Nearly 10 years ago, the short-lived 1970s imprint Atlas Comics, established by Marvel Comics’ founder Martin Goodman, was relaunched by Goodman’s grandson Jason Goodman with Brendan Deneen and Richard Emms at Ardden Entertainment. While it proved to be equally short-lived, this relaunch revived characters who had been dormant for 35 years including The Grim Ghost, Phoenix, Wulf, and many others.
It also provided the perfect opportunity for a retrospective on the original Atlas offerings. Taking full advantage of that timing, Geppi’s Entertainment Museum (GEM) debuted the Atlas At Last! exhibition inviting fans to rediscover the Atlas-Seaboard line or learn about it for the first time. Although originally slated to end on May 29, 2011, the exhibit proved so popular that GEM extended the deadline several times before officially concluding on November 7.
“We were particularly proud of the Atlas at Last! exhibit because it contained a great selection of rarely seen original comic art and unpublished original Atlas material. The positive reception we received from the fans made this a truly gratifying experience. It was a real labor of love for our Guest Curators J.C. Vaughn and Mike Wilbur,” said Melissa Bowersox, GEM’s President.
Material from the collection of Phil Zolli, whose AtlasArchives.com site has focused attention on the Atlas line since 2003, and Diamond International Galleries’ Mike Wilbur made up the backbone of the displays.
“Not to speak for Mike, but it was without a doubt a labor of love for both of us. The conversations that happen when Atlas fans get together are pretty standard (“Oh, you know about Atlas, too?”) and this was the opportunity to carry that sort of dialogue out on a much larger stage. The fact that the exhibit was extended multiple times always made me happy,” said Vaughn.
“A lot of the appeal was the feeling of throwback to the early days of Marvel. The apparent energy and enthusiasm of the familiar roster of creators was, and still is, infectious,” Wilbur said.
An imprint of Seaboard Periodicals, the Atlas line was owned by Martin Goodman and his son, Charles. Before adopting the now iconic moniker of Marvel and after it was known as Timely, the company was called Atlas. After selling Marvel in the late ’60s, Goodman kept the Atlas name, and quickly christened his new comic venture Atlas. Collectors started the term “Atlas-Seaboard” to differentiate between Marvel-Atlas and the new one.
The fledgling firm attracted both veteran creators such as Russ Heath, John Severin, Alex Toth, Neal Adams, Frank Thorne, and Jack Sparling, and then-up-and-comers such as Walter Simonson, Pat Broderick, Mike Ploog, Jeff Jones, and Larry Hama, among others. Early Marvel stalwart Larry Lieber (Stan Lee’s brother) and Warren veteran Jeff Rovin were the company’s editors.
“Atlas-Seaboard is such a small niche in comic book history, but it you look at the creators who were involved you can see that there is a ripple effect through the next decade and a half of publishers willing to challenge the domination of Marvel and DC. Being able to showcase all of the comics in one presentation, accompanied by art and other material? That was awesome,” Vaughn said.
“Like J.C., I think it was a long overdue tribute to what is retroactively recognized as a pivotal point in comics industry history. Marvel, DC, Dell/Gold Key, Charlton, Harvey, Archie all inhabited their own comfortable market niches and, other than the Marvel-DC rivalry, nobody was even attempting to challenge the hierarchy until Atlas-Seaboard came along. They launched with an impressive roster of A-list creators that no other small publisher was able to equal for decades! Seeing the books all up on display in such an upscale setting accompanied by the amazing selection of original art was amazing!” Wilbur said.
Just as suddenly as they arrived, however, they were gone. As both fans and collectors of the Atlas-Seaboard titles, Vaughn and Wilbur had no idea the long, frustrating road they were starting down with their first Atlas titles.
“I picked up Iron Jaw #1 and #4 when they were thrown in to sweeten the pot of a trade I was considering making in eighth grade with a kid named Mike Farrell, who did not go on to appear on MASH,” Vaughn said. “I bought my first back issue by mail shortly after that and it came with a catalog, and then I saw that none of the Atlas titles went beyond #4. Even then it still took a little bit to figure out that they had gone out of business.”
