Classic Gone-and-Forgotten: Atlas Comics Part One

"This is Gone and Forgotten. I'm KillJoy. I'm your host for
this edition, and I got words for those of you who think Steve Ditko is an
unmitigated genius..."

"Yeah, I was the lead in a Steve Ditko-created backup to Charlton Comics'
E-Man#2, eight pages that seemed to go on for months. The only real consolation
is that I'm not as purely terrible as Liberty Belle."

"This is the first time I've ever actually spoken in print; not that I didn't have any lines in the story, I just couldn't bring myself to read 'em. It was always 'Society has laws,' or 'Crumbs like you think that society owes you..." and then fifteen pages of dialogue from The Fountainhead. I just clammed up and let the poor saps in my Rogue's Gallery take the brunt."

"Oh, those sad dopes: Jungle Jake, Robber Hood, the Flame ... none of 'em ever worked again. Last I heard, Jungle Jake was posing for 'wrestling magazines,' if you know what I mean."

"The gimmick of the book was that the bad guys'd just sit there and cry and weep that society owed them the right to rob people, and I'd buck wild on 'em, and then they'd go to jail. Kinda like Christian Slater, I suppose. Also, there was this idiotic subplot about my secret identity, coz I was supposed to be one of three men: Jud Lah, lawyer, Al Ace, counter intelligence, and the other guy. Like I'd admit to answering to ANY of those names. Gah. Steve Ditko."

"Ah well, who's gonna tell Steve Ditko that we don't NEED another objectivist super-hero, huh? Not me, I got a lucrative second-career selling custom-fitted theatre lighting. It's a hell of a business opportunity. Anyway, let's get on with this month's feature..."

Part One: My Brother, My Enemy

Atlas Comics, ah Atlas - famed predecessor to Marvel, home of Steve Ditko, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, bringer of such wonderful horror, fantasy and monster comics --- oh, wait, we're not talking about THAT Atlas Comics! We're talking about the crummy, derivative comics produced in the mid-1970's by none other than Stan Lee's brother, Larry Lieber.

And BOY, did Larry not us forget it. In his scant few editorials - the entire Atlas line, of course, barely ran four months in 1975 - Larry mentions his admittedly significant contributions to Marvel's history and his connection to his famous brother .... well, we'll say "more than once."

Larry's long history with Marvel (he was a scripter on the first Thor, Iron Man and Ant-Man stories, among others, as well as long-time artist on the daily Spider-Man newspaper strip) gave him some important connections in the mid-70's comic book world . Besides a passel of top-flight artists and writers (Berni Wrightson, Howard Chaykin, Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, Larry Hama and more more more), Larry established a professional relationship with Martin Goodman, original publisher and principal financial support for Marvel Comics, back in the day. Martin's son Chip continued their relationship by setting up Larry in the editor's chair for Atlas' ambitious 24-title launch in 1975.

So the brother of a great editor, financed by the son of a great publisher, proceeded to work with the illegitimate children of famous artists and writers to create a bastardized legacy of comics ... well, no, I made that last bit up. But they DID try to launch a line of comics intended to challenge Marvel and DC's dominance (mostly Marvel) in the comic publishing world, and hopefully strike lightning twice by creating a second wave of the great "Marvel Age of Comics."

And more about how they did later ... hey folks, I'm gonna get at least a half dozen articles out of the wonders of Atlas before I'm through! I have to spread the wealth of information out over multiple entries! But if you'd like something to chew on, consider this - by the time I've covered all of Atlas's 24 books, the combined articles about Atlas will have outlasted the company itself by threefold.

Sad.

JOHN TARGITT - MANSTALKER

Atlas was largely unabashed about admitting to its ... I was going to try and find a polite euphemism for it, but the word I'd be looking for is "aping" ... aping of other sources for it's material. In fact, in Targitt's own letter column, Lieber says "...comics and cinema are closely related art forms. For years, comics have borrowed cinematic film techniques, and vice versa. Now ATLAS has carried the relationship a step further, by employing cinematic ideas for the comic medium."

What he means to say is "We crammed BULLITT and DEATH WISH into one comic!"

Targitt is John Targitt, a New York police detective whose wife and kids are brutally killed at the hands of the mob. Targitt decides to take the law into his own hands and visits bloody justice on his family's killers. And thus, a superhero is born, right? Well --- NO!

