson Classic Cover Gallery

Besides being one of the characters to be revived by both Erik Larsen (in Next Issue Project: Fantastic Comics #24) and Alex Ross (in Project SuperPowers), Samson was the FIRST demigod characters to receive his own comic, predating Marvel's Mighty Thor by several decades!
(And yes, I'm looking forward to Natalie Portman as Jane Foster in the new Mighty Thor movie!)

BTW, did we mention that ALL these covers (and six more) are available on our Classic Samson 2010 12-Month Calendar? ;-)

Samson brings down the walls (but won't knock over the Christmas tree)!

Long before Thor started swinging Mjolnir in the pages of Marvel Comics, another mythological demi-god strode the four-color pages of the Golden Age, dispensing justice.
Samson smashed his way (literally) thru the cover of Fantastic Comics #1 in 1939, keeping the cover slot to heimself for the book's entire run!
Most of the early covers (like the one shown here) were illustrated by classically-trained Lou Fine, one of comics' best draftsmen, perfectly-suited to drawing a mythological hero!

At first, Samson was just a super-strong guy who wore shorts and sandals and beat up baddies.
But, when he received his own comic book a year later, readers were clued into his origin.
In Samson #1, we learned he was a direct descendant of the Biblical hero, possessed of his ancestor's powers (Super strength, speed and invulnerability)...and his weakness!
Yes, if his hair was cut, he'd lose his strength! (You'd be surprised how many criminals carried around a convenient pair of scissors!) Fortunately, his hair grew at an accelerated rate, so that his periods of incapacitation tended to be days, if not hours! (Hey, it was the 1940s. Outlandish explanations for these things were the norm.)

When he gained his own book, he also picked up a sidekick; David, an orphan he rescued from a crashed plane. David had no superpowers and served as a sounding board for the hero and occasional hostage for Samson to rescue.
Samson kept going for several years until the publisher cancelled Fantastic Comics and tossed Samson out of his own comic, retitling it Captain Aero, and featuring a patriotic, Blackhawk-type, aviator!
There was a brief three-issue revival in the early 1950s, then Samson vanished!

But, you can't keep a good hero down!
Not one, but TWO publishers have recently revived him!
First, Alex Ross made him a lead character in Project SuperPowers, a new series that features Golden Age characters transplanted to the present day.
(In fact, the current issue cover-features him!)
Then Erik Larsen brought him back in The Next Issue Project, which revives long-dead comics series and continues their numbering (and their storylines) from their last published issue in the 1940s! (In the case of Fantastic Comics, which ended with #23 in 1942, Larson published Fantastic Comics #24, starring Samson, in 2008, 66 years later!)
To add to that, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ proudly return comics' first demi-god to his rightful place in the pantheon of the Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ with five different covers including his first and final appearances, on t-shirts, mousepads, mugs, and many other goodies!
PLUS: we've just added a Classic Samson 2010 12-Month Calendar featuring a dazzling dozen of his best Golden Age covers!
So, why not do a Christmas "gift package" of, say the hardcover Project SuperPowers collected edition and a Samson shirt, mug, or 12-month calendar?
Show your loved one that you respect their hobby, and want to give them something unique to enable them to enjoy it!
Isn't that what Christmas is about? ;-)

SuperPowers Sundays Strikes!

For the next few Sundays, we're going to present the nifty updated designs of the Project SuperPowers characters by Alex Ross along with links to a couple of Squidoo pages of background info and links about the series and characters...
Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers
(featuring characters who've been cover-featured)
Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers Strikes Again!
(featuring the other characters)
Erik Larsen's the Next Issue Project & Savage Dragon
(featuring several of the same characters as Project SuperPowers and others, but set in a different universe!)

In addition, you can find Atomic Kommie Comics™ kool kollectibles emblazoned with the ORIGINAL 1940s classic cover art featuring these characters...
Blue Beetle (aka Big Blue)
& Sparky
Cyclone
The Flame
The Grim Reaper
RocketMan & RocketGirl
(aka the Zip-Jets)
Samson & David
V-Man
YellowJacket (aka Jack)
at
Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™!
(Unfortunately, neither Black Venus nor The Hood had solo cover appearances, so we don't have anything on them...yet!)

And don't forget to buy the Project SuperPowers comics including Black Terror, Death Defying 'Devil, Masquerade, and Project SuperPowers Volume 2, as well as Savage Dragon!

Samson brings down the walls (but won't knock over your Christmas tree)!

Long before Thor started swinging Mjolnir in the pages of Marvel Comics, another mythological demi-god strode the four color pages of the Golden Age, dispensing justice.
Samson smashed his way thru the cover of Fantastic Comics #1 in 1939, keeping the cover slot for the book's entire run!
Most of the covers were illustrated by classically-trained Lou Fine, one of comics' best draftsmen, perfectly-suited to drawing a mythological hero!
At first, Samson was just a super-strong guy who wore shorts and sandals and beat up baddies. But, when he received his own comic book a year later, readers were clued into his origin.
In Samson #1, we learned that he was a direct descendant of the Biblical hero, possessed of his ancestor's powers (Super strength, speed and invulnerability)...and his weakness!
Yes, if his hair was cut, he'd lose his strength! (You'd be surprised how many criminals carried around a convenient pair of scissors!) Fortunately, his hair grew at an accelerated rate, so that his periods of incapacitation tended to be days, if not hours! (Hey, it was the 1940s. Outlandish explanations for these things were the norm.)
When he gained his own book, he also picked up a sidekick; David, an orphan he rescued from a crashed plane. David had no superpowers and served as a sounding board for the hero and occasional hostage for Samson to rescue.
Samson kept going for several years until the publisher cancelled Fantastic Comics and tossed Samson out of his own comic, retitling it Captain Aero, and featuring a patriotic aviator!

