Either naughty OR nice at Christmastime? We have a grrrl for you!

One of the most notorious Golden Age characters, Phantom Lady was also one of the first costumed superheroines, beating out Wonder Woman (who debuted in All-Star Comics #8) in 1941 by several months!

Like a number of 1940s comics characters, she was created by an independent comic book studio for an established publisher, in this case, Quality Comics, debuting in Police Comics #1 which also featured the first appearances of Plastic Man, FireBrand, and The Human Bomb.
After a year, her strip was canceled by Quality, and the character was offered to Fox Comics, where she was promoted to her own comic, which started with #13, since it took over the numbering of an already existing title.
Her costume was recolored and modified by legendary "good girl" artist Matt Baker to expose more of her (ahem) assets and a number of covers featured her being captured and tied up by evildoers.
It is this version which became notorious by becoming one of the primary examples in Dr. Fredric Wertham's crusade against comics detailed in his book Seduction of the Innocent.

Believing that both the "naughty" and "nice' versions of the character have a place in pop culture history, Atomic Kommie Comics™ has included the classic superheroine in not one, but two different sections of our store!

In the Heroines!™ collection, we have the G-rated "empowered" version, kicking evil butts right and left!

And, in Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™, we have the PG-13, more risque version, including the famous cover (above) included in Dr. Wertham's book!
She's also featured in her own 12-Month calendar as well as on both our Heroines and Good Girl / Bad Grrrl Calendars!

If you're looking for classy, yet kitchy, holiday presents, you can't go wrong with our selection of Phantom Lady goodies for the pop culture / comics aficionado in your life, especially combined with one of the items below as a gift set!
Let him (or her) unwrap Phantom Lady this Christmas!
They'll thank you for it! ;-)

Video Fridays: THE GREEN HORNET in "The Hunters and the Hunted"

Continuing our weekly feature "Video Fridays"...

The opening narration to the Hornet's radio show was "The Green Hornet; he hunts the biggest of all game..."

In this tv episode, the tables are turned.

Wealthy (and crooked) businessman Quentin Crane and his fellow members of the exclusive Explorers' Club use exotic weaponry (like blowguns and crossbows) to hunt and kill gang leaders.
Ironically, the other members are well-intentioned innocents who believe their "hunts" will end crime in the city, while Crane is using them to eliminate competition as he takes over, one gang at a time!
And...the group's next targets are...The Green Hornet and his masked associate!

SideNotes:
When Crane's gangsters break into Reid's home intending to kill him, Kato (with Reid's aid) take them down. It's the second time we see Kato in action sans costume, and the first time in the series we see an unmasked Reid in a fight.
Speaking of which, I wonder what do Reid's neighbors think of the constant hubub at the young publisher's townhouse? If it's not a robbery where a police car gets blown up by a laser beam ("The Ray is for Killing"), or gunshots ("Beautiful Dreamer"), this episode features the first of several brawls. Not to mention the sinister black car constantly prowling the alleys at all hours... Those neighborhood association meetings must have been interesting! (At least the tv Batman's oft-invaded stately Wayne Manor was out in the country. No neighbors to disturb!)

Another thing, the criminals who raid Reid's house are the same baddies he and Kato KOed (while in costume) at a gang-leader's office earlier in the episode. We don't see them again. Rather than let the twice-trashed hoods put 2+2 together ("That little guy who helped Reid fights like the Hornet's driver...Hey wait a sec..."), I wonder if Britt and Kato discreetly "disposed" of them?
There's a LOT of day-for-night scenes here. Depending on the quality of the episode's print, I've seen it almost as bright as day, to barely able to make out silhouettes.

Here's the 11th filmed and aired episode..."The Hunters and the Hunted"

CosmoCat & SuperDuper Mouse

When you think of Atomic Kommie Comics™, you don't usually think of funny animals.
Well, it's time you did...
We're reintroducing two more long-lost superheroes from the 1940s. We've done that many times before in our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line.
This time, there's a twist...
They're funny animals, and they're for kids only!
Cosmo Cat, like many other superheroes, was created by an accident that would kill most normal people (or animals).
In his case it was dropping a bomb on his foot.
The fact that he was standing in an atomic power plant at the time might have had something to do with his survival. (Scientific accuracy was not one of the strong points of Golden Age stories...)
After gaining the usual super-powers of invulnerability (which all animated animal characters have to an extent, Ask Wile E. Coyote!) super-strength, and flight, he renewed his powers by taking Cosmic Catnip Capsules!
Despite having the power of flight, he rode in a cat-rocket when traveling from his base on the Moon to battle crime on Earth.
He was one of the last of a wave of 1940s super-animals including Super Rabbit (ironically from Timely/Marvel) and Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, the animal surrogate of the Golden Age Captain Marvel.

We're also offering the FIRST of that wave...Super Mouse (although we're calling him "SuperDuper Mouse" to avoid wrath of the owners of the Big Man in Blue! (and, no, Super Mouse was not a DC character!)
Super Mouse also took a controlled substance to maintain his powers; in his case cheese produced from the milk of a "super-cow"! (We won't dwell on the implications of chemical/radiation-enhanced animals, at least not while chewing on our genetically-manipulated cheeseburger...)

