I absolutely love these failed comic book company creations. Atlas/Seaboard, Charlton, Quality, Malibu, Comics Greatest World (from Dark Horse), the list goes on and on. Keep covering these little known, lost, characters. You really highlight the diversity of what comics used to be. Marvel and DC are too big and we'll known. Show some love to the failed underdogs of the past. You could do a whole video just naming the comic book companies that went out of business without ever becoming sales powerhouses.
Oddly, Charlton and Quality, though failed, have a good number of well known characters they created. Which could be its own topic. Well known characters from failed companies
@@robert_bbiii Charlton wasn't a failed comics publisher. Charlton was around for 45 years, which is why it had successful characters. Charlton was just of a different era and couldn't adapt to the modern age. Atlas/Seaboard was publishing for 1 year. That's a failed business.
Where I lived in the 60s and 70s the big 3 were DC Marvel and Archie. That's all you could find on the racks a very rare Charlton or Gold Key but usually the big 3 I mentioned.
Most of the Charlton characters themselves were sold to DC COMICS and continued to be popular. Some of the Atlas titles were reconceived as Marvel characters.
I remember when the Atlas/Seaboard line came out. It was eagerly anticipated, then quickly dismissed by most comic book fans. I thought that the Atlas comics were good fun, but most fans were disappointed that this "new" line did nothing that hadn't been done before - they were hoping for a Renaissance, but got a reflection instead.
I think Iron Jaw was pretty unique. I mean, it was a comic-book about a guy who would normally be an antagonist. Comics like that are tough though, because while its interesting, interest can fall off because its perhaps harder to invest in those kinds of guys.
I know there was at least one other "transplant" from Atlas at Marvel: Chaykin's "Scorpion" became 'Dominic Fortune.' May be some others that were 'snuck' in. Anyway, cool overview! Thanks for the great Bronze Age throwback!
This video was a real treat. Your videos always are though fizz. With regards to the swipe question you present at the start of the vid, I've made a habit of referring to these kinds of creator-made swipes as "clones". The golden age was full of clone characters. Carl Burgos made a new android meta-human for every publisher he worked for after timely showed him the door and that gave us characters like the White Streak, the M.F. enterprises Captain Marvel, and the Iron Skull. The same goes for alot of people with ties to the original Captain Marvel funnily enough. Between C.C. Beck and Mick Anglo there's about a dozen Captain Marvel clones all with slight costume and name changes. You can kind of even say the same for Otto Binder with regards to Supergirl and Mary Marvel to an extent. You certainly can make the case with Jack Kirby and Joe Simon's "Fighting American" , aswell as Steve Ditko's "The Question" and "Mr. A"
I forgot about White Streak! Yes, when I did the Novelty Press video I thought about that back then...and forgot about it when I did this video! The same with Supergirl and Mary Marvel!
@@daviderwin4705 I'd forgotten about the creeper! Good catch there friend. Your reply even reminded me of another clone, Wally Wood's Dynamo, who he then slightly retooled into a shortlived character named "Radian". Radian appeared in the Wham-O super sized comic.
@@KasumiKenshirou That's right...Destroyer Duck! I forgot all about that one! I might ought to make a video about him!!!! Thanks for mentioning him Jeff!
My first experience with this character was as Devil-Slayer in Defenders #60, I really like the idea of the cape having multiple uses. Then in the 1980s at a flea market I came across Demon Hunter #1, the red costume is much more eye catching and of course I like this story a lot but was disappointed that it never got it’s proper continuation in any of it’s forms.
I think almost any character ( with the right writer) could be a hit. I love that forgotten characters get a little love…their late creators would be happy to know that their hard work isn’t completely lost!
Who else gets the feeling this guy was the inspiration for Spawn? please do a video for The Scorpion he's like what if Vandel Savage decided to become Doc Savage, or do Wulf properly the only sword & sorcery book of the time that went Tolkien esc instead of Howard, liber or Moorcock. Also, I always did wonder why KISS made Comics and didn't know they had a friend on the inside.
I was going to disagree with you about Spawn. and say it was inspired by the Grim Ghost. until I watch the video, I think they just took a trope from demon hunter.
The original Chaykin version of Scorpion clearly was the basis for his later Dominic Fortune character over at Marvel (but without the immortal adventurer backstory, just a straight-up Pulp Era hero).
Yeah, there's more than a few similarities with Spawn.... although I don't know if Spawn is a rip, or if there was just something in the air. The idea of an evil hero that reluctantly serves good comes around every decade or two. Visually, the crazy-huge cape has been a bit sine the Bronze age Batman as well.
Quite surprised to see Bronze Age Demon Hunter on your channel. I do hope you cover other Bronze Age Atlas characters in the future, but please keep the focus more on the Golden and Silver Age heroes. One thing you didn't mention was that this incarnation of Atlas was created because Martin Goodman didn't feel the new owners of Marvel had kept their word about certain things, so he thought he'd teach them a lesson by becoming their competitor.
Hi Jim, I think I might have mentioned it in my other Atlas (Grim Ghost/Destructor) videos. Can't remember. Based on the response, I think I am going to tackle the Atlas story. It will get mentioned.
For me as a small comic book collector it's always been not about the books themsalves or the first appearences of a now famous characters, but about the impact on one's life. And your Demon Hunter story here, wow, that's just pure gold! I'm so happy you had this wonderfull experience as a kid!
Great episode. Kraft was a talented writer, one of Marvel's best (after Steve Gerber wrapped up his Headmen storyline in DEFENDERS Kraft took over and started his Who Remembers Scorpio? saga. How lucky to have started reading comics in the 70's!).
Gerber Defenders was my first Defenders and the weirdness was fun as a kid. Bozo Hulk is still fresh in memory. I kept it as a title of interest all the until around the Everybody’s a Defender arc. I think I’m afraid to find out what current writers consider team heroes.
Nice video. I always liked Marvel's "Devil-Slayer" and thought he had potential in the right hands. I wasn't familiar with his Atlas roots until later. I'm now a proud owner of that one issue of "Demon Hunter". I recently wondered why a soon to be released reboot of The defenders wasn't including him in the lineup. Almost all of the other members of the team were featured in the announcement. Thank you for this video and keep up the good work.
