Barbaric Adventures Of Ironjaw!

Michael Fleisher wrote a truckload of comics for DC and Marvel in the 70's and 80's. He also was a key writer in the brief burst of activity which erupted under the name of "Atlas-Seaboard Comics" in the middle of the 70's. How he came to be a mainstay of that momentary company is a curious tale. Another reliable and exceedingly visible talent from that era was Pablo Marcos.

I found some of the story here in an interview from The Amazing World of DC Comics with Joe Orlando. Orlando confirms what I already knew, that Iron Jaw began as a pitch to then editor Orlando from Fleisher.

What I didn't quite realize, was that Fleisher got the chance to pitch the idea of a sword and sorcery Jonah Hex/Conan the Barbarian to DC because of his tenure on Sandman. This version of Sandman was the final pairing of the team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. After the first issue, Simon and Kirby went their separate ways, but sales reports suggested there might be life in the Sandman concept. But the classic team was no longer available and so Michael Fleisher and Ernie Chan were pressed into duty. 

 

Anyway, after the relative success of this effort, Fleisher was given a chance to pitch, but was told first to check out the Ironwolf comic in Weird Worlds. What that contributed to the final product aside possibly part of the name is speculative at best. But for whatever reasons, after all that Orlando rejected the Iron Jaw concept and gave Fleisher the freedom to shop it around. He did, sold it to Atlas-Seaboard where it became a bit of a flagship book for that company.

Meanwhile at DC, Orlando green lighted another sword and sorcery project, Claw the Unconquered by David Michelinie and the aforementioned Ernie Chan. By the time though that book hit the stands, the Iron Jaw run was nearly over at Atlas-Seaboard. What took so long I wonder? So, in the elaborate tapestry of history, we find that Joe Simon and Jack Kirby indirectly gave rise to a project at the heart of yet another publishing effort (however brief) by former Timely and Marvel comics publisher Martin Goodman. How utterly strange.

 

Below you'll find the entire story from Atlas-Seaboard's IronJaw #2. It features a fantastic Neal Adams cover (his second after a stunning effort on the debut issue), of which there are two versions, and some incredible Pablo Marcos artwork, here in its original raw, lush form. IronJaw was as close to a flagship title as Atlas-Seaboard had and this is the best issue of the brief run. (I think Marcos looks best in black and white.) The blood and thunder of Michael Fleisher's brutal and blunt barbarian rings through over and over this violent tale. I can almost smell IronJaw in this epic -- and believe me that's not a good thing. 

But before you dive into this feast, take a moment if you need to read the set up for this story, continued from the debut issue. "The World of Ironjaw" (from issue #1) sets it up very nicely.

Pablo Marcos was an artist who was able to communicate great power in his work, and these pages showcase that wonderfully. 

IronJaw went on to star in two more issues in his brief four-issue run. Though those four issues were epic in terms of the Atlas-Seaboard line. He also was the only character in the Atlas-Seaboard line-up that I can think of who headlined a second comic, this titled Barbarians featuring IronJaw. He seems clearly to be one of the tentpoles the company wanted to build around if they had remained solvent. 

This Post is a Revised Dojo Classic. 

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Atlas-Seaboard Magazines - 1975!

Jeff Jones

Boris Vallejo

Ernie Colon

Neal Adams

Pujolar

George Torjussen
In addition to the avalanche of color comics, Atlas-Seaboard rolled out several B&W magazines during that hectic year of 1975. Tales of the Macabre and Devilina were straight up horror books in the tradition of Warren and later Marvel. Thrilling Adventure Stories was a bit different, a book featuring a range of stories as the title suggested of a more broadly adventurous nature. Tiger-Man debuted in TAS before getting his own color comic book. There are good stories by Frank Thorne, Jack Sparling, Jerry Grandenetti, and even a wonderful story by the Manhunter team of Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson.

