Atlas Comics Arises From The Ashes

By Ian Cullen Mar 7, 2011, 23:31 GMT

Atlas came about after Goodman sold his stake in Marvel Comics to Cadence Industries back in the early 70s, but made it conditional that his son, Charles "Chip" Goodman would remain as editorial director.

Perhaps one of the biggest stories in comics of late is the return of Atlas Comics, which was a small company set up by former Marvel Comics owner Martin Goodman. 

Atlas came about after Goodman sold his stake in Marvel Comics to Cadence Industries back in the early 70s,  but made it conditional that his son,  Charles "Chip" Goodman would remain as editorial director. 

When Cadence went back on their word, Goodman was furious and opted to launch Atlas comics to exact his revenge on Marvel. One of the things Goodman did in order to make Atlas Comics attractive to the creative talent of the day was promise them shared ownership of any Atlas characters they created, and also looked to pay them higher rates than what Marvel was offering. 

Atlas/Seaboard unleashed a series of events in the early seventies that rocked the comics industry to its foundations. Atlas very quickly established themselves as a leading contender in the race for comics supremacy and for a time was giving both Marvel and DC comics a run for their money. 

The company brought forth characters such as Grim Ghost, Wulf, Phoenix and many more creations, which were inspired by Marvel and other comic books, but the life of Atlas was short-lived. 

By 1975, after just ten months of trading, 65 color comics, six B&W comic mags and five text periodicals, Atlas/Seaboard would be no more. The contributions of Neal Adams, Alex Toth, Steve Ditko, John Severin, Russ Heath, Wally Wood, and Mike Sekowsky proved to be for naught. 

In the 70s, readership of comics was on the decline. A decline which had started 25 - years prior.   Comic book publishers and creators were looking for fresher and newer ways to distribute and package their books, and sadly Atlas, which showed much early promise, and was perhaps ahead of its time with some of the radical ideas that Martin Goodman had toyed with was a victim of the changing times. 

However, the ideas and characters, which Atlas brought forth were not completely lost.   In the intervening years the Goodman family continued their associations with the comics industry, and last year Martin Goodman’s grandson Jason Goodman embarked on a deal with Brendan Deneen and Richard Emms of Ardden Entertainment and set about breathing new life into Atlas Comics. 

The company soft launched at New York Comic con in 2010 with Phoenix and Grim Ghost issue zero, and last week released the first installment of Wulf. A comic book character, which is inspired by Conan The Barbarian, and this week will see the launch of issue one of Grim Ghost, which will continue the story that was started in issue 0. 

Thanks to my own association with comics people, I was fortunate enough to have somewhat of an inside scoop on this deal long before the ink had dried on the paper, and have to say that the collaboration between Ardden Entertainment and Jason Goodman to bring Atlas Comics back has created much excitement and buzz among readers and comic book professionals alike. 

Wulf, which is written by Steve Niles with artwork by Nat Jones has proved to be a very successful first release for the company, and has won much praise from comic readers and critics alike, which means that Atlas Comics could be one company to look out for in the coming months. 

Another good thing about this is that we now have a new jump on point for anyone wanting to get into comics, due to the fact that Atlas is going to slowly relaunch many of their old characters in the coming years with new origin stories, which is something that I and many people who read comics are excited about. 

If your curious to learn more about the history of this company head over to:   www.atlasarchives.com  If you’d like to see the new look Atlas Comics and buy an issue of Wulf as well as Grim Ghost and some of their other characters you can do so at all good comics retailers or through their website, which you can find at:  www.atlas-comics.com