I'd love to hear more about Atlas/Seaboard. I like learning about obscure superheroes more than I do mainstream ones. I don't think they'd do well as movies, though. I think introducing the characters to the silver screen would be an echo of introducing the comics: showing up (too) late to the party. Great stuff, FizzFop!
Great video. Atlas Comics definitely hit me at just the right age. I still have a soft spot for all of those books. I was aware of the Marvel version of Demon Hunter, but I had never seen Bloodwing. Cool stuff! Thanks for all the info.
I remember Devil Slayer in The Defenders one of my favorite comics growing up. I thought he was a good character that I thought should have appeared more. I never knew he was Demon Hunter and Blood Wing! Thanks for the extensive and informative video !
Thanks for this stroll down memory lane. I loved everything Marvel back in the day but really liked their more off the beaten track characters like Rich Buckler's Deathlok and Craig Russell's Killraven. As a young teenager I was also enthusiastic about collecting the short lived Atlas Comics line. Any and all American comics could be difficult to come by in Ireland back in the 70's but I remember well the extremely brief adventures of Wulf, Iron Jaw and Planet of Vampires fondly.
I remember when Atlas Comics first appeared on the spinner racks and I was quick to scoop them all up. I wanted to get in on the ground floor of a new comics publisher - something I could not do with the big two as it was prohibitively expensive. I enjoyed most of their line and do think that there a many titles that could conceivably work as a movie or television series.
As a huge fan of Blue Oyster Cult, I was rolling at the references. So awesome! And he was a telepath? So much there. Could have had an enemy called the "Flaming Telepath" who was a "veteran of 1000 psychic wars" lol. So many possibilities in the song titles of BOC alone, not even getting into all the other bands at the time. So much fun
A great and well researched video about a mostly ignored comic line! I appreciate it as I was only vaguely aware of Demon Hunter's various reincarnations. While fully aware of the short comings of Atlas, I thoroughly enjoyed them as a kid. Back in my thirties, a friend of mine was moving to Japan and gave me handful of Atlas comics. That was the rekindling of my love affair with the short lived company. After hitting up a few local comic shops who were more than happy to unload those titles on me, I managed to acquire almost their entire four color back catalog (I passed on Vicki). In the "If Only" universe, I suspect that had Martin focused more on what Atlas was capable of instead of trying to beat Marvel at their own game, perhaps Atlas would've lasted longer. Really looking forward to any upcoming videos about Atlas and their cast of "Big 2" imitators and second stringers.
Atlas means something different to those of us with an affection for the lead age. The Goodwins could have made their renewal of the imprint pop if they had remembered why it did in the first place. Buckler was good- one of the best inkers in the business, but they needed that eccentric out of the boxness that differentiated Atlas of the 50s from other publishers of the time. They tried to hard to get the best of the same old same old and made nothing novel. At least that was my impression at the time. Seeing this book through your eyes makes me question that just a bit.
Atlas got dismissed as the same old thing...but there is quite a bit of ingenuity there. Their first editor Jeff Rovin tried to not copy Marvel-but still please the Goodmans'. By the time Lieber took over, the line already was failing...and by the time Demon Hunter got started, no one in management cared.
GOOD video,learned a lot. Buckler's artwork was very GOOD in those comics,liked the way you drew muscles,buildings,etc,etc,...DIDn't know anything about Larry Lieber,no one ever talks/mentions this guy's contribution to marvel characters. I also loved your story. Man,I'd like to find some old.mint condition ATLAS comics.Any chance you'll do a review on COMICO COMICS ??? CrossGen Comics ??? Would like to know more about them.
As a huge fan of BOC and an avid role player I absolutely love these deep dives and as a proud owner of Demon Hunter number 1 ,I am over joyed to have stumbled across your channel.Keep up the great work. I will be binge watching your channel avidly.
Howard Chaykin kind of did the same thing with The Scorpion/Dominic Fortune, although it may just be he used different characters to present similar themes. The Atlas line was interesting, and I think it had potential, but would have been better off with more editorial oversight and less 'trying to copy Marvel' nonsense. And its short run didn't really give it time to settle and change into something better, either.
Thanks for covering heroes from the Bronze Age! Along with the Silver Age, this is one of my favorite eras of comic books. I hope that you'll discuss more comics from this era in the future.
That cult must have been more powerful than we thought, seeing as how they seem to have been able to shut down this character before he could complete telling the world his story... :-P
I love your videos and the content you cover, so hell yeah I'd love to see you do more Atlas titles, and perhaps even a whole history piece on how Atlas got started and how it ended. Atlas was before my time, but after seeing this, I definitely want to find 'Demon Hunter' and the other titles Atlas put out.
There is a lot of interesting potential with Atlas/Seaboard. Most suffer the "3rd issue switch" when they changed the direction of the title with the third issue or after the third issue. Some of these were pretty radical changes
Great video Fizz Pop! Oh man, 3 comic books in a package. When I lived in Illinois there was a store called Ernies Tavern ( or just Ernie’s… or The Tavern) It sold 3 comics in a pack for 19 cents! The comics didn’t have a cover but they did have the full pages and stories intact. You never quite knew what you were going to get. Man… you brought back memories! I remember Atlas comics well. I enjoyed them as a kid… just always thought they were a little weird 🤣 I missed those days😊
When I look at Atlas Comics, a single name keeps running through my head: Charles Band. If you don't know who that is, he basically made Full Moon Entertainment a household name, in the 80's. If they took the line in a direct-to-video/streaming format, I think it could work.
I met Charles Band at a horror con once...I loved Full Moon Entertainment...especially the behind the scenes videos they use to make. I love Bad Channels, Trancers, and Doll Man. I made a low budget back yard horror film about 15 years ago. We won a couple of awards at film festivals...Full Moon Entertainment was our inspiration although we didn't have the budget or the level of fun.
