Hopefully a Planet of Vampires movie is as misleading as the comic.
I’m going to take a break from answering your questions to…answer your questions, specifically a couple of queries that popped up in response to some of my recent posts. I just wanted to touch on them before they disappeared down the memory hole.
First off here’s Matthew with
“I’ve seen that groundhog cover a few times before, but don’t think I’ve ever noticed the $1.11 price before. I know I’ve seen at least one title with a price of $6.66 (the original printings of Jay Stephen’s Dwellings), but what’s your opinion on ‘non-standard’ prices like this? Annoying or something else?”
The $1.11 price he’s talking about from was the nigh-legendary Shadow of the Groundhog, the cover of which I’m reprinting here again because why not.
Now, my feeling about this specific gimmick cover price was that it was a plot to get more “1s” on the front cover, to emphasize that this was a BIG FIRST ISSUE and that you should buy an entire longbox-worth of them, like that sad bastard I saw at a con trying to unload them.
But in general weird prices like this don’t bother me too much, especially nowadays when it feels like there are so many different price points already, what’s one more? Just so long as they actually put the price somewhere on the cover, they can price it whatever they want.
One early example of this was the Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special, which had a cover price of $2.39, playing off the fact that the first issue of the popular Lobo mini had the unusual 99 cents price point. I can’t remember if other Lobo comics had “funny” prices, and I think that one Harley Quinn special with the scratch ‘n’ sniff pot smell missed a bet by not being $4.20.
Customer Sean asks
“…What is your opinion, Mike–and other folks–about the recent news that Atlas-Seaboard is trying to make a comeback through licensing toys based on its characters and also trying to have an Atlas-Seaboard Cinematic Universe? I believe Devilina, Phoenix, and Grim Ghost have been optioned for films. I would love to see David Cronenbourg direct a Tarantula film.”
Any excuse to reprint a Grim Ghost cover:
This very short-lived comic publisher from the mid-1970s cranked out a slew of comics of varying but mostly good quality, with solid art and interesting ideas. And also the odd twist of the premises of some of the books shifting dramatically even within the very short three to four issue runs more of these had.
Anyhoo, I think this is the second pass through the news cycle of Seaboard/Atlas getting optioned for films/etc. (I mentioned it on the blog back in 2019.) It’s real “all the other licenses were already snapped up” energy, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a live action version of the Grim Ghost pictured above, as long as they’re prepared for moviegoers who don’t know any better calling it a Spawn rip-off.
I honestly don’t know what’s there otherwise that required putting out ther scratch to get the rights, since not a lot there is particularly so unique that you couldn’t do similar knock-offs. I mean, Scorpion, maybe? Or you could do your own super spy thing. Iron Jaw? You could do your own barbarian thing (though, okay, if you needed him to have, well, an iron jam….). That could apply to most superhero things, so that what a studio is really buying is the known name, but most of these Atlas books don’t even have that.
Ah, well, I’m sounding more down on it that I actually am. I do like these Atlas books and wouldn’t mind seeing what’s done with them. Even if what’s done is not anything I’ll end up recognizing. It may turn out to be no more than a footnote in that superhero movie gold rush, bought up by a studio during that brief window when anything based on a comic book did gangbusters business, but wasn’t exploited until that post-period when it’s less of a sure thing.
I too love the Atlas/Seaboard comics, flawed though they be. I have an almost-complete collection (missing Gothic Romances #1) and for the life of me I can’t figure out what the gain is in optioning these names. There’s no fanbase, certainly not enough to justify a billion-dollar budget.
It would be pretty cool if they did a movie that started out one way and then completely changed characters and plot in the third act.
I remember Atlas has a “relaunch” back in 2010. Published by Ardden (who?) it had three 6-7 issue miniseries (Grim Ghost, Phoenix, and Wulf) and a crossover miniseries cancelled after two issues.
@ Matthew Murray
I have seen some of those, and except for Kelly Jones doing some Grim Ghost cover art–I can’t remember if he did the interiors or not–most of those comics looked unpolished and not ready for primetime.
The better strategy would be for Martin Goodman’s grandson to go retro and hire as many of the people who worked on the original Atlas/Seaboard books back in 1974-75. Or entice Grant Morrison or Alan Moore to work some magic on those characters. What if Moore and Steve Bissette did a run on Morlock 2001 (which would probably need to be retitled)? Maybe Tim Truman or Matt Wagner or Jim Starlin could have fun with some of those characters as well. How about a Devilina magazine with stories by Frank Cho, Adam Hughes, Mike Kaluta, and Steranko?
“One early example of this was the Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special, which had a cover price of $2.39, playing off the fact that the first issue of the popular Lobo mini had the unusual 99 cents price point”.
