Saturday, December 19, 2009

Christmas at Ground Zero!!!

At this time of year, Christmas carols are in continuous rotation on the stereo in the Atomic Kommie Comics™ office.
One of our favorites is Christmas at Ground Zero by "Weird" Al Yankovic. (You were expecting maybe Adeste Fidelis?)

Which brings us to, perhaps, the most unusual theme for potential Christmas presents (and, you gotta admit, we've had some real weirdies!)...atomic Armageddon!

Within our sci-fi-oriented The Future WAS Fantastic!™ section is the Atomic War line of kool collectibles with classic comic book covers from the fear-filled '50s, featuring the nuclear destruction of New York City (see above), Washington DC, and Moscow on black hoodies, sweats, and tees, as well as mugs and other tchochkies!

So for all you survivalists out there, while you duck n' cover under the Christmas tree, prepare for the irradiated end stylishly with our radiation-proof (well...not really!) garb and goodies!

Friday, December 18, 2009

Next Issue Project: Silver Streak Comics #24 GiftSet!

Continuing the Next Issue Project series which presents the "next issue" of comic books that last saw print over 60 years ago, Erik Larsen has just released Silver Streak Comics #24 featuring Dare Devil, Silver Streak, The Claw and Captain Battle.
(BTW, Silver Streak Comics #23 came out in 1946!)
It's a nicely-done little book with all-new art by Larson (Savage Dragon) himself, Michael T. Gilbert (Mr. Monster), Paul Griest (Kane) and Alan Weiss (Warlock).

If you have a Golden Age of Comics fan on your Christmas shopping list, why not pick up this brand-new $3.99 book and combine it with one or two of our many kool kollectibles under $14.99 each featuring the 1940s covers for these same characters, to make an inexpensive, yet obviously thoughtful, Golden Age of Comics GiftSet for him / her?
Choose from...



or, if he / she is into villains...
The Claw!

Each cover image is shot directly from an original 1940s comic book (no second-gen reprints or low-rez files HERE), then digitally-restored and remastered by artists who've worked on classic comic reprint projects for Marvel and DC (among others)!

Make it a "comic book Christmas" for your loved one this year!
Give them a graphic gift they'll enjoy for years to come!

PLUS: order today, Dec. 18th, pay for Standard shipping and receive a FREE upgrade to 2-Day to get it by Dec. 24th!

* Choose Standard Shipping, and at no extra cost we'll automatically upgrade you to 2-Day Shipping (when needed) to ensure delivery by December 24, 2009. Delivery address must be within the United States and cannot be a PO Box. Promotion starts on December 16, 2009, at 12:00 a.m. (EST) and ends on December 18, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. (EST). This offer may change, be modified or cancelled at anytime without notice.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Under the Evergreen is...SUPER GREEN BERET!

Never failing to capitalize on a pop culture trend, '60s comics publishers, noticing the popularity of the hit single Ballad of the Green Berets (by Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler & Robin Moore) quickly produced comics series featuring the elite Army unit.
Most were standard war comics, but one stood out from the rest for sheer weirdness...
What do you get when you combine...
1) Green Berets and the VietNam War
with...
2) Teenagers...
and
3) SuperHeroes?
Why,
SUPER GREEN BERET
,
of course!

Green Beret Roger Wilson saves a Vietnamese monk from a wild boar, and in return the grateful priest attaches a pin to his beret which makes it glow.
Home on leave, Roger gives the glowing beret to his teenage nephew Tod Holton, who discovers that, when he puts it on his head and salutes, he's transformed into a super-powered adult dressed in a soldier's uniform!
(It's sorta like the Golden Age Captain Marvel, a teenager who said the magic word SHAZAM and was transformed into a super-powered adult, albeit with his teenage mind.)
Using his new-found powers of teleportation, telepathy, telekinesis, transmutation, time travel, invulnerability, and super-strength, Tod decides to fight Enemies of Our Country, mostly in present-day Asia, but also travels through time to the American Revolution and World War II, during his two-issue run!
Yes, it's as hokey as it sounds!

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ felt that we couldn't let such an outrageous character and concept be forgotten, so, as part of our War: Past, Present, & Future™ line, we incorporated Super Green Beret as a light-hearted example of 1960s funkiness to contrast with the seriousness of our World War II and Korean Police Action material (plus we wanted an excuse to make some kool SGB collectibles for ourselves)!

So stick a Super Green Beret collectible under the tree or in a stocking for your loved one!
It's the next best thing to an original 11.5" GI Joe!
(And I should know, since I received one of the first Joes at Christmas, many years ago!)

BONUS: A FREE Christmas present for you: an online reprint of both issues of Super Green Beret!
You gotta see it to believe it!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Put a Woman Outlaw Under Your Christmas Tree!

The tradition of Old West-themed Christmas presents dates back to the late 1800s, and was immortalized in the modern Xmas film A Christmas Story written (and narrated) by the late, great, Jean Shepherd.
Ralphie's quest for a Red Ryder BB Gun was mirrored by countless little boys (and probably more than a few girls) of the 1930s-1950s!
We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ believe the tradition should be upheld...but with a twist!
As part of our ongoing Christmas List of Pop Culture Stuff, we suggest...Women Outlaws, one of the coolest lines in our Western Comics Adventures™ section!
These AIN'T no ladies!
Think Barbara Stanwyck or Jane Russell in comic book form!
We're talkin' Horses! Leather! High-heeled boots! ShootOuts! Dominant females who don't take no sh!t! And...CatFights! Wah-HOO!
(And it's all rated PG-13 or PG!)
Besides the usual t-shirts, mugs, and other collectibles, these kool retro images also adorn women's duds! Jersey Tees, Spaghetti tanks! Thongs!

