Return of the ORIGINAL FanBoy PLUS: Discount coupon!

The Boy with the Most Comic Books in America!
Nope, it ain't YOU, Bunkie!
It's Koppy McFad! (or at least it was in 1942!)
In one of the first comics metafictions, Koppy was a kid who read comics and then daydreamed about being a superhero himself, including interacting with other comics characters, who were fictional characters in his world, as well as real-life villains like Adolf Hitler!
Debuting in the back pages of Shadow Comics, he quickly transferred to Army & Navy Comics, becoming so popular that the book was retitled SuperSnipe Comics as of #6!

(In fact his appearance in Army & Navy Comics was so important, it featured the only time Doc Savage and The Shadow appeared together in a story before the 1990s!)
Not content to merely fantasize about heroics, McFad donned a red flannel union suit and attempted to crush evil in his neighborhood, usually with embarrassing (but humorous) results.
BTW, you'll note that Koppy didn't start wearing his red underwear until he gained his own title...
Ironically, he outlasted most of the superheroes who inspired him, ending his title's run in late 1949.
Curiously, his adventures haven't been reprinted, resulting in his comics being among the most expensive on eBay and other venues!
So we've brought him back on a new line of collectibles including t-shirts, mugs, iPhone cases, and a 12-month calendar!
Since 1949, a number of comics characters obesessed with comic books have appeared...
Some, like Captain Klutz, have worn red woolly underwear, but most, like Flaming Carrot and FanBoy, don't.
But all owe a debt to the first FanBoy...Koppy McFad!
What could be a better Christmas present for the fanboy (or fangirl) in your life than a kool SuperSnipe kollectible combined with one of the related books listed below for a fan-dream gift set?

Plus, we're offering a discount on any items (including SuperSnipe, natch) totaling $40 or more from the Atomic Kommie Comics™ store...

*Save $5 off orders of $40 or more, excluding shipping charges, gift wrap charges, applicable taxes and custom duties. Coupon code SEASON40 must be entered at check out. Promotion starts on December 9, 2010, at 12:01 a.m. (PST) and ends on December 12, 2010, at 11:59 p.m. (PST). Cannot be combined with any other coupons or promotions and may change, be modified or cancelled at anytime without notice.

Video Fridays: THE GREEN HORNET in "Corpse of the Year 1 & 2"

Continuing our weekly feature "Video Fridays"...

It's Hornet vs Hornet as an evil impostor with a duplicate Black Beauty (but no masked chauffeur) is wreaking havoc on the Daily Sentinel, attacking delivery trucks (killing a driver) and tossing a grenade into the paper's newsroom!
Who's behind it?
That's what Britt Reid has to discover before more people are injured or killed by this lethal "Green Hornet"!
The second two-part episode has lots of twists and turns as suspects are uncovered, revealed as red herrings, and then killed by the Hornet doppelganger!
Side Notes:
This is the second, and final, appearance of Barbara Babcock as Britt's on again-off again girlfriend, Elaine Carey, who previously appeared in "Frog is a Deadly Weapon".
There were two fully-functional Black Beauties built for the tv show. Both were used in the chase sequences. (Here's a link to a kool website detailing the history of the tv show autos.)
The clip provider has dropped the end credits of part one and the opening credits of part two, as well as the title cards for the second part to make the clips "flow" better as a story
BTW, I've noted the broken links in earlier blog entries due to removal of videos by YouTube.
I'll be editing in alternate links over the next week or so...
Here's the 18th and 19th episodes of The Green Hornet...

Unwrap Undercover Girl this Christmas!

Spies have always been popular in fiction.
Girls have always been popular in fiction.
So, it stands to reason that girl spies would be popular in fiction, right?
Not quite...
With the notable exception of Modesty Blaise, female secret agents have not been able to hold the spotlight, despite several high-quality attempts to crack the glass ceiling of spydom!

In comics, the short-lived 1950s Undercover Girl series from Magazine Enterprises was probably the best of the femme-spy genre.
Featuring art by luminaries like Bob Powell, Gil Kane, and Dick Ayers, the series detailed the adventures of government agent Starr Flagg against spies, saboteurs, and criminals.
Starr could shoot and fight (And, as you can see from the art, ride a motorcycle, one-handed yet!) as well as any male agent, but could play helpless and innocent to throw the baddies off-guard until she could kick serious butt!

