Atlas Seaboard

Atlas/Seaboard Comics is a line of comic books published by the American company Seaboard Periodicals in the 1970s. Though the line was published under the brand Atlas Comics, comic book historians and collectors refer to it as Atlas/Seaboard Comics to differentiate it from the 1950s Atlas Comics, a predecessor of Marvel Comics. Seaboard was located on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City.

History

Company creation

Marvel Comics founder and Magazine Management publisher Martin Goodman left Marvel in 1972, having sold the company in 1968. He created Seaboard Periodicals, which opened its office on June 24, 1974, to compete in a field then dominated by Marvel and DC Comics. Goodman hired Warren Publishing veteran Jeff Rovin to edit the color comic-book line, and writer-artist Larry Lieber, brother of Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee, as editor of Atlas' black-and-white comics magazines.

Rovin said in 1987 he became involved after answering an ad in ''The New York Times'':

Lieber became editor of the color comics following Rovin's departure. Steve Mitchell was the comics' production manager, and John Chilly the black-and-white magazines' art director. Goodman offered an editorial position to Roy Thomas, who had recently stepped down as Marvel Comics editor-in-chief, but Thomas turned it down, recalling in 1981 that, " didn't have any faith in his lasting it out. The field was too shaky for a new publisher."

Lieber recalled in a 1999 interview,

Dissolution

Atlas/Seaboard offered some of the highest rates in the industry, plus return of original artwork to artists and author rights to original character creations. These perks attracted such top names as Neal Adams, Steve Ditko, Russ Heath, John Severin, Alex Toth and Wally Wood, as well as such up-and-coming talents as Howard Chaykin and Rich Buckler.

However, the line was plagued by distribution problems which prevented the comics from reaching many regions. Moreover, readers quickly lost interest in the books, finding them to be obvious knock-offs of what Marvel Comics was publishing at the time; ''The Brute'', for instance, was an obvious clone of the Hulk, while ''Blazing Battle Tales'' imitated ''Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos''.

With the Atlas line losing money across the board and the already insufficient sales dropping, Martin Goodman dissolved the company in the fourth quarter of 1975. A total of 23 comics titles and five comics magazines were published before the company folded. No title lasted more than four issues. Of the characters, Chaykin's Scorpion would inspire his Dominic Fortune at Marvel and Rich Buckler's Demon Hunter would inspire his Devil-Slayer at Marvel.

Chip Goodman

Some reports at the time suggested Goodman was angered that Cadence, the new Marvel owners, had reneged on a promise to keep his son, Charles "Chip" Goodman, as Marvel's editorial director. Marvel and Atlas writer Gary Friedrich recalled: "I never really felt that artindid it for that reason. I think he did it to make money and that he thought with Larry in charge and paying good rates that he could do it. Now, he probably wouldn't have minded if it would have taken a bite out of Marvel's profits, but I don't think it was done out of revenge. I think Martin was too smart for that." Marvel art director John Romita, however, believed, "Chip was supposed to take his place. But that part of it must not have been on paper, because as soon as Martin was gone, they got rid of Chip. That's why Martin started Atlas Comics. It was pure revenge".

Although Chip Goodman was also in charge of the Seaboard comics, he had little to no interest in comic books, according to Rovin. Historian and one-time Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas recalled: "One of the problems was just being Martin Goodman's son. I don't think that Martin respected Chip very much—he put Chip in charge but would treat him with less than benign contempt in front of other people. Martin was a little cruel sometimes."

This father-son conflict was fictionalized by a Magazine Management staffer, Ivan Prashker, who wrote a short story with a thinly disguised, unflattering portrait of a character based on Chip Goodman. When this story, "The Boss's Son", was published in the February 1970 issue of ''Playboy'', Prashker expected he might be fired, but instead, as comics historian Jon B. Cooke wrote, he "was rewarded with his own editorship of a magazine as Martin was apparently more impressed that one of his staffers was published in the premier men's magazine than with any insult made to his son."

