Fantastic Femmes--Rosario Dawson

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Rosario Dawson straddles the line between being a fanboy dream goddess and being a fangirl herself with surprising ease. (And, no, I'm not going to make any obvious jokes...)
Why do we say she's a "fangirl"? Besides being a hardcore Trekker and comic book fan, Rosario is also the creator /co-writer of the comic book Occult Crimes TaskForce (the lead character Sophia Ortiz is illustrated in her image).
As for being a "fanboy dream goddess"...if you've seen Sin City, GrindHouse, or even Adventures of Pluto Nash (She and Pam Grier are the ONLY reasons to bother with that turkey!) you wouldn't be wondering about the designation...
Rosario is one of the more civic-minded performers in show-biz, devoting her time and her name to a wide variety of causes including voter registration, gay rights, preventing domestic violence, and conservation. Very cool!
Trivia:
She co-starred with Tracie Thoms twice, in Rent (where she & Tracie were the only lead performers not from the Broadway version) and GrindHouse presents: Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof / GrindHouse "Death Proof".
Rosario performs her own singing in every film her on-screen persona sings in (Rent, Josie & the Pussycats, and Adventures of Pluto Nash) and she's on the soundtrack albums of all of them!

Genre appearances include...
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: the Lightning Thief (Persephone)
Haunted World of El SuperBeasto (Velvet Von Black)
Wonder Woman [2009] (Artemis)
KillShot (Donna)
Gemini Division [webisodes] (Anna Diaz, producer)
Eagle Eye (Zoe Perez)
Grindhouse Presents: Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof / Grind House "Death Proof" (Abernathy)
Clerks II (Becky)
Devil's Rejects [edited from film, scenes on DVD version] (Nurse Marcia)
Sin City (Gail)
RunDown (Mariana)
Adventures of Pluto Nash (Dina Lake / performer: "It's Alright")
Men in Black II (Laura Vasquez)
Josie & the Pussycats (Valerie Brown / performer on all "Pussycats" songs)

Check out...
Rosario's Official WebSite
Sassy: THE fan source for Rosario Dawson
Rosario Dawson Shrine

Valerie Brown has also been played by Patrice Holloway (singing) & Barbara Pariot (acting) in Josie & the Pussycats / Josie & the Pussycats in Outer Space

Fantastic Femmes--Jill Schoelen

One of the best (and cutest) of the teen scream queens of the early direct-to-video days (1985-95), appearing in films starring (or directed by) Wes Craven, Keanu Reeves, Robert Englund, and LOST's Terry O'Quinn!
Sadly, now retired from acting. Her last appearance was in 2004.
Trivia: Dated both Keanu Reeves and Brad Pitt after co-starring with them in films, and was engaged, briefly, to Brad Pitt!

Genre appearances include...
When a Stranger Calls Back (Julia Jenz)
Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera [1993] (Christine Day)
Adventures in Spying (Julie Converse)
Popcorn (Maggie)
Curse II: the Bite (Lisa Snipes)
The Stepfather (Stephanie Maine)
Wes Craven's Chiller (Stacey)
Babes in Toyland [1986] (Mary Contrary)
Check out...
The UNofficial Jill Schoelen Site
The Moviezzz Blog: Whatever Happened to...Jill Schoelen?

 Other actresses to play Christine Daae / Christine Day / Christine DuBois / Christine Charles include...

Emmy Rossum in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera
Asia Argento in Dario Argento's The Phantom of the Opera
Elizabeth Walsh in Phantom of the Opera [1991]
Teri Polo in Phantom of the Opera [1990]
Heather Sears in Phantom of the Opera [1962]
Susanna Foster in Phantom of the Opera [1943]
Mary Philbin in Phantom of the Opera [1925]
Aud Edege Nissen in Phantom of the Opera [1916]
Note: there are several versions of Phantom in which the female lead is not named Christine.

