"The Atom" of the golden age was 19 year old Calvin College student Al Pratt, runty little guy (5' 1") who was put upon by everyone. Rather than get all pissy about it or develope a Napoleon complex, he devoted some time to honing his mind and his body to be the best he could be. Not to seek revenge of bullies, but to help defend all the other underdogs out there who needed someone to stand up for them.
He had no super powers, except that he was a good upstanding fella who wanted to make good. Not a bad person to exemplify if you ask me, and when you clicked on this h'yar blog you kind of did.
Premiering in "All-American Comics" #19 in 1940, The Atom lasted as a feature until the end of the run and in "All Star Comics" (we'll get to it, be patient dear reader) he was a charter member of The Justice Society of America and lasted with the team until their last appearance in 1951, the end of the golden age. In fact, other than Hawkman (we're GETTING there! Calm down!) appeared in more of the JSA's adventures than any other member.
The Atom has since been retconned into having some super powers, but I'll get more into my tirade about fan-boy comic book "writers" trashing whatever came before them to their own ends another time, for now it's time to check out The Atom in his very first appeareance by Bill Flinton and Bill O'Conner.
Enjoy!
Meantime...it seems our little hero has heard there's free beer at "Ye Olde Drink Hole" for anyone who wants to earn it, so he's horning in on Doiby (Green Lantern's pal( Dickles' stage space...
Talk to you soon.
Haha I love your cartoons of these little JSA guys. And the original comics themselves of course!
ReplyDeleteHey ! This gives me a Zillion dollar idea ! We need to start our own Golden Age Strip-Club & combine Pole-Dancing with Mud-Wrestl'n ! We could live like Kings ! (& die rather quickly a pleasant death with Black Canary's thighs wrapped around my~*) Collateral ! Do we have collateral ?!
ReplyDeleteBubba: Thanks, buddy!
ReplyDeleteLys: The piggy bank is empty, DANG IT! Another great idea passed by..sigh!
(sigh) I guess we will have to keep Blogging for free and suffer a non-whore death !
ReplyDeleteJeff: I love the Golden Age stuff. So simple and direct, so blessedly lacking in any desperate desire to be "important." Which destroys current comics (among many other reasons). Heroic pure and simple. Great post (and I love your cartoons).
ReplyDeleteThanks Mykal, I love doing these and love drawing these great heroes. I hope to do them all...at least until it becomes uninteresting...and I can't imagine it ever will.
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