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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2016 21:50:46 GMT -5
I loved the short lived Atlas Comics in the mid 70's. However I sold all of them in the late 80's. Does anyone here have a decent collection? If you do would you be willing to do some short reviews of some of the titles? Tiger Man was/is one of my guilty pleasures...
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2016 22:55:12 GMT -5
I loved the short lived Atlas Comics in the mid 70's. However I sold all of them in the late 80's. Does anyone here have a decent collection? If you do would you be willing to do some short reviews of some of the titles? Tiger Man was/is one of my guilty pleasures... I reviewed the 4 issue Wulf the Barbarian series in my From the Sorcerer's Scroll thread a ways back... you can find the reviews starting here-M
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,872
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Post by shaxper on Jul 15, 2016 0:13:38 GMT -5
I reviewed Planet of Vampires here.
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Post by Bronze Age Brian on Jul 15, 2016 0:21:04 GMT -5
I used to have the complete Atlas run but parted with over half of them earlier this year, Tiger-Man included. I believe I still have all of Grim Ghost, Demon Hunter, Morlock 2001, Phoenix, Tales of Evil #3 and possibly a few more. If any of those interest you I can probably get a review up for you. I did a Morlock 2001 #1 review a few years back, one of my favorite Atlas comics. Here it is: Morlock 2001 #1 (Atlas, 1975) Atlas Comics came out with some pretty strange characters in the seventies, and out of all of them...Morlock 2001 has to be the strangest by far. Written by Michael Fleisher (who had worked on Spectre and Jonah Hex) and penciled by Allen Milgrom (of Captain Marvel and Avengers fame), the story is about a future totalitarian government who finds a man growing inside a plant, whom they plan to use as a weapon against those who try to rebel against them.
In this future of 2001 the government in particular is pretty hilarious. They have "Thought Police" that go around killing people that aren't following the rules, which includes stashing books (which aren't allowed after the great book burning of the eighties!) or talking about subjects like truth and freedom. They infiltrate a greenhouse of a scientist conducting "illegal botanical experiments" and kill him...taking his precious plant pods along the way. They take the pods to a top secret laboratory for observation. There the regime's scientists discover that there is a man growing inside one of the pods...and he's attached to the inside of the pod "just like a pea or a bean!". There they rejuvenate the man and after they discover he can speak (apparently his fibro-cellular structure was pre-programmed) he is subjugated to a series of examinations brainwashing in hopes that he will follow their every command, and basically kill whoever they desire. One of the government's doctrines is "To Spy on a Neighbor is a Citizen's Highest Duty!"
They name their new weapon Morlock, and once he is ready to go to work they learn that touching him can be very bad, as it will cause the victim to mutate into a green fungus that spreads across the entire body...killing them as they become rooted to the ground in agonizing, plant-like posture. Hedging, anyone?
The regime sends Morlock out to basically just touch everyone that is pissing them off, causing rooted plant-people to sprout up around the city. Morlock's one pleasure is feeding birds, and he meets a woman while bird-feeding one day and befriends her. He tells her everything, and how he dislikes being told to kill people. But eventually, he finds out she is a spy for the government, and Morlock feels betrayed and apparently very hungry, as he turns into his true monstrous form and proceeds to eat the woman all up for a yummy treat. Morlock escapes the facility and somehow finds the laboratory of the scientist that created him, where he is able to learn his true purpose...and his one downfall, which is that if he turns into his plant form he is capable of commuting acts of "hideous evil"! Meanwhile, the evil totalitarian regime assembles an army to seek out and destroy the "alien life form who threatens the security of our happy society!".
And that is the first issue of Morlock 2001. I found it pretty entertaining and a lot different from normal superhero fare. It has some good seventies cheese, and Fleisher's future with it's book burning's and Thought Police is just hilarious. There is nothing very heroic about Morlock, at least in this first issue. I mean, he eats his love interest! Sure, she might have been a spy...but according to her, her intentions were good. It's a moment that I've never seen in a comic before, nor had expected.
The cover of this issue is a bit misleading, as we see Morlock battling a plant creature that is essentially himself! I enjoyed this comic not only for it's cheesy bits but because it was just so off the wall. A true Atlas gem in my eyes.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 15, 2016 0:22:14 GMT -5
I'll see if I can dig up my copies of The Scorpion.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2016 8:32:38 GMT -5
Thanks to everyone that posted. Keep them coming. Great stuff!
I even picked up the 2010 relaunch. I thought it had potential. I was hoping for Essential style reprints to come out of the 1975 series...
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Jul 15, 2016 8:41:45 GMT -5
I have Demon Hunter. I will see if I can get to reading it again this weekend and posting one. Though I don't have any way to scan pages.
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Post by hondobrode on Jul 15, 2016 21:40:11 GMT -5
Thanks to everyone that posted. Keep them coming. Great stuff!
I even picked up the 2010 relaunch. I thought it had potential. I was hoping for Essential style reprints to come out of the 1975 series... I too was buying the revival and hoping for something to come of it. The originals are crazy but crazy in a Bronze Age great way.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Jul 20, 2016 14:57:21 GMT -5
Demon Hunter #1 Sept. 1975 by Richard F Buckler & David Anthony Kraft Gideon Cross returns from Vietnam with his life not quite the way he left it. With no wife and no home, Cross is forced into doing the one thing he was good at. Death. So he finds his way into a drug syndicate and does some odd jobs working his way up to assassin. In that time he spends his money on women and whiskey but yet still feels something is missing in his life. One night when making a deal he stumbles across the Dark Retreat. The plateau of a mountaintop that is encircled by 13 massive tombstones. However when he tries to leave the circle his "mind exploded" and "collapsed in spasming agony". But before he went under, he caught sight of the Grand Magus. With this cult, Harvester of Eyes, Cross found more purpose than just being a hired goon. He felt purpose was once more restored in his life. Back in the present day Cross finds out that the cult is actually using him, just like the drug syndicate was. He sneaks in and watches a blood sacrifice to summon Astaroth, Grand Duke of Hell. Astroth speaks of achieving Xenogenesis, the rebirth of the demon race. With that Cross sneaks away knowing he is not a match for the cult and Astaroth. He gets on a plane to head to Jamaica. But little does he know that he is being followed by Astaroth in his new human form. There's more to the plot than that, but that's the basics. I picked it up because I liked the cover, even though I knew nothing of Atlas at the time. There have been more titles I researched that I would like to get at some point. But there's so many comics and only a limited amount of time and money, so I haven't acquired them yet.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 21, 2016 9:05:19 GMT -5
Thanks to everyone that posted. Keep them coming. Great stuff!
I even picked up the 2010 relaunch. I thought it had potential. I was hoping for Essential style reprints to come out of the 1975 series... I too was buying the revival and hoping for something to come of it. The originals are crazy but crazy in a Bronze Age great way. Gotta love the Bronze Age weirdness!
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