Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Last month, just two Atlas/Seaboard productions greeted us in this feature but Martin and Chip Goodman are in no mood to mess about. And so it is that, this time out, we find five brand new titles awaiting us when we rush into our favourite retailer of American publications.
There's also a Gary Gerani article dedicated to The Many Horrors of Dan Curtis.
Redoubtable as it may be, this title will endure for just two issues.
Possibly my favourite Atlas comic of them all is launched, as an astronaut's rescued from a crashed space lab, by aliens, only to discover they intend to destroy mankind.
With an incentive like that, it's not long before he steals a hi-tech suit from them and sets out to stop their attack on Reykjavik.
Let's be honest, if that Dick Giordano/Sal Amendola cover doesn't make you want to buy this thing, nothing will.
A legend is born when Ironjaw cleaves, threatens and axes his way into infamy.
It's the far-flung future and our hero's just hanging around, minding his own business of murdering, ravishing and maiming everyone he encounters, when a sequence of events leads him to an encounter with a princess who's secretly his sister, making him the unknowing heir to the throne.
Will he manage to be prevented from killing her and us for long enough to discover the truth about himself?
And, really, would any kingdom seriously want to be ruled by him?
Another sensational first issue hits our brains and, through it, we thrill to the origin of the Grim Ghost when an 18th Century highwayman is executed but then sent to 20th Century Earth to do Satan's bidding.
Yes, this does sound like a mashup of the Spectre and Ghost Rider but I'm sure it will prove to hit the heights of originality.
That, I cannot say, as I've never read it.
We also meet a 6-page article called Filmdom's Vampire Lovers, and I think we can guess what that's about. I suspect Hammer will be getting many a mention.
As for this mag, I can announce it will last for just two issues.
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5 comments:
On 'Weird Tales of the Macabre', that strange right arm angle is slightly reminiscent of the arm angle on Savage Sword of Conan # 32's cover
( albeit the figure's not wielding a mace! ) :
https://www.comics.org/issue/733430/cover/4/
Phillip
Steve strangely that Devilina cover was used for an issue of Vampirella ( with the image reversed) The only comic I was disappointed in here, despite the great cover was Iron Jaw #1 Sekowsky was not the right artist for sword & sorcery but Pablo Marcos would soon take over the art chores. Seaboard black and white mags were mostly pretty good and both titles here were imho better than most.
Pretty sure THE DESTRUCTOR, WULF THE BARBARIAN and PLANET OF VAMPIRES were the first Atlas titles I saw for sale anywhere. All first issues. I missed the first IRONJAW and the first TWO issues of GRIM GHOST.
I vaguely remember seeing the first PHOENIX on sale somewhere, but I think I must have passed on it. I’ve owned a copy of it for years, and I know I’ve read it several times, but I can barely remember even the gist of the storyline.
Anyhow…!
GRIM GHOST strikes me as an odd mash-up of Ghost Rider and Fleisher’s own Spectre too. I kind of like it even though it doesn’t make a lick of sense. Satan employs The Ghost to harvest the souls of Evildoers, but those sinners were almost certainly headed for hell anyway, right? Like, what’s your hurry, Satan? I was watching the 1945 movie THE WICKED LADY a few weeks ago and James Mason’s jolly highwayman reminded me somewhat of Matthew Dunsinane (Mason’s character gets betrayed by a woman and subsequently hanged too). I quite like Ernie Colon’s art on the series.
b.t.
A lot of people have commented over the years about the degree to which the Atlas Comics looked like Marvel Comics. Well, yes and no. Certainly that “ATLAS COMICS” banner at the top of the covers is evocative of the “MARVEL COMICS GROUP” banner that adorned Marvel’s covers in the early Bronze Age. Same with the dynamic Gaspar Saladino logos. I’m sure the intent was to grab the attention of Marvel fans.
Looking at these covers, I’m reminded of something that struck me back in the day — the absence of word balloons and other blurbs. Many of the Atlas first issues (IRONJAW, GRIM GHOST, PHOENIX, PLANET OF VAMPIRES, THE DESTRUCTOR, THE SCORPION, WULF THE BARBARIAN, MORLOCK 2001) had the Marvel-esque trade dress up top, but somewhat movie poster-ish images below, very different from Marvel’s usual super-kinetic approach. I thought it looked really cool and distinctive. By the second issues, someone ( probably Martin Goodman) apparently had decided the covers needed to look WAY more “Marvel-ish” — there were a lot more blurbs shouting a you from that point on.
b.t.
That’s a good point about the distinctive covers.
By the early/mid-80s, when I was buying Marvel and DC comics, the shouty captions and over-the-top cover announcements had mostly gone, leaving the covers clean. Can anyone pinpoint where the change happened - or was it a gradual thing?
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