The first of the Atlas-Seaboard’s sword slinging characters, Ironjaw roams the world in a distant, post-apocalyptic future. He’s a violent, amoral wanderer who lives for battle. Hired by rebels to help overthrow a tyrannical king, Ironjaw discovers his true heritage.

When he was an infant, his mother’s lover killed Ironjaw’s father, the true king, and ascended to the throne himself. With the complicity of the queen, the new king ordered the infant killed, since he would inherit the throne and depose the usurper upon reaching adulthood. A soft-hearted stable hand abandoned the infant on a snowy mountainside, rather than kill him.

After killing the tyrant-king, Ironjaw, identified by a distinctive birthmark as the true heir to the throne, is crowned king. Upon discovering to his dismay that “...a king cannot fight, or hunt, or steal or chase wenches...,” Ironjaw chooses to slip away in the middle of the night, abandoning his new kingdom to resume his wanderer’s ways.

This first (and only) issue of Atlas’ third Sword & Sorcery title was The Barbarians, which was supposed to begin an ongoing anthology series featuring “not only established brawlers like Ironjaw and Wulf, but also new concepts in swashbuckling heroics...” That blurb of hype referred to the second Atlas sword and sorcery title, Wulf The Barbarian.

The Barbarians #1 was published between Ironjaw #3 and #4.

After the personality-altering interlude in The Barbarians #1, Ironjaw returned in his fourth and final issue with the first part of his long-awaited origin story, the tale of how the abandoned infant became the warrior.

Mike Fleisher wrote the first three adventures, with Mike Sekowski and Jack Abel illustrating Ironjaw #1 and Pablo Marcos illustrating #2 and #3. When Gary Friedrich replaced Fleisher, Marcos continued to draw the character, both in The Barbarians #1 and Iron Jaw #4.

The series featured covers by Neal Adams (#1 and #2) and Marcos (#3 and #4) and Rich Buckler provided the cover for The Barbarians #1.

Given that the Seaboard Periodicals and the Atlas imprint were created by Marvel Comics founder Martin Goodman, their Marvel-esque trade dress and design were not a coincidence.

While it didn’t last long, the presence of this new Atlas had challenged the big two in terms of retaining creators. If this new enterprise succeeded, Marvel and DC would have to either accept their losses or raise their own page rates.

Goodman had sold Marvel a few years before, and he and his son Charles (also known as Chip), started Seaboard Periodicals with the hope of rivaling Goodman’s old company. To do this, they followed the Marvel formula of the day: superhero comics, barbarian comics, and black and white magazines. They even adopted the name Atlas, familiar to Silver Age fans as the name Marvel published under after Timely and before Marvel Comics. Goodman had retained the name in the sale.

Not many of the Atlas-Seaboard characters made it to four issues, and very few of them were as memorable as Ironjaw.

A mere 36 years later, Ironjaw returned on the final page of Wulf #3 by writer Steve Niles and artist Nat Jones from Atlas and Ardden Entertainment. This followed the return of fellow Atlas-Seaboard characters Wulf, The Grim Ghost and Phoenix in their own titles in March 2011. Each of the titles ran six issues and completed one story arc.