Wilbur’s passion for Marvel Comics actually drew him into the Atlas-Seaboard world beginning with The Destructor title.
“With Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko as artist, how could I not buy it? It just sucked me in, and I bought every A-S book that showed up at my local store. Unfortunately, it took many years to track down the ones that didn’t make it to the store,” he said.
Atlas At Last! took attendees on a visual tour through the 73 color comic books and black & white magazines produced by the company, including the rare Gothic Romances magazine. While Atlas At Last! was timed with the 2010 relaunch with Martin Goodman’s grandson, Jason, Vaughn and Wilbur had “discussed ways to expand awareness” with an Atlas exhibit for some time.
“Once we started working on GEM in 2005, well before it opened, it was something I thought of,” Vaughn said. “But I was jazzed by the attempted reboot. It didn’t last very long, but I became friends with Jason [Goodman] and learned some other folks in the industry were also Atlas fans.”
The exhibition also featured the almost-never-seen My Secret, a confessions-type magazine, as well as the unpublished covers of Planet of Vampires #4 by Pablo Marcos and an undesignated Phoenix piece by Sal Amendola.
“Phil Zolli’s contributions to the exhibit blew me away and that the chance to see his unpublished cover for Planet of Vampires #4 and the other art – I had never seen any Atlas-Seaboard original art before that. He was so gracious with this collection, time and efforts for the exhibit,” Vaughn said. Wilbur noted that it was “a very surreal experience to be part of such a significant event.”
Along with publications, the exhibit included an extensive survey of original comic book art, including more than a dozen covers, two color guides, and character sketches.
Both Vaughn and Wilbur said one of the initial sparks for their enthusiastic pursuit of various Atlas-Seaboard mysteries was derived from a checklist by noted collector Jon Berk that was published years earlier in Overstreet’s Golden Age & Silver Age Quarterly.
“We started with Jon Berk’s checklist, which was very helpful, and we were able to confirm some of the question marks and then add to it with the help of collector Michael Naiman, and the updated version was published in an issue of Comic Book Marketplace a few years before the thought of doing an exhibit ever popped up,” Vaughn said.
“That’s Comic Book Marketplace #77, if you want to track down a copy. It was our first Atlas-Seaboard tribute that unbeknownst to us at the time would form the foundation for the Atlas At Last! exhibit,” added Wilbur.
Although neither the original Atlas line nor the 2010 relaunch lasted very long, Atlas collectors fondly remember the publisher’s significant mark on comic book collecting history.
“I believe their attempt, their successes, and the mistakes they made informed the next generation of challengers. Pacific, Eclipse, First Comics, and so on. I really believe they owe at least a tip of the cap to Atlas,” Vaughn said.
“Atlas-Seaboard showed that it was possible to bring alternatives to market, but they were just a few years ahead of their time,” Wilbur said. “While the relaunch ultimately failed for a variety of reasons, it doesn’t diminish the viability of the characters. When we look at the enduring characters and concepts those creators generated throughout their careers, their roster is capable of standing alongside the rest if given the space to grow and develop.”
Both Vaughn and Wilbur said this exhibit wouldn’t have been possible without the generosity of the late Phil Zolli.
"Phil was an enthusiastic collector, one who readily shared his passions with fellow fans. At a time when I didn’t know anyone with Atlas-Seaboard original art, he arrived with published and unpublished covers and interiors, color guides, and more. His site remains a great place to chronicle this particular comics niche," Vaughn said.
Editor’s Note: Over the next few months, we’ll have retrospectives of some of the great exhibits and events held at Geppi’s Entertainment Museum, which closed to the public on June 3, 2018 in advance of Steve Geppi’s donation of comic books, original comic book and comic strip art, and other vintage pop culture treasures to the Library of Congress. Items from his gift to the nation will be on display at the Library of Congress beginning in Fall 2018.
Other Installments in our Retrospective Series
