THE ATOMICS
Mike Allred's postmodern, super-retro super-team.

Writer and Artist: Mike Allred
Colorist: Laura Allred
four-issue story-arc
published by AAA Pop Comics
$2.95 each

Reviewed by David Rolland

For those of you unfamiliar with Mike Allred’s work on MADMAN, please get to a comic book shop and buy any copies you can find. MADMAN mixed bright colors, existentialism, superheroes, and humor to force everyone who came into contact with it to have a good time. Now, Mike Allred has created his own comic book company (AAA POP Comics) and expectations are high. The first comic from this infant publisher is THE ATOMICS.

Once, the Atomics were just ordinary street beatniks. They passed the time playing bongo drums and complaining about "squares." But one day, Madman was running from a space alien. He did everything he could to get away from her, he even ran through the sewers where Madman’s dreaded enemies, the street beatniks, hang out.

The street beatniks got in the middle of the conflict with the alien and were infected with some weird kind of goop. The goop slowly mutated the hipsters until they gained superpowers. And like every other comic book character that gets superpowers, they had a choice. Good or evil. After very little debate, the street beatniks decide to ‘interact with people for a selfish self-congratulatory high.’ In other words, they go to the side of good and they name their crime-fighting group the Atomics (although one of their members prefers to call them The Atomix).

Allred’s work has always been influenced by retro-pop culture and The Atomics is no different. Allred pulls all the stops to try to remind readers of early 1960’s Marvel comics. From the front page cover where The Atomics describes itself as "The World’s Grooviest Comic Magazine," to the back page mock ads for onion gum and whoopie cushions, all stops are pulled to bring readers back to the olden days when comics were about mind-numbing fun.

"THE ATOMICS plays on old comic book clichés"

THE ATOMICS plays on old comic book clichés like superheroes getting their nicknames from the first passerby that sees them. The Hulk got his name when some soldier yelled, "Stop that Hulk!" In THE ATOMICS, there’s a character that can stretch his body into any shape. He wants to be called Mr. Gum, but some villain just had to describe him as, "a giant booger." And even as he’s saving a school bus of children from danger, people point and yell, "Look! It’s the Booger!" He screams back, "My name’s Mister Gum! Please call me Mister Gum."

"Allred makes sure each panel is reminiscent of a Roy Lichtenstein painting."

Of course, in order to remind people of comic books of the past, the art has to be different from typical 21st century comic books. The women can’t have massive breasts with no waist. And the men’s biceps can’t be as big as their heads. So Allred makes sure each panel is reminiscent of a Roy Lichtenstein painting. Except when using their special powers, the characters are all anatomically correct, right down to their afros and mod hair-styles. Laura Allred, Mike’s wife, masterfully provides the day-glo colors.

My only complaint regarding the book is it is published on a newspaper-type paper that comic books used to be printed on instead of the glossy magazine paper prevalent today. I’m assuming The Atomics is printed on newsprint to provide even more of a retro feel to the book but it makes the colors less dynamic from what I’ve grown accustomed to expect from Laura Allred’s colors. This is a comic book I can recommend for kids of all ages. A half hour spent with THE ATOMICS promises to be a good clean time where you can follow the exploits of some questionable role models. It’s going to be a fun ride, so get in on the ground floor and get a copy of THE ATOMICS #1.

Recommended.

David Rolland still reads his comic books in the bathroom, and is a regular contributor to PopImage.

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