Atlas/Seaboard Comics

Seaboard Periodicals
Industry Publishing
Founded June 1974
Defunct 1975
Headquarters 717 Fifth Avenue
Manhattan, New York City
Key people
 Martin Goodman
Charles Goodman
Larry Lieber
Jeff Rovin
Products Comic Books
Website atlasarchives.com

Atlas/Seaboard is the term comic book historians and collectors use to refer to the 1970s line of comics published as Atlas Comics by the American company Seaboard Periodicals, to differentiate 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[1] 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.

I was working for [Warren Publishing founder] Jim Warren, running his mail-order division, Captain Company, and just starting to edit [the black-and-white horror-comics magazine] Creepy [and] I'd edited comics for DC and Skywald.... Several weeks after answering the ad, I receive a call from Martin Goodman.... I was one of several people Martin interviewed, and I got the job because I'd had experience not only in comics but in mail order, the latter of which was to contribute significantly to Seaboard's cash flow. Sharing editorial duties on the comics was writer artist Larry Lieber, whom Martin had long wanted to transplant from under the shadow of Larry's brother.... Larry ended up handling about a quarter of Atlas' output—primarily the police, Western [and] war [comics], and color anthologies of horror stories.[2]

Lieber later 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, "[I] didn't have any faith in his lasting it out. The field was too shaky for a new publisher."[3]

As Lieber recalled in a 1999 interview:

When I went there, Martin put out two kinds of books. He was putting out color comics, and he was also going to put out black-and-white comics like Warren and Marvel. Now, I knew nothing about black-and-white comics, right? My only experience was in the color comics. Jeff Rovin came from Warren, and he knew nothing about color comics. Martin unfortunately put Jeff in charge of all the color comics and put me in charge of the black-and-white books. It was an unfortunate thing, and basically what happened was that Jeff's books didn't turn out so well... Martin had to pay high freelance rates, because otherwise nobody would work for a new and unproven company... It didn't work out too well, and Jeff finally left angrily or something, and I had to take over all his books. At this point, business was bad, and I tried to do what I could. One of the things I had to do was to cut rates and tell people they were going to make less money, which was not an enviable position.[4]

Comic-book collectors and others began using the term Atlas/Seaboard to differentiate these 1970s Atlas Comics from the 1950s' Atlas Comics, publisher Goodman's predecessor of Marvel Comics.[5]

Creators'-rights pioneer

Atlas/Seaboard offered some of the highest rates in the industry, plus return of artwork to artists and author rights to original character creations.[6] These relatively luxurious conditions 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. More importantly, these benefits helped initiate eventual change in the virtually completely work-for-hire industry, in which artists and writers had no royalties, rights to characters, and other rights routinely held in similar creative fields, such as book publishing and the music industry.

But when many of the titles emerged toward the end of 1974, most proved derivative and uninspired, according to critics at the time. Wholesale creative changes were implemented, with one observer coining the term "The Third Issue Switch". Chaykin's character the Scorpion, for example, started as a 1930s-style pulp adventurer, then in issue three was changed by a different creative team to a contemporary superhero with minimal relation to Chaykin's work. The third issue of Weird Suspense, featuring the Tarantula, changed the character from one who could change from human to spider monster at will and who was willing to eat evil human beings, to one who changed uncontrollably at sunset and considered his human alter ego a different person. In issue #4 of The Phoenix, the protagonist tries to kill himself, only to be stopped by aliens who grant him a new costume and powers to become the Protector.

A total of 23 comics titles and five comics magazines were published before the company folded in late 1975. No title lasted more than four issues. Of the characters, Chaykin's Scorpion would inspire his Dominic Fortune at Marvel,[7] and Rich Buckler's Demon Hunter would inspire his Devil-Slayer at Marvel.[8]

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 [Martin] did 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".[9] 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".[10]

Although Chip Goodman was also in charge of the Seaboard comics, he was a "lightweight" in making decisions about them, according to Rovin.[5] 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".[11]

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, wrote comics historian Jon B. Cooke, 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".[12]

Other publications

Seaboard Periodicals also acquired the men's magazine Swank, which Chip Goodman continued to publish after the comics line ended until 1993 when it was sold to another company.