Hey Fizz Pop, just want to let you know I appreciate the quality content that you put out. I have been watching your stuff for a long time now. Please keep it up.
1st Read demon slayer in Deathlock always thought he was a very cool character , always very disappointed that he never got more play. thanks for the history
Yeah, keep doing this Atlas deep dives. They deserve some love. So much potential in those comics. Always preferred Devil-Slayer myself. Liked the color scheme and tweaking of the costume design. Be interesting to see Atlas get a second chance in the movies, but how many other franchises have tried to create their own universe, only to completely crash and burn...? Not gonna get my hopes up until I see an actual trailer.
When I was a kid I had bike accident and had to get stitches. My step dad bought me several comics and brought them to me. All Atlas comics: the Tarantula, the Cougar, Destructor and the Morlock comic. I was fascinated! I ended up buying more Atlas comics. They hold a special place for me in my comic collecting and when I run across any in the used bins I will pick them up. Thanks for the video.
Definitely keep covering Atlas!! Got Tiger Man #1 in high school and eventually hunted down every single Atlas comic they produced. Hopefully those movies happen!!!
Thanks for covering one of my favorite Bronze age characters. Rich Buckler was a Facebook friend and he is missed. Demon Hunter has a lot of potential if done the correct way. Great video and thanks for all your efforts FizzFop1
You can kind of see Spawn in him. It's an awesome concept. Monster hunter with a magic flowing cape. I've been reading Deathlok, and I love Buckler's art.
I remember the Marvel version of the character in The Defenders but never knew about the extended history, very cool, thank you! I have a similar personal history with comics generally - my brother taught me to read from them and I had so much fun tracing that I began to draw and later became an artist (with a love of languages). Amazing what comics can do...and good parental figures.
As a huge fan of Devil-Slayer, I love this video! I knew about Demon Hunter's weird story and the fact the same author created two almost identical characters. I didn't know about Bloodwing, though. Always loved the 1970s occult characters: Son of Satan is another one of my favourites!
In elementary school, the librarian kept a big stack of comics. It helped me learn to read, which was her intent. I was ten in 1975. I actually owned a couple of the ATLAS Comics. Grim Ghost and The Scorpion. I got them off a spinner rack at The Triangle MiniMart, and I would have been in 4th grade. I went away for the summer, and my sister used my room while I was gone. She threw out all my comics to make room for some of her stuff. The comics I had in there. Superman versus Muhammed Ali, Giant-Sized X-Men #1. I still get mad when I think about it now.
Yep keep 'em coming, I love all this old comic stuff!! I like the Atlas stuff, simply because it's different and the fact that it didn't last long makes it more interesting.
One of my favorite 2nd (3rd?) tier heroes from my childhood, he was part of the Defenders when I was collecting them as they came out. I love the idea of the character's story continuing through 3 different publishers. And done in a way that you can even think of them as parallel universe doubles. The only other characters that I can think of like that are the Howard the Duck/clone switcharoo and, ironically, the Scorpion also from Atlas (he's definition Dominic Fortune). But I'd love to hear of more (I don't count Fawcett's Captain Marvel/Earth-S continuing in DC).
I too was dyslexic when I was really young around the same age. My mother bought home a bunch of comic books that her friend had whom she worked with it was about 25 to 30 comic books it was Marvel comics and DC comics I remember and I started reading them all my reading got better and I was reading two grades higher than what grade I was actually in. Reading those comic books opened up my imagination I started drawing I started creating my own superheroes and I started writing stories for them. Thanks to my mom my love of comics started at the age of 7 years old and it was around 1978 ..I believe 👍🏾
Thanks a lot Fizz, now I’ve got another rabbit hole to go down,lol. You got me started and now I’ve got Planet of the Vampires 1#, Tales of Evil 1-3#,Weird Suspense 3# and a really beat up copy of Tigerman 1#. These books are hard to find. I mean I could go on eBay I’m sure but I prefer to hunt for them in the wild. I really enjoy these videos. I’ve gotta check for them more often. I don’t always get notifications
Thanks for shining a light on one of my favorite obscure characters!!! I’m a huge defenders fan and it led me to demon hunter, now I wanna find galaxia! Thanks for this!
Hi Comics Watching! It was a little hard to find a copy. I lost out on ebay the first time I saw a copy. Only 10,000 were printed. The interior pages are awesome! By the way, check out this comment section. One of the guys who made Galaxia left a comment.
Another interesting video and thank you for that. But I am not sure if a cinematic universe of these characters would work even though the most interesting one is Demon Hunter I am also fond of the grim ghost, tiger man and the destructor. The only actual comic book I have in my collection is Wulf the barbarian because I was very fond of sword and sorcery back in those days. Does anyone remember a DC character call night master and another hero call Captain fear? To me these heroes were just as interesting as the one you mentioned in the video today. Keep this going it’s a lot of fun to have all of these great memories to cherish and revisit once again thank you fizz Pop.
Chaykin did another character similar to the Scorpion at Marvel named Dominc Fortune, but he had several differences until Demon-Hunter/Devil Slayer who are pretty much carbon copies
given how shortlived the original line was, there's no real connective tissue to work with. that fact alone should fire off a few alarms. in the right hands I could easily see demon slayer teaming up with the grim ghost or destructor crossing paths with target. however, the fact that no seasoned writers have tried as much before leaves alot of room for error with regards to hollywood creatives. I cant shake the feeling they'll butcher the atlas heroes.
Wulf had genuine promise...the fantasy world the hero inhabited looked incredible, with lizard-men kingdoms, floating sky-pirate flotillas, a valley of doomed, petrified souls, troll-nations... all great stuff. The Destructor likewise had potential, with Ditko giving Spider-Man a 180 degree twist and making him into a more violent, edgy 1970s hero. So many creative concepts wasted by a few poor management decisions and botched execution.
Never saw Atlas comics on the newstand in the 70's. Found a stack at a discount store for 10 cents each.Though being a "Marvel zombie" i was comics fanatic, and bought them all. Very enjoyable books. Heard that Paramount has the movie rights to the characters. I'm 60, and hope i live long enough to see Destructer, Tarantuia, Planet of the Vampires, the Brute, Cougar, etc come to the big screen. If ever. Some good, fresh characters.