The covers for the Atlas-Seaboard comic magazines were a pretty scattershot affair. There is the superb Jeff Jones piece for the debut of Tales of the Macabre followed by a solid Boris effort on issue two, in that early part of his career when his textures were still interesting.


Devilina sported a debut cover by some guy named Pujolar which had later did service as a Vampirella cover some years later (an ironic switch for sure) and then for the second issue a George Torjussen effort that really tore up the expectations. That cover is sexy and weird at the same time. Torjussen has expressed a low regard for this cover, but I think it's fabulous.

Ernie Colon's artwork on the first issue of Thrilling Adventure Stories was decent and necessarily muddled, but Neal Adams really showed up strong on the second issue. There sure is no effort to affect a house style with these covers. I had to gather these up years later, as the magazines slipped by me during the summer of 1975 originally. They are worth the effort.

Harryhausen's Cyclops by Greg Theakston

Doctor Zaius by Greg Theakston

Phantom of the Opera by George Torjussen

The Thing by George Torjussen

I gathered these Atlas-Seaboard gems up many years ago. As Famous Monsters of Filmland knockoffs go, these are really good ones. The first issue bears a December date and might well be the first Atlas-Seaboard publication, though that's suspect.

Greg Theakston, he of Pure Imagination Publishing fame and creator of the process of "Theakstonization" for cleaning up smudge and dirty comic pages, turns in two really evocative images for issues one and two. I especially like the Cyclops, the misbegotten but very memorable monster from Ray Harryhausen's Sinbad epic.

George Torjussen though really knocks it out of the park with his two paintings, especially the final one featuring The Thing from Outer Space. That's a fantastic image, and Torjussen has related how he had to watch the movie on late night television to remember what The Thing looked like. He sure did though, giving us a real insight into the shadowing invader.

I'm closing off my current look back at Atlas-Seaboard with these last two publications, neither of which I have nor have ever seen in person.

Above is Gothic Romances a one-time only magazine that hoped to add women to the Atlas-Seaboard reading audience, despite all the content appealing to boys and men they published otherwise. It features a fantastic painted cover by Elaine Duillo, artwork used again on a novel entitled The Conservatory written by Phyllis Hastings.

There are a few bits of spot artwork by Howie Chaykin, Ernie Colon, and Neal Adams in this book, but it's really not a comic book, though a collectible for diehard Atlas-Seaboard fans for sure.

My Secret is another magazine, more recently identified as part of the Atlas-Seaboard cache, but this despite its evocative Marvelesque cover image has no comics content whatsoever according to reports.

And that wraps up my year long look back at the summer of 1975, when a new kid showed up on the block, but who quickly got knocked down because of a combination of poor management and a weak economy. Though the Atlas-Seaboard material shows up in foreign formats sometimes, the rights to it still remain locked up as far as I know.

The stuff is still pretty cheap on the back issue market, save for a few gems like those above. But this material like the stuff from Tower Comics and Skywald Comics would make for some great reprints, and I suspect might well find an audience today.  

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Atlas-Seaboard Comics - October 1975!

We have reached the end. Atlas-Seaboard, a fledgling company with veteran publishers, veteran talent, and at least early on a hefty pocketbook, made a big impact in 1975. They offered all kinds of titles in all kinds of genres, but by the end of the year they would be gone. There is only one book with an October date.

