Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Green Lantern, Warlock & E-Man – The SF-Superhero Competition: 31 Days Of Atlas #21

continued from here, although today’s post is, I assure you, largely self-contained: Perhaps I might pause at this point in proceedings to cast a glance at the competition faced by Phoenix: The Man Of Tomorrow #1 on the newsstands of November 1974. Given that the title was Atlas Comics’ opening gambit in its attempt to […]

Or We Might Choose To Study Jim Starlin’s Captain Marvel Instead: 31 Days Of Atlas #20

continued from here: To suggest the creators of Phoenix: The Man Of Tomorrow #1 would have benefitted from the example of DC Comic’s pioneering Silver Age superhero reboots isn’t to say that that alone would have made a bestseller out of Rovin and Amendola’s book. By 1974, DC Comics was itself struggling in the marketplace, […]

Bring On The (Interesting) Bad Guys: 31 Days Of Atlas #19

continued from here: As I’ve been discussing in the past few blog posts, the Phoenix was a profoundly unimpressive comicbook, and the shortfalls in craft that caused that underachievement appear rooted in a lack of control when it came to the narrative traditions of the superhero genre. Yet none of that means that Phoenix couldn’t […]

Phoenix: Neither Marvel Nor DC: 31 Days Of Atlas #18

continued from here, where the problematical relationship of The Phoenix with the storytelling tradition established by DC Silver-Age superbooks was discussed; Despite being in so many way an archetypal, if poorly executed, DC Silver-Age Sci-Fi superhero series, Phoenix came complete with what appears to have been a facile Marvelesque makeover. And so, where the likes […]

A Table Of Contents For 31 Days Of Atlas Comics.

New: Day 31: In the final post of Them Darned Superpeople’s ’31 Days Of Atlas Comics’ series, there’s a look at Wulf The Barbarian, a sword’n’sorcery comic which, although thankfully free of the excesses of Iron Jaw, settled for the formulaic when novelty was more called for. (here) Please do scroll down for links to […]

What Kind Of Superhero Are You Trying To Be?: 31 Days Of Atlas #17

continued from here: The superhero genre is far more difficult to master than so many of its detractors will allow. Sadly, it’s not difficult to find the likes of multiple award-winning film directors, who themselves have spent much of their careers working within once-despised cinematic niches, arguing otherwise. Few storytelling traditions have been regarded with […]

5 Of The Very Best Atlas/Seaboard Covers: 31 Days Of Atlas #16

I’ll be far away in the capital city today, undergoing trial by drill and needle and jaw-clamp in a London dental teaching hospital. Which means that today’s entry in the 31 Days Of Atlas series will be something, as the TV chefs say, I knocked up earlier. A change of pace, if you will. A […]

On Phoenix, The Man Of Tomorrow #1: 31 Days Of Atlas #15

Of the three titles in the first wave of Atlas colour comics to be shipped, Phoenix: The Man Of Tomorrow #1 was the closest to a traditional superhero title. (*1) Then as now, that was the comics industry’s dominant genre, and Phoenix was going to have to compete in an intimidatingly crowded marketplace. First impressions, […]

On Ironjaw – “a certain resentment being expressed against women”: 31 Days Of Atlas #14

Trigger warning for a discussion that focuses upon the venomous misogyny, including sexual violence, that featured in mid-70s issues of Ironjaw. continued from yesterday’s blog – here – on the detestable content of Atlas Comic’s Ironjaw #1 On the comic’s final interior page is an editorial feature entitled the world of IRONJAW. In it, we’re […]

So How Appalling Is Ironjaw?: 31 Days Of Atlas # 13

Trigger warning for a discussion that focuses upon the venomous misogyny, including sexual violence, that featured in mid-70s issues of Ironjaw and Conan. continued from here; One way of discussing the profoundly misogynistic content of Fleisher and Sekowsky’s Ironjaw #1 is to compare it to another characteristically chauvinistic barbarian title of the period, Marvel’s The […]