Love it, sounds kind of the Asylum Avengers Assembly but highly entertaining. Also love your videos, sheddding light on historic Heroes suffering obscurity
Devil Slayer always seemed weird to me when he appeared in the Defenders, almost like he was supposed to be a big deal and yet, he really wasn't. I wasn't aware of Demon Hunter (or even Devil Slayer's appearance in Deathlok). The only thing that really stood out to me was how he could pull any weapon out of his cloak, which seemed really cool to me at the time, but these days, I feel that, really, I mean, it's no better than having one good weapon to start with. His abilities were so unique and peculiar but also very low power (I can look like I'm wearing normal clothes!), so he really felt strange when mixed with other Marvel heroes (even the outcast heroes that were the Defenders) who were much more powerful and useful. If you're fighting a demon or devil, do you want this guy as an ally, or would you rather have Doctor Strange or even the Hulk?
Totally hilarious! Our heroes David Kraft and Rich Buckler score big! I knew about Marvel and Atlas but not the Bloodwing incarnation. Definitely gotta hunt that down! Excellent video! It's fun to imagine that this character has simply existed in 3 different universes, fleeing to another when his world was turned upside-down in the previous one. Also didn't know about the Atlas IPs being purchased. Again, great video.
Fantastic video . So much info. I truly love it. I would love to see more about Atlas /Seaboard comics. I've collected quite a few of these comics recently. So please keep up the excellent work. Have a great day.
I’m guessing we’re around the same age. I grew up in a small Pennsylvania town with virtually no new comics to be found anywhere. Except when a few Atlas’s showed up at our grocery store around 1974. My first one was Grim Ghost 1 which had some really racy panels that probably got me into early puberty. In my college years, I rounded up every Atlas book there was. Not too hard really since there is a finite number of them. Great video with a lot of stuff I didn’t know about a unique comic line.
A knock-on effect of the Atlas line coming back specifically to spite Marvel's ouster of an executive was that DC and Marvel had to offer higher pay and actual royalties to their writers and art teams as Atlas offered that to the people they were scouting.
So glad you posted this video! I had a big comic book collection, but most got lost to burglary and when I moved away. I did have that issue of Demon Hunter. I hope I still have it somewhere. I had two Atlas/Seaboard titles. Demon Hunter and Police Action, the latter illustrated by Mike Ploog.
Hey John, my condolences for your collection. I hate hearing stories like that. You spent a lifetime building a collection just to have someone take it. That's awful. I believe in Karma, and hope the burglar gets what is coming to him. I talked to a guy with one of the all time worse lost collection stories. He lost his collection in a mudslide. He had first 200 issues of Batman including the first issue. He said he had several early issues of Captain America, Marvel Mystery Comics, Detective Comics, and Captain Marvel missing. He was away on business and came back to find his house ripped apart. It was buried along with the contents deep into the mud. He searched and searched, but couldn't find his collection.
@@FizzFop1 thanks! That really hurts to lose such a collection. I can't imagine the pain of such a loss. Mine was small compared. Most of my books didn't rise much in value, but there were some minor gems. They had sentimental value if anything. I had mostly Marvel, some pre-Marvel Atlas, DC's, Charlton, etc. I still have a collection, but not as it was. Thanks!
I absolutely love these failed comic book company creations. Atlas/Seaboard, Charlton, Quality, Malibu, Comics Greatest World (from Dark Horse), the list goes on and on. Keep covering these little known, lost, characters. You really highlight the diversity of what comics used to be. Marvel and DC are too big and we'll known. Show some love to the failed underdogs of the past. You could do a whole video just naming the comic book companies that went out of business without ever becoming sales powerhouses.
Oddly, Charlton and Quality, though failed, have a good number of well known characters they created. Which could be its own topic. Well known characters from failed companies
@@robert_bbiii Charlton wasn't a failed comics publisher. Charlton was around for 45 years, which is why it had successful characters. Charlton was just of a different era and couldn't adapt to the modern age. Atlas/Seaboard was publishing for 1 year. That's a failed business.
@@thoomolong Yes...Charlton had some great characters...like Phantom ( I currently collect that run) GREAT comic!!!
Where I lived in the 60s and 70s the big 3 were DC Marvel and Archie. That's all you could find on the racks a very rare Charlton or Gold Key but usually the big 3 I mentioned.
Most of the Charlton characters themselves were sold to DC COMICS and continued to be popular. Some of the Atlas titles were reconceived as Marvel characters.
I remember Devil Slayer from old Defenders comics; I never knew that he had a previous existence as Demon Hunter at another company.
I remember when the Atlas/Seaboard line came out. It was eagerly anticipated, then quickly dismissed by most comic book fans. I thought that the Atlas comics were good fun, but most fans were disappointed that this "new" line did nothing that hadn't been done before - they were hoping for a Renaissance, but got a reflection instead.
I would love to find collected editions of the Atlas/Seaboard comics. I was really into Tiger-Man as a kid.
@@jeffjones4654 would *love* to see collected editions of Atlas. 👊🏼
I think Iron Jaw was pretty unique. I mean, it was a comic-book about a guy who would normally be an antagonist. Comics like that are tough though, because while its interesting, interest can fall off because its perhaps harder to invest in those kinds of guys.
I know there was at least one other "transplant" from Atlas at Marvel: Chaykin's "Scorpion" became 'Dominic Fortune.' May be some others that were 'snuck' in. Anyway, cool overview! Thanks for the great Bronze Age throwback!