John Targitt started off as a cop-thriller (Atlas covered all its bases by having at least one comic for every popular genre of the day) and despite what you see in these pictures, Targitt didn't don a super-hero costume until his second issue (featured here on the cover to his third issue), when the previous concept was trashed and the book was turned into a super-hero drama -- now called John Targitt ... Man-Stalker!

This was the "Third Issue Switch," a metamorphosis that affected fully half of Atlas' books (either around issue two or three). Lacking the strong editorial guidance his brother had provided to Marvel, Lieber met flagging Atlas sales with a sudden decision to effect sweeping cosmetic and thematic changes to all existing characters. Targitt was luckier than most, as many character were wholly unrecognizable after the wait between second and third issues -- at least some of the plot strings continued after the genre was abandoned.

Overall, the book was a tragic mishmosh of vigilante cliches, started by writer Ric Ayers and then taken over by Gerry Conway in a story that poorly represented his talents. Art was provided by the very capable Nostrand, reaching for a style that was strangely cartoony considering the subject matter.

All that said, though, I have to admit a shred of affection for a hero who will - without skipping a beat - empty eleven shots from a .357 magnum at point blank range --- into a stubborn doorknob.

I like chicks, boss.

Weird Suspense featuring The Tarantula

Michael Fleischer rears his ugly head over and over again in the credit boxes over at Atlas, not least of which for this book.

The Tarantula, a morbid, grim, stiff story featuring the Count Eugene Lycosa (who looks not a little like Eugene LEVY), a European blue-blood whose family line has been cursed by the evil witch ... um ... Rak-Kosa, I think ... it failed to make an impression ... and now, under the full moon, become some kind of man-tarantula creature.

To feed his inhuman tastes, the Count wanders the seedy streets of America (he's abandoned his native where-ever-the-heck-he's-from) , cornering thieves and murderers and ex-sanguinating them in scenes which possess all the drama of a Berenstein Bears book.

If you're not familiar with Michael Fleischer, he's most famous for being engaged in a high-profile lawsuit with Harlan Ellison, and for not much else. He DID write The Great Superman Book, a compendium of the Superman mythos (a dry, technical tome which holds interests to only the most die-hard of fans ... such as myself, for instance), and assorted comics here and there.

Fleischer was assisted on this book by the underrated Pat Boyette, whose very competent compositions sadly lent little to the book. In fact, I have to wonder who was behind this decision: When Lycosa transforms into the Tarantula, his head and hands are visibly affected, but he continues to wear his fashionable sky-blue Nehru jacket and brown loafers. "What kind of Man-Tarantula reads Playboy?"

On a side-note, what exactly constitutes "Weird Suspense?" "One of these fish is responsible for teaching the hats to sing! But whi-i-i-ich one ... ?" Weird, indeed.

Yep, agile as a cat ...

The DESTRUCTOR

Aaargh, Steve Ditko!

Yes, yes, I know he's responsible for Shade, Dr.Strange, Spider-Man, Creeper, Hawk and Dove, Blue Beetle and the Question ... and I just don't care. For every brilliant character he's created, he's got fifteen of these hyperactive, double-jointed fashion victims bounding around.

I think it was Archie Goodwin who scripted these stories, and - like others working for Atlas - he was working well below his capabilities. Jay Hunter - the former street thug and son of a famous scientist who eventually becomes the Destructor by drinking a super-scientific serum *whew* - actually starts his career with the a terrible line which begins something like "(I'll be) a smasher, a destroyer ... SOME KIND OF DESTRUCTOR."

Destructor? He didn't like "Destroyer?" I don't know about you, but outside of talking about this comic I've never actually used the word "destructor" in any fashion, nor would I want to.

Destructor is largely cut from the Daredevil mold of heroes - besides his tremendous strength and agility, he has heightened senses and heals remarkably quickly from even fatal wounds. In his fourth issue, possibly due to a near-miss with a "third-issue switch," he gets exposed to some kind of radiation that gives him the power to shoot destructive beams from his hands.

This ranks the Destructor in with a very select group of super-heroes who have had TWO origins. Not that it made him any better.

One of the last things that sticks with me about the Destructor is a pair of villains he fought in his third issue; a man-hating animal trainer named The Huntress, and a bare-chested beast-man named Lobo ... who had amorous intentions towards Huntress. Destructor offs the pair of them at the end of that issue, so it never gets developed or resolved, but I thought it was a charming dynamic to add to the story.