Other actresses to play Mary (Quite) Contrary include...
Annette Funicello in Babes in Toyland [1961]
Marie Wilson in Babes in Toyland [1934]

Fantastic Femmes--Danica McKellar

The cute next-door neighbor girl on Wonder Years has grown up into an amazing woman!
Besides a steady stream of tv movies and several ongoing roles in series including The West Wing and her own series, Inspector Mom, Danica's written two books; Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail and Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who's Boss to promote interest in mathematics among teen girls.
She's truly a Fantastic Femme!

Genre appearances include...
Inspector Mom (Maddie Monroe also Writer / Producer)
HeatStroke (Caroline)
Hack! (Emily)
Shin Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams [VG] (Various Voices)
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance [VG] (Susan Storm Richards aka Invisible Woman)
X-Men Legends [VG] (Jubilee aka Jubilation Lee)
EverQuest II [VG] (Lolla Cotgrove / Pona)
Path of Destruction (Katherine Stern)
CyberChase "Designing Mr Perfect"
Quiet Kill / Nightmare Boulevard (Pet Shop Girl)
Static Shock (Freida Goren)
Century City "Without a Tracer"
Game Over (Elsa / Renee)
Justice League (Sapphire Stagg)
Babylon 5 "The War Prayer"
Captain Planet & the Planeteers "A Formula for Hate"
SideKicks (Lauren)
Twilight Zone [1985-87]
"Her Pilgrim Soul" (Teen Nola), "Shelter Skelter" (Deidre Dobbs)

Check out..
Danica's Official WebSite
Official WebSite for her book Math Doesn't Suck...
Official WebSite for her book Kiss My Math

Other actresses to play Invisible Woman / Invisible Girl aka Susan Storm-Richards...
Fantastic Four / Fantastic Four the Video Game / Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Jessica Alba
Fantastic 4 [1967] Jo Ann Pflug
The Fantastic Four [1978] Ginny Tyler
The Fantastic Four [1994] Rebecca Staab (adult) Mercedes McNabb (child) [live-action film, never officially released]
Marvel Action Hour: Fantastic Four [1996-97] Silver Surfer [1998] Lori Alan
Spider-Man [1996] Gail Matthius
Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes [2007] Lara Gilchrist
Video Games: Erin Matthews, Grey DeLisele

Other actresses to play Jubilee aka Jubilation Lee include...
X2: X-Men United / X-Men: the Last Stand Kea Wong
X-Men [2000] Katrina Florece
X-Men: Evolution Chiarra Zanni
Generation X Heather McComb
X-Men / Spider-Man [1992] / Marvel vs. Capcom [VG] Alyson Court

Who Watches the Watchmen?

I did!
And so should you!
Go this weekend!
Make it #1!
Why are you still reading?
Get outta your seat and SEE WATCHMEN!
NOW!

Fantastic Femmes--Zuleikha Robinson

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Fantastic Femmes--Twins (Charlene Choi & Gillian Chung)

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Fantastic Femmes--Jennifer Connelly

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NY Times Book Review Praises "Supermen..."!

Sunday's NY Times Book Review had a very positive review of several comics, I mean graphic novel, related tomes, particularly, SUPERMEN! The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes.
An excerpt from the review follows...
In the tense, murky years before America entered World War II, its young couldn’t get enough tales of costumed mystery men. SUPERMEN! The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-41 (Fantagraphics, paper, $24.99) is a rambunctious anthology of the earliest superhero stories — gaudy, crude, infernally potent things, cranked out by scrappy young cartoonists who were more concerned with what the likes of Silver Streak, Yarko the Great and Skyrocket Steele (and SkyMan, as seen above) could do than with what they might mean.
The book’s editor, Greg Sadowski, has compiled vivid early work by Will Eisner, Jack Kirby and Jack Cole, among others who went on to be the medium’s great stylists. So it’s surprising how similar their work was in the days when they were inventing the superhero concept. Their stories have the same frantic tumble of calamities and grotesqueries, the same orphan-threatening menaces and square-jawed, tough-talking heroes, the same prose so overheated it threatens to singe its readers’ eyeballs: “Seven million wide-eyed souls glance skyward as one! Rearing his ugly head above Manhattan, casting a shadow over all — the Claw!” (read the review for the rest of the rave!)