This video was a real treat. Your videos always are though fizz. With regards to the swipe question you present at the start of the vid, I've made a habit of referring to these kinds of creator-made swipes as "clones". The golden age was full of clone characters. Carl Burgos made a new android meta-human for every publisher he worked for after timely showed him the door and that gave us characters like the White Streak, the M.F. enterprises Captain Marvel, and the Iron Skull. The same goes for alot of people with ties to the original Captain Marvel funnily enough. Between C.C. Beck and Mick Anglo there's about a dozen Captain Marvel clones all with slight costume and name changes. You can kind of even say the same for Otto Binder with regards to Supergirl and Mary Marvel to an extent. You certainly can make the case with Jack Kirby and Joe Simon's "Fighting American" , aswell as Steve Ditko's "The Question" and "Mr. A"
I forgot about White Streak! Yes, when I did the Novelty Press video I thought about that back then...and forgot about it when I did this video! The same with Supergirl and Mary Marvel!
Ditko's Creeper was also very similar to the Question, even though he didn't look the same.
@@daviderwin4705 I'd forgotten about the creeper! Good catch there friend. Your reply even reminded me of another clone, Wally Wood's Dynamo, who he then slightly retooled into a shortlived character named "Radian". Radian appeared in the Wham-O super sized comic.
Steve Gerber made a Howard the Duck clone, too.
@@KasumiKenshirou That's right...Destroyer Duck! I forgot all about that one! I might ought to make a video about him!!!! Thanks for mentioning him Jeff!
Damn, that single issue of Demon Hunter was the set up for an awesome story. This needs to be completed.
My first experience with this character was as Devil-Slayer in Defenders #60, I really like the idea of the cape having multiple uses. Then in the 1980s at a flea market I came across Demon Hunter #1, the red costume is much more eye catching and of course I like this story a lot but was disappointed that it never got it’s proper continuation in any of it’s forms.
I think almost any character ( with the right writer) could be a hit. I love that forgotten characters get a little love…their late creators would be happy to know that their hard work isn’t completely lost!
Well put Brian!
Who else gets the feeling this guy was the inspiration for Spawn? please do a video for The Scorpion he's like what if Vandel Savage decided to become Doc Savage, or do Wulf properly the only sword & sorcery book of the time that went Tolkien esc instead of Howard, liber or Moorcock. Also, I always did wonder why KISS made Comics and didn't know they had a friend on the inside.
I was going to disagree with you about Spawn. and say it was inspired by the Grim Ghost. until I watch the video, I think they just took a trope from demon hunter.
I'm with you on this one...I also think Spawn may be influenced by DH.
The original Chaykin version of Scorpion clearly was the basis for his later Dominic Fortune character over at Marvel (but without the immortal adventurer backstory, just a straight-up Pulp Era hero).
Yeah, there's more than a few similarities with Spawn.... although I don't know if Spawn is a rip, or if there was just something in the air. The idea of an evil hero that reluctantly serves good comes around every decade or two. Visually, the crazy-huge cape has been a bit sine the Bronze age Batman as well.
Actually, Atlas was Image before Image.... but without the success.
Quite surprised to see Bronze Age Demon Hunter on your channel. I do hope you cover other Bronze Age Atlas characters in the future, but please keep the focus more on the Golden and Silver Age heroes.
One thing you didn't mention was that this incarnation of Atlas was created because Martin Goodman didn't feel the new owners of Marvel had kept their word about certain things, so he thought he'd teach them a lesson by becoming their competitor.
Hi Jim, I think I might have mentioned it in my other Atlas (Grim Ghost/Destructor) videos. Can't remember. Based on the response, I think I am going to tackle the Atlas story. It will get mentioned.
For me as a small comic book collector it's always been not about the books themsalves or the first appearences of a now famous characters, but about the impact on one's life. And your Demon Hunter story here, wow, that's just pure gold! I'm so happy you had this wonderfull experience as a kid!
Great episode. Kraft was a talented writer, one of Marvel's best (after Steve Gerber wrapped up his Headmen storyline in DEFENDERS Kraft took over and started his Who Remembers Scorpio? saga. How lucky to have started reading comics in the 70's!).
Gerber Defenders was my first Defenders and the weirdness was fun as a kid. Bozo Hulk is still fresh in memory. I kept it as a title of interest all the until around the Everybody’s a Defender arc. I think I’m afraid to find out what current writers consider team heroes.
Nice video. I always liked Marvel's "Devil-Slayer" and thought he had potential in the right hands. I wasn't familiar with his Atlas roots until later. I'm now a proud owner of that one issue of "Demon Hunter". I recently wondered why a soon to be released reboot of The defenders wasn't including him in the lineup. Almost all of the other members of the team were featured in the announcement. Thank you for this video and keep up the good work.
I'd love to hear more about Atlas/Seaboard. I like learning about obscure superheroes more than I do mainstream ones. I don't think they'd do well as movies, though. I think introducing the characters to the silver screen would be an echo of introducing the comics: showing up (too) late to the party. Great stuff, FizzFop!
I loved him in the defenders titles. I love the passion the creators had for their character
Great video. Atlas Comics definitely hit me at just the right age. I still have a soft spot for all of those books. I was aware of the Marvel version of Demon Hunter, but I had never seen Bloodwing. Cool stuff! Thanks for all the info.
Thanks Andy! Yeah, Bloodwing only made the one appearance in a magazine that had a print run of 10,000 in 1981. It's sort of rare to find it.
@@FizzFop1 It looks cool. I may try to track it down if I can find one for relatively cheap. Thanks again for the heads up. :)
One of my favorite Atlas AND Buckler characters! So glad you're giving this fun super-70's character his due.
I remember Devil Slayer in The Defenders one of my favorite comics growing up. I thought he was a good character that I thought should have appeared more. I never knew he was Demon Hunter and Blood Wing! Thanks for the extensive and informative video !
Thank you for covering this! I tried to tell people this over the years and never believed me! Glad you did a video on this character!
Thanks for this stroll down memory lane. I loved everything Marvel back in the day but really liked their more off the beaten track characters like Rich Buckler's Deathlok and Craig Russell's Killraven. As a young teenager I was also enthusiastic about collecting the short lived Atlas Comics line. Any and all American comics could be difficult to come by in Ireland back in the 70's but I remember well the extremely brief adventures of Wulf, Iron Jaw and Planet of Vampires fondly.
Love Atlas/Seaboard content!
