Reading Room: THOR: GOD OF THUNDER "Thor Goes to War"

With World War II still on the horizon for America in 1940, the Golden Age Thor has to contend with a girlfriend who still can't perceive of the horrors to come...

It's amazing how much they jammed into only 12 pages back then!
This rather lively tale was from Weird Comics #2, pencilled by Pierce Rice, inked by Arturo Cazeneuve.

Check out the

Collectibles Store!

Video Fridays: Nazis on the Moon in IRON SKY!

Continuing our weekly feature "Video Fridays"...

Regular readers are well aware of my love for retro-style visuals in movies, particularly flicks like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow or the recent Robert Downey, Jr. Sherlock Holmes.

Iron Sky is a dark cross-genre action-comedy set in the year 2018, when Nazis, who fled to the dark side of the Moon in 1945, return to claim the Earth for the Fourth Reich!
It's is a Finnish-German-Australian co-production with a budget of 6.8 million euros, and very heavy on CGI.

Here's the first teaser...

And here's the second one...

The cast includes Götz Otto (Tomorrow Never Dies, Schindler’s List, Downfall), Christopher Kirby (Matrix Reloaded & Matrix Revolutions, DayBreakers, Space: Above and Beyond), Udo Kier (Blood for Dracula, GrindHouse), Tilo Prückner (The Neverending Story, Die Fälscher), and German actress Julia Dietze, a future Fantastic Femme if ever there was one!
Screenplay's by Johanna Sinisalo ( a 2009 Nebula Award nominee) and Michael Kalesniko (Private Parts).
The film just wrapped primary photography and fx will be completed in December.

What makes Iron Sky unique is the extent of the collaboration with movie fans and sci-fi community; "crowdsourcing" ideas and content for the movie in a collaborative movie making platform called WreckaMovie, giving the film publicity by sharing information online, even partially-funding the movie by designing and buying collectible merchandise and other means.  One million euros of the budget comes from fans. Pretty impressive!
Check out their About the Film

Salute the Fighting Yank!

Our story starts in June of 1941...and in 1775.
At a critical point of the American Revolution, George Washington himself entrusted messenger Bruce Carter with vital information.
Carter was captured, tortured, and killed by the British, taking his military secrets to the grave, and vowing to return when danger threatened the Colonies.
Flash-forward to 1941, Carter's great-great-grandson Bruce Carter III, a rich idler obsessed with history sees patterns forming that will lead to the USA soon becoming involved in the World War raging in Europe and Asia! But what to do? He's only one man, albeit an extremely rich layabout!
The ghost of his ancestor appears and leads him to a trunk in the attic of the Carter estate, where Carter III discovers his ancestor's personal effects, including his cape!
Donning the cloak, Carter III is granted amazing powers including super-strength and limited invulnerability. (He can't be killed, but he can be stunned.)
Wanting to disguise himself, Carter rummages thru the attic and dons a tricorn hat, breeches, buckled shoes, a domino mask, and a shirt which he sews an American flag decal to!
Thus garbed, the newly-christened Fighting Yank takes on local saboteurs for "unnamed foreign powers" until December 1941, at which point, the "unnamed" spies became German and Japanese operatives!
In a twist, besides giving Carter III his powers, the Revolutionary War ghost pops up to warn or advise his decendant about danger, and even occasionally transport the Fighting Yank garb to the non-costumed (and thus helpless) Carter III, who apparently didn't wear his costume under his street clothes like most superheroes!

Fighting Yank fought the Good Fight, first in Startling Comics, then his own title and the anthology America's Best Comics, until 1949, when superheroes gave way to an explosion of horror, crime, and Western comics.
He was revived in 2001, when Alan Moore brought him back, but quickly killed him off, so he could introduce a NEW Fighting Yank; Bruce Carter III's daughter, while Carter III took over his ancestor's role of ghostly aide to the present Fighting Yank!
In 2007, Alex Ross revived the Fighting Yank as the lynchpin for the new Project SuperPowers line of comics which incorporates numerous characters from defunct comic companies into a cohesive universe!