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.[13] With another character, Wulf the Barbarian, they were the stars of a miniseries, Atlas Unified, announced in September 2011 for publication that November.[14]

Jason Goodman's Nemesis Group Inc. belatedly discovered that one Jeffrey Stevens had acquired the trademark "Atlas Comics" for comic books on October 11, 2005. Nemesis filed suit on September 28, 2010, arguing that Stevens had no demonstrated use of the trademark, and on March 13, 2012, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board allowed the case to proceed to trial.[15] The Board ultimately ruled against Goodman, and on August 10, 2014, Stevens assigned the trademark to Dynamite Characters LLC.[16]

Titles

Devilina #2 (May 1975), one of Atlas/Seaboard's black-and-white comics magazines Cover art by George Torjussen.

Comics

Source unless otherwise noted:[17]

Magazines

References

  1. ↑ Rovin, Jeff (February 1987). "How Not to Run a Comic Book Company". The Comics Journal (114). p. 97. Archived from the original on January 11, 2012.
  2. ↑ Rovin, pp. 96 to 97.
  3. ↑ "Interview with Roy Thomas", The Comics Journal #61 (Winter 1981), p. 87
  4. ↑ "A Conversation with Artist-Writer Larry Lieber". Alter Ego. TwoMorrows Publishing. 3 (2): 19 in print version. Fall 1999. Archived from the original on August 21, 2010. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
  5. 1 2 Jeff Rovin interview in "Rise & Fall of Rovin's Empire". Comic Book Artist (16). December 2001. Archived from the original on September 22, 2010.
  6. ↑ Steranko, Jim (February 1975). Mediascene (11). Goodman's David and Goliath strategy is insidiously simple and outrageous—possibly even considered dirty tactics by the competition—[and consists of] such [things] as higher page rates, artwork returned to the artist, rights to the creation of an original character, and a certain amount of professional courtesy. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. ↑ Ekstrom, Steve (July 10, 2009). "Return to Fortune: Chaykin on Dominic Fortune MAX". Newsarama.com. Archived from the original on September 22, 2010.
  8. ↑ Cooke, Jon B. (2005). "CBA Interview: Rich Buckler Breaks Out! The Artist on Deathlok, T'Challa and Other Marvel Tales". Comic Book Artist Collection. 3. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 79.
  9. ↑ Gary Friedrich interview, : "Groovy Gary & the Marvel Years", Comic Book Artist #13 (May 2001),
  10. ↑ John Romita interview, "Fifty Years on the 'A' List", Alter Ego vol. 3, #9 (July 2001), p. 35
  11. ↑ Comic Book Artist #2, Summer 1998,
  12. ↑ Comic Book Artist #16,
  13. ↑ Fleming, Mike Jr. (September 14, 2010). "'70s Marvel Rival Atlas Comics Relaunches". Deadline.com. Archived from the original on September 20, 2014. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
  14. ↑ ""Atlas Unified" is an Event Thirty-Five Years in the Making" (Press release). Atlas Comics via ComicBookResources.com. September 20, 2011. Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
  15. ↑ Ruling on requests for summary judgment in Best, Daniel, ed. (March 13, 2012). "Nemesis Group Inc. v. Jeffrey Stevens". Trademark Trial and Appeal Board via 20th Century Danny Boy. Archived from the original on May 6, 2013. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
  16. ↑ Trademark Assignment Cover Sheet at Best, Daniel, ed. (October 27, 2014). "Conveying Party: Jeffrey Stevens; Receiving Party: Dynamite Characters LLC". United States Patent and Trademark Office via 20th Century Danny Boy. Archived from the original on October 27, 2014. Retrieved October 27, 2014.
  17. ↑ Seaboard (publisher) at the Grand Comics Database
  18. 1 2 "Timeline". The Atlas Archives. Gemstone Publishing. Archived from the original on May 14, 2011. Retrieved May 10, 2011. Additional WebCitation archive.

External links

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