I remember when Atlas Comics first appeared on the spinner racks and I was quick to scoop them all up. I wanted to get in on the ground floor of a new comics publisher - something I could not do with the big two as it was prohibitively expensive. I enjoyed most of their line and do think that there a many titles that could conceivably work as a movie or television series.
As a huge fan of Blue Oyster Cult, I was rolling at the references. So awesome! And he was a telepath? So much there. Could have had an enemy called the "Flaming Telepath" who was a "veteran of 1000 psychic wars" lol. So many possibilities in the song titles of BOC alone, not even getting into all the other bands at the time. So much fun
There's a Defenders story that cribs TONS of BOC references. The story is "The Revenge of Vera Gemini," for instance.
A great and well researched video about a mostly ignored comic line! I appreciate it as I was only vaguely aware of Demon Hunter's various reincarnations.
While fully aware of the short comings of Atlas, I thoroughly enjoyed them as a kid. Back in my thirties, a friend of mine was moving to Japan and gave me handful of Atlas comics. That was the rekindling of my love affair with the short lived company. After hitting up a few local comic shops who were more than happy to unload those titles on me, I managed to acquire almost their entire four color back catalog (I passed on Vicki).
In the "If Only" universe, I suspect that had Martin focused more on what Atlas was capable of instead of trying to beat Marvel at their own game, perhaps Atlas would've lasted longer.
Really looking forward to any upcoming videos about Atlas and their cast of "Big 2" imitators and second stringers.
Atlas means something different to those of us with an affection for the lead age. The Goodwins could have made their renewal of the imprint pop if they had remembered why it did in the first place. Buckler was good- one of the best inkers in the business, but they needed that eccentric out of the boxness that differentiated Atlas of the 50s from other publishers of the time. They tried to hard to get the best of the same old same old and made nothing novel. At least that was my impression at the time. Seeing this book through your eyes makes me question that just a bit.
Atlas got dismissed as the same old thing...but there is quite a bit of ingenuity there. Their first editor Jeff Rovin tried to not copy Marvel-but still please the Goodmans'. By the time Lieber took over, the line already was failing...and by the time Demon Hunter got started, no one in management cared.
Lots of Atlas/seaboard content please! So much weirdness surrounding that company
GOOD video,learned a lot. Buckler's artwork was very GOOD in those comics,liked the way you drew muscles,buildings,etc,etc,...DIDn't know anything about Larry Lieber,no one ever talks/mentions this guy's contribution to marvel characters. I also loved your story. Man,I'd like to find some old.mint condition ATLAS comics.Any chance you'll do a review on COMICO COMICS ??? CrossGen Comics ??? Would like to know more about them.
I remember seeing Larry's name (along with Stan's) on the Spider-Man comic strip.
a Super Hero fighting Demons sounds like THE Most Metal thing in the '70s.
You're right...that is MOST METAL thing in the 70s. We could sure use a shot of that now.
I like your cool comic book videos, and Demon Hunter looks to be a masterpiece.
As a huge fan of BOC and an avid role player I absolutely love these deep dives and as a proud owner of Demon Hunter number 1 ,I am over joyed to have stumbled across your channel.Keep up the great work.
I will be binge watching your channel avidly.
Howard Chaykin kind of did the same thing with The Scorpion/Dominic Fortune, although it may just be he used different characters to present similar themes.
The Atlas line was interesting, and I think it had potential, but would have been better off with more editorial oversight and less 'trying to copy Marvel' nonsense. And its short run didn't really give it time to settle and change into something better, either.
Not bored at all, it's nice to hear a fellow geek with our shared enthusiasm.
I had all the Deathlok books and a few Atlas titles as well. What a time to be a kid.
Comic racks were magical back then.
I always thought Devil Slayer was an interesting character with a cool backstory and had no idea about his real history! Thanks, i enjoyed this :)
Thanks for covering heroes from the Bronze Age! Along with the Silver Age, this is one of my favorite eras of comic books. I hope that you'll discuss more comics from this era in the future.
That cult must have been more powerful than we thought, seeing as how they seem to have been able to shut down this character before he could complete telling the world his story... :-P
All this damn time I thought it was Fizz POP
I love your videos and the content you cover, so hell yeah I'd love to see you do more Atlas titles, and perhaps even a whole history piece on how Atlas got started and how it ended.
Atlas was before my time, but after seeing this, I definitely want to find 'Demon Hunter' and the other titles Atlas put out.
There is a lot of interesting potential with Atlas/Seaboard.
Most suffer the "3rd issue switch" when they changed the direction of the title with the third issue or after the third issue. Some of these were pretty radical changes
The worst 3rd issue by far is The Scorpion. The character was completely changed.
@@FizzFop1 YUP!!! I hated that one, as I loved the pulp inspired Scorpion.
Have a posting on him on my pulp blog
Great video Fizz Pop! Oh man, 3 comic books in a package. When I lived in Illinois there was a store called Ernies Tavern ( or just Ernie’s… or The Tavern) It sold 3 comics in a pack for 19 cents! The comics didn’t have a cover but they did have the full pages and stories intact. You never quite knew what you were going to get.
Man… you brought back memories!
I remember Atlas comics well. I enjoyed them as a kid… just always thought they were a little weird 🤣
I missed those days😊
It's nice that you found a gem from your past and that it allowed you have the channel today.
Love the Atlas line, I always like the 3rd place publishers. Love me an underdog.
Me too!
When I look at Atlas Comics, a single name keeps running through my head: Charles Band. If you don't know who that is, he basically made Full Moon Entertainment a household name, in the 80's. If they took the line in a direct-to-video/streaming format, I think it could work.
I met Charles Band at a horror con once...I loved Full Moon Entertainment...especially the behind the scenes videos they use to make. I love Bad Channels, Trancers, and Doll Man. I made a low budget back yard horror film about 15 years ago. We won a couple of awards at film festivals...Full Moon Entertainment was our inspiration although we didn't have the budget or the level of fun.
What was your film's title?
Hey Fizz Pop, just want to let you know I appreciate the quality content that you put out. I have been watching your stuff for a long time now. Please keep it up.
Thanks David!
