--- description: Proving once again that there is no piece of comic-book intellectual property so minor that somebody won't bank on nostalgia for it, Ardden Entertainment has... title: Atlas Comics Returns image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) # Atlas Comics Returns by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Sep 15, 2010 7:00 PM CUT by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Sep 15, 2010 7:00 PM CUT Proving once again that there is no piece of comic-book intellectual property so minor that somebody won’t bank on nostalgia for it, Ardden Entertainment has [announced](http://www.limited-ed.com/ardden/atlas.htm "undefined") that they’ll be relaunching the mid-’70s Atlas Comics line at this year’s New York Comic-Con. The original Atlas/Seaboard didn’t last very long: it was launched in mid-1974 by Marvel Comics’ founder Martin Goodman, and collapsed in mid-1975\. (For a fascinating history of the imprint, see Jon B. Cooke’s article [“Vengeance, Incorporated.”](http://www.atlasarchives.com/history.html "undefined")) It was essentially formed to compete directly with Marvel Comics, and managed to poach a handful of Marvel creators by offering the highest page rates comics had ever seen and ownership rights to creators of characters. A couple of its titles were reasonably good, especially Howard Chaykin’s ’30s-era mercenary _The Scorpion_ (a concept he returned to shortly thereafter with Dominic Fortune). But Atlas never quite caught on: no single title the company published lasted longer than four issues, some of them changed direction drastically after an issue or two, and many were blatant knock-offs of other titles ([_Vicki_](http://www.comics.org/issue/244137/cover/4/?style=default "undefined"), for instance, was slightly altered reprints of a ’60s era faux-_Archie_ series, _Tippy Teen_). The first two revived Atlas projects announced by Ardden are _Phoenix_ (a science-fiction series, created by Jeff Rovin and Sal Amendola, which became a much more conventional superhero title, _Phoenix… The Protector_, with its fourth and final issue) and _The Grim Ghost_ (a Michael Fleisher/Ernie Colon supernatural superhero project that lasted three issues). There’s no word yet on what involvement, if any, their original creators will have with the new versions. Atlas Comics Returns ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7245966/atlas-comics-returns/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7245966/atlas-comics-returns/"},"headline":"Atlas Comics Returns","datePublished":"2010-09-15T19:00:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T10:54:44.001Z","description":"Proving once again that there is no piece of comic-book intellectual property so minor that somebody won't bank on nostalgia for it, Ardden Entertainment has...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7245966/atlas-comics-returns/","keywords":["Tech","Comics"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7245966/atlas-comics-returns/","name":"Atlas Comics Returns"}}]}] ```