A very cool website which chronicles the life of Atlas Comics. And includes some way cool covers. Including the Neal Adams covers Wayne's talking about.

http://www.atlasarchives.com/

(I wonder if that cover was one of the Atlas art department's butcher jobs? They were notorious for doing ham handed cut-and-paste butcherings of artwork. Notice on this one, the guy in the background is actually standing next to the sister's knees, which would make him about three feet tall!)

According to some people who worked for them, Atlas (Seaboard) had a deal whereby, if you left, you could take your characters with you, at least under certain circumstances.  The company retained the trademark, but you could take the idea, design, etc., with you.  Thus, Demon Hunter/Devil Slayer* and The Scorpion/Dominic Fortune/Midnight Men (though this last is more a case of fencing gear design elements).

Jeff Rovin once told me that he thought Tiger-Man would be Atlas's big, breakout character.....

My favorite Atlas anecdote, also from Rovin:  Atlas commissioned a war comics cover that was very, very DC, featuring grizzled U.S. GIs rushing a room, oblivious to Nazis in the shadows.  Frank Thorne drew it.  Rovin answered the phone day, to find himself talking to Joe Kubert, who told him that if they ran the cover, he'd throw Rovin off of DC's roof. 

I believe Marvel actually complained about the Brute.

*I think Bloodwing is just a case of Buckler seeing how far he could go -- though the "Devil Slayer" incarnation was sold to Marvel by David Kraft, not Buckler.

That TIGER-MAN cover brings back memories. I think it was the first time I realized that you can't simply bump any ol' word up against "man" and come up with a superhero name. "Tiger-Man" has precisely the same beats as Spider-Man, yet Spider-Man works, and Tiger-Man, at least to my ear, doesn't.

*****

When I hear "Tiger-Man", I think of the Elvis song.

I am the king of the jungle
They call me the tiger man
I am the king of the jungle
They call me tiger man
If you cross my path
You take your own life in your hands

Yeah, I get up on a mountain
And I call my black cat back
Yeah, I get up on a mountain
And I call my black cat back
My black cat comes a runnin'
And the hound dogs get way back

(Edited to add:  It's post 300!  It seems like only yesterday I was at 299.)

In the early 90's I finnally tracked down the first 4 issues of the french book Titans who when i began to read comics was around issue 25 (with translations of Marvel's Star Wars by Goodwin & Infantino, Iron Fist by Claremont & Byrne, Captain Marvel by Moench & Broderick, and Invaders by Thomas & Robins), but when the book began they were publishing translations of the Atlas stuff in it.

There were:

Wulf by Hama, art by Hama&Janson. (average, but decent)

The Destructor by Goodwin, Dikto & Wood (not their best work.)

Phoenix by Rovin & Amendola (I didn't like this one. I really didn't like the art)

Planet of Vampires by Hama, Broderick & McLaughlin (My fave of the four, mainly because of Pat Broderick's art.)

Here are some french covers:

They're by Jean Frisano who based the ones from Issues 2&3 on the original covers. For issue 3, I think the changes were asked by the editor, cause the original cover was judged to violent for the kids, and won't have been accepted at the time on a book aimed at kids by the censorship ( And they were very careful, because in the late 60's their two first Marvel books had been forbiden. The first one because of the aspect of the Thing!  Well they tried again and they finaly introduced Marvel in France with success. You could publish adult comics too, but when a book was labelled "for kids" the taxes were lower. )

With Titans #4 Marvel began to take the place of the Atlas titles (Titans #4 = Champions 1 + Doc Savage 1 + Destructor #4 + Wulf the Barbarian #4)

With Titans # 5 it was all Marvel, Skull the Slayer & The Guardians of the Galaxy taking the place of the last two Atlas titles.

The french editor (Lug) did publish too the 3 first issue of Iron Jaw (the ones by Fleisher) as a tradepaperback in the format that will be later the one of Marvel's graphic novels.

Other Atlas title like Chaykin's Scorpion, or Police Action, Grim Ghost, Morlock 2001 & Targitt were published by the other Editor of translation of super-heroes comics : Sagedition/Aredit/Artima

Some stories/issues of Weird Tales of the Macabre & Thrilling adventure Stories were published in L'Echo des Savanes Special USA n° 11, 12 & 21

Eccepted for the series published in Titans by Lug, there was not whole runs translated and published; for an exemple only the Chakin issues of Scorpion were published, and the two first of Police Action, Targitt & Grim Ghost. Only the first issue of Morlock 2001 was published.

Here are the original covers:

Hmmm....

Tiger-Man, Tiger-Man,
Does whatever a tiger can;
Chases game,
Kills 'em dead,
Bites his mate
In the head.
Hey there! There goes the Tiger-Man!