1st Read demon slayer in Deathlock always thought he was a very cool character , always very disappointed that he never got more play.
thanks for the history
Atlas has some cool characters and I'd love to see you cover more characters - the pheonix looks real cool
Yeah, keep doing this Atlas deep dives.
They deserve some love.
So much potential in those comics.
Always preferred Devil-Slayer myself. Liked the color scheme and tweaking of the costume design.
Be interesting to see Atlas get a second chance in the movies, but how many other franchises have tried to create their own universe, only to completely crash and burn...?
Not gonna get my hopes up until I see an actual trailer.
I have a couple Atlas Comics in my collection! Great video!!!!
When I was a kid I had bike accident and had to get stitches. My step dad bought me several comics and brought them to me. All Atlas comics: the Tarantula, the Cougar, Destructor and the Morlock comic. I was fascinated! I ended up buying more Atlas comics. They hold a special place for me in my comic collecting and when I run across any in the used bins I will pick them up. Thanks for the video.
Great story. It's moments like that when many of us became comic book fans.
Definitely keep covering Atlas!! Got Tiger Man #1 in high school and eventually hunted down every single Atlas comic they produced. Hopefully those movies happen!!!
Thanks for covering one of my favorite Bronze age characters. Rich Buckler was a Facebook friend and he is missed. Demon Hunter has a lot of potential if done the correct way. Great video and thanks for all your efforts FizzFop1
You can kind of see Spawn in him. It's an awesome concept. Monster hunter with a magic flowing cape. I've been reading Deathlok, and I love Buckler's art.
Love the concept of this guy, especially with the 70s hardrock/heavy metal vibes!
I remember the Marvel version of the character in The Defenders but never knew about the extended history, very cool, thank you! I have a similar personal history with comics generally - my brother taught me to read from them and I had so much fun tracing that I began to draw and later became an artist (with a love of languages). Amazing what comics can do...and good parental figures.
As a huge fan of Devil-Slayer, I love this video! I knew about Demon Hunter's weird story and the fact the same author created two almost identical characters. I didn't know about Bloodwing, though. Always loved the 1970s occult characters: Son of Satan is another one of my favourites!
In elementary school, the librarian kept a big stack of comics. It helped me learn to read, which was her intent. I was ten in 1975. I actually owned a couple of the ATLAS Comics. Grim Ghost and The Scorpion. I got them off a spinner rack at The Triangle MiniMart, and I would have been in 4th grade. I went away for the summer, and my sister used my room while I was gone. She threw out all my comics to make room for some of her stuff. The comics I had in there. Superman versus Muhammed Ali, Giant-Sized X-Men #1. I still get mad when I think about it now.
Yep keep 'em coming, I love all this old comic stuff!! I like the Atlas stuff, simply because it's different and the fact that it didn't last long makes it more interesting.
Thanks for this, Fizz. It was NOT boring. I loved this video.
I like that he just walks through the airport wearing his costume like its nothing.
I learned a lot watching this!
Thanks, Fizz Fopp!
Demon Hunter/Devil Slayer/Bloodwing sounds like an awesome character.
Definitely keep doing the Atlas books! It's a fun trip down memory lane!
One of my favorite 2nd (3rd?) tier heroes from my childhood, he was part of the Defenders when I was collecting them as they came out. I love the idea of the character's story continuing through 3 different publishers. And done in a way that you can even think of them as parallel universe doubles. The only other characters that I can think of like that are the Howard the Duck/clone switcharoo and, ironically, the Scorpion also from Atlas (he's definition Dominic Fortune). But I'd love to hear of more (I don't count Fawcett's Captain Marvel/Earth-S continuing in DC).
Please continue - I love the Bronze Age and would love to know more about the other publishers
I could see this as a string of movies on Sci Fi
The demon hunter looks like the dc character who hangs out with dr fate and detective chimp in the oblivion bar
Demon Hunter’s story was just taking off! It was interesting
I found comics at the same time for the same exact reason. Ty for posting.
Hells yeah! Wanna see all the Atlas heroes!
Yes! More ATLAS comics, please!
I too was dyslexic when I was really young around the same age. My mother bought home a bunch of comic books that her friend had whom she worked with it was about 25 to 30 comic books it was Marvel comics and DC comics I remember and I started reading them all my reading got better and I was reading two grades higher than what grade I was actually in. Reading those comic books opened up my imagination I started drawing I started creating my own superheroes and I started writing stories for them. Thanks to my mom my love of comics started at the age of 7 years old and it was around 1978 ..I believe 👍🏾
Thanks a lot Fizz, now I’ve got another rabbit hole to go down,lol. You got me started and now I’ve got Planet of the Vampires 1#, Tales of Evil 1-3#,Weird Suspense 3# and a really beat up copy of Tigerman 1#. These books are hard to find. I mean I could go on eBay I’m sure but I prefer to hunt for them in the wild. I really enjoy these videos. I’ve gotta check for them more often. I don’t always get notifications
Thanks for shining a light on one of my favorite obscure characters!!! I’m a huge defenders fan and it led me to demon hunter, now I wanna find galaxia! Thanks for this!
Hi Comics Watching! It was a little hard to find a copy. I lost out on ebay the first time I saw a copy. Only 10,000 were printed. The interior pages are awesome! By the way, check out this comment section. One of the guys who made Galaxia left a comment.
Thanks for the walk through Atlas via Demon Hunter. I always enjoyed Atlas comics. What that group of folks did, was a precursor to Image Comics.
Awesone video. I wish Marvel would make a Devil Slayer Disney+ series.
One day...one day.
I'm going to be surprised if they even get one movie made
Another excellent job, Fizz.
Always a pleasure to get a video from you
Another interesting video and thank you for that. But I am not sure if a cinematic universe of these characters would work even though the most interesting one is Demon Hunter I am also fond of the grim ghost, tiger man and the destructor. The only actual comic book I have in my collection is Wulf the barbarian because I was very fond of sword and sorcery back in those days. Does anyone remember a DC character call night master and another hero call Captain fear? To me these heroes were just as interesting as the one you mentioned in the video today. Keep this going it’s a lot of fun to have all of these great memories to cherish and revisit once again thank you fizz Pop.
