Saturday, February 20, 2010

More Green Hornet: Year One Previews...

A couple of sample pages pencilled & inked by Aaron Campbell and colored by Francesco Francavilla for the upcoming new version of the origin story (previously told here).
Check out his blog entry here.
Britt's dad was an amateur entomologist?
Of course it doesn't explain why The Green Hornet uses a gas-gun instead of some sort of hard-edged sting.
Hornets don't use gas.
Now, if he had become The Green Stinkbug...

Friday, February 19, 2010

Design of the Week--Easter with Mother Goose!

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

Since Easter is coming, we thought we'd present an absolutely adorable piece by the legendary Walt (Pogo) Kelly featuring a puppy, kitten, and bunny with surprised looks on their faces as the egg they're painting hatches, producing yet another cute animal...a chick!

You just don't see stuff like this anymore!
So, why not order some kidswear, or even holiday greeting cards with this one-week-only graphic?
Everyone who sees it will go "Awwww."

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Green Hornet Classic Cover Gallery

Some of my favorite Golden Age Green Hornet covers from my collection...
The final issue of his Golden Age run, a one-shot from Dell Comics!
Issue #33, featuring his primary 1940s weapon, the Gas Gun!
Issue #31, with both the Hornet and Kato dashing to the rescue!
Issue #13, in Berlin against the Nazis!
Issue #43, "typical" 1940s teens and 'tweens talk about the Hornet! Gosh!
Issue #29, a powerful symbolic cover (and the first Golden Age comic I owned)!
And, finally, the first issue of The Green Hornet Comics from Holyoke (who published issues 1-6)
Note he's wearing the same outfit in the first and final issues and a modified version on the issues in-between! And they're the only painted covers of the entire run!

BTW, did we mention that ALL these covers (and five more) are available on our Classic Green Hornet 2010 12-Month Calendar? ;-)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Fill Your Easter Basket...with Atomic Kommie Comics' Goodies!

It's Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, so it's time to talk about...Easter! (It's only 40 days away!)

Back in the 1940s and 50s, comic book companies produced a prodigious number of holiday-oriented 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 a number of publishers also did Easter-oriented books?
And, that noted comics illustrators, including Walt (Pogo) Kelly, 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!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Oceanic Airlines In-Flight Magazine for Kids from 1954!

An old friend of mine wanted to enter a contest for LOST-related designs at a PoD we both use and asked me for a copy of my digital file for Mystery Tales #40 plus a couple of fonts from my extensive collection, saying she was going to do "the ultimate in-joke".

The Oceanic Airlines In-Flight Magazine for Kids is the result!
Using the cover of the comic young John Locke didn't choose in the ep "Cabin Fever", she created a new, retro-style logo, dated it as September, 1954, exactly 50 years before the Flight 815 crash (in September, 2004), and replaced the existing captions with new, LOST storyline-based text!

I pointed out a couple of anachronisms / inaccuracies...
1) The actual comic was from 1956, two years later!
2) According to several websites, Oceanic Airlines didn't start operating until the mid-1970s (though I'm not sure if that's "canon" or not.)
She responded...
1) The Oceanic Airlines Mag usage was the art's "first use".
It was "reused" as the cover of Mystery Tales #40 (which may also explain why the art doesn't really match the comics story it's supposed to represent)!
2) Oceanic Airlines had actually been founded shortly after World War II, gone bankrupt in the early 1970s, then another company bought the assets and re-established the airline in the mid-70s!
Since there's nothing to contradict those ideas, I had to concede them as viable plot points...

Anyway, the end result is KOOL, so take a look, and maybe buy an item! (She's disabled and can use the cash.)

Monday, February 15, 2010

Preview: Alternate Cover for "Green Hornet: Year One" #2


Francesco Francavilla's "chase" cover for Green Hornet: Year One #2, detailing the origin of the Golden Age Green Hornet.
Note he's wearing the full-face mask from the two movie serials
not the "lower-half of face" mask from the original 1940s comics.
Kato, on the other hand, is wearing a mask like the one worn on the 1960s tv series by Bruce Lee!
In the Golden Age comics and movie serials, Kato wore goggles (and a bow tie)!