Preview: Green Hornet: Year One #6 Cover

Cover for the final issue of the mini-series detailing the origin of The Green Hornet.
I don't know if they'll leave the hand-lettering or replace it with typography in the printed version.

Basil Wolverton's SpaceHawk

Proving the adage that most "Golden Age" science fiction was just Westerns with ray guns instead of revolvers and spaceships instead of horses, the comic series SpaceHawk featured a lone gunslinger wandering the universe righting wrongs and defending the weak in areas where (ray) gun law ruled.

Though the stories were pedestrian rewrites of Old West potboilers, they were brought to dynamic life by legendary illustrator Basil Wolverton.
Best known for his work on MAD and PLOP, Wolverton had a truly unique art style especially-suited to science fiction / fantasy, not for his "heroic" characters (who were pretty standard), but the amazing monsters and alien environments he illustrated.

SpaceHawk never had his own title in the Golden Age, but inhabited the back pages of Target Comics from V1#7 thru V3#10, appearing on the cover only once during the entire run.
(Nonetheless, he consistently drew more mail than any other single strip in the book!)

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have included SpaceHawk in our Solo Heroes section of Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line, where characters with only one cover available hang out awaiting your shopping pleasure.
Stop by and visit SpaceHawk. He's the new kid on the block. Make him feel welcome! ;-)

Happy Father's Day!

Anybody can be a "baby-daddy".

But only a REAL MAN can take responsibility be a Father!

Fighting for your rights...Super Green Beret!

Never failing to capitalize on a pop culture trend, '60s comics publishers, noticing the popularity of the hit single Ballad of the Green Berets (by Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler and Robin Moore) quickly produced comics series featuring the elite Army unit.
Most were standard war comics, but one stood out from the rest for sheer weirdness...

What do you get when you combine...
1) Green Berets and the VietNam War
with...
2) Teenagers...
and
3) SuperHeroes?
Why,
SUPER GREEN BERET,
of course!

Green Beret Roger Wilson saves a Vietnamese monk from a wild boar, and in return the grateful priest attaches a pin to his beret which makes it glow.
Home on leave, Roger gives the glowing beret to his teenage nephew Tod Holton, who discovers that, when he puts it on his head and salutes, he's transformed into a super-powered adult dressed in a soldier's uniform!
(It's sorta like the Golden Age Captain Marvel, a teenager who said the magic word SHAZAM and was transformed into a super-powered adult, albeit with his teenage mind.)
Using his new-found powers of teleportation, telepathy, telekinesis, transmutation, time travel, invulnerability, and super-strength, Tod decides to fight Enemies of Our Country, mostly in present-day Asia, but also travels through time to the American Revolution and World War II, during his two-issue run!
Yes, it's as hokey as it sounds!

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ felt that we couldn't let such an outrageous character and concept be forgotten, so, as part of our War: Past, Present, & Future™ line, we incorporated Super Green Beret as a light-hearted example of 1960s funkiness to contrast with the seriousness of our World War II and Korean Police Action material (plus we wanted an excuse to make some kool SGB collectibles for ourselves)!

Give a Super Green Beret collectible as a 4th of July, graduation or birthday present for your pop-culture-oriented loved one!
It's the next best thing to an original 11.5" GI Joe!
(And I should know, since I received one of the first Joes at Christmas, many years ago!)

BONUS: A FREE 4th of July present for you: an online reprint of both issues of Super Green Beret!
You gotta see it to believe it!

Design of the Week--Flesh (NOT Flash) Gordon!

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!
This week, a classic design from a most unexpected source...
The storyline of Flesh Gordon is familiar to anyone who has seen Flash Gordon films, but with a generally campy, sexual flavor, to it.
Shot in the early 1970s as an "X" rated movie, the film's sexual content was toned down to achieve an "R" rating and play to a larger audience. It became a Midnight Movie smash in the 1980s-90s and is now a popular DVD rental!
There was also a direct-to video sequel in the late 1980s. It's nowhere near as good (or funny)!

The plot involves planet Porno's Emperor Wang aiming a "Sex Ray" at Earth.
The poplulation of Earth becomes sexually-obsessed, and it's up to Gordon to stop the rays.
The film uses nudity whenever possible, and the scenes are shot in a visual style nearly identical to the original Flash Gordon serials, including spaceships with sparklers in their rears and (deliberately) crudely animated laser blasts!
A towering, demonic-looking stop-motion animated creature, the Great God Porno,voiced by Craig T. Nelson (yes, THAT Craig T. Nelson!), steals the show with his brief appearance, muttering all manner of obscenities in a very un-monster-like velvety voice.

Production design, makeup,  and special effects were handled by a number of up-and-coming artists including John Dykstra, Greg Jein, Mike Minor, and Rick Baker, who would go on to win Oscars and Emmys for their work on big-budget sci-fi / fantasy projects including Star Trek, Star Wars, and BattleStar Galactica!

The kool poster art is by noted comic book artist George Barr.

In truth, I did this one because I wanted a shirt for myself and wasn't planning on marketing it, but when friends started asking for it, I felt it was worth doing for both them and you faithful fans!
(If it sells well enough, I'll move it to my Seduction of the Innocent™ collection)

Wear the shirt that'll make people do a double-take!
Wear Flesh (NOT Flash) Gordon!