The Silliest Silver Age Comic? The Atom vs. Cheese and Wigs!
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- Опубликовано: 16 июл 2022
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The Silver Age of comics was great for the industry financially, as superheroes had a rebirth in popularity. But it was also a very silly era, with the new Comics Code Authority restrictions. Today, we're going to look at one of the silliest Silver Age stories, an issue of The Atom by writer Gardner Fox and artist Gil Kane. It involves the shrinking superhero battling a gang with members that attack with gimmicks like stinky cheese and exploding wigs. Enjoy.
Special thanks to viewer Adam Frasher for pointing this comic out to me. 
Развлечения
Considering that Big Wig said that he steals all his wigs, it makes one wonder where he got an exploding wig, and how he found out it was an exploding wig.
Little known fact, Big Wig is actually Sasha's (from Casually Comics) grandfather!
Except she uses her wigs for good.
@@dlee827 Like many legacy characters, alignment is anybody's guess.
😆 yeah for sure. I mean, he knew he had it right? 🤣
I'm thinking Gardner, short on ideas that day, saw his copy of the Guinness Book laying around and decided to run with it.
The only logical explanation
Or perhaps Guinness was involved in a different way.
Another way Doc Octopus parallels Spidey is that he has eight “limbs” as both an Octopus and a spider have. 🤔😀
“Playing cards are really not much of a weapon.”
……Gambit enters the chat
7:22 "And we also meet Big Wig, whose power is he owns wigs."
That's pretty much the lamest super villain I've ever heard of, and your delivery of the line was perfect for revealing it 🤣
I'm more Embarrassed by Big Cheese, the only people that should fear him are lactose intolerant people.
@@Malum09So you think you could handle the smell of his dairy air? On the other hand, if you mess with Big Wig, you know there will be hell toupee!
Lamer than Paste Pot Pete?
@@KentaroMiyamoto21 I dare say so.
As if anyone owned more wigs than Joan Crawford or Mae West.
I laughed a lot during this video! I was having a rough day and this was so fun and humorous! It really turned my day around. Thanks, Chris!
Why does he have Alan on his t shirt? Is that a secret identity?
@@grahamhume5953 I don't get the reference... but no: im confident that no-one, ever, has chosen "Alan" as their secret identity 😂
@@joedent3323 Hawkeye Pierce.
Holy crap, thank you for making an episode based on my recommendation! This was a cool surprise to wake up to. Fantastic episode as always!
Nice One, Adam - i saw your name shouted-out in the last line of the drop-down box here.
Good Work 😀
"LiL'JpD."
Silver Age Comics' covers always look great as thumbnails, they're very algorithm friendly.
On another topic, yeah, Atom had some of the wackiest villains and stories. I think they found it easy creating the character and concept, but then using it was or confusing or difficult.
Shrinker heroes seem to suffer from that a lot, look at Marvel's early Ant-Man stories and the way Hank kept getting new supranyms with (theoretically) more interesting powers and premises - Giant-Man, Yellowjacket, the addition of the Wasp as a partner. Took until Sword of the Atom for them to do much innovation with a shrinker hero, and even then it was more a planet stories/John Carter kind of thing than anything else.
That's why I loved Ray Palmer being the Arrowverse. He mostly acted as a JLA member.
And when he does get a cool villain, that villain gets better known for fighting someone else. Looking at you, Woodrue.
Well this is an awesome thing to wake up too. The atom is severely underrated and it's great to see an episode about him.
Lamp-Fu is often the most underestimated of the martial arts. Another excellent video my dude.
While I’m well aware of Gil Kane’s work, it was great to hear more about Gardener Fox. His contribution’s created much of the DC Multiverse that we know even now, but the man himself is often overlooked. Thanks Chris!
You should do a dive into Fox, the man's career is fascinating. He wrote over 1500 stories for DC alone, second only to Bob Kanigher. He was also a prolific fiction author starting in the 1940s, with over 100 novels and many short stories to his credit under a dizzying array of pseudonyms - including scifi, fantasy, spy thrillers, crime, Western, and rather a lot of smut with amusing titles like the Ladies of L.U.S.T. series, the Man From O.R.G.Y. and the Sexecutioner (no relation to the GWAR band persona).
