Brief series by Stan Lee's brother

Actually, it wasn't his brother, Larry Lieber, tho he was involved. It was his uncle, loosely speaking (not precisely a sibling of a parent, but an older relative through marriage), Martin Goodman, founder of Marvel Comics. Goodman had sold his company, then decided to compete with it by founding a second, Seaboard Comics, which used the imprint "Atlas" just as Marvel had in the '50s.

Looking over my list, I see I haven't covered any Atlas/Seaboard titles. Maybe that's because none of them amounted to a darned thing. As my coverage gets more complete, I'm sure that'll change -- in fact, maybe the time is already ripe to get one or two of them done.

Or maybe not. None of them did, after all, amount to a darned thing, so it's hard to choose. The whole company is just a blip on the radar screen of comics history. I'll be thinking about it, and maybe a few will show up in the near-to-middlin' future.

Quack, Don

Don;

Obviously your knowledge is usually better than the rest of ours.

I THINK I vaguely remember seeing some Seaboard/Atlas titles. Was this "blip", as you've described this company's appearance on the comics scene, one of the many companies who tried to do something with "E-Man"?

No, Chuck, Atlas/Seaboard never did E-Man. That was the late 1970s, and the first run of that character was a few years defunct. Nobody else could revive him at the time because Charlton owned him. A few years after Atlas/Seaboard did its blip, First Comics did its run, buying the character from Charlton and assigning him to co-creator Joe Staton (who was First's art director). It was after First went under that Joe Staton took him to a couple of other publishers.

The only character Atlas/Seaboard ever did, that anyone else had done before, was Tippy Teen (whom they inexplicably renamed "Vicki"). The story I heard was that someone suggested they revive the Tower Comics characters (this was before the explosion of them, too), and with unerring ineptitude, they licensed the wrong set.

Quack, Don

I wouldn't call Atlas Seaboard all Bad.  Atlas's publishing run lasted from about Jan. 75-Sept. 75.  Comic Book Artist magazine devoted an entire issue to Publisher Chip Goodman's "brainchild?".  Hiring a b&w comis veteran Jeff Roven (?) to handle the color comics line, and Larry Lieber, color comics legend to edit the b&w comics, Chip was off to a rollicking start.  Your post about Chip working at Marvel briefly is buttriced by the CBA article.  But MY 3 SONS got alot worse when Chip grew up there too!

Believe it or not, i just purchased Vicki#4 today, leaving only Vick#3 as the only Atlas Seaboard COLOR comic that I DON'T own.  Atlas's color line (besides securing the rights to Tippy Teen from Tower) boasted some pretty oddball characters, many of which seemed to be inspired by some even dumber low-budget movies.   but they paid great page rates, and gathered some good talent:  Neal Adams, Rich Buckler, Mike Friedrich, Steve Ditko, Gerry Conway, Howard Chaykin, Frank Thorne, Alex Toth and one of the early X-Men inkers (who was hired to airbrush the Tippy Teen 60s fashions into hip 70s Vicki fashions.)

Some of the more stellar titles:   the Phoenix (a Christ alegory?) the Scorpion and Morlock 2001 and Son of Dracula.  There were some stinkers:  Ironjaw, Destructor, Police Action, Western Action, Planet of the Vampires (whose covers NEVER had anything to do with the interior story)

Atlas suffered when Roven quit in a dispute with ownership and Larry Lieber took over the entire line.  The Issue 3 Changeover was the forerunner to the multiple-line-character-crossovers as 80% of the Atlas titles main characters either died, changed or were replaced by completely other people in an attempt to look just like Marvel Comics from the spinner rack!

Quirky Fun Stuff. 

I used to have a bunch of the old Atlas/Seaboard comics. My favorites were probably THE BRUTE (a revived caveman), MORLOCK 2001 (about a futuristic dystopia and its champion, a cannibalistic plant-man; yes, it's as odd as it sounds), and THE GRIM GHOST. The anthologies also had some interesting characters, such as the Tarantula, who literally ate his enemies. Of course, it says a lot that both Morlock and Tarantula relied on the same schtick.

Destructor: A combination Executioner/Spiderman character by Ditko.
The Scorpion: A pulp-esque adventurer in a period piece by Howie Chaykin; kind of a prototype for his character Dominic Fortune.
The Phoenix: An astronaut fighting aliens; the book had strong Christ allegorical overtones.
Morlock 2001: A plantman with a killer touch, and a maneating monstrous form who tried to cause trouble for the totalitarian state that created him.
The Brute: A defrosted Neanderthal.
Grim Ghost: A highwayman, hanged for his crimes, and sent back to earth by the Devil to claim souls; like a period piece Ghost Rider.
Iron Jaw: A Barbarian hero with a beartrap mouth.
Wulf: Another barbarian with a bit less distinguishing characteristics.
Tiger Man: A pacifist scientist who took a Tiger serum and became an urban predator who preyed on criminals.
Demon Hunter: A Rich Buckler character who pulled supernatural weapons out of his cloak to kill demons. He reprised the character later as Gabriel(?): Devil Slayer.
Hand of the Dragon: A kung fu book with brothers on opposite sides.
Targitt: Another executioner type. This one an ex-cop.
Planet of Vampires: Astronauts return home to find......three guesses what.
Police Adventures: Shared by a Kojak type character with hair, and a private eye named Luke Malone, Manhunter.
Western Adventures: Shared by Kid Cody (A generic Marvel style outlaw gunfighter) and The Commanche Kid (A marvel style Indian hero.)
There were a pair of supernatural books that featured variously The Tarantuala, who turned into spider form and ate his enemies, The Son of Dracula, and the Bog Beast.
There were a pair of war books that featured Sgt. Striker's Death Squad, and Sgt. Hawk's Killer Platoon.
In B&W there were Thrilling Adventures where Tiger Man debuted, a Lawrence of Arabia strip and some fairly awful oneshot stories.
There was also a horror B&W featuring "Devilena", a continuine character who opposed her Daddy. The less said, the better.
I may have missed one or two. Somebody else mentioned 'Vicki' which I never bought.
My memory of this line was that it was very marvelesque, but darker and gorier. I was enthusiastic about them as they were a whole new company to collect.
The trouble was, the characters were mostly pretty deriviative, and they began changing them all starting in the second issues. Supporting characters died like flies. Non-costumed heroes put on costumes. MAIN characters were killed and replaced by completely new ones. All in all it was messy and badly executed. Even the more promising books had been reduced to trash by the 2nd or 3rd issues.
Ah well.....c'est la vie.

I was pushing 30 when Atlas/Seaboard flitted across the scene. So I didn't get the strong impression of them that comes with childhood memories. And since few if any of them kept their supporting casts or even main character situations stable even for the three or four issues they lasted, I didn't form much of an impression of the individual series, either. For example, I remember Planet of the Vampires being a rip-off of one of the movies made from Richard Matheson's novel, I Am Legend (which I don't even remember the title of), but nothing about specific storylines.

I recall the attempt to look like Marvel, but the news dealer who sold me most of my comics (we didn't have many comic book stores back then) thought they were more like Charlton, and racked them accordingly, stuck in out-of-the-way corners where their covers didn't show because they weren't very marketable no matter what he did, and he gave better display to stuff he thought he could sell.

Mostly, I thought they were just a bunch of turkeys. I was neither young enough nor mature enough to appreciate their wonderful quirkiness. Too bad for me, I guess.

I probably have most of them lying around the house somewhere. Maybe I should try reading them with fresh eyes when/if I happen to run across them. I certainly don't remember enough about them to read them any other way.

Quack, Don