In retrospect, why this was, I have no idea - bearing in mind most of their output was often as uncharming as it was derivative.
I suppose it must've been purely down to the fact they were a new company and that to be in there at the start felt like it must've done in the 1960s when Marvel first started to take off.
Sadly, Atlas never did start to take off and, famously, all their titles were gone within four issues.
All of which brings me to my latest forgotten comic because, up until the wonders of the internet, I'd totally forgotten I'd ever had such a comic as The Destructor #3.
Why I'd forgotten, I don't know, as all their other titles had stuck in my mind long after they'd been thrown away. Even Police Action had lodged in my hippocampus and that didn't even have super-heroes in it.
My negligence is even odder bearing in mind The Destructor was drawn by none other than Steve Ditko.
I must confess that Steve Ditko in the 1970s posed a problem for me. I always wanted to like his work in that decade because of my love for his Marvel output of the 1960s. Who couldn't love his work on Spider-Man and Dr Strange? Why, the man deserved to declared a legend purely for the way he drew trousers, let alone anything else.
But. even as a youth, I couldn't get round the fact that, by the '70s, his work seemed increasingly dated, not to mention looking flatter, more juvenile and less detailed than it once had. Even his trousers didn't seem as good as they once had. This meant I picked up every comic drawn by Steve Ditko in that era hoping it'd be drawn the way he'd used to do it, only to be disappointed when it wasn't.
Was this the reason I totally forgot about The Destructor? Or was it just there was something inherently unmemorable about him? I don't know. I can't remember him and therefore can offer no opinion about him.
Then again, maybe there wasn't anything unmemorable about him. Maybe the fault was entirely my own.
Nah, you're right - he was pretty unmemorable. And not all Atlas titles made it to four issues - the Grim Ghost only reached three.
ReplyDeleteAs for Ditko's artwork, it seemed to hit the skids once he left Marvel. Guess the heart just went out of him.
I was like you at the time as well and avidley collected all the Atlas titles but they were for the most part mince (the Black and white "Thrilling Adventure stories "was good as were a few odd issue of the colour lineup) but the "Destructor" was not great. I liked "Grim Ghost" and the first 2 issues of "Scorpion" with Howard Chaykin art -...oh and even although I know it was rubbish I did like "Planet of the Vampires" as well - McScotty
ReplyDeleteI must confess The Scorpion was the only Atlas comic I didn't like at the time. I don't know what it was. I suspect I just found Howard Chaykin's stuff to be too hard-boiled for me.
ReplyDeleteSteve - the Scoprion's first issues were the only Atlas I really dug, LOL! I mean, Chaykin, 1930s... reminiscent of Kaluta's The Shadow at DC! Then Atlas, for no explanation I recall, stuck him in blue tights??? W.t.heck.... I was bewildered. And then "Poof!" Atlas was gone. It was really, really fun while it lasted though. Me and my buddies were buying them up!
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