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ are ecstatic that some of the "lost" classics of the Golden Age of Comics are being made available to a graphic novel-hungry audience! (And Fantagraphics has done absolutely spectacular work with previous 1930s-40s reprint albums!)
We believe that Supermen! would make a great gift for the graphic story aficionado in your life, especially when combined with one of the Golden Age-themed goodies from our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ collection, which feature some of the very same heroes on t-shirts, mugs, messenger bags, and other assorted items!
As they'd say back in the 1940s: "Gosh, they'd make a swell birthday or graduation present for a comics-loving guy or gal!"

Stuff Your Easter Basket with Atomic Kommie Comics Collectibles!

Back in the 1940s and 50s, comic book companies produced a prodigious number of holiday annuals and one-shots.
For example, a multitude of Christmas-themed comic books flooded America's magazine racks every November and December!
(In fact, a large part of our popular Cool Christmas collection is based on them.)
But, did you know that several publishers also did Easter-oriented books?
And, that noted comics illustrators including Walt Kelly (Pogo) contributed art to them?
Believing that there's always room for more classic comics collectibles, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ added a new line of goodies to our Happy Holidays section entitled Exciting Easter!
Yes, it's eggs, bunnies, chicks, and other fuzzy animals galore digitally-restored and remastered from Baby Boomer-era classic comics covers on baby bibs, infant creepers / onesies, toddler and kid t-shirts, greeting cards, mugs, and a plethora of kool kollectibles!
They make great Easter basket stuffers! (And they won't rot your kids' teeth like marshmallow chicks or chocolate bunnies!)
So click over and see what's in our basket!

Fantastic Femmes--Diahann Carroll

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Fantastic Femmes--Tyra Banks

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Fantastic Femmes--Holly Robinson

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Ebony & Ivory (& Jade) Kick Ass Together in Perfect Harmony...

Remember the 1970s, the decade when Feminism came to the forefront, especially in film, where for the first time, females took things into their own lethal hands?
Before, while women like Modesty Blaise may have had top billing, they still depended on male partners when the going got tough!
But in films starring the likes of Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson, men were not only unnecessary, sometimes they were downright useless!
Nowhere was this unleashing of grrrls with guns better exemplified than in the 1976 flick Ebony, Ivory & Jade!

Also titled She-Devils in Chains and FoxForce, it's a tawdry tale of female athletes, including Rosanne Katon (a Playboy PlayMate) as the "Ebony" of the title, Colleen Camp as "Ivory", and Christine Mayuga as "Jade", being kidnapped for ransom.
E, I & J take command of the captive competitors, with the ethnically-diverse trio turning the tables on their captors by using both their own well-honed abilities and various weapons taken off dead kidnappers to free the assembled athletes!
And it's all rated "PG"! Seriously!
Shot on a low-to-medium budget, it's a cool example of the "grindhouse" features that played double and triple-bills in second-run theatres and drive-ins throughout the US to enthusiastic audiences.
(I saw it on 42nd Street, before The Deuce [as we New Yorkers called it] was cleaned up by Disney in the 1990s)

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ respect, nay, REVERE those ladies who did unto men what males had, in previous generations, done unto women!
In fact, within our Seduction of the Innocent!!™ pop culture kitch department resides the Menacing Maidens section wherein Ebony, Ivory & Jade and their fellow fatal femmes still dispense harsh justice in full-color glory on t-shirts, mugs and other kool kollectibles!
Show that you believe in racial harmony, at least where it comes to women kicking the cr@p out of guys!

Fantastic Femmes--Robin Givens

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Fantastic Femmes--Tatyana M Ali

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"I am Wol-ver-ine!"

I'm watching the Oscars, Hugh Jackman's doing a helluva job!

Fantastic Femmes--Whitney Houston

An extremely-talented performer (both as songstress and actress), Whitney's personal problems have, until recently, forced her career onto the back-burner.
However, she seems to have overcome these obstacles, and her career is on an upswing once more!