Also, Guy Gardner was deliberately named after him as an homage.
I always loveed to see the Atom in the JLA stories of the 70"s, and I like these early Atom comics. They were a lot of fun.
Gil Kane is definitely one of the greatest comic artists ever, he managed to make this story about villians whose whole thing was puns with the word big on them look fun and dynamic XD
I can't imagine a story like this one being issued today! The art definitely carries the story. I lived for those JSA/JLA crossovers every summer!
I dunno, I think someone could do something fun or interesting with the Big Gang today. Someone weird, like Grant Morrison or Neil Gaiman.
Gil Kane himself did complain a lot about stories in old comic, Cartoonist Kayfabe guys covered old interview with Gil and Robert Crumb (of all people) where he's kind of complaining that he felt like hes wasted so much time just drawing pulp stuff, not something he wants to do, he felt that that narrowed the skill and job he's able to do.
Me too, summer crossovers were amazing
Plenty of dumb stories nowadays and forever in comics
Oh that shirt is amazing.
EDIT: When the Big Gang roll call was happening I was convinced you were making some of those up.
Big Cheese being literally a Cheese-centered villain is amazing and I want to see him make a Kite-Man like return
The dread pirate Cheese-wig was truly comics most deadly foe. How far we have come.
Disappointed that Blue Beetle nemesis BIG DIX did not show up to defeat the Atom
no wonder Gil Kane thought comic book is art-driven media, without his cool looking action this story is really dumb.
Gil Kane drew the finest punches in comic book history. Utterly impractical as a fighting style, but by god the man knew how to convey an impact.
When I saw the title of this video, I thought there were going to be some old-timey crooks with the _nicknames_ "Cheese" and "Wigs." I did not expect the title to refer to the Atom actually doing battle with people throwing _blocks of cheese_ and _exploding wigs_ at him, lmao. This is amazing! Between you and Casually Comics, I'm really learning a ton about just how insane this era of comics really was! XD
Gil Kane deserves more respect and recognition!! He did so much great work and so very many attention grabbing (and by extension comic book selling) covers.
I'm still chuckling that Chris had to film the attacking wig gag twice. 🙃
Maybe this was Sasha's doing (from Casually Comics). He was dissing wigs can she couldn't let that stand!
New comics take themselves too seriously, we need more stuff like characters unironically fighting Cheese these days 😂
"Big Wig gets ready to throw his wig at The Atom..."
"Oh no! Big Cheese is coming back with a new stinky cheese!..."
The Silver Age was fun.
Sword of the Atom is my favorite Gil Kane, I wasn't really into his style before that, but here it just all comes together. Maybe living in an area with mostly black/white reprints might have affected that impression.
If you want to see his style in B&W when it was being drawn for B&W, check out the Starhawks newspaper comic from the late Seventies/early 80s. It's been collected at least twice, most recently in 2017-2018. Well worth a look. Not only is it a well-written example of a good old-fashioned newspaper adventure strip (something author Ron Goulart was a scholar of), Gil Kane's art is supplemented by Ernie Colon and Howard Chaykin in stretches where he was having health problems. It's a real labor of love.
Seeing you continue to make well researched, entertaining stuff week after week helps me keep my chin up - thanks for another great episode!
Oh, Atom. Judging by the letters page, Atom was seen as pretty grounded and realistic by Silver Age DC standards, with readers praising how his powers were tech-based and clearly defined.
My favorite Atom villain is probably Jason Woodrue, aka Plant-Master. His original power was that he had a bunch of fairies commit plant-based crimes for him. He'd later turn himself into a plant-human hybrid and start calling himself the Floronic Man.
Oh man, can you imagine Big Cheese versus Green Lantern? There are a lot of yellow cheeses...
I’ve watched this three times and literally laughed out loud EVERY TIME. This is easily my favorite episode of Comic Tropes and that’s saying a lot because almost every episode is a gem. Your voice work for the comic characters was GREAT! AND, I swear there were a few moments where you did a sort of inadvertent imitation of Norm MacDonald and I lost it 😂🤣. For example the one bad guy character that shot rotating blades and you suggested that he try shooting a gun. You also pointed out that there was lots of research showing the effectiveness of guns L🤣L!!! 😂🤣😂🤣 I’m in tears typing this. 😂MG this should win an award. So freaking good man. So good.