At any rate, we're offering several images of each furry hero (plus SuperDuper Cat and other funny animals) at Tykes, Toddlers & Tiny Tots™.
Please note: while we offer the usual assortment of mugs, mousepads and other tchochkies, the clothing is infant, toddler, and kid sizes only!
And, they make great Christmas gifts (hint, hint)

Video Fridays: THE GREEN HORNET in "The Preying Mantis"

Continuing our weekly feature "Video Fridays"...

The spotlight is on Kato, as he and The Green Hornet battle a normally-benevolent Chinese secret society whose younger members are extorting "protection" money from helpless Chinatown business owners.
In addition, the society (or "tong") is being secretly manipulated by white gangsters using one of the tong members, Low Sing, as a cats-paw.
The Hornet wants to end the protection racket by removing Low Sing from his position of power by exposing the gangsters' influence on him.

Side Notes: When people mention The Green Hornet tv series, this is the episode they usually refer to. It was the featured episode (due to it's emphasis on Chinese martial arts) in a compilation movie released theatrically shortly after Bruce Lee died.
This is the ep for Bruce Lee fans as he finally gets to strut his stuff in solo combat against multiple foes! Lee choreographed the fights, including the one-on-one finale with Low Sing. Rumor has it that most of the tong members participating in the climactic fight scene were students from Lee's dojo.
It's the only episode where Kato is defeated in hand-to-hand combat as a masked Low Sing attacks him from behind early in the ep.
Besides blasting a door and a tommy-gun with it, The Hornet uses the Hornet Sting extended to full-length as a fighting staff several times in this episode.
There are things in this ep that beg the question; what's Kato's ethnicity in the tv series? On the radio show he's said to be "Oriental", which became Filipino after World War II began. In the two 1940s movie serials, he was Korean. In the 1980s comic and the current "graphic novels", he's Japanese. In this episode, he's familiar with Chinatown and many of it's residents, especially the lovely Mary Chang. He speaks Chinese, and translates conversations between tong members for the Hornet's benefit. Plus, he's well aware of social conventions and procedures of the tong itself. Of course, he's well-versed in the Chinese martial art of gung-fu. Is he Chinese? It's never specifically stated.
Curiously, at the end of the episode, when Britt Reid, Lenore Case, Mike Axford and the previously-blackmailed businessmen celebrate over dinner at one of the businessmen's restaurant, Kato is nowhere to be seen!
Weird Trivia: the toy company that resurrected the 1960s Captain Action action figure line 10 years ago with both a reissued Green Hornet costume and a never-before done Kato costume was called "Playing Mantis"!
Here's the tenth episode produced and aired; "The Preying Mantis".

The Doctor is IN...and he's STRANGE!

Initially called "Doctor Strange" scientist Hugo Strange became a superhero in Thrilling Comics #1 by ingesting a substance he created called Alosun, obtained by distilling the atoms of the Sun, which gave him super-strength and near-invulnerability.
He couldn't actually fly, but could leap great distances like the Hulk and the Golden Age Superman.
Like his inspiration, pulp hero Doc Savage, he initially wore a standard business suit, which would become shredded during the course of that issue's adventure,
But within several months, this became dark jodhpurs, riding boots, and a red safari shirt, which quickly became a faster-to-draw red t-shirt.
Again, like Doc Savage, he didn't have a secret identity, so there was no need for a mask, but Strange did have an unusually-large pompadour to give him obvious visual distinction.
When kid sidekicks became a trend, Doc introduced Mike, who wore a similar outfit. Reports conflict as to whether Mike received Alsoun or not, and since the Thrilling Comics I've scanned are all slabbed, I have no way of confirming if Mike was super-powered or not.
While he never received his own title, Doc not only ran in Thrilling Comics, but as one of the features in the anthology America's Best Comics, where the covers showed him interacting with other Nedor Comics heroes like The Black Terror and Fighting Yank. (Though inside, the heroes all had separate strips and didn't work together!)

Doc retained the Thrilling Comics cover spot for most of his run, only losing it for two months to the patriotic American Crusader, before regaining it until #60, when a jungle heroine named Princess Pantha replaced him. (Ironically, his final cover on issue #59 showed him rescuing a jungle girl, but not, as reported, Princess Pantha!). Doc stayed as a backup until #65, when he disappeared.

But you can't keep a good hero down.

In the 1990s, Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing) revived Doc as one of the Terra Obscura heroes in his Tom Strong series. (He had already used Doc as the visual template for the Tom Strong character.)

Working off the Earth-One/Earth-Two alternate-Earth concept made popular at DC Comics, Alan remade Doc Strange into Tom Strange (changing his name from "Hugo Strange" to "Thomas Hugo Strange" and making him into a Golden Age variation of Tom Strong!)

The concept proved popular enough that a spin-off book entitled Terra Obscura, starring Tom Strange and his new crime-fighting companion/wife, Princess Pantha (who had replaced Doc in Thrilling Comics!) ran for 12 issues!

Doc has also appeared in Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers series, though simply called "Doc", to avoid confusion (and potential trademark conflict) with Marvel's Doctor Strange.
We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have also revived Doc as part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line!
There are four classic covers (including his FIRST appearance) on a variety of collectibles including t-shirt, mugs, messenger bags, and other cool stuff as well as a Classic Doc Strange 2010 12-Month Calendar with a dozen different covers including his first and last!
Any of them would make great Christmas gifts, especially in conjunction with the trade paperbacks of the Project SuperPowers Golden Age revival series or Terra Obscura! (Hint, hint!)
The Doctor is in, and he's ready for action!