Genre appearances include...
Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (Fairy Godmother / performer: "Prologue", "Impossible", "It's Possible", "Finale Ultimo", "There's Music in You")
The Preacher's Wife (Julia Biggs)
The BodyGuard (Rachel Marron / performer: "Queen of the Night")
Note: The BodyGuard is not really genre, but it's use of footage from the classic 1926 film Metropolis as well as the Maria-Robotrix-influenced costume prominently featured in the video for "Queen of the Night" and the film itself make it worthy, IMHO, of inclusion.

Check out...
Whitney's Official WebSite
A cool FanSite

Other actresses to play Fairy Godmother in Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella include Celeste Holm [1965] and Edie Adams [1957]
Other actresses to play Julia Biggs include...
Actually, in the previous version of this film, The Bishop's Wife [1947], the character was named Julia Brougham and played by Loretta Young.

DareDevil aka Death-Defying 'Devil aka Dynamic DareDevil

Silver Streak Comics was unique in two respects;
1) It wasn't named after it's lead character, like Flash Comics or Blue Bolt Comics.
(In fact, the hero known as The Silver Streak didn't even come along until issue #3, and then he was just a backup strip!)
2) The lead character was a villain!
And what a villain he was!
The Claw was the first great villain of the Golden Age!
He was a, literally, inhuman scientific genius with powers of size-changing, hypnotism, and numerous other abilities depending on the needs of the story! (In the Golden Age, these things tended to be a little, well, loose.)
In his first few appearances he was barely defeated by various international secret agents who would stumble upon his various operations, but The Claw himself would always escape to plot again!
While the foul fiend dominated the front of the book, several heroes made their debuts in backup features, among them a mute fellow in a weird half-yellow / half-blue costume who used a boomerang!

Created in Silver Streak #6 by writer / artist Jack Binder, brother of noted pulp sci-fi writers Otto & Earl Binder, this DareDevil was Bart Hill, rendered speechless as a boy when he witnessed the murder of his father!
The silent lad learned how to use a boomerang, and, when he became an adult, adopted a costume in order to avenge himself against evil in it's various forms. Not a bad origin tale, overall.

Jack Cole, who later would create Plastic Man, took over the strip in the next issue, tossing out everything except the boomerang and the name Bart Hill, creating the first comic book retcon!
He also modified the costume, making the yellow sections bright red.
Cole then decided that his revamped hero would make the perfect ongoing counterpoint to The Claw, so as of Silver Streak #7, he pitted the two against each other in an ongoing battle that lasted five issues, which ended with The Claw finally being captured!
At that point, DareDevil was given his own title, DareDevil Comics, with the greatest real-life villain of all as his first opponent--Adolf Hitler! With the aid of other heroes, including The Silver Streak, DD managed to stalemate Der Fuehrer.

Cole went on to other projects, and writer / artist Charles Biro took over the strip.
Biro gave Bart an entirely new origin, having the orphaned kid raised by Australian Aborigines and trained by them to use boomerangs!
Bart Hill settled down to a typical life of an acrobatic superhero whose new secret identity of a policeman enabled him to serve the law by day, and justice by night...until the Little Wise Guys came along in #13!
Jocko, Peewee, Scarecrow, and Meatball were a kid gang whom Officer Hill encountered while on patrol. Sensing they were inherently good kids gone wrong, he took them under his wing, guiding them into more socially-acceptible activities, like spying on saboteurs.
It was like having a whole team of Robins or Buckys (sans costumes) to help in his ongoing war against evil!
During one of their adventures against a rival gang, Meatball was killed.
A rival gang member, Curly, feeing guilty about Meatball's demise (though he didn't cause it) reformed, and joined the Little Wise Guys.

The kids gradually took over the book as DareDevil went from lead hero to mentor / advisor to occasional guest-star, disappearing altogether as of #80.
DareDevil Comics continued until #134 in September 1954. Ironically, it was the same month Showcase #4, featuring The Flash started the Silver Age of Comics!
Talk about "missed it by that much!"

Though the character missed the Silver Age, his influence was felt throughout it.
Marvel's Matt Murdock became an acrobatic hero with the same name.
Charlton's acrobatic ThunderBolt wore a very similar costume in tribute to the Golden Age character.

