Illustration: Roy G. Krenkel

From DataJunkie

DataJunkie: "Here's a buch of preliminary cover sketches by Roy G. Krenkel done for Warren in the early 60's." (Eerie, Creepy)

---

Vintage Comics: In Search of Atom-mannen

I wrote to Hyperdave at Datajunkie.
"I need help identifying a superhero. I recently found out that there was a comic fan and amateur (in every sense) sculptor here in Sweden who has, during the last 50 years, created a sculpture park with all types of comic characters. I've only seen a couple of photos from there and one of those shows a sculpture of a superhero character that I've never seen before. On the base of the sculpture reads "Atom-mannen" which would - in English - be "The Atom Man". However he doesn't look anything like any of the atom men I've seen. Of course sometimes names aren't translated directly so he might be called something completely different. Now, it must be said that it's not certain he is American, perhaps he's even Swedish but it's not likely. I would appreciate if you'd have quick a look 'cause if someone would know it would be you. Cheers!"

website for the sculpture park - Seriegården (Comics Farm)

I had spent several hours searching for the right Atom Man. Here are some of the results that came up searching for comics/atom/superhero/atom man/atomic/atoman etc:



OK, back to my letter to Hyperdave. To my surprise he had no clue what superhero this could be!! But another one of his readers did. Lamont kindly informed that "He's Sparkman, from United Features Sparkler Comics". Wow, finally a breakthrough! He supplied us with an image of an issue of Sparkler Comics too, featuring "The Spark Man". I thought with a correct name there should be no problem finding a number of images on the Internet but ...no, not much at all. Four Sparkler covers and another one with a tiny image. That's it.






I guess The Spark Man wasn't very popular or at least he isn't now. Just one poor superhero among superheros. Probably short-lived. One would think though that there'd be - if hardly any images - some information available but the result is even worse. "King of Manhattan: Sparkle Comics. This madman who lived in the sewers with access to dutch settler's gold was in the habit of kidnapping and torturing beautiful women. Was opposed by the Spark Man." That sounds pretty interesting but that's about the only mention of The Spark Man that I could find. Well, if there is anyone out there with more you are welcome to share. That concludes my little story of my accidental and slightly obsessed search for Atom-mannen AKA The Spark Man.

...or so I thought...
Just about to publish this post I came to think of dear ol' Lex10 of the GlyphJockey blog who I know has a certain liking for the Nancy comic. As you may have noticed on the covers above Nancy was one of the featured comics in Sparkler Comics. So I took a look in GlyphJockey and what did I find if not an episode of The Spark Man!!! The costume and the colours are a bit different but it is The Spark Man. The comic seems really bad but... who cares!

Sparkler Comics #41 1945.



PS. The creators were Fred Methot and Paul Berdanier who also made the unforgettable Triple Terror comics. Remember? ;)

PPS. I found some additional information and more covers at atomicavenue.com: "Sparkler Comics (2nd Series)- Two issues of Sparkler Comics (1st series) were published by United Features Syndicate in 1940, but this second series ran from 1941 until 1955. As one might expect, the stars of this long-running series were primarily United Features comic strip characters: Tarzan (by the legendary Burne Hogarth); Nancy (by Ernie Bushmiller); The Captain and the Kids; Li’l Abner; and Abbie & Slats. The title also introduced the super-hero Spark Man who went through two or three costume changes over the course of the series, but was only cover-featured eleven times."

--
Golden Age of Comic Books
---

Vintage Ads: Win a Miniatue Dog!

Datajunkie

---

Blog: Martin Klasch wins the Arte y Pico award!

I received a mail today.
The in crowd of I'm Learning To Share! wrote:

"I've passed along an 'Arte Y Pico' Award to you for the wonder that is Martin Klasch."

An award?! Me?! Wow, how cool. I don't think I've ever gotten an award before. So I rushed over to I'm Learning To Share! to check if it was just a cruel joke or what. But it was all true! There it was - a shining trophy and the one-man jury's reasons for honoring me with this award:

"Image! Color! Line! Design! Art! Inspiration! P-E Fronning's crisply visual blog sends sparks through my retinas and fires the imagination. An ongoing eclectic gallery of stuff that has COOL in common."

