We're Off FaceBook

Well, tried to make a go of it on FaceBook.
Couldn't do a damn thing.

One of the least intuitive interfaces I've ever worked with.
There's no logical "flow" from one function to another, so creating pages doesn't make any sort of sense.
The so-called "Help" was all but worthless, indicating I should use items that apparently were deleted when recent revisions were implemented, so they no longer exist.

Simply trying to add to/edit/modify the existing mess wasn't worth the hassle, so, at this point, I've deleted the account totally, and after a 14 day period before the final delete takes effect, will reinitialize a totally-new set-up and hope that a new build from the ground-up will work.

It's almost as frustrating as trying to delete our very first FaceBook page which we can no longer access, so it's still sitting there, hoplessly-outdated, but unreachable, and undeleteable.

Drink Kooba Cola!

Wait a second...You CAN'T!
It doesn't exist!
(You can read the sordid tale of the soda that almost took the world by storm here!)

Now, you can't DRINK it, but you can WEAR it!
With Memorial Day weekend upon us, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ decided to re-present the Soda That Would Not Die on collectibles ranging from BeachWear / NightShirts to mugs, iPad / netbook / messenger bags (and the irony of doing bags with "Kooba" on them hasn't escaped us!), iPhone cases, and hoodies at KoobaCola 1 and KoobaCola 2!
So celebrate what could have been one of the bubbliest success stories of soft drink entepreneurship, but instead just fizzled out and fell flat!
(You just knew we were gonna do a pun like that, didn't you?)  ;-)

Happy 100th, Vincent Price

Born this day in 1911, Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was a man of many talents, chef, art connoisseur, writer, and of course, actor.
I'll leave it to other sci-fi, fantasy and horror bloggers to cover his accomplishments in those genres, and mention a category he's rarely associated with, but had an incredible knack for...
Comedy.

His very first film appearance was in a little-remembered 1938 screwball comedy called Service de Luxe, playing the male ingenue opposite Constance Bennett.


After this, he went on to a singularly successful career in films and radio, playing heroes and villains with great aplomb, but not appearing again in a comedy until 1950 (a voice-only cameo as The Invisible Man in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein isn't really an 'appearance')
As insane ad exec Burnbridge Waters, Vincent steals the movie from Ronald Coleman in a performance that can only be classified as "mad", man...

Here's an audio interview from 1990 with both Vincent and Art Linkletter, who played the game show host/toady in the film. They discuss the scene shown in the lobby card above.

And here's the entire film at one shot! (but with commercials)


While most of his roles had humorous aspects to them, these were the only two outright comedies he did until the mid-1960s, when people finally started utilizing his funny side, unfortunately in only mildly-funny films like the Dr Goldfoot flicks.
(Here's the tv special Wild, Weird World of Dr Goldfoot, which was funnier than either of the films!)



Thanks for the memories, Vincent.
When you didn't have us screaming, you had us laughing!

Reading Room: RACE FOR THE MOON "Lunar Trap"

The 1950s, when we thought we'd be fighting with the Soviet Union over the Moon...

 

Pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Al Williamson (who, along with fellow EC alumnus Reed Crandall, was doing a lot of work for Harvey at the time)!
Not sure who wrote it, but speculation is that Kirby himself scripted it.
Either way, a decent story with solid storytelling and magnificent rendering!

Check out

The Future WAS Fantastic!

Comics Collectibles Store!

YouTube Wednesday: the FIRST Cowboys and Aliens...

Long before Cowboys and Aliens (but after Space Western Comics), aliens invaded the Old West on Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel.
The series started off with almost all the episodes taking place in the past and the heroes ending up in situations like the sinking of the Titanic or the siege of the Alamo, trying to warn people about what would happen and being treated like lunatics until the disaster happened, at which point they'd be transported to another era.

All that changed with this mid-season episode, "Visitors from Beyond the Stars".

Our heroes, Tony (young, impetuous, green turtleneck) and Doug (older, cautious, suit n' tie) are transported to Arizona in the year 1885.
Or rather, they're transported over Arizona, to an alien spacecraft, facing silver aliens (a standard Irwin Allen look for extraterrestrials)!
The aliens have come seeking protein for their starving world, and they've found it...the fauna (including humans) of Earth!
With Earth of 1885 technologically-unprepared to fight off an alien invasion, the two scientists from the future must somehow stop the invaders from the stars from decimating the home of Mankind!
To complicate matters, more of the aliens have appeared in the Time Tunnel itself, preventing the present-day support team from sending help to the timelost scientists!

Enjoy!

After this episode, anything could (and did) appear on the show, from ghosts, to Merlin the Magician, to lots more aliens!
Despite the infusion of additional fantasy elements, the series was canceled at the end of the year.

We're offering a new line of Space Western collectibles, perfect for summer wear at the beach, or the movie theatre when you go see Cowboys & Aliens. (C'mon, you know you're going!)

Check out the

Comics Collectibles Store

and have a look below at some Cowboys and Aliens movie tie-ins from Amazon!