And now, the original hero has returned in not one, but two different incarnations:
The Death-Defying 'Devil in Alex Ross' ongoing Project SuperPowers series and his own self-titled mini-series which restores the original mute aspect of his character.
and
Dynamic DareDevil, guest-starring in Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon series

PLUS: we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have digitally-restored and remastered several of DareDevil's koolest Golden Age covers , including his very first cover appearance, on an assortment of pop-culture collectibles in our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line!
And, we'll be adding several more in the next month or so!

Don't forget to buy Project SuperPowers, Death-Defying 'Devil and Savage Dragon!
We wanna keep Bart Hill (and maybe even the Little Wise Guys) around for a while!

The Controversial Chimp Cartoon

I don't usually comment on editorial cartoons, but as a graphics / cartoon professional (I've been an art director for both cartoon reference books and several comic book companies), I can't, in good conscience, remain silent on a recent piece that appeared in the NY Post.
And, I'm one of the least "politically correct" people you'll ever meet...

Post editor-in-chief Col Allan released a statement defending Sean Delonas' New York Post cartoon: "The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy."

My take; If the policemen had been labeled, such as "Republican House" and "Republican Senate", and the chimp labeled "Stimulus" or "Stimulus Author" or somesuch, indicating that the Republicans had "shot down" the stimulus bill (which they haven't, BTW), or put a wig on the chimp (since Nancy Pelosi was the primary author of the stimulus bill), or, if they had shown the policemen shooting a group of chimps at keyboards (the classic "infinite chimps with typewriters" scenario), then Col's statement might (repeat, MIGHT) have some validity!

As it is, I believe Col's statement just reveals his lack of ability in judging and editing both content and intent in editorial matter.

Keep in mind: Freedom of speech is cool! Freedom of speech is important! Just make sure when you say something, you're coherent! This cartoon is NOT clear as to it's intent or purpose, and thus fails as an editorial statement!

Look at the work of the editorial cartoon greats: Nast, Herblock, Maudlin...they ALWAYS got their points across, cleanly and effectively! You may not have agreed with them, but you KNEW what they were saying!

Fantastic Femmes--Tracie Thoms

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A Lost Heroine of the Golden Age--Miss Masque

Debuting in Exciting Comics #51, Miss Masque was another of the line of rich socialites-turned-masked crimefighters in the Golden Age which included The Shadow, The Batman, and The Green Hornet!
Diana Adams had no superpowers or abilities, just her keen deductive mind and a pair of .45 automatics. And, unlike her male contemporaries, she didn't have a sidekick or aides!
Clad in bright red cape, mini-dress, gloves, and slouch hat, she pursued criminals and saboteurs thru several issues of Exciting Comics, appearing on the cover only once (#53) during her run, before transferring over to America's Best Comics, where she teamed up (on the covers) with other heroes, most notably The Black Terror, even though they didn't appear together inside the comic! (They all had seperate strips!)
Also, she seemed to lose parts of her wardrobe when she changed homes, as her fedora disappeared along with the midriff of her costume (see below), making her predate the trailer-trash look of Britney Spears by decades!
(Maybe it was her summer ensemble!)
When superheroes faded away after the end of World War II, so did Miss Masque.
Since the 1990s, she's been revived by several publishers, most notably, by writer Alan Moore of Watchmen fame in DC Comics' America's Best Comics imprint (ironic, eh?), and artist Alex Ross in Dynamite Entertainment's Project SuperPowers series as well as a mini-series under her new code-name of Masquerade!
We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have also "revived" Miss Masque / Masquerade by digitally-restoring and remastering several of her best Golden Age cover appearances (including her first) on a line of t-shirts, mugs, and even calendars as part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line of kool kollectibles!

She was a woman ahead of her time...but her time has finally come!

PS: Pick up the Project SuperPowers and Masquerade comics!
They're the best Golden Age revival books out there!

Fantastic Femmes--Kyla Pratt

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Fantastic Femmes--Angela Bassett

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Fantastic Femmes--Gloria Reuben

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Fantastic Femmes--Whoopi Goldberg

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Fantastic Femmes--Brandy Norwood

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Fantastic Femmes--Aisha Tyler

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