Wow... again. If there is any truth in those words - and I'm not suggesting otherwise - I'm just happy and slightly embarrassed. To know that what you do is appreciated is always a good feeling and it inspires you to continue. Creating a blog can be a pretty lonely business. It is perhaps especially true for these kinds of blogs where the visual experience is in focus that feed-back is scarce. Many of your readers are bloggers themselves and on a never-ending hunt for blog-worthy stuff. Often you feel there's no time to stop, reflect and comment. At least that's how I feel. Unfortunately. With this in mind I'd say that this kind of recognition is valuable. Thank you, the in crowd!

This award is, as you will see below, sort of a meme/chain letter construction created by the Arte y Pico blog. Generally I don't participate in memes mostly because they are too personal for me and they'd claim too much of my time, but an award that gives you a good opportunity to recommend and praise other blogs is a very nice thing. And if you're wondering about the meaning of "Arte y Pico" it is said to be:

"...basically, ironically, it translates into a wonderful phrase in Mexico, 'the maximum.' "It will never find its exact counterpart in English, but if it HAD to, it would be something like "Wow. The Best Art. Over the top."

Here are the rules for the Arte Y Pico Award:

1) You must choose up to 5 blogs that you consider to be deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and for their contribution to the blogging community.
2) Each award granted must include the name of the awarded blog's author and provide a link to his/her blog so it may be visited by all.
3) Each award winner must exhibit the award, and provide the name of the person who presented her/him with the award, along with a link to that person's blog.
4) Both the award winner and the one who has given the award must show a link to the “Arte y Pico” blog so that everyone will know it's origin.
5) You must also show these rules.

OK. Picking five bloggers is, to say the least, a tough chore.

First of all I'm deciding not to award any previous laureates and this leaves out I'm Learning To Share! and his other picks - Bedazzled!, Dark Roasted Blend, If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats and Fabulon. The first three could possibly have ended up on my list and the fourth one is a interesting new acquaintance.

Second there are a few blogs that I won't award for reasons that I want to have said. PCL LinkDump - I'm honored to be a contributor to this blog and even if Sebastian/Mr Dante Fontana is the great creator and the kingpin of the blog it feels just a little bit strange to award it. I know someone else will do that very soon (if they haven't already). Josephzohn gås blogger is another blog that I could have awarded. He is an artist building mostly scaled models of Swedish outhouses and he is blogging lots of nice stuff (in Swedish) but too much sport especially bandy to be awarded ;)

Please check my blogroll for all the others who just as well could have made the cut!

The pick (alphabetically):

Agence eureka - Pita ou franck is a Frenchwoman who has been scanning her seemingly enormous amount of French vintage magazines and books for years with an impressive diligence. Her material is mainly from the 30s to the 50s and it is full of great illustrations and games for children, movie stars etc. Some might prefer the Eureka Annexe. Pita, you are Magnifique!

BibliOdyssey - Paul or "peacay" is the Sydney-based curator of his blog of "wonderful things made by other people". As one might suspect it is a journey into the world of books. It is also a fantastic journey in time and one of intriguing visual experiences. Get a ticket and get on board!

Datajunkie - The hardest working blogger focusing on comic books that I know of is Hyperdave. His collection of vintage comic books and books in the genres sci-fi, fantasy, horror, crime, superheros must be simply huge, and he's scanning it for me and you. Very rare and very cool stuff! Hyperdave IS the Comic Book Guy!

Deadlicious - "Handmade rock'n'roll patisseries to die for" by the Luchadores of blog: King Santo, BigG, Filo Loco, Jimmy Pantera. "It's a strange and funny mixture that we want to share with you. It's what we are, real and rock'n'roll ! " You DO rock, guys!

This Isn't Happiness - But it is! It is pure happiness. Peteski has a infallible and unique eye for visual cool- and goodness and he creates his blog without a single superfluous word. Check out his other ultra cool X818 productions. I know nothing else about Peteski but there are quite clearly a chance he is a brilliant web designer/designer.

---
UPDATE:
Related post from June 2007: Fact: I hate memes ;)
---

Vintage Comics: ...No Head!

From DataJunkies latest post on superhero The Spectre.