The Coming of...Cave Girl!

In the 1940s-50s, one of the most popular genres in comics was the "jungle hero", the most famous one of all being Tarzan.
A horde of imitators followed, with some interesting variations, including an entire sub-genre--the "jungle heroine"!
While many had weird names like "Sheena", "Rulah", or "Zoot", one of the best-illustrated was known only as "Cave Girl"!

Beginning as a backup in Frank Frazetta's Thun'da comic, Cave Girl was a little girl named Carol, whose explorer parents were killed by natives in the jungle they were mapping.
Before Carol could also be put to death, an eagle swooped down and took the child to it's nest.
There, the eagle and a wolf raised the girl to young adulthood, teaching her how to survive and communicate with other animals.
Though in the first couple of stories, the jungle was shown to be home to timelost creatures like sabretooth tigers and Neanderthals, by the time she got her own title, it was pretty much a generic jungle heroine strip...with one notable exception!
Legendary "good girl" and romance artist Bob Powell handled the art as Cave Girl cut a svelte path thru Africa's villains from backup feature to four exciting issues of her own title!

The Atomic Kommie Comics™ crew has found a home for two of her best covers on shirts, mugs and other stuff in our Heroines™ section.
As a cool retro-styled gift, she appeals both to guys who enjoy seeing an attractive woman in dynamic action, and gals who like viewing an empowered woman who stands tall and proud in a male-dominated world!
Talk about the best of both worlds!

Fear...the Fantom of the Fair!

The 1939-1940 Worlds Fair in New York City was a BIG event whose influence was felt throughout pop culture, in particular, fantastic fiction;
The first science fiction convention (NyCon 1) was held on the fairgrounds!
Charlie Chan caught a murderer in the Worlds Fair-themed film Murder Over New York!
Doc Savage fought "The Worlds Fair Goblin" in the pages of his pulp magazine!
DC Comics launched a book called Worlds Fair Comics. (After the Fair closed, it was retitled Worlds Best, then Worlds Finest) This tied-in with "Superman Day" at the Fair, featuring the first actor to play Superman in costume, Ray Middleton!
And a super-hero was created specifically to protect the Fair and fairgoers!

Appearing in Amazing Mystery Funnies, The Fantom of the Fair was dedicated to defending those who walked the grounds of the exhibition, battling evil within it's boundaries.
The covers and stories incorporated elements and locales of the Fair.
While the Fantom's real name and the reason he fought crime were never revealed, readers did learn a number of things about him during his two-year run:
He had above-normal strength and agility, plus the ability to hypnotize people and alter their memories.
He operated out of the labyrinth of service tunnels under the fairgrounds, which enabled him to travel unseen, and had a secret headquarters within them (inspired by similar elements of the Phantom of the Opera)
His face was never revealed. When he wore civilian clothes, his visage was obscured by a fedora.
Despite changing his name to FantoMan when he received his own title, and expanding his operations to the whole of NYC, the character's series ended a couple of months after the Fair closed.

While he inspired the similarly-named Phantom of the Fair who was integral to the retconned origin of DC Comics' Golden Age Sandman, he hasn't popped up yet in Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers, where most of his publisher's other characters have already appeared. But, it's probably just a matter of time.
Meanwhile, the crew at Atomic Kommie Comics™ felt a kool hero like the Fantom should not be forgotten, so we incorporated a pair of his best covers into the Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line, giving him his own section!

If you want to show that special pop-culture-oriented someone (who's into Worlds Fair kitch) that you want to share their interests with them, do a 1939 Worlds Fair-themed present!
Combine one of our cool Fantom of the Fair collectibles with a copy of a World's Fair-themed book, the Images of America book 1939-1940 NY World's Fair or The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, or Doc Savage "The Worlds Fair Goblin" by Kenneth Robeson! All titles are in-print and currently available!
Then party like it's 1939!

Video Fridays: THE GREEN HORNET in "The Silent Gun"

We're introducing a new weekly feature "Video Friday"

Followers of this blog are well aware of how much of a fan I am of The Green Hornet (and Kato, natch) in his various incarnations.
While the 60s tv series is not yet available on official dvd, it is available on YouTube.
Here's the first broadcast episode "The Silent Gun" (but NOT the pilot, "Programmed for Death", which was the third episode aired) in three segments.
Enjoy!