PHOENIX THE PROTECTOR #4 is an ironic choice as Atlas-Seaboard's final publication. The final Phoenix story is another attempt to revise the original, and it's not a very good effort really. The artwork by Ric Estrada and Frank Giacoia is perfectly okay, but lacked the edgy spontaneity of the Sal Amendola work that had graced the first three issues. The story by Gary Friedrich offers our hero in a fit of despair attempting to kill himself by flying into the air and overloading his spacesuit. Before his desperate plan can work, aliens (not the Deiei, other aliens) known as The Protectors beam him aboard their spaceship and his wounds are attended to by a gaggle of lovely space-chicks. His wounds bandage and his face transformed, he confronted by a tribunal of overly-dressed aliens (all more or less humanoid, though the script at times seems to suggest otherwise) who inform Ed Tyler the Deiei worked for them, and now that they have failed the Earth problem has defaulted to them. (For the record there are two short scenes that tie up apparent loose ends from the previous plot line, but it's not clear if we're supposed to see Ed's wife and boss again.) Our hero has been chosen it seems to salvage the Earth's behind by doing his hero thing, and to help him they outfit him with new gimmicks and a new outfit. After his new gear is on, but before he's had a chance to test-drive it, he's beamed to a battleground of some sort where he confronts a cyclops. After a slow start, he eventually beats his opponent and proceeds to take on this new task as savior. The final panel shows our hero, renamed the Protector, staring out toward the reader, his face in calm repose, accepting of his fate.

And that's it.


The Atlas-Seaboard company disappears into the comics mist alongside Fawcett, Fox, Tower, Centaur, Skywald and so many others. The company was an oddball blend of hubris, experience, and striking naivete. I remember wanting more than anything for them to succeed, but by the end I was ready for it to be over. The promise was wasted, and the books had drifted far from their original concepts. Thanks to those who have followed me down this particular memory lane to this point. 

But we're not quite done yet.  I'll be taking a few glimpses at the Black and White line-up from Atlas-Seaboard this month and put a bow on the proceedings.  

A bit more to come later today. 

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Atlas-Seaboard Comics - September 1975!

Three books from Atlas-Seaboard in September, and surprisingly, one of them is a debut.

WULF the BARBARIAN #4 was drawn by Jim Craig, and the story continues to plod along. Wulf runs across a trio of thieves who themselves have just come across a rather potent jewel. After significant bloodletting and lots of confusion, Wulf absconds with a horse and the gem itself. We cut to a scene of a monster and a woman fighting, with the monster winning by killing the woman. The monster changes into a man, a former toy maker who as it turns out Wulf knows. Almost immediately Wulf chances upon the scene and in another ironic twist this toymaker/monster is the former of the recently stolen gem. The thieves return, a battle rages, and all die save for Wulf, a lovely thief who runs away. The story ends with Wulf killing the former toymaker and going on to further adventures. We'll never see them as this is the final issue. This issue marks a distinct downfall for this well-crafted fantasy series. This final script was by Mike Friedrich, a talented writer, but it's mostly a mess.

TIGER-MAN #3 gives us some very muscular and inviting Steve Ditko artwork with Al Milgrom inks. The script by Gerry Conway is rambling succession of coincidences, almost all involving mysterious suicides and attempted suicides. Dr. Hill / Tiger-Man investigates and discovers a mad psychiatrist named Dr. Hypnos who compels people to kill themselves. He pulls this trick on Tiger-Man, but ironically our hero is saved by some crooks who attempt to mug him and so save him from immolating himself. He takes a second stab at Hypnos, grabs his monocle, the source of his power, and compels Hypnos to throw himself off a roof. Tiger-Man's adventures have come to an end with this final issue.

And now for the debut...

DEMON HUNTER #1 is a Rich Buckler and David Anthony Kraft offering and introduces Gideon Cross, a disaffected Vietnam vet who seeking meaning in his life after his wife has deserted him finds a cult of demon-worshipers. It's all a tad confusing, but he becomes an agent for them with an ability to cloak his appearance and he goes around collecting blood samples for some unknown purpose. He seems rather unconcerned about this unusual occupation. He's also working as a bodyguard to an apparent crime lord, and these two missions seem to be conjoined somehow. Despite some very interesting Buckler storytelling and typically powerful action sequences, this debut is very compressed and more than a little confusing. We'll never get it clarified at Atlas though as this is the first and last Atlas issue. The story will continue in a fashion at Marvel in the guise of Devil-Slayer.

There is one more month for Atlas-Seaboard. October approaches!

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