You should consider hitting subscribe. Thanks!
@@ComicTropes I’ve been subscribed for about 2years now.
That "lets go!" in the middle was so perfectly delivered for a forced second recording lmao. Thanks for your diligence.
17:10 The stone "coins" of Yap (which are quite real) also show up in a number of Scrooge McDuck stories and at least one animated short, mostly as background details. They vary in size a lot, but one matching the size shown here would be thousands of pounds, not a few hundred.
18:12 Hey now, that is Big Shot's knob gun, he says so clearly in the earlier panel. So it's his knob (which is no doubt quite hard and heavy) knocking out Big Brain, not one of his balls.
To be fair Lee and Kirby created "HIM" Kain and Thomas changed him into Adam Warlock. I'm glad they did. He's my favorite especially Jim Starlin 's stories.
That was a great Big video. Thanks for that!
As for the fumes issue, if Atom had shrunk smaller than the molecules of the fumes he could have avoided the stink entirely but apparently he only managed Action Figure size. How he breathes at all when he goes smaller than oxygen molecules on the other hand…?
While the physics and biological processes of the Atom are dubious, smaller animals breathe faster than larger ones but larger ones breathe in more air in each respiration so what Ray said might have worked.
Everything in this video sounds and looks like a fever dream, including the explanations.
You are so right about how different these stories would be if the internet and smartphones were around back then.
I seem to be the only one who thinks this way, but I always felt that Sid Greene was the best inker for Gil Kane. I've always loved those incredibly detailed hatch marks combined with Kane's dynamic forms. For the same reason, I always loved the Buscema/Alcala team-ups.
I love the mental image of Chris flipping through this comic and then perking up at the idea of talking guns only to slump back down after the reveal
It makes me smile knowing you had to do the wig attack bit twice 😂 Thanks for the high commitment always!
Big Cheese was the greatest comic character to come out of Wisconsin until the appearance of The Badger. Behold the power of cheese.
Great show, Chris! Love the throw back to a simpler time episodes. Always fun.
Your views on wacky silver age comics are often my favorite videos of yours
My favourite videos of yours are these ones where you detail the ridiculousness of some of these old comics! Hilarious!
Here's a big pat on the back for re-recording the middle section because of that file getting corrupted. As a content creator, I know how draining it is dealing with the nitty-gritty mishaps like that.
I have been reading a lot of silverage comics in the last year. Have not yet jumped into atom. 🤔 but it seems fun and silly. And with everything happening these days. We all need fun and silly. Thank you for a great video.
I love it when Chris does the villains' voices!
You know, I've been meaning to look more into Gardner Fox, but I always keep forgetting to do it. I mean, the guy practically co-created nearly half the DC roster, but you don't see a lot of people praising him that often. Thank you for this video and giving me a little taste. Maybe I should deep dive after this?
Absolutely. His career both in and out of comics is fascinating. Wrote more stories for DC than anyone but Bob Kanigher (who's also worth a dive) as well as over a hundred novels and many short stories going back as far as the 1940s. He was pretty much the epitome of a pulp era author, only he never stopped writing.
"Playing cards are not much of a weapon"
Gambit would like to deal you some of his cards.
Or any Yugioh character that throws a card.
Also did you forget what happens to the loved ones who know the hero's identity? They tend to be used as bait for a trap.
For anyone unfamiliar with it, the "Little Man, You've Had a Busy Day" blurb on the cover and the title page's play on it are references to the 1934 song of the same name, which has had mildly successful cover versions made about once every ten-fifteen years ever since, including ones by Bing Crosby and Eric Clapton of all people. It was a phenomenally popular when first released, and the title phrase was almost immediately being used in ad copy, parodies and propaganda, and eventually in its current form as an ironic response to someone bitching about having a tough day. Gardner Fox would have been in his mid 20s when the song was being played everywhere, and most likely it stuck in his head all his life the same way any really effective earworm does.
The Atom was one of my favorite comic books of the Silver Age. Certainly the criminal gang in this story was a pretty goofy concept, but fun.
I remember a common trope that I would see many times in Atom stories and it is in this one. That’s where the Atom gets knocked out, but drops out of site of the bad guy until our hero recovers. If he didn’t get knocked out, the story would end at the first encounter, but if his unconscious form was in site of the bad guy, The Atom would get killed.
