Fantastic Femme Vanessa Hudgens in BEASTLY

Pix of lovely Fantastic Femme Vanessa Hudgens from Beastly, the first of two genre flix starring Vanessa Hudgens to be released this month.
A "reimagining" of the classic Beauty and the Beast tale, it's more a chickflick than a true genre film.
Beastly opens this Friday.

Design of the Week--Spy Smasher Smashes Spies Some More!

Each week, we usually post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!
In this case, this week, due to popular demand, we continue the return of one of the 1940s major anti-Axis comic book heroes!

Spy Smasher was one of the many rich playboys-turned-superheroes who filled the four-color pages of the Golden Age of Comics, but with one critical difference...he only fought those who worked for the Axis against the US!
Introduced in Whiz Comics #2*, Wealthy inventor Alan Armstrong, engaged to a Navy admiral's daughter, decided to secretly help his prospective father-in-law deal with cases of sabotage.
Utilizing his high-tech equipment, Alan adopted the identity of "Spy Smasher", following up on leads provided by Admiral Corby faster than the red-tape-hindered Navy officer could.
His primary weapon was the GyroSub, a combo autogyro/airplane/submarine.
So great was reader response that Spy Smasher quickly received his own comic as well as appearing in the anthology America's Greatest Comics, where he crossed-over with Captain Midnight!

Spy Smasher was also the only other Fawcett Comics character, besides Captain Marvel, to be made into a movie serial! (Captain Midnight, who also had a serial, was licensed to Fawcett, it wasn't owned by them.)
The serial introduced a twin brother, Jack Armstrong, who was engaged to admiral's daughter Eve Corby, not Alan, (who was still Spy Smasher).
When Jack fills-in for Alan, he's killed by Nazi gunmen in the only time a serial cliffhanger ending proves to be true!
Both Jack and Alan Armstrong were played by handsome Kane Richmond, who was second only to Buster Crabbe in playing various superheroes on screen. (Kane was also The Shadow, Brick Bradford, and male sidekicks to Brenda Starr and Tiger Woman.)

And, as a Martian spaceship pilot, he fought Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon in Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars! (Small universe, ain't it?)

We introduced Spy Smasher in our Lost Heroes vs Hitler Calendar, but now the time has come to unleash him on his own!
Pick him up this week on mugs, t-shirts, and other goodies since this particular design is NOT going to be part of his ongoing line of collectibles!

FREEBIE!: Chapter One of Spy Smasher: the Movie Serial! Watch it or download it!

*Whiz Comics #1 was only produced as a limited-edition "ashcan" to secure copyright. Whiz #2 is the "first" issue of the comic title.  It also introduced the Golden Age (SHAZAM!) Captain Marvel, Ibis the Invincible, and Golden Arrow.

Reading Room: THE GREEN HORNET in "Masquerade"

For a change of pace, here's a short from the third and final issue of the Silver Age Green Hornet's short-lived title. Script by Paul Newman. Art by Dan Spiegle, who illustrated all the tales during the entire Gold Key run*.

*It should be noted that Gold Key comic books rotated artists, basically using anyone who had time in their schedules, so it wasn't unusual for an ongoing series to use, for example, Mike Sekowsky on one issue, Don Heck the next, and Dan Spiegle, the one after that.
It resulted in some wildly-varying "looks" for licensed characters especially ones based on live actors and actresses, since some of the artists were better caricaturists than others...

And don't forget to check out...

The Classic Green Hornet Store
and the kool Green Hornet stuff below from Amazon

Reading Room: THE GREEN HORNET in "Crime at Floodtime" Conclusion

The original art for the cover for this issue

When last we left our hero...
The Boy Heroes were watching a TV broadcast of The Green Hornet's latest adventure as he battles a group of criminals using a captured Japanese mini-sub to loot a flooded town.
Lenore Case, assisting Britt Reid in covering the flood for his newspaper, The Daily Sentinel, was captured after she inadvertently stumbled upon the crooks' base of operations in an abandoned lighthouse.
Casey manages to activate the lighthouse's lantern, in the hopes of signaling help...

Click on the pix to enlarge

You'll note at this point in time, Casey doesn't know her boss, Britt Reid, is The Hornet.
She admires The Hornet and believes he's a misunderstood "good guy", not a notorious criminal.
Within a year she'll learn her boss' secret identity both in the comics and on the radio show.
Speaking of which, most of The Green Hornet comic stories were based on radio show scripts.
This one, from All-New Comics #13, was not.
The scriptwriter is unknown, but the artist is Al Avison.

The Boy Heroes were a group of non-superpowered teens who ended up battling everything from spies to ghosts.
Every comics company had at least one such group during the Golden Age, almost all of them created by the team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, including DC's Newsboy Legion and Boy Commandos and Timely/Marvel's Tough Kid Squad.

With Dynamite's Green Hornet Golden Age Remastered title cancelled as of #8, we'll be "filling in the gaps", presenting the GH stories they didn't get around to printing, which will pretty much be the entire Harvey and Gold Key runs as well as the Dell one-shot.

We hope you've enjoyed your first visit to our new Reading Room.
Bookmark us and visit often.

And don't forget to check out...

The Classic Green Hornet Store
and the kool Green Hornet stuff below from Amazon

BIG Sale at Atomic Kommie Comics™--Printfection Division

One of our subsidiaries, specializing in garb with oversized art/imagery including Green Hornet, Lost Heroes of the Golden Age (DareDevil, Black Terror), military tributes, current events, and even Woodstock Anniversary, is offering a WINTER SALE
NOW (this very second) thru Feb. 27th...

Save $5 off $25-$49.99: PFBDAY$5

Save $15 off $50-$99.99: PFBDAY$15

Save $35 off $100+: PFBDAY$35 

Disclaimer: You must enter coupon code PFBday$5, PFBDay$15 or PFBDay$35 before completing checkout. Discount does not include shipping, taxes, or additional charges. Offer valid from 02/24/2011 until 02/272011 11:59 PM MST. May not be combined or substituted with any other promotion.