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Sunday, 17 August 2025

Atlas/Seaboard August 1975.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon
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As we saw last month, we've entered a period in which Atlas/Seaboard is visibly receding from every shop that sells comics.

However, Chip and Martin Goodman are clearly not men to go down without a fight.

And so, this month, the venture brings us four more books to feast our eyes and minds upon.

Movie Monsters #4

Who could forget this issue?

Not me.

Not only does it carry articles about The Thing, Flash Gordon, Lon Chaney Jr and dinosaur-packed lost worlds, it also shares an exclusive eye-witness account of an encounter with the Loch Ness monster, in which the writer claims to have literally stepped on part of the beast, by accident.

To be honest, even as an eleven-year-old, I was sceptical of this claim.

Vicki #4

You have to hand it to Vicki. She's survived where more ambitious Atlas protagonists have failed.

However, now even she meets her doom, as her fourth and final issue hits our spinner racks and does so with a bunch of tales reprinted from late 1960s Tower Comics' Tippy Teen issues.

Thrilling Adventure Stories #2

"The World's Most Exciting Magazine!" smashes into the buffers with its second issue but does, at least, do so in style, thanks to a dramatic Neal Adams cover and interior action that everyone who's read it seems to have a fondness for.

Inside this not-so-death-defying issue, Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson spin a yarn in which feuding samurais encounter trouble with giant spiders.

We also discover eight pages of The Kromag Saga which I'm struggling to recall the details of. I think it might be a Ka-Zar type thing.

Then there's action from Tough Cop. I think that might be a law-enforcement type thing.

Then there's an article about The Towering Inferno.

And we round the issue off with Town Tamer and A Job Well Done. Both of which stories, I have no recollection.

The Destructor #4

Doom is piled upon doom because the Destructor too has met his Waterloo.

His fourth and final outing sees Gerry Conway and Steve Ditko produce a thriller the world can only know as Doomsday -- Minus One. Exactly what it entails, I'm struggling to remember but it looks to involve cave action with someone called The Outcasts!

The Grand Comics Database informs me our hero gains energy powers in this story.

This is good.

Energy is useful.

6 comments:

  1. Matthew McKinnon17 August 2025 at 20:36

    Does anyone know where I might be able to read that Simonson / Goodwin story online?

    I love early Walt Simonson.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Matthew:
      It’s at the “Diversions of the Groovy Age” site.

      b.t.

      Delete
    2. Matthew McKinnon18 August 2025 at 21:26

      Thanks BT - it looks great.

      Delete
  2. Steve:
    THRILLING ADVENTURE 2 is one of the best single issues published by Atlas, if only for the art.

    Let’s start with that excellent painted cover by Neal Adams. It wouldn’t look out of place on Marvel’s Post-Conan SAVAGE TALES. Possibly, it’s why you’re reminded of Kay-Zarr. The story it illustrates is a Caveman thing with unappealing art by Jack Sparling.

    “The Temple of the Spider” is a nifty sword-and-sorcery story set in feudal Japan by Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson.

    “Tough Cop” is about a retired cop vs. some crooks. It’s pretty basic but nicely drawn by Russ Heath.

    “Town Tamer” is a WW2 story. I don’t remember much about it but the art is by John Severin, so I’m sure it looks good, at least.

    “A Job Well Done” is about a tough-as-nails cop fighting drug dealers in
    the (then) near-future. The art by the great Alex Toth is the highlight of the issue for me.

    b.t.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Destructor was decent enough to survive.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree 100% with b.t., Thrilling Adventure Stories #2 is a wee comic book gem, and Destructor #3 isn't that bad either. We must be nearing the end of their run.

    ReplyDelete