I think that was the only two.
” I mean, Scorpion, maybe?”
Title might be an issue, between the Scorpion TV show (no relation) and the Scorpion King movie!
“It would be pretty cool if they did a movie that started out one way and then completely changed characters and plot in the third act.”
I understand this reference.
I think it would be hard to do all of those titles now- part of their charm is that some of the creators didn’t know what they were doing, but went with it anyway. Trying it again might result in Trying Too Hard, which never works.
Now reprinting a few of the old series, and hiring enough creators to give them an ENDING in the flavor of the old stuff, might be possible. With some of the old writers/artists. But I doubt they’ll go that way.
@Snark Shark
That’s not a bad idea, actually. Maybe a way to go would be to wrap up storylines where possible–reprint the 3 to 4 1970s issues per major title and then add an additional 20 to 40 pages to conclude unfinished story arcs. Set most of the stuff in the ’70s–with the exception of Scorpion, which was set in the ’30s for the two Howard Chaykin issues. Or, I guess some of the sci-fi stuff was set in the then future …wasn’t Planet of the Vampires set in the then future of the 1980s or so something? Of course, Morlock was set in the then future of the early 2000s. Maybe these could be done as square bound graphic novels or “100 Page Giant”-type one-shots. Of course, in the case of The Scorpion, one would want to let Chaykin wrap up the story, and then maybe at the back of the book reprint Scorpion no. 3 with a brief explanation of why it is a totally different take on the character.
As I mentioned before, Atlas/Seaboard editor Jeff Rovin is still around–and so is Larry Lieber (Stan Lee’s younger brother) who was the editor on Devilina and the other Atlas/Seaboard black and white magazines. Who knows if there is even a backlog of stories that never got printed when Atlas/Seaboard went belly up?
Anyway, as far as original Atlas/Seaboard
writers and artists goes, definitely Howard Chaykin, Larry Hama, Pat Broderick, Jim Craig, and Al Milgrim are still around. There are probably others. And, again, to add to the whole retro ’70s feel, Goodman’s grandson could easily hire a lot of top Marvel and DC talent from days gone by, including Jim Starlin, Mike Ploog, Sal Buscema, Bill Sienkiewicz, John Byrne, Michael Golden, P. Craig Russell, Ron Wilson, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Klaus Janson, Terry Austin, Steve Skeates, Terry Austin, Jerry Ordway, Rick Leonardi, Paul Smith, Steve Englehart, Chris Claremont,
etc.
Even if Alan Moore wouldn’t be into it, it could still be fun to see Steve Bissette’s take on Morlock 2001, or Tim Truman’s take on Ironjaw the Barbarian. Let Sal Buscema loose on The Brute, or John Byrne and Terry Austin on The Destructor. Have a Devilina Treasury Edition that reprints the old black and white stories in full color and also features new stories by Chaykin, Adam Hughes, and Frank Cho. If done right, this could be a lot of fun.
wasn’t Planet of the Vampires set in the then future of “the 1980s or so something?”
I remember it was set in A future, wherein 4 astronauts wen into space, and arrived back on a VERY different earth. (So, Planet of the Apes with Vampires instead of Apes).
“reprint Scorpion no. 3 with a brief explanation of why it is a totally different take on the character.”
Man, was it! switched him to a Golden Age/Pulp superhero with a regular costume.
“Why”
“1 and 2 didn’t sell!”.
As I said, I like Dominic Fortune, but that character didn’t sell well until Chaykin re-used him for American Flagg.
“writers and artists goes”
That’s a damn goo dlist!
*GOOD list.
@Snark Shark
I just double checked….Planet of the Vampires was supposed to be set circa 2010…and was basically “Planet of The Apes” melanged with “I Am Legend” and “Solyent Green” –with a dash of “Escape from New York”–even though the comic preceded “Escape from New York.”
Ironically, there was also a film called “Planet of the Vampires” by Italian director Mario Bava.
https://13thdimension.com/the-top-13-atlas-seaboard-comic-book-titles-ranked/
https://youtu.be/yzbEfsCNpis?si=b9ZZLBFn3IUbmQBF@
One wonders, since Martin Goodman and company licensed Tippy Teen from Tower Comics and rebranded her as Vicki, why didn’t Atlas/Seaboard try to buy the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents from Tower as well (especially as Goodman already had Wally Wood, Steve Ditko, and Mike Sekowsky on the payroll)? That way Atlas/Seaboard could have started out with a known team group that already has a fan base and had only been out of print for a few years.
“circa 2010”
Makes sense… that sounded SO far ahead back then.