Classic Gone-and-Forgotten: Atlas Comics Part Three

"sfptzl glbsh."
"shlmp gtzl?"
"glx brzl."
"glxll brum bzgll
foogum wa wa bdangum spa
fon wokka wokka?"
"word."

---

Part Three: Also...A Werewolf!

For the completists among you, may I present what is (to the best of my knowledge) a complete listing of the entire Atlas comics line of mockery fodder:

The Barbarians, Blazing Battle Tales, The Brute, The Cougar, Demon Hunter, The Destructor, Devilina, Grim Ghost, Fright, (Featuring Son Of Dracula), Hands Of The Dragon, IronJaw, Midnight Madness, Morlock 2001, Phoenix (...The Protector), Planet of the Vampires, Police Action, Savage Combat Tales, The Scorpion, Tales of Evil, Targitt, Thrilling Adventure Stories, Tigerman, Vicki, Weird Suspense, Weird Tales of the Macabre, Western Adventures and
Wulf the Barbarian.

Many of these titles featured werewolves...

Tales of Evil

Atlas' premiere horrible ... er, "horror" book ran a whopping three issues. It started out its first issue as a sort of generic anthology title and then changed format slightly to become an anthology book which attempted to launch new characters. To wit:

Issue one starts off with a story about a possessed doll that forces a little girl to kill ... so you know Stephen King probably wrote it. ( I say, that's what you get for letting your child play with a little, velveteen man-goat). One of my personal faves from the Silver Age, Mike Sekowsky, then illustrates a story about a werewolf who must fight the evil forces of the Hair Club For Men (kinda, I ain't much kidding there) and ends up with a story about vampires that tries REALLY HARD to imitate an EC flavor.

Second issue introduces THE BOG BEAST, whose sobriquet kind of confuses the fact that he emerged from a tar pit. Although he's spotlighted on the cover messing up a bunch of Carnies, the only action he sees inside is watching two hippie revolutionaries get offed. That issue is followed up by ANOTHER EC-type story - this time, I swear artist Jerry Grandenetti is tracing Kriegstein panels - and ends with a story about ... a werewolf.

Third issue stars MAN-MONSTER, who is actually former Olympic swimming champion Paul Sanders (and who is, when we first meet him, "entertaining two beautifully-bikinied Women's Lib Magazine reporters! --- Unaware that he has a date with destiny --"). Paul swims through some gigantic "bacterial force" that comes outta nowhere, turns him red and scaly, and puts him on the kabuki-KISS frontman HELL-BLAZER's shit list. The end.

Bog Beast reappears in that issue as well. He meets a werewolf.

The Cougar
Here's a story I KNOW you've heard before: Handsome Hollywood stuntman lands a major role in a big-budget action movie, the movie bombs, stuntman keeps his costume and deicdes to fight vampires - oh, and the occasional Cajun werewolf - on the locations of major films worldwide.

The cover to this comic's first issue promotes it as "Hollywood stuntman turned Night Stalker," which is Atlas' way of saying "We combined Hooper with Kolchak!"

The premise of the book is pretty underdone: never parting with the costume he was meant to wear in his failed big budget debut (A choice which, in the real world, would mark you as a sad, out-of-touch loser suffering from pathetic delusions. In Atlas, that makes him a super-hero), the "Cougar" stumbles across supernatural menaces on the sets of the very films where he works as a stuntman.

Usually, studio insurance doesn't cover that.

Naturally, he encounters a ... say it with me ... WEREWOLF! Specifically, the werewolf is his long-lost, rebellious brother suffering from a bayou witch's curse. But still, a werewolf, Atlas did not let me down ...

Vicki

This was Atlas' shot at the Archie crowd, starring a gaggle of clueless, comical, girl-crazy teenagers and werewolves. Unfortunately, the comic lost much of its appeal when the characters from Fast Willie Jackson were bussed in as part of the school distrcit's anti-segregation policy.

Okay, as we did with Fast Willie, so shall we do with Vicki. Arch was replaced by Tommy Trippit, who I'm sure was quite a hit at his mid-70's high school for wearing sweater vests and slacks. Vicki is a little bit Betty, and a little bit Veronica, but not so much as the very Veronica-esque Peg (who sports two distinctly different hairstyles in the first issue). Midge is Go-Go and gets more air time, her Moose is the wisely renamed Animal, and Reggie got an even dorkier name as Ashley.

The werewolf's name is DogFace, and boy does he love chompin' down those triple-cheeseburgers at Doc's Ice Cream Parlor.

And I'm serious about those out-of-date fashions! Even the bikins were straight from 1958. They had these pin-up fashion pages with Vicki wearing Twiggy's hand-me-downs, a lot of polo shirts and v-neck sweaters, and the women wore bows in their hair. It's amazing to look at ... like the most unlikely time machine of all.

Devilina

No werewolves, but at least you get a mummy, a mermaid and a demoness. Oh, and titty.

One of Atlas' black-and-white magazines, and the hardest-to-find of all their books. I have little to say besides mentioning that the cover promises "Illustrated Stories Of Female-Filled Fantasies," which is what I thought Pay-Per-View was for.

*PS - I was kidding about DogFace. Honestly, people.