Give the Gift of the ORIGINAL "Homeland Security" for Christmas!

While we of Atomic Kommie Comics™ are prepping for Thanksgiving (which includes early Christmas shopping), let's take a moment to thank the guys who made it possible...Indians!
(Admittedly a mis-label, since Native Americans aren't from India, the name has stuck from 1492 to the Present.)
Remember, if it wasn't for the generosity of the local Indians, the Pilgrims wouldn't have survived their first year in the harsh New England environment!

Yet, in most of pop culture (including comics), Indians are "bad guys"!

Even in the 1950s, there were several attempts to show America's original inhabitants in a more favorable light.
Besides sidekicks to heroes like The Lone Ranger and Red Ryder, there were several Indian characters who were the "lead" heroes!

We've found two of the best, Green Arrowhead (who appeared in Indian Braves) and Red Arrow (who had his own title!) and incorporated them into our Western Comics Adventures™ line with four exciting covers!
Both characters fought for truth and justice against anyone, Indian or White, who threatened peace in the Old West!
So, if you're looking for a Western-themed Christmas gift for that special someone, consider the option of a Native American-oriented graphically-kool collectible!

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!

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!

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! ;-)

Check out our 
Western Comics online store...

 ...for duds and provisions!

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™!)

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!

Comic Christmas Cover: The Lone Ranger

For the next few days, we'll be showing Christmas-themed Golden Age comic covers.
Today it's The Lone Ranger #79 (1955)
"Hi-Yo---Ho-Ho-Ho!"

Ghost Rider by Frank Frazetta

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, and both westerns and horror 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.
And, since the inside of the cape was black, he'd reverse it, and appear in the dark to people as just a floating head, usually scaring a confession or needed information out of them.
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 good).
BTW, that cover 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 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 Westerns, horror, masked heroes, or all three genres, take a long, lingering look at The Ghost Rider!
You'll not see his like again!

Indians weren't always the "bad guys"!

Atomic Kommie Comics™ continues it's revival of Western comic book pop art as kool kollectibles!
New to Western Comic Adventures™ is Native Americans, featuring heroic Indian/Native American/AmerInd lead characters (not sidekicks like Tonto or Little Beaver, who also had their own comics) battled evil and injustice, no matter who was committing it, cowboy or Indian!
Yes, in these books, the Indian won!
So far, we have two collectible designs each for Red Arrow and Indian Braves (featuring Green Arrowhead), and we'll be adding more as we acquire or borrow books to scan.

"The Cisco Kid was a friend of mine..."

The Cisco Kid was the first Hispanic multi-media superstar, hitting 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 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!
We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ are proud to reintroduce the classic Western character to a new audience in our line of products in the Western Comic Adventures™ line.
Just go to The Cisco Kid & Pancho for a look at 6 different designs, including his 1st comic appearance!
They'll have you going "Oh, Cisco!" "Oh, Pancho!" just like Duncan Renaldo & Leo Carrillo did in the classic tv series!
(And they'd make great Cinco De Mayo gifts!)

Broncho Bill

Continuing our expansion of Western Comics Adventures™, Atomic Kommie Comics™ proudly presents a new section devoted to Broncho Bill.
A newspaper strip and comic book that ran from 1928 to 1950, Broncho Bill was originally called Young Buffalo Bill, then Buckaroo Bill before taking the name it would have from 1932 to 1950.
Bill and girlfriend Nell kept law-and-order in the Old West. Judging from the covers, that seemed to consist of rescuing Nell from rustlers, bank robbers, and outlaws of various sorts!
Note: He's so little-known there's no entry in Wikipedia about him!
Help bring him back into the pop culture spotlight! He deserves it!
Choose from 6 different designs on t-shirts, mugs and many other goodies.

Kid CowBoy, the cowboy ANY kid can be!

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ believe that Westerns are not just for crusty old codgers, but for the young and young-at-heart (like us)!
To that end, we're expanding the Western Comics Adventures™ section, adding several new sub-sections to accomodate our ever-expanding collection of classic comic book cover art collectibles. (try saying THAT five times fast)
First up is Kid CowBoy with 6 exclusive kid-only designs (NO adult clothing)!
Also coming up in the next couple of weeks are (alphabetically) Broncho Bill, The Cisco Kid & Pancho, and Native Americans! each with 3 to 12 different designs!
PLUS: we've already given Masked Heroes and Women Outlaws their own spin-off sections, to which we'll be adding MORE kool cover designs!
So saddle up, pardner, the best is yet to come!

Retro Wild West designs for the owlhoot in your life!

More vintage fun from Atomic Kommie Comics!
Classic rip-roaring Western images including Women Outlaws (bad grrrls), King of the Bad Men of DeadWood (You thought the HBO series was just fiction?), The Lone Rider (Not RANGER!), Red Mask, and Blazing SixGuns!
A 12-month calendar, shirts, mugs, magnets, mousepads and other stuff !
Just click on Western Comics Adventures to have a look!
Think of how they'll look under the Christmas Tree! (And they're safer than a Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle! You won't shoot your eye out!)