Next week: "Give 'Em Enough Rope"

The Silver Age Green Hornet by Gil Kane

As The Green Hornet tv series went into production in June, 1966, the producers realized that there was no existing art showing the title character or his sidekick, Kato.
Actually, there was plenty of art, but it was of the previous, differently-costumed, 1940s version...

So, the producers commissioned new "key art" for promo and licensing purposes.
They chose noted comic book artist Gil Kane to produce the new graphics.

Using early costume-test photos (above: showing different masks used only in the pilot episode "Programmed for Death" and no gloves) as reference, Kane did several pieces which became the basis of almost all the merchandising art on various tie-in products including the Captain Action costume, playing and trading cards, and the sole paperback novel based on the tv show, Green Hornet in the Infernal Light (used on the back cover as seen below).

We've acquired 1966 original posters of the primary key art piece and digitally-remastered and restored them both on collectibles in our Icons line and as limited-edition posters Pop-Art #5 (Hornet) & Pop-Art #6 (Kato)!

With a new feature film set for January, now's the time to get the latest Secret Chic items to wear to screenings (or to class) or put on your bedroom, dorm room, or den wall!

Frankly, It's Frankie! (Frankenstein, that is!)

As Halloween approaches, we thought we'd take a look back at one of the best horror comics series of all time (and toss in a free plug while we're at it!)
Prize Comics' Monster of Frankenstein began life in Prize Comics #7 (the same issue that introduced The Green Lama to comics) and continued over several years going from a relatively-straight sequel to the Mary Shelley novel to all-out comedy, all drawn by the same artist, Dick Briefer (who also created the series The Target & the Targeteers.) and continuing to the point when Prize Comics became Prize Western Comics.
By then, he had his own title, also played for laughs, which ran for 17 issues.
Of particular note was Prize Comics #24, where The Green Lama, Yank & Doodle, The Black Owl, and other Prize Comics heroes teamed up as "The Prize Fighters" to deal with the assumed threat of the Monster, much as various Marvel heroes tend to team up to try to tame the presumed threat of The Incredible Hulk!

By the mid-1950s, with horror comics a hot genre, The Monster was revived as a straight horror title with #18 and running thru #33, with Dick Briefer still at the artistic helm.
This is the period Golden Age fans still speak of in respectful hushed tones (although technically, it's not the Golden Age).

Old-timers may also note the logo was adapted for the first (and only) issue of Calvin Beck's Journal of Frankenstein, a b/w magazine which was retitled Castle of Frankenstein for the remainder of it's run. (It was one of the better competitors to Forrest J. Ackerman's long-running Famous Monsters of Filmland).
There have been several reprints of the Briefer material including Ray Zone's 3-D Zone, Michael T. Gilbert's Mr Monster's Hi-Shock Schlock, and AC Comics' Men of Mystery, and most recently, Idea Men Productions' trade paperback (ISBN-10 1419640178, ISBN-13 978-1419640179)
AC Comics also did an updated, villainous version of the character, called "Frightenstein"* in a number of their titles, and Dynamite Entertainment's Project SuperPowers has incorporated him as the conceptual basis of the "F-Troop" reanimated-corpse soldiers.

Knowing you can't keep a good monster down, Atomic Kommie Comics™ has revived The Monster as part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ collectibles line just in time for Halloween with six classic covers (including #18, his first horror-era appearance) adorning such items as tote bags (perfect as trick-or-treat bags), mousepads, blank sketchbooks, mugs, and, of course, shirts.
In addition, we now have a Frankenstein 12-Month calendar featuring the a dozen of the best of both the humor and horror versions!

Personally, I'm gonna be wearing one of them on Halloween.
Only question is, which one? ;-)

*"Frightenstein" was also the name of a short-lived 1970s syndicated tv series called The Hilarious House of Frightenstein. Vincent Price did a number of intros to segments.