I've been watching some of your videos. This one has been the best one so far. I've been laughing and having such good time! Thanks for making my night shift much better.
The big gang concept is so balls out crazy that made me remember that time me and one friend played a couple of incredibly low intelligence super villains in a superhero tabletop role playing game. A mentally handicapped elephant lycanthrope and an humanoid fish. They were always trying to steal stupid things
You got a new subscriber 🍻
It's kind of mind-blowing to learn just how much of DC as we know it was made by Gardner Fox!
Great 👍 video,Chris! I could see the Atom in little floating chair at JLA HQ telling the other members about this wacky tale! Only in the Silver Age! I love ❤️Gardner Fox& Gil Kane + Sid Green never gets a lot of attention! I came into comics in the late 60’s and enjoyed the bizarre variety of stories! It has its time and place! Gil Kane was the first creator of comics I met in Buffalo/1973! Nice guy! Thanks for a good laugh!
You really channeled Norm McDonald for that Gun joke :)
Another wonderful video, Chris! I was a fan of Ray Palmer/Atom from near the dawn of the Silver Age and, while some of the stories were a little silly like this one, they were entertaining! The art of Gil Kane was an utter joy to behold and the covers, as this one, was awesome.
A Gil Kane trope: he often drew from the perspective of looking up people's noses.
Nostrils are the window to the soul
This is oneof the funniest episodes ever, with the commentary about the small and big stuff
Gil was amazing. I especially love his Warlord of Mars and Superman Blood of My Ancestors.
This is so awesome. I just fished this issue out of a dollar bin a couple of weeks ago. It’s still sitting on my “to-read” pile, but it looks like I’ll be digging into this one tonight!
There's something very nostalgic about this channel. Good Stuff.
Love it Chris!! intro and all!! And yea I actually only recently started going back and reading the Atom and i think he's been done a lot more justice recently... I liked him in Hawkman's recent run
you video file was corrupted?! I bet it was Big Inconvenience.
😁
Well done on the video Chris. This is a really fun and silly one.
"LiL'JpD."
So when I was in Jr. High our English book was from the 70's, maybe early 80's, and I remember that when ever we had to read paragraphs, correct them, or analyze sentences, or whatever they always dealt with Ivy Town and Ivy University. Even had a Dr. Palmer reference.
13:30 "playing cards aren't much of a weapon"
I thought that's Gambit's entire thing, he throws cards
He also has a staff
Without all of the intense action poses, the entire scene between Atom slamming big ben with a lamp and big wig inexplicably throwing an explosive wig at Atom and being like "D-did we get it?" is hilarious. I want to see the 15 or so seconds of security camera footage of the altercation.
If I lived in a super hero universe my favorite hero would be Atom, because any recording of him clearing a room of villains would be absolutely hilarious every single time
Fantastic episode as always but I especially love the care given to the creators on this bonkers story!
Gil Kane tropes: Speed lines, people standing/crouching with their legs really far apart, and the best up-nostril shots in the biz.
"I don't know how to put this, but I'm kind of a big deal."
@15:00 Dude looks absolutely ready to snap there.
This was a really fun video Chris. You know, I was thinking about skipping this one because, bleh, Silver Age, BUT, I'm glad I didn't, you always make it worthwhile.
"... you're not a hero like 'the Atom'??!"
Hush,child😳😉; @ least you helped out re-uniting a lost couple & hung out with a (now-fallen) hero like Phoenix J.
"Playing cards aren't really much of a weapon..."
"Quelle dommage, mon ami" - Remy Lebeaux
13:10 Well a wig worked on Frank Drebin in the first episode of Police Squad when Kathryn Leigh Scott's throws her wig in Frank's face.
Love how you do these simple videos and the deep dives. Keep it coming.
that's a wonderful comic, love Silver Age comics.
My brother read DC comics and I read Marvel. He had a few issues of Atom but his mainstay were Superman and Batman. I read Spider-Man (of course) and I remember the days of Gill Kane illustrations. I didn't know he worked for DC too. I also read Fantastic Four comics, which was illustrated by Jack "King" Kirby.