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have also revived Fighting Yank, taking the best of his classic 1940s cover art (including his first and last appearances), and emblazoning it on t-shirts, mugs, 12-month calendar, and other kool kollectibles in our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line!
If you want to "fly the flag" in a kitchy (yet kool) way, check out The Fighting Yank!

And don't forget Project SuperPowers, the best Golden Age revival on the stands!

Beware the Black Owl (BOTH of them!)

We already covered The Owl here, but there was another hero (actually two of them in the same costume) based on the wise bird of legend.
The first Black Owl debuted in Prize Comics #1 as K the Unknown, but became Black Owl in #2. He didn't get a cover appearance until Prize Comics #7, which also featured the comic book intros of pulp hero Green Lama and literary character Monster of Frankenstein!

Now stop me if you've heard this one...
Bored millionaire playboy Doug Danville decides to battle cowardly, superstitious criminals as a fearsome creature of the night.
Utilizing his personal fortune, he creates a masked identity with various non-lethal armaments and takes on the criminal element for several years.
Sounds like a whole slew of heroes of the period, eh?
But there's a twist, folks!
When World War II breaks out, he enlists in the Army!
(Most heroes remained on the Home Front battling spies and saboteurs.)
Realizing it would be best for the city he protects if The Black Owl was still believed to be fighting crime, Doug passes on his costume and equipment to another man in Prize Comics #34...

The second Black Owl was Walt Walters, father of a pair of patriotic teen superheroes, Yank & Doodle whom Doug Danville had teamed up with on several occasions, most notably Prize Comics #24, when they, Green Lama and several other characters, took on the Monster of Frankenstein!
Once Dad became a superhero, the kids became his sidekicks, but remained Yank & Doodle, instead of renaming themselves something avian to match their father's motif!
(Luckily, their costume's color schemes matched!)
When Walt is shot and wounded in Prize Comics #64, he retires from active crimefighting, serving as a non-costumed assistant to Yank & Doodle until their series is cancelled several months later.
Note: we never learn what became of Doug Danville after he entered the Army...

Alex Ross has now incorporated both Black Owls (and Yank & Doodle) into his Project SuperPowers Golden Age revival series, with one of the BOs somehow becoming a living black hole!

While we won't go that far, Atomic Kommie Comics™ has incorporated both Black Owls into our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line, even giving them their own section featuring the first cover appearance as well as the best cover art for each Black Owl on t-shirts, mugs and other goodies!

So, whether it's The Owl or The Black Owl, we have something on WHOOOever (sorry, couldn't resist) holds your interest!

And buy Project SuperPowers, the best Golden Age revival series on the market!

U.S. Jones: the Everyman as Hero!

Since it's almost the 4th of July, let's look at a flag-draped, patriotic hero...
At first glance, U.S. Jones was just another of a long line of 1940s super-heroes who wrapped themselves in the star-spangled red white and blue of the American flag.
Introduced in WonderWorld Comics #28, he made the cover twice before the title was cancelled and he was given his own short-lived title.
What made him different from other patriotic-themed heroes was...
1) He had NO secret identity, (It's speculated that his name was "Ulysses S. Jones" or somesuch)
2) U.S. Jones had no weapons or super-powers.
He described himself as "...an average American doing what's right."
He always won in the end, but it wasn't easy for him...
3) No origin.
He simply was there from the first story onward, fighting foreign evil!
4) While other heroes ran fan clubs, U.S. Jones was calling American youth to action against "America's Enemies". (This was before the US entered World War II.)
The "U.S. Jones Cadets Membership Kit," which the readers sent away for, told the readers that democracy must be protected at all costs, and listed ten rules for members; these included keeping fit, conserving resources, and knowing one's neighbors, among other things. (It also goes for a pretty penny on eBay...when you can find it!)

Since then, he languished in comic book limbo until Alex Ross included him as one of the time-lost heroes of Project SuperPowers.
Unfortunately, he's not adjusted as well as most of the others to being revived in the present day...

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ respect the Everyman of patriotic heroes and have digitally-restored and remastered his best Golden Age cover appearance as part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line of kool kollectibles!

And, just a gentle reminder to pick up the Project SuperPowers comics, on sale now!
They're the best Golden Age revival books out there!