Chaykin did another character similar to the Scorpion at Marvel named Dominc Fortune, but he had several differences until Demon-Hunter/Devil Slayer who are pretty much carbon copies
given how shortlived the original line was, there's no real connective tissue to work with. that fact alone should fire off a few alarms. in the right hands I could easily see demon slayer teaming up with the grim ghost or destructor crossing paths with target. however, the fact that no seasoned writers have tried as much before leaves alot of room for error with regards to hollywood creatives. I cant shake the feeling they'll butcher the atlas heroes.
@@lazer-ape Indeed they would
Wulf had genuine promise...the fantasy world the hero inhabited looked incredible, with lizard-men kingdoms, floating sky-pirate flotillas, a valley of doomed, petrified souls, troll-nations... all great stuff. The Destructor likewise had potential, with Ditko giving Spider-Man a 180 degree twist and making him into a more violent, edgy 1970s hero. So many creative concepts wasted by a few poor management decisions and botched execution.
@@profpurge you're preaching to the choir friend, especially so with destructor.
Oh… and thanks for the information on Larry Lieber. I knew he was Stan’s brother but didn’t know much about him. So thanks for the info!
Wow great video had no idea this character had had so very many incarnations sad that this character didn't get more love ⭐
Never saw Atlas comics on the newstand in the 70's. Found a stack at a discount store for 10 cents each.Though being a "Marvel zombie" i was comics fanatic, and bought them all. Very enjoyable books. Heard that Paramount has the movie rights to the characters.
I'm 60, and hope i live long enough to see Destructer, Tarantuia, Planet of the Vampires, the Brute, Cougar, etc come to the big screen. If ever. Some good, fresh characters.
awesome show buddy you really make comics fun keep it up thanks
Thanks Tim!
Love it, sounds kind of the Asylum Avengers Assembly but highly entertaining.
Also love your videos, sheddding light on historic Heroes suffering obscurity
Devil Slayer always seemed weird to me when he appeared in the Defenders, almost like he was supposed to be a big deal and yet, he really wasn't. I wasn't aware of Demon Hunter (or even Devil Slayer's appearance in Deathlok). The only thing that really stood out to me was how he could pull any weapon out of his cloak, which seemed really cool to me at the time, but these days, I feel that, really, I mean, it's no better than having one good weapon to start with. His abilities were so unique and peculiar but also very low power (I can look like I'm wearing normal clothes!), so he really felt strange when mixed with other Marvel heroes (even the outcast heroes that were the Defenders) who were much more powerful and useful. If you're fighting a demon or devil, do you want this guy as an ally, or would you rather have Doctor Strange or even the Hulk?
Even this channel cannot escape.........the *"Wilheim Scream."*
I love working that in...hey, it cost me 99cents to purchase it...I'm gonna get my money's worth!
Totally hilarious! Our heroes David Kraft and Rich Buckler score big! I knew about Marvel and Atlas but not the Bloodwing incarnation. Definitely gotta hunt that down! Excellent video! It's fun to imagine that this character has simply existed in 3 different universes, fleeing to another when his world was turned upside-down in the previous one. Also didn't know about the Atlas IPs being purchased. Again, great video.
Love this character.
Fantastic video . So much info. I truly love it. I would love to see more about Atlas /Seaboard comics. I've collected quite a few of these comics recently. So please keep up the excellent work. Have a great day.
Thanks Fizz pop
Great job as always I loved Atlas comics
Although. The line didn’t last long any other videos would be greatly appreciated. 🙏🏽
I`ve always been curious about Devil Slayer, thanks for the info!!!
I’m guessing we’re around the same age. I grew up in a small Pennsylvania town with virtually no new comics to be found anywhere. Except when a few Atlas’s showed up at our grocery store around 1974. My first one was Grim Ghost 1 which had some really racy panels that probably got me into early puberty.
In my college years, I rounded up every Atlas book there was. Not too hard really since there is a finite number of them.
Great video with a lot of stuff I didn’t know about a unique comic line.
In the way the MCU is going, Atlas would be a good relief to comic hero fans
A knock-on effect of the Atlas line coming back specifically to spite Marvel's ouster of an executive was that DC and Marvel had to offer higher pay and actual royalties to their writers and art teams as Atlas offered that to the people they were scouting.
GREAT BACKGROUND TO THIS CHARACTER, MY FAVORITE ATLAS COMIC OR AT LEAST ONE OF WAS
MAN-MONSTER!!!GARY BAILEY KING OF DARKNESS
I hope to see you cover more seaboard titles in the future!
More Atlas comics!!!
I don't know what it is but you make everything sound exciting even Atlas comics! Should be interesting to see what you come up with next.
So glad you posted this video! I had a big comic book collection, but most got lost to burglary and when I moved away. I did have that issue of Demon Hunter. I hope I still have it somewhere. I had two Atlas/Seaboard titles. Demon Hunter and Police Action, the latter illustrated by Mike Ploog.
Hey John, my condolences for your collection. I hate hearing stories like that. You spent a lifetime building a collection just to have someone take it. That's awful. I believe in Karma, and hope the burglar gets what is coming to him.
I talked to a guy with one of the all time worse lost collection stories. He lost his collection in a mudslide. He had first 200 issues of Batman including the first issue. He said he had several early issues of Captain America, Marvel Mystery Comics, Detective Comics, and Captain Marvel missing. He was away on business and came back to find his house ripped apart. It was buried along with the contents deep into the mud. He searched and searched, but couldn't find his collection.
@@FizzFop1 thanks! That really hurts to lose such a collection. I can't imagine the pain of such a loss. Mine was small compared. Most of my books didn't rise much in value, but there were some minor gems. They had sentimental value if anything. I had mostly Marvel, some pre-Marvel Atlas, DC's, Charlton, etc. I still have a collection, but not as it was. Thanks!
Atlas movies? Oh hell yeah!!!
Keep going with Atlas line these are cool books and inspirate me with my comic making ways