But, you can't keep a good hero down!
Not one, but TWO publishers have recently revived him!
First, Alex Ross made him a lead character in Project SuperPowers, a new series that features Golden Age characters transplanted to the present day.
Then Erik Larsen brought him back in The Next Issue Project, which revives long-dead comics series and continues their numbering (and their storylines) from their last published issue in the 1940s! (In the case of Fantastic Comics, which ended with #23 in 1942, Larson published Fantastic Comics #24, starring Samson, in 2008, 66 years later!)
To add to that, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ proudly return comics' first demi-god to his rightful place in the pantheon of the Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ with five different covers including his first and final appearances, on t-shirts, mousepads, mugs, and many other goodies!
So, why not do a Christmas "gift package" of, say the new hardcover Project SuperPowers collected edition and a Samson shirt or mug?
Show your loved one that you respect their hobby, and want to give them something unique to enable them to enjoy it!
Isn't that what Christmas is about? ;-)

The Next Issue Project is HERE (Finally)! And it's GREAT!

What if, after 50 years, the next issue of your favorite comic finally came out?
Well, if you've been waiting since 1941 for Fantastic Comics #24, it finally hit the stands today!

Very KOOL!
Uses the larger page size and anthology format of Golden Age books. (Of course, then is was 64 pages for 10 cents, not $5.99, but this is 2008, not 1941!)
Nice variety of styles in illustration and production, ranging from primitive flat color to modern computer color.
Have a look at the page to the right. Panel 2 shows the sort of simple-but-effective color-for-emphasis stuff that was commonplace before everyone went photoshop-happy and coloring overwhelmed line-art! And it works as a dramatic visual, and as storytelling!
This is a comic book!
It's not a graphic novel!
This is what enthralled your grandparents and parents when they were kids!
And it enthralled me. ;-)

But that's not the only news...
Now, you can kick back and read Fantastic Comics #24 with a cup of cocoa in a Fantastic Comics #23 mug, while wearing a 1st Appearance Samson (Fantastic Comics #1) Long Sleeve Dark T-Shirt or compose a review of the book on your blog using the Classic Samson MousePad.

Just go to Fantastic Comics/Samson Collectibles which features limited-edition t-shirts, messenger bags, mugs, blank sketchbooks, and other kool kollectibles featuring cover art shot right from the original 1940s comics (not 2nd generation color copies or tiny photos in reference books), digitally restored and remastered.
Covers include:
1st Appearance of Samson (Fantastic Comics #1 Lou Fine Art)
Classic Samson (Samson #6)
Fantastic Comics #3 (Lou Fine art)
Fantastic Comics #4 (Lou Fine art)
Fantastic Comics #23 (The final issue up 'til now!)
(You may wonder why we don't have the other characters from Fantastic Comics available. Unlike other anthology series where characters alternated cover appearances, Samson was the sole cover feature for the entire 23-issue run of the book)

We also have some cool Crack Comics characters (since they did rotate cover appearances) on collectibles including:
Captain Triumph Collectibles
1st Appearance of Captain Triumph (Crack Comics #27)
Captain Triumph Breaks Out!
Captain Triumph & SideKick? (a clown???)
Crack Comics #62 (The final issue until now!)
The Clock Collectibles
Crack Comics #1
Crack Comics #5
Crack Comics #17

So, to sum up...
BUY The Next Issue Project: Fantastic Comics #24 NOW!
Then, come take a look at our goodies at Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics, where we have stuff based on the original versions of the characters that inspired not only Erik Larsen, but Alex Ross and his new Project SuperPowers series! It's a different, but equally-valid modern take on the Golden Age characters.

Heroes of the Golden Age Return...

I'm ecstatic to finally see Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers!
It's everything I hoped in a Golden Age revival; respectful to the original material, but willing to tread new ground. Beautiful covers, nice inside art (though I hear the artist will, unfortunately, be leaving soon.), clever writing.
Two words: BUY IT!

And, if after reading Project SuperPowers #0 (Available now! BUY IT!), you have a craving for kool kollectibles based on the ORIGINAL 1940s versions of the characters, pop over to Atomic Kommie Comics: Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics where their classic cover art has been digitally-restored and remastered onto goodies ranging from messenger bags to t-shirts to mousepads to blank sketchbooks to Lord-Knows-What-Else. It's NOT Alex Ross, but it IS some of the best comics art ever from greats like Mac Raboy, Lou Fine, Reed Crandall, and Alex Schomburg, among others! Plus: multiple cover images for a number of characters including Black Terror, Fighting Yank, The Face (Mr. Face), Miss Masque (Masquerade), Samson, The Flame, Green Lama, The Owl,and Frankenstein (F-Troop)

One more time: BUY PROJECT SUPERPOWERS!