John Broome tended to be the guy who created (and re-used old) bad guys. Fox did give Hawkman a decent set of bad guys, Blyth, Matter Master, Shadow Thief, Conrad Kaslak, the Man-Hawks, Mer. IQ, the (underused) Criminal Alliance of the World). He also did that with the JLA and Adam Strange.
Except for very specific situations, I've always found it hard to imagine reducing yourself in size as a very useful power against villains. With the Atom, it was more helpful that he could change his size and weight on the fly, unlike other small heroes like Ant-Man or Doll Man.
A friend of mine had this issue. I was a kid and it made perfect sense to me at the time.
Thanks Chris! I'd love to see an episode about Gardner Fox's League/Society crossovers.
Wow. I was a 60s kid and from an early age, loved Gil Kane's work. I consumed plenty of Green Lantern and lots of his Marvel work, and I was aware of his co-creation of The Atom but somehow missed this debut. I gotta go back into Brave and Bold and dig this junk out. Comics are great because no matter how much I deep dive into this Silver Age thing or that one, there's always more. LOTS more. And the silly stuff just reminds me of how different the past generations were in their tastes. They were still publishing Sgt Bilko, Bob Hope, and Jerry Lewis comics when this tale went to print, among other things...
18:47 a certain theme tune just played in my head like a mild case of PTSD
The t-shirt change gives me an idea; if you ever do a review of any work of Rob Liefeld again, change a minor detail in the picture after each cut; switch the t-shirt or remove or switch something from the shelf.
Alan made me laugh more than it should.
Channeling Norm MacDonald at about 17:44 - I fully approve 👍🏻👍🏻
For the fight in the house, total missed opportunity when Big Ben was attacking with a floor lamp - he should've grabbed a desk or wall clock. For similar wordplay, Big Deal could've attached The Atom while he was near a fireplace so the hero could deflect the cards with a poker. Or would that be too corny even for the silver age?
your openings are always funny. Thanks for bring such good content
sudden Norm Macdonald-style joke in the middle there had me laughing! Maybe he should try a... gun
great episode! imagine Big Gang getting a second shot on a dark reboot comic
Would have liked this regardless, already subscribed, but the like was magnified after "Respect the drip."
Tap isn't just a real island. "Currency" was a search suggestion. The stone coins are called Rai or Fei and the largest are 12ft in diameter. Now that's some trivia to drop in a comic.
13:46...
*Gambit has entered the chat*
Love this! Although I grew up on Gil Kane’s Conan, I was always annoyed by the way swords looked like they were bent at the cross guard and noses. Always looking up noses.
Hey, I’ll bet your gonna talk about Frank Robins. Just by that description.
Im guessing the "avoid the fumes by shrinking" bit was using the logic that gases float upwards
For example during a fire its important to stay low to avoid inhaling smoke
"Lying...@$ a superpower?"
Sheesh, everyone's already got that power!!!
So, your super power is changing your T-Shirt while you talk... your name will be "Big T-Shirt"
This art is so good though. I'm no fan of Gardner Fox but Gil Kane was elevating the game. The man designed seven distinct and interesting faces just for these throwaway joke characters. Just cranked those designs and 20 pages of gorgeous art in a week and got working on the next book. Strong contender for best who ever did it.
Amazing as always Chris. Love your channel!
The Artwork is amazing for the Story I love how these Artists didn't hold back
Ahh,lotta Tropes here.
"Big Balls". AC/DC would just love you right now, Chris 😆😆😆😆.
Ant-Man had a helmet because the writers thought of the whole "shrinking your bronchii makes it impossible to breath normal air" thing. Atom just depended on the audience not thinking about too much...which makes pointing out that shrinking would mean that odorants would be too large to affect him not a very smart strategy. (By the way, the giant circular stone coin from the Island of Yap is a real thing which is currently on display in the lobby of the Canadian Mint Building.)
I loved Gil kanes art work. It was always recognizeable.
Some impressive panels in this absurd story..! Great artist!
12:00 if his chemical structure shrinks enough then the larger chemical structure of the odder won't interact with his chemistry, like shrinking a lock on a door so a key can't open it.
There was an episode of Stripperella that had the same themes as the Big Gang story. I think it was the first episode. Cheapo tried to steal the world's largest Cubic Zirconium.