Make it a FURY-ous Christmas!

She wasn't the first superheroine, but she was the first to be created by a woman!
Conceived, written, and illustrated by cartoonist Tarpe Mills (who dropped her first name "June" from her published credit), Miss Fury started life in 1941 as a newspaper comic strip.

Wealthy socialite Marla Drake was preparing for a costume ball when she discovered a friend was going to wear the same costume as her!
Horrors! Social ruin!
Francine, her maid, hastily suggested an alternative--she instead wear a black panther skin sent to her by her uncle, which had previously been used as a ceremonial robe by an African witch doctor.
Strangely enough, it fit Marla perfectly!
En route to the party, Marla encountered an escaped criminal and kicked his, well, you know...
Police and reporters initially referred to her as "Black Fury", but she called herself "Miss Fury" in notes attached to crooks she caught. (The name "CatWoman" was already in use! ;-) )

Two items of note:
1) The panther hide didn't give her any super-powers, as such items tend to do in comics*!
Marla was a gifted athlete, and, that combined with the visual shock value of the costume, enabled her to defeat foes. (ask another wealthy socialite, Bruce Wayne, about his similar, equally effective, strategy!)
2) Unlike most Golden Age heroines (Wonder Woman, Black Cat, Phantom Lady, et al), who seemed to wear skimpy swimsuits to battle evil, Miss Fury's costume totally covered her (but extremely tightly)!

The series spun off into comic books in 1942, but only as reprints of the newspaper strips (albeit with new covers by Mills).
Sadly, unlike most other adventure strips, there were no other spin-offs like movie serials, radio shows, or even a Big Little Book or two!
The newspaper strip ended in 1952, but Tarpe Mills continued to work as a comic illustrator for various publishers, including Marvel Comics! Her last published work was a new cover for a graphic novel reprint of Miss Fury in 1979. She passed away in 1988.

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ felt such a unique character would make a great, empowered role model for today's girls, so we gave her a section of her own in Heroines!™, where the so-called "weaker" sex RULES!
She'd make a cool pop-culture Christmas gift under the tree or in a stocking for your sister, daughter, or girlfriend!
Perhaps it'll inspire them to create a character of their own...

*Another Golden Age character, Cat-Man, whom Tarpe occasionally illustrated, did receive powers including agility, night vision and the gift of nine lives from his first cat-costume!
Villains would kill him, but he'd return to life by the story's end to avenge himself.
Someone figured out the "nine lives" idea would only work for nine issues, and it was dropped, but the other abilities remained.

"It's Christmas at Ground Zero.."

At this time of year, Christmas carols are in continuous rotation in the Atomic Kommie Comics™ office.
One of our favorites is Christmas at Ground Zero by "Weird" Al Yankovic. (You were expecting maybe Adeste Fidelis?)

Which brings us to, perhaps, the most unusual theme for potential Christmas presents (and, you gotta admit, we've had some real weirdies!)...atomic Armageddon!

Within our sci-fi-oriented The Future WAS Fantastic!™ section is the Atomic War line of kool collectibles with classic comic book covers from the fear-filled '50s, featuring the nuclear destruction of New York City (see above), Washington DC, and Moscow on black hoodies, sweats, and tees, as well as mugs and other tchochkies!

So for all you survivalists out there, while you duck n' cover under the Christmas tree, prepare for the irradiated end stylishly with our radiation-proof (not really!) garb and goodies!

Santa Claus / Kris Kringle / St. Nick / Father Christmas

DID YOU KNOW...the image of Santa Claus, as we Americans know it, is based on the work of two artists over 70 years apart?
1) Thomas Nast, who illustrated the first published version of Clement Clark Moore's The Night Before Christmas in the 1860s
and
2) Haddon Sundblom, who took Nast's visual concepts, refined them, and used them to illustrate Coca-Cola's Christmas advertising campaigns in the 1930s
TRIVIA:
Both Nast and Sundblom are equally famous for their other artistic accomplishments...
Nast was primarily a political cartoonist, whose illustrations of New York's "Boss" Tweed were considered the main reason the corrupt politician was forced from office!
Sundblom also created the image of the Quaker Oats man, and was a noted pin-up girl artist! (In fact, his last published artwork was a pin up girl semi-dressed in a Santa outfit for Playboy's December, 1972 cover!)

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ offer a dozen different renderings of 'ol Kris Kringle which follow in the visual tradition of Nast & Sundblom, on a host of Cool Christmas™ collectibles ranging from tree ornaments to hot cocoa mugs to sweatshirts and hoodies for kids and adults!
While they range from paintings to comic book cover art (like the art above), they all feature the "classic" image of Santa known to Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials!
So give your "special someone", whether they're a spouse, lover, friend, or relative, a warm feeling this Christmas with a kool kollectible featuring the personification of the Christmas Spirit--Santa Claus!

Catfights at Christmas!

For those pop culture fans on your Christmas gift list with a slightly sleazier bent, the usual Atomic Kommie Comics™ goodies may be a bit too...tame!
They want something a bit more..risque...a tad more tawdry!
Luckily for them (and you), within our Crime & Punishment™ section lurks the Crimes by Women line of collectibles!

Based on a notorious 1950s comic series that pushed the envelope by featuring ruthless women equal to the worst of their male counterparts, this series' covers were among the "naughtiest" of the pre-Comics Code titles (at worst, PG-13)!
Even so, they were decadent enough to warrant constant mention by Dr. Fredric Wertham in his crusade against comic books detailed in the book Seduction of the Innocent.

If you're looking for a fun, funky, "bad grrrl" Xmas present, scoot on over to Crimes by Women for 10 different, dynamic, deadly designs on an assortment of goodies that'll make kool stocking stuffers or gifts under the tree!

On a sad sidebar, we note the passing of Bettie Page, legendary 1950s pin-up model, and inspiration for many comics fans and professionals, especially the late Dave Stevens, who helped revive both fanboy and mass-media interest in Ms. Page with his beautifully-rendered artwork of her as herself and as The Rocketeer's girlfriend "Betty".
Here's a link to the official Bettie Page website.
Have a look at a woman who was as much a part of "naughty" pop culture as anything at Atomic Kommie Comics™.

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? ;-)