Revival

Circa 2010, Martin Goodman's grandson Jason Goodman announced a partnership with Ardden Entertainment to relaunch Atlas Comics starting with two "#0" issues featuring the Grim Ghost and Phoenix. With another character, Wulf the Barbarian, they were the stars of a miniseries, ''Atlas Unified'', announced in September 2011 for publication that November.

Jason Goodman's Nemesis Group Inc. belatedly discovered that one Jeffrey Stevens had acquired the trademark "Atlas Comics" for comic books in October 2005. Nemesis filed suit in 2010, arguing that Stevens had no demonstrated use of the trademark. On March 13, 2012, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board allowed the case to proceed to trial, but as a result of Nemesis Group Inc. failing to file a brief on the case in the required time, the petition was dismissed with prejudice in 2013. Stevens assigned the trademark to Dynamite Characters LLC in August 2014. In February 2016, Nemesis Group filed a new Atlas Comics logo at the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a possible challenge to Dynamite's registration.

A new Atlas company was formed by May 2019 with SP Media Group owning a majority and Goodman retaining an interest.

Titles

Comics

Source unless otherwise noted:
* ''Barbarians'' featuring Ironjaw (1 issue)
* ''Blazing Battle Tales'' featuring Sgt. Hawk (1 issue)
* ''The Brute'' (3 issues)
* ''The Cougar'' (2 issues, created by Steve Mitchell)
* ''Demon Hunter'' (1 issue)
* ''The Destructor'' (4 issues, art by Steve Ditko and Wally Wood, who inked the first two issues)
* ''Fright'' featuring Son of Dracula (1 issue)
* '' The Grim Ghost'' (3 issues)
* ''Hands of the Dragon'' (1 issue)
* ''Ironjaw'' (4 issues, #1 and #2 cover art by Neal Adams)
* ''Morlock 2001'' (3 issues; #3 retitled ''Morlock 2001 and the Midnight Men'')
* ''Phoenix'' (4 issues; last issue retitled ''Phoenix...The Protector'')
* ''Planet of Vampires'' (3 issues)
* ''Police Action'' featuring Lomax and Luke Malone (3 issues)
* ''Savage Combat Tales'' featuring Sgt. Stryker's Death Squad (3 issues)
* '' The Scorpion'' (3 issues)
* ''Tales of Evil'' (3 issues; the Bog Beast in #2, Man-Monster and the Bog Beast in #3)
* ''Targitt'' (3 issues; #2 retitled as ''John Targitt...Man Stalker'' on cover)
* ''Tiger-Man'' (3 issues)
* ''Vicki'' (4 issues, reprint of Tower Comics' humor title ''Tippy Teen'')
* ''Weird Suspense'' featuring the Tarantula (3 issues)
* ''Western Action'' featuring Kid Cody and Comanche Kid (1 issue)
* ''Wulf the Barbarian'' (4 issues)

Magazines

* ''Devilina'' (2 issues)
* ''Gothic Romances'' (1 issue) Additiona
WebCitation archive

* ''Movie Monsters'' (4 issues)
* ''Thrilling Adventure Stories'' (2 issues; Tiger-Man in #1)
* ''Weird Tales of the Macabre'' (2 issues; the Bog Beast in #2)

Film adaptations

After purchasing the Atlas characters and IPs from Nemesis Group in May 2019, the company announced plans for theatrical releases starting in 2021. Akiva Goldsman and his Weed Road Pictures were hired to run a writers' room to develop 10 story outlines with one to be selected for further development. Paramount Pictures signed a first-look contract. Atlas appointed Goodman as head of publishing and executive producer, and Spike Seldin as president of production. On August 28, 2024, it was announced that Paramount will launch a cinematic universe based on characters from Atlas Comics starting with Devilina.

References

External links

*
Atlas/Seaboard
at the International Catalog of Superheroes.
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atlas Seaboard Comics

Defunct comics and manga publishing companies
Defunct companies based in New York City
American companies established in 1974
American companies disestablished in 1975
Publishing companies established in 1974
Publishing companies disestablished in 1975
1974 establishments in New York City
1975 disestablishments in New York (state)
Publishing companies based in New York City