Reading Room: FLASH GORDON "Chapter 3.1: the Secret Origin of Flash Gordon!"

It's all been building up to this...

The wraparound inside cover for #2 by Al Williamson

...the untold story of Flash Gordon's first encounter with the inhabitants of Mongo!

Wow!

Writer Mark Schultz and artist Al Williamson pulled off what many these days would consider to be impossible...a retcon that doesn't contradict any of the previous stories, nor requires a reboot of the character's entire history!

I thought only Rascally Roy Thomas was capable of such a feat!

Not only that, but it includes visual Easter Eggs relating to various past versions of Flash, including the Clay People from Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, a spaceship from the 1979 animated series, and Flash's father looking remarkably like Buster Crabbe, the actor who played Flash in all three serials!

Be here next week as Flash returns to Azura's capital in Syk!

Trump Reading Room aka the OutHouse HILLBILLY COMICS "Gumbo Galahad and Davee Crockhead"

Continuing our look at the comics Don the Con's audience probably likes...

...with this never-reprinted story from Charlton's Hillbilly Comics #1 (1955)!

Written and illustrated by Charlton mainstay Art Gates, this story (and the other strips in Hillbilly Comics) were clearly-based on Al Capp's then-immensely popular Li'l Abner newspaper strip which had been running as a musical on Broadway and was in preparation as a feature film!
In addition, it references the Walt Disney Davy Crockett multi-media juggernaut that also dominated kids' attention during this period!

Reading Room CAPTAIN JOHNER AND THE ALIENS "Talk-Down"

We Leave the Combined Human/Alien Crew on the Alien Homeworld to See...

Houston, we have a problem...

A couple of questions...

How can any gas penetrate the hull of an airtight ship?

Why didn't Johner simply head for the areas not covered by the gas belt (which is clearly shown covering the Equator and temperate zones, but not the polar regions)?

Robert Shaefer & Eric Freiwald return as writers for this tale from Gold Key's Magus, Robot Fighter #9 (1965), while creator/illustrator Russ Manning continues on the art.

Design of the Week: LOVE ON THE BEACH

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another.

This week, it's romance on the sands and under the Moon in this vintage 1970s romance comic book cover by Nick Cardy.
Available on all sorts of kool kollectibles from t-shirts and pajamas to mugs and beach blankets HERE.

KOOBA COLA: the Soft Drink that NEVER Was, and the Collectibles that ARE!

In 1940, Victor Fox, publisher of WonderWorld Comics, Mystery Men Comics, Weird Comics, and other titles featuring The Blue Beetle, Samson, The Flame, among others, conceived an audacious marketing scheme.
Inspired by the success of Pepsi and Coca-Cola, he decided to promote Kooba Cola, "The World's Newest and Best-Tasting Soft Drink!" in ads in his entire line of comic books.
It was also "Delightfully Refreshing and Contained 35 USP units of Vitamin B-1 for the Sake of Health and Nutrition!"
When Fox's The Blue Beetle starred in a short-lived radio show that summer, he was sponsored by Kooba Cola!

Wait a second...
What's that?
You've never even heard of Kooba Cola?

That's because it didn't exist, except as a couple of mocked-up bottles used as props in ads and as art reference for illustrators.
(You'll note they couldn't even figure out what the color scheme for the label was!
It changed from ad to ad!)
Fox thought he could create a demand for Kooba, then license the name to one of the big soft drink companies, let them do the work of actually creating, bottling, and shipping the stuff, then he'd rake in royalties on the name!
It didn't work.
The "buzz" never developed.
The soda pop was never actually produced.
Even Kooba's "sponsorship" of The Blue Beetle radio show was just part of the show's script, not paid ads! (One of the reasons the show only lasted four months!)

But, such visionary hucksterness should not be forgotten!
(Besides, the ads were rather kool.)
So we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ decided to re-present the Soda That Would Not Die on collectibles ranging from Beachwear to mugs, messenger bags (and the irony of doing bags with "Kooba" on them hasn't escaped us!) 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 fizzled out and fell flat!
(You just knew we were gonna do a pun like that, didn't you?)  ;-)