Anybody remember the ATLAS line of comics from the mid-70’s…? It was a line of books started by Martin Goodman, the former publisher of MARVEL Comics from that era. It was a bold thing for him to do at the time with the stranglehold that Marvel and DC had on newsstand distribution in those days (not DISSIMILAR to the situation the comics industry is in THESE days, only with direct sales. Funny how history tends to repeat itself)– and he enlisted the talents of some of the greatest names in the industry like Neal Adams, Steve Ditko, Howard Chaykin, Ernie Colon, Pablo Marcos and Rich Buckler. They had a fun, diverse line of mainstream oriented titles like DESTRUCTOR, THE COUGAR, PHOENIX, IRON JAW, MANHUNTER, TIGER-MAN, PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES…. and my absolute favorite, THE GRIM GHOST. THE GRIM GHOST is the story, set in colonial America, of an infamous highwayman named Matthew Dunsinane who is captured and executed for his crimes. His soul is relegated to Hell, where Satan gives him the choice of burning there for all eternity, or returning to the mortal world as a vengeful spirit, tasked with harvesting evil souls for Hell. Dunsinane chooses to return to our world and carry out Satan’s request. Not only was the book incredibly illustrated by the brilliant Ernie Colon– but the premise and stories were well crafted. It was sort of a precursor to SPAWN. I’d love to find out of these characters are owned by anyone or if they’re public domain. It would be great, in either case, if they were to see publication again with some new adventures.

THE VIEW FROM MY BACK YARD.

The weather we’re having here right now is nothing short of gorgeous. The leaves are brightly colored and just beginning to fall….. and the temperatures are at almost 80 degrees….! I love my neighborhood and my home…. it’s very quiet here, and there’s lots of trees still around– even though housing developers are doing their best to build on every square foot they can find not already in use. I know that this weather won’t hold… in fact, the forcasters say this is the last day we’ll have of these temps this week… maybe this season. So, like everything good, it’s got to come to an end. But it certainly is wonderful being able to leave the sliding glass door to the screened in back porch open all day even almost half-way into November.

This is Entry 159.

Mike