ATLAS/SEABOARD COMICS COVER GALLERY - PART THREE...

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Anybody remember TV detective MANNIX?  Surely LOMAX was going for a similar-sounding name? Anyway, LARRY LIEBER, younger brother of STAN LEE, reminiscing about his time at ATLAS/SEABOARD, pointed out that owner MARTIN GOODMAN put him in charge of the black and white magazine side of things, while JEFF ROVIN, who'd filled that role at WARREN, was responsible for the colour comics line, which Larry had more experience in.

Did it make any difference to the end product?  I doubt it.  A comic's a comic, whether it's in black and white or colour, and the main problem Atlas faced (in my view) was that the line was launched at the wrong time, as comicbook sales were in general decline in the '70s.  DC suffered an 'implosion' just a couple or so years later, so it was hardly an ideal period for launching so many new titles and swamping the market.  Besides, Larry ended up in charge of both sides when Jeff Rovin left after only a few months.

Of course, another huge problem was that most of the stuff simply wasn't very good, being not much more than second-rate MARVEL knock-offs.  Disagree?  Then let's read what you have to say in the comments section so that we can have a rollickin' big punch-up over it.  It's good to fight - er, I mean talk!

More Atlas covers to come in future instalments, Criv-ite chums.  Be sure not to miss them or I'll come around to your house and push doggie-poo through your letterbox. (In a kind, caring and considerate way of course.) 

CHRISTMAS NIGHT With The STARS 1964 - The LIKELY LADS...

Here's a 1964 clip featuring The LIKELY LADS.  And guess what?  It's got a comic strip theme, so isn't that apt though but?  (As the lads themselves would say.)

PART TWO OF ATLAS/SEABOARD COMICS COVER GALLERY...

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Ten more ATLAS/SEABOARD covers for you to swoon over, frantic ones, in the continuing series of the short-lived run of titles from the mid-'70s. MARTIN GOODMAN decided to go toe-to-toe with MARVEL and DC, but he lost by a knockout - his own.  Some people think that Goodman started his new version of Atlas simply as a promising business venture, and not because CADENCE (to whom he's sold Marvel) didn't keep his son on as editorial director, but I think it's unlikely.

He'd sold his publishing empire just a few years before for some serious dosh, so why would he want to use that money to start another comics and magazine publishing company - unless, of course, there was also a personal score to settle?  It's said that he treated his son, CHIP, worse than a minion, but Cadence, in reneging on their verbal agreement, not only insulted his son, but, more importantly, treated Goodman Senior himself with contempt.  The gauntlet had been flung.

Given the results ten months later, he probably wished he hadn't been so impetuous and thrown all that money away.  Even if he could afford it, it's a certainty that, on reflection, he'd have preferred to put it to better use.  But his loss was our gain, in that, for a brief period in the mid-'70s, comic fans had something to get excited about - at least 'til we saw the results of what we'd so keenly anticipated in the run-up to Atlas unleashing their plethora of titles on an eagerly waiting world.

If only more of them had been worth the wait.

ATLAS/SEABOARD COMICS COVER GALLERY - PART ONE...

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I'm sure you all know the story, but I'll remind you anyway as there's nothing I enjoy more than the sight of my own words taking form on the screen in front of me, thereby allowing me to labour under the delusion that I'm writing something interesting that'll be the object of rapt fascination to others.

When MARVEL COMICS publisher MARTIN GOODMAN sold the company (along with MAGAZINE MANAGEMENT) to CADENCE INDUSTRIES in 1968, he secured a promise from the new owner that his son, CHIP (off the old block presumably) would continue as editorial director.  Four years later, after a long transitional period during which Martin acted as a consultant, he finally stepped aside, only to find that Cadence promptly showed Chip the door in favour of STAN (The Man) LEE.

Martin was not a happy chappie - and ATLAS COMICS was the result!  Created purely out of spite for the way his son had been treated (deservedly so, in the opinion of many), Atlas was the new kid on the block who was gonna kick Marvel's @ss.  Well, that may've been the plan, but it didn't exactly pan out that way.  Around ten months later, Atlas was gone, leaving behind nothing but the memory of various short-lived comicbooks and magazines that never quite made the grade.

And that's all the excuse I need to throw a cover gallery party.  So enjoy part one of this new Crivens series, and have fun trying to recall the Atlas titles you bought back in the day.  And don't be shy about sharing your reminiscences with the rest of us.  The comments section awaits you!