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Yeah, I know, Atari Force, how good could it be, right? Well, actually, it’s darn good comic book science fiction, with light writing by Law & Order writer and Man-Thing creator Gerry Conway and spectacular art by the criminally-underused Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez…later issues were nearly as good, with writing by Nexus creator Mike Baron and art by Eduardo Barreto. Yes, they follow up on characters and situations from the comics that came prepackaged with Atari 2600 game cartridges. Plenty of strange aliens, swashbuckling Star Wars style space action, great lettering from Bob Lappan…it’s a lot of fun, and probably the best comic Conway ever wrote. (Baron’s best comic is still Nexus, but he did a good job here, too.)

Alas, in 1985 it all came to an end, after only 20 issues (and a later special with some inventory stories). This site, which has been online for about 8(!) years, covers this comic in excruciating detail.

(Look, it was either this or a discussion of “comic book ages” (you know, Golden Age, Silver Age, etc.). Consider yourself lucky.)

Comics legend Julie “Be Original” Schwartz is in the hospital with pneumonia. Everyone else seems to be pointing to Harlan Ellison’s message board for updates (and reminiscing), so I’ll do the same just to avoid confusion. Hopefully his health will improve…Mark Evanier has a few words about people who have presumed the worst about Mr. Schwartz’s mortality in the past. (His permalinks don’t seem to be working right at the moment, due to having to code it all by hand, but it’s the Dec. 16th entry.)

A three-issue Lex Luthor story from the mid-80s was interrupted by a surprise 70th birthday tribute issue prepared for then Supes-editor Schwartz by the creative staff.

Ah, a good day for comics. You’ve got your Prison Funnies, your Scurvy Dogs, your Zippy Annual 2003, your Plastic Man Annual, your Batman Adventures, your Hate Annual #4, your New X-Men #150, your Superfolks…lots of good reading.

Speaking of the Plastic Man Annual…is Plastic Man’s origin story one of the most reprinted Golden Age stories or what? I think I must have it in a half-dozen publications (including The Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics). I shouldn’t complain, as I know it’ll be new to a lot of people, but part of me still wishes they would have used those pages for another story. And reprinting a text story? Nobody read these things in the comics back then, no one’s gonna read it now! And the 60s Plastic Man story…Gil Kane art is always a treat. Funny Gil Kane art is even better! Okay, nobody liked the 60s Plastic Man, but I have some fondness for it. Don’t ask me to explain.

Plus, if I can’t have Jack Cole on the current iteration of Plastic Man…I’ll accept Kyle Baker.

…(located here):

• We’ve gone from not having any DC Direct Batman figures to having too many.
  

• As The World’s Biggest Swamp Thing Fan (TM), I am glad to see a new Swamp Thing series on the schedule.
  

• So that’s how they’re going to handle the trade-paperbacking of Warren Ellis’ mini-series…put ’em two in a volume. Good idea. (Mek and Reload, if you’re wondering.)
  

• The continuing shoehorning of Smallville-esque continuity into the Superman comics continues, via Birthright, it appears.
  

• Of course, now that I’ve finally finished my run of the original Doom Patrol, DC is well on its way to reprinting them all in the Archives format. Of course, I think I paid about as much for all the back issues as you’d have to pay for the two Archives that reprint issues 80 to 97. Maybe I exaggerate slightly…but not much.
  

• John Byrne drawing Hawkman? What the…?
  

• Ah, Batman in the 40s trade paperback, how I love you.
  

• I wonder how many copies of the Smallville comic book series are ending up in the hands of non-comic-fan Smallville fans?
  

• As noted by my friend Dorian, one of the great villains returns in JSA. (Linkage totally stolen from him.) This makes me really, really happy for very stupid reasons, mostly involving my younger self’s obsession with Roy Thomas’ Golden Age obsession.
  

Superfolks should be out this week in your finer comic shops, in a new edition from About Comics. It’s an interesting read…varies widely in tone from cartoonish parody to social satire, but it’s compelling stuff for those of us who have been reading comics for a while, and can see where its influence has played out in the industry.

I came across this months-old discussion of aborted DC Comics projects that I found interesting…and one of the items discussed, the New Teen Titans graphic novel Games by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, is, after all these years, back in production. If only the same would happen to, say, Joe Kubert’s Redeemer, but how likely is that, at this point.

Further discussion of Alan Moore’s proposed DC crossover series (and alleged Kingdom Come inspiration) Twilight can be found here. And here’s a brief mention of Rick Veitch’s proposed King Hell DC crossover series – in Spanish.

Then there are those series that got cut off midstream…like Mike Baron and Barry Crain’s Sonic Distruptors (only other site with anything of significance is here – where he also mentions that he can’t find any sites on the series) – I seem to have a very vague memory of a blurb in an Amazing Heroes news column suggesting that the series would be concluded in a graphic novel by Baron and Mike Mignola. Which, of course, didn’t happen.

Andy Helfer and Kyle Baker’s Shadow series is another famous example of runs cut short…probably because the owners of the Shadow had heart attacks when they saw what was done to him – take a look at the last cover for the best example. I thought it was a hoot, myself. And, once again, my aforementioned vague memory seems to tell me that a wrap-up graphic novel by Helfer and Baker was announced as well…my guess is that it never got past the “no way are you going to be allowed to do that!” stage. Oh, well.

(And this has nothing to do with comics, really…but I found this page during my Google searches, and goodness, how old is that Quicktime logo?)

What’s the stupidest way they could bring back Hal?

First (and best) response: “Carol Ferris gets pregnant, baby Hal crawls out (complete with costume and/or facemask).”

(“Have him become the new Spectre” is a very close second.)

Kudos to my friend Corey for bringing this important topic to my attention.

Andy just pointed out on his excellent site that Sony Pictures is promoting Spider-Man 2 by offering Blogger and Livejournal templates and icons.

Well, give them credit for trying something different, anyway.

(Where’s my Santa Sangre template?)