Balladeer’s Blog’s recent look at the short-lived comic book company Atlas-Seaboard was a big hit. As a follow-up here’s a look at an Atlas figure I did not cover in the main article, which can be found HERE
MAN-MONSTER
Secret Identity: Paul Sanders, Olympic Swimming Gold Medalist
Origin: Hedonistic Paul Sanders lives the life of a playboy from his endorsement deals and his resented oil baron father’s vast fortune. After a flirty/ bickering battle of the sexes-style interview with two female reporters from Women’s Lib Magazine Paul boards a motorboat for one of his father’s offshore oil wells.
To show off for the still-watching ladies Paul leaps overboard to swim the rest of the way to the oil drilling platform. As fate would have it, the oil drilling had just churned up some rare, mutated bacteria from the ocean floor. Sanders winds up covered by the bacteria, which causes changes to his body.
Paul barely escapes the bacteria and makes it back to shore, where he transforms into a red-scaled amphibious monster. After a brief rampage he becomes human again and the female reporters take him home.
From then on in times of danger the transformation comes over Paul again and he finds himself battling various forces of evil.
First Appearance: Tales of Evil #3 (July, 1975). His final appearance came in September of that same year.
Powers: Continue reading
A TEEN TITANS CHRISTMAS CAROL – Last year Balladeer’s Blog examined the 1973 Luke Cage, Hero For Hire version of A Christmas Carol. This time around I’ll take a look at Christmas 1967’s The Teen Titans’ Swingin’ Christmas Carol. 
Balladeer’s Blog marks the shortest day of the year with the shortest-lived comic book company since Pelican Publishing! 
PHOENIX 
First Appearance: Phoenix #1 (January, 1975). His final appearance came in October of that same year. 
DESTRUCTOR 
THE ZEBRA 
DYLAN DOG: DEAD OF NIGHT (2010) Halloween Month continues with a look at the luckless Brandon Routh’s turn as this film’s title character, Tiziano Sclavi’s horror hero from Italian comic books. Sclavi launched Dylan Dog’s series in October of 1986 and under various creative teams the series is still running. 
Let’s go by the numbers, knowing full well that budget and projected box office returns limited many of the creative decisions: 
IV. The cinematic sidekick for Dylan was a new creation – Marcus, played by Sam Huntington, who had previously appeared with star Brandon Routh in the ill-fated Superman Returns (2006). 
CAPTAIN WIZARD 
Halloween Month continues here at Balladeer’s Blog with a look at the 1970s Ghost Rider. I will say again, from my research the very late 1960s and most of the 1970s were the best period for Marvel Comics. They were to that period what Pulps were to earlier decades. 
At any rate, the Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze) made his first appearance in August of 1972 and it’s a shame that the movie version in 2007 didn’t stick closer to the action and horror combo of the comic books. 
Balladeer’s Blog spent part of this past summer on a light-hearted, escapist bit of fun by examining the very first Mantis storylines at Marvel Comics. Mantis was brought into the Marvel Cinematic Universe this year in the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie but I reviewed her ORIGINAL appearance and the 1973-1975 Celestial Madonna epic she starred in. 
II. MANTIS 2: NIGHT OF THE SWORDSMAN – Mantis and her romantic partner the Swordsman show up at Avengers Mansion and wind up helping the superteam against one of their old foes. CLICK 
Balladeer’s Blog’s summer-long exploration of Marvel Comics’ Celestial Madonna Saga of 1973-1975 wrapped up last Saturday. For a light-hearted “dessert” after that 31-part examination here’s a look at a ONE-ISSUE tie-in from 1977 that Steve Englehart, the writer of much of the Celestial Madonna Saga, wrote for the Justice League of America (as it was then called) at his NEW employers: rival comic book company DC. 
His way of doing that is often pretty cutesy, like having his Mantis stand-in get interrupted at key moments when she’s about to answer very specific questions about herself and her background. 
In a coincidental bit of prescience regarding future depictions of Mantis when Marvel Comics finally brought her back (left), Willow has GREEN skin. She also has what appear to be antennae peeping out from under her pile of hair as a nod to Mantis’ pronounced antennae (again, at left).
GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS Volume 1, Number 4 (May, 1975) … Let All Men Bring Together 
We join the Vision where we left him: in the center of the Earth in a mystical cave created as an artificial “womb” for the re-birthing Dormammu. As Uatu the Watcher told the Avengers and Defenders when Dormammu was seemingly destroyed by the Evil Eye of Avalon, Dormammu is a god. 
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