"...there are pictures for children who know how to look..."

--Fredric Wertham, M.D.
Seduction of the Innocent

...and it turns out, the whole controversy was a FAKE...from 2004!
Nothing EVER dies on the Internet, especially a lie!

Design of the Week--Space Ace

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!
This week...
Before Don Bluth appropriated the name for his video game, there were a couple of totally different Space Aces in the Golden Age of Comics!
This particular one was a Flash Gordon-type set in the then-distant future year of 2000, complete with one-man spacecraft, moving sidewalks, flying cars, mile-high skyscrapers, human colonies on other worlds, etc.! (You remember all that stuff, don't you?)
And, of course, aliens!
LOTS of aliens!

One of the interesting things about this image is that it doesn't feature a scantily-clad woman being held captive by the tentacled alien, making it particularly age-appropriate (but still retro-kool) for under-10 year-old kids' (pre-K / 4th Grade) back-to-school stuff!
Enjoy!

Monster of Frankenstein LogoWear

I walked into a Dollar Store today and noticed that they had a Halloween display up!
On August 26th!

Considering the lead-in time needed to get some of my products produced, perhaps it'd be wise to start reminding you NOW about the kool-ghoul kollectibles we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ offer to enhance your Halloween experience!

First up, a brand new line of items utilizing the classic Monster of Frankenstein logo from the Golden Age comic book by Dick Briefer.
T-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies (light & dark), mugs, reusable trick-or-treat bags, and other grotesque goodies for the young or old monster in your life!

We also have lots of other Monster of Frankenstein stuff as part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ collectibles line, including a nifty Monster of Frankenstein Icon line with a startling silhouetted close-up image of the Monster sans lettering!

It's never too soon to prepare for the horrors of October!
Order NOW...before it's too late!

Doctor Who--Five Doctors Special Edition

I've had a VHS of the 90-minute special Doctor Who "The Five Doctors" for over a decade and I've played it a number of times both for friends at get-togethers and myself, when I got the urge.
(FYI, my favorite Doctor of all time is Jon Pertwee (Doctor 3) who plays a key role in the special.)
I've just acquired a slew of used Doctor Who dvds, both Region 1 (US) and Region 2 (UK) including the one shown above, the first Region 2 release of the "Five Doctors" Special Edition (with enhanced sfx, missing scenes, etc.)
I'm going to sit down this weekend and compare it with the "original" VHS version, then let you know how it goes...

Miss Masque aka Masquerade, now one of the "Scarlet Sisters"

Debuting in Exciting Comics #51, Miss Masque was another of the line of rich socialites-turned-masked crimefighters in the Golden Age which included The Shadow, The Batman, and The Green Hornet!
Diana Adams had no superpowers or abilities, just her keen deductive mind and a pair of .45 automatics.
And, unlike her male contemporaries, she didn't have a sidekick or aides!
Clad in bright red cape, mini-dress, gloves, and slouch hat, she pursued criminals and saboteurs thru several issues of Exciting Comics, appearing on the cover only once (#53) during her run, before transferring over to America's Best Comics, where she teamed up (on the covers) with other heroes, most notably The Black Terror, even though they didn't appear together inside the comic! (They all had separate strips!)
Also, she seemed to lose parts of her wardrobe when she changed homes, as her fedora disappeared along with the midriff of her costume (see below), making her predate the trailer-trash look of Britney Spears by decades!
(Maybe it was her summer ensemble!)
When superheroes faded away after the end of World War II, so did Miss Masque.
Since the 1990s, she's been revived by several publishers, most notably, by writer Alan Moore of Watchmen fame in DC Comics' America's Best Comics imprint (ironic, eh?), and artist Alex Ross in Dynamite Entertainment's Project SuperPowers series as well as a mini-series under her new code-name of Masquerade, and as a member of The Scarlet Sisters super-team along with red-clad characters Lady Satan and The Woman in Red cover-featured together on the upcoming Project SuperPowers V2 #4!

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have also "revived" Miss Masque / Masquerade by digitally-restoring and remastering several of her best Golden Age cover appearances (including her first) on a line of t-shirts, mugs, and even calendars as part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line of kool kollectibles!

She was a woman ahead of her time...but her time has finally come!

PS: Pick up the Project SuperPowers and Masquerade comics!
They're the best Golden Age revival books out there!