Sunday, December 20, 2020

Whether You Call Him "Kris Kringle" or "St Nick" or "Santa Claus", He's the Embodiment of the Christmas Spirit!

DID YOU KNOW...the image of Santa Claus, as we Americans know it, is based on the work of two artists over 70 years apart?

1) Thomas Nast, who illustrated the first published version of Clement Clark Moore's The Night Before Christmas in the 1860s
and

2) Haddon Sundblom, who took Nast's visual concepts, refined them, and used them to illustrate Coca-Cola's Christmas advertising campaigns in the 1930s
TRIVIA:
Both Nast and Sundblom are equally famous for their other artistic accomplishments...
Nast was primarily a political cartoonist, whose illustrations of New York's "Boss" Tweed were considered the main reason the corrupt politician was forced from office!
Sundblom also created the image of the Quaker Oats man, and was a noted pin-up girl artist! (In fact, his last published artwork was a pin up girl semi-dressed in a Santa outfit for Playboy's December, 1972 cover!

I'm not going to show it, but you can Google it with sundblom playboy...)

We at 
Atomic Kommie Comics™ offer a dozen different renderings of 'ol Kris Kringle which follow in the visual tradition of Nast & Sundblom, on a host of Cool Christmas™ collectibles ranging from tree ornaments to hot cocoa mugs to sweatshirts and hoodies for kids and adults!
While they range from paintings to comic book cover art (like the art at the top of this post), they all feature the "classic" image of Santa known to Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials!
So give your "special someone", whether they're a spouse, lover, friend, or relative, a warm feeling this Christmas with a kool kollectible featuring the personification of the Christmas Spirit--Santa Claus!

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Space Force Saturday SPEED CARTER "Half-Horrors of Hyades!"

...but we're back with a never-reprinted story that gives new meaning to "split personality" from Atlas' Speed Carter: SpaceMan #2 (1953).
This tale takes several cliches, including hero/heroine tied to a buzz-saw and the idea that, since different sides of the brain control different aspects of memory and personality, physically dividing it would result in different personas and mixes them together.
It's an interesting concept, but doesn't quite work.
Written (as are all the Speed Carter stories) by Hank Chapman and illustrated by Joe Maneely.

Support Small Business!

Friday, December 18, 2020

Friday Fun / Holiday Reading Room: RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER "Rudolph's Swelled Head" Conclusion

...It's Christmas Eve, Santa has to get moving, and an apologetic Rudolph is ready to rejoin the crew...
And that's how Santa introduced licensed toy promotions into comic books.

Written by Sy Reit and illustrated by Rube Grossman, this 1950 annual was the first of a series that ran until 1963.
The concept was revived in the tabloid-sized "Treasury" (10" x 14") format in 1972 and was published annually (except in '75 and '77) until 1978.
(Both DC and Marvel experimented in the 1970s with the over-sized format.
They were much bigger than normal comics with cardstock covers, though the interior pages were printed on the usual comic book newsprint.)
The series was a more-or-less sequel to the original story (which we presented HERE.) and song.
(The animated TV special that tells a totally-different version of the tale didn't appear until 1964.)
We're skipping the next two Fridays since they're Christmas and New Year's Day!
Fear not!
Friday Fun
 will return in 2021!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics this Christmas!
Visit Amazon and Order...
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
(a replica of the original 1939 book which is quite different from the TV special and its' sequels!)

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Holiday Reading Room SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "Ticky Tack the Littlest Reindeer"

You know all about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer...
...but I'd bet you've never even heard rumors about this guy!
This story from Dell's Four Color #205 (1948) aka Santa Claus Funnies, is an original tale by writer/artist Walt (Pogo) Kelly, who mostly did adaptations of fairy tales modified to fit the Christmas season or straight-out re-tellings like "Night Before Christmas".
There have been other "Littlest Reindeer" tales, but none with this particular plot or characters (besides Santa and the rest of the classic reindeer, of course!)!
Support Atomic Kommie Comics this Christmas!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder LOST WORLD "Coney Carousel Combat"

 Still in New York City...

...Hunt Bowman and Lyssa encounter VoltaMen in, of all places, the legendary Coney Island!
This never-reprinted tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #35 (1945) shows some of the famous rides at the time in Coney Island, including the Parachute Jump, Cyclone roller coaster, the Wonder Wheel ferris wheel, and the B&B Carousell (yes that's how it's spelled)!
All four still stand, having been restored/rebuilt and recently-granted landmark status.
All but the Parachute Jump are still functional.
No doubt artist Lily Renee rode them, since she lived in Manhattan and studied at both the Art Students League and the Cartoonists and Illustrators School (now known as the School of Visual Arts) and was only a subway ride away...

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...
(which includes this story!)