If women who can ride and shoot as well as any man ain't yer cup of prairie coffee, we also have Real-Life Westerners, Broncho Bill, The Cisco Kid & Pancho, Kid Cowboy, Masked Heroes, Native Americans, A Wealth of Westerners, and even Western Love!
Think of how they'll look under the Christmas Tree! (And they're safer than a
Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle! You won't shoot your eye out!)

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The Christmas Gift that Keeps On Giving Year 'Round--a 12-Month Calendar!

One of our favorite types of pop culture collectible here at the Atomic Kommie Comics™ offices are calendars, in particular the multi-page 12-month kind, with a different illustration for each month.

I have over a decade's worth of James Bond 007 movie poster calendars.
Each year the new one adorns the wall over my computer.
When the year is over, I cut it up and use the art the next year as mini-posters to decorate whatever vacation place I rent during the summer.
Besides Bond, over the years, I've picked up, or been given, various Star Trek, Star Wars, DC, Marvel, and other licensed property calendars.
I've always enjoyed using them, and often thought of the person who gave them to me!

But, there are pop culture categories and subjects we've wanted in calendar form as presents for others (or for ourselves), but were never produced!
So, we decided to create them ourselves, using the wildest, rarest, kitchiest comic book, pulp magazine covers & movie posters we could find, each image digitally-restored and remastered from hi-rez scans of the original items, NO reprints or low-rez files! (Would we do that to you?)

Here are the Atomic Kommie Comics™ 12-Month Calendars (by genre)...

Mystery / Crime
Basil Rathbone
IS
Sherlock Holmes!

Mr District Attorney



Horror
Horror Comics
of the 1950s



Camp / Kitsch
Seduction
of the Innocent!!

Jungle Girls

Good Girl / Bad Grrrl



Romance
True Love Comics Tales

Sci-Fi / Fantasy
Martians, Martians, Martians!

Thrilling
Science-Fiction
Tales



Golden Age SuperHeroes
Captains of the Comics

Heroines!

Classic Phantom Lady

Lost Heroes of
the Golden Age of Comics

Lost Heroes of the
Golden Age of Comics
Team-Ups

1st Appearance
Lost Heroes of the
Golden Age of Comics

Flag-Waving
Lost Heroes of the
Golden Age of Comics

Classic Amazing-Man

Classic Black Terror

Classic Blue Beetle

Classic Captain Future

Classic Cat-Man

Classic Dare Devil

Classic Doc Strange

Classic Fighting Yank

Classic Flame

Classic Green Lama

Classic
Monster of Frankenstein

Classic Owl

Classic Samson



Western
Western
Comics Adventures

Real-Life
Western Comics

The Cisco Kid
& Pancho

Masked Western Heroes



Military
Captain MidNight

Aviators of the
Golden Age of Comics

NOT available in stores, only on-line! Order now...before time runs out! ;-)

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Behold...the Blue Beetle!

One of the most popular concepts in crime fiction of the 30s-40s was a policeman who felt too constrained by the letter of the law and decided to take up a masked identity to "serve justice rather than the law"!
Every rank from beat officers (The Guardian) to police commissioners (The Whisperer) donned a mask (and usually a skintight outfit) to fight criminals in their off-duty hours.
One of the longest-lasting was Officer Dan Garret aka The Blue Beetle.

Garret had good reason to be disillusioned about the power of law and order.
His late father was a police officer killed by a criminal who evaded prosecution even after Dan himself joined the force.
Seeing the fiend once again go free due to an unbreakable (though false) alibi, Officer Garret took matters into his own hands.
Donning a mask, fedora and business suit (ala The Green Hornet), Dan adopted the Blue Beetle identity to harass the felon and force him to to commit a crime in front of witnesses, including Garret's reporter girlfriend and her photographer!
It worked, and undeniable retribution was finally delivered to the killer!
In the next issue, after saving scientist Dr Franz, from racketeers, the grateful chemist gave Garret a suit of bulletproof chainmail, as well as a supply of an experimental vitamin, 2-X, to enhance his strength and reflexes!
Combined with a pair of lethal .45 automatics, that chainmail and "power pills" made the "upgraded" Blue Beetle a formidable foe indeed!

The Beetle's adventures began in Fox Comics' Mystery Men Comics #1 (though he didn't make the cover until #7) and ran thru all 31 issues.
He gained his own title The Blue Beetle, which published 60 issues between 1939 and 1950 and also appeared in every issue of Big 3 Comics, an anthology title featuring the most popular characters from Fox's various titles!
Blue Beetle was popular enough to be the only Fox Comics character to warrant both a newspaper strip and a dramatic radio series, both of which were, regrettably, short-lived. (The newspaper comic strip featured art by a young Jack Kirby!)
In the mid 1950s, another publisher did a reprint series which proved so successful that they published a reworked new version of the Beetle that ran into the 1960s, was revived again in the 1980s and runs on-and-off to this day. (In each of these revivals, the Beetle has a new secret identity and powers.)
But Dan Garret, the original Beetle, hadn't been seen since the mid '50s, until Alex Ross revived him in the acclaimed Project SuperPowers in 2007.
Atomic Kommie Comics™ has also revived The Blue Beetle as part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line with several of his best covers from his own title and Mystery Men Comics on t-shirts, mugs, and other goodies.
Heck, we're so proud of him that we gave him his own 2010 12-Month Calendar with a rarely-seen comic cover for each month!

The Blue Beetle's waiting to scuttle under your Christmas tree or lurk in the stocking of your favorite pop-culture aficionado!

FREE Christmas bonus for our dedicated fans: mp3s of The Blue Beetle radio show!

And BUY Project SuperPowers, the BEST Golden-Age revival comic (er...graphic novel) out there!