Since she has no super-powers or outlandish gimmicks, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ titled her "The Heroine ANY Girl can be!™" and made her one of the feature characters in our Heroines™ line with three different covers, as well as her classic retro-style logo on a variety of goodies including tops, shirts, mugs, and many other tchochkies.
What grrrl from 6 to 60 wouldn't want to find something featuring Undercover Girl under her Christmas tree or in her stocking?

Under the Evergreen is...SUPER GREEN BERET!

Never failing to capitalize on a pop culture trend, '60s comics publishers, noticing the popularity of the hit single Ballad of the Green Berets (by Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler and Robin Moore) quickly produced comics series featuring the elite Army unit.
Most were standard war comics, but one stood out from the rest for sheer weirdness...

What do you get when you combine...
1) Green Berets and the VietNam War
with...
2) Teenagers...
and
3) SuperHeroes?
Why,
SUPER GREEN BERET,
of course!

Green Beret Roger Wilson saves a Vietnamese monk from a wild boar, and in return the grateful priest attaches a pin to his beret which makes it glow.
Home on leave, Roger gives the glowing beret to his teenage nephew Tod Holton, who discovers that, when he puts it on his head and salutes, he's transformed into a super-powered adult dressed in a soldier's uniform!
(It's sorta like the Golden Age Captain Marvel, a teenager who said the magic word SHAZAM and was transformed into a super-powered adult, albeit with his teenage mind.)
Using his new-found powers of teleportation, telepathy, telekinesis, transmutation, time travel, invulnerability, and super-strength, Tod decides to fight Enemies of Our Country, mostly in present-day Asia, but also travels through time to the American Revolution and World War II, during his two-issue run!
Yes, it's as hokey as it sounds!

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ felt that we couldn't let such an outrageous character and concept be forgotten, so, as part of our War: Past, Present, & Future™ line, we incorporated Super Green Beret as a light-hearted example of 1960s funkiness to contrast with the seriousness of our World War II and Korean Police Action material (plus we wanted an excuse to make some kool SGB collectibles for ourselves)!

So stick a Super Green Beret collectible under the tree or in a stocking for your loved one!
It's the next best thing to an original 11.5" GI Joe!
(And I should know, since I received one of the first Joes at Christmas, many years ago!)

BONUS: A FREE Christmas present for you: an online reprint of both issues of Super Green Beret!
You gotta see it to believe it!

The Christmas Gift that COMBINES SuperHeroes, Sci-Fi, AND Private Eyes--SPACE DETECTIVE!

Blending the hard-boiled gumshoe, sci-fi and superhero genres, Space Detective burst onto the comics scene in 1951.
Future-era wealthy philanthropist Rod Hathway and his secretary Dot Kenny fight interplanetary evil and helped the innocent as Avenger and Teena using the methods of 1940s gumshoes combined with the technology of the far future!
Blasters instead of revolvers!
Personal jetpacks instaed of taxis!
Stories, whose titles included "Opium Smugglers of Venus" and "SpaceShip of the Dead", delivered fast-paced action illustrated by comics legends Wally Wood and Joe Orlando, who would go on to greater graphic story glory as mainstays of EC Comics' Weird Fantasy and Weird Science titles.

Weird Trivia:
1) Despite the fact that neither character wore a mask, nobody ever commented "hey, ain't you that famous Hathway guy?" or somesuch.
(Maybe they were too busy looking at Teena's cleavage?)
2) Nobody ever calls Rod "Space Detective"! He's always called "Avenger".
3) The original user of the name "Avenger", a Doc Savage-style pulp/comic character, hadn't been published since 1944. The trademark had lapsed, so it was used on this unrelated character from a different company.
This sort of thing is far more common in comics/pulps than you might think.
For example, three different companies have had a "Captain Marvel", none of whom were related to the other companies' versions!
In fact, Marvel Comics itself has had several Captains Marvel including a father and son!)

Atomic Kommie Comics™ has revived Space Detective in our The Future WAS Fantastic™ retro sci-fi collection.
The four-issue series' slick art style is again in vogue with pop culture aficionados (like us) who are also into video games and graphic novels.
We've digitally-restored and remastered all four covers as well as recreating the series' logo!

So if you're looking for something offbeat as a stocking stuffer or main gift for that certain someone, look at Space Detective...before he comes looking for you!