The Atomic Round Table!

            Back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, comics were more than just spandex jocks punching each other. There were dozens of different comics published ranging from funny animals to romance to westerns to even science-fiction comics. Of the many different comic publishers, DC comics was one of the most interesting publishers of science fiction comics. Within the pages of these comics, you could thrill to the adventures of such outrageous concepts as Space Cabbie, Star Hawkins (a futuristic private eye), Space Museum, and the legendary, amazing, and must-be-seen-to-be-believed, The Atomic Knights.

            The series ran only for a short 15 issues in STRANGE ADVENTURES from June 1960 to January 1964 and appeared only irregularly during that time. It was a series that, in retrospect, was totally absurd and yet is one of those fondly remembered titles that makes fans misty-eyed when they talk about it. Created by legendary comic writer John Broome and artist Murphy Anderson, the series reached a semi-cult status during the 60's that remains today. The basic concept is that the world has been virtually destroyed by Atomic weapons used in WWIII which took place in the far flung future of 1986. Sgt. Gardner Grayle survives the 20 minute conflict and forms a small community with a determination to help mankind rebuild the world. In their first adventure, they discover five suits of armor that are impervious to the Atomic radiation and use them in their first adventure to overthrow a local tyrant who had been hoarding food and setting up his own kingdom. From there, it gets strange.

            The knights set up a small town, called Durvale, but don’t spend a whole lot of time there. They tend to spend their time fighting strange monsters and traveling to other towns and overthrowing other despots. During the course of their adventures, they fight a crystal creature who absorbs water, energy creatures (in LA! which they travel to via the use of gliders), aliens (of course), mole people (who are revealed to be the ones who actually started the Atomic War), giant mobile plants, energy demons and even more despots. One of the most memorable visuals of the series was the discovery of giant dalmations in issue #138. So what do you do when you’re dressed in a suit of armor and find a pack of giant dalmations? Turn them into your horses, of course! Just the sight of armored figures riding giant dogs places this series in the history of comic absurdity. And yet, taken within the context of whimsical science fantasy, it all works.

            Due to the mastery of John Broome’s writing, the Atomic Knights series is good, enjoyable fun despite the fact that, all too often, it makes no sense. Taken within it’s own rationale, the series is entertaining and a great deal of fun. Part of Broome’s genius is that the series is not played for laughs. It is taken completely and totally seriously and forces the reader to do so as well. If one can accept the concept that ancient suits of armor can block Atomic radiation, then surely it is not difficult to accept the idea of strange monsters and huge dogs. Even the most absurd idea can work if it is handled seriously. Noted author H. P. Lovecraft, once stated that the key to writing successful weird fiction was to take every part of the plot as realistically and seriously as possible. This writing, combined with the slick, stylistic artwork of Murphy Anderson, made The Atomic Knights one of the most popular series to appear in STRANGE ADVENTURES.

            Strange, then, that it only lasted for these few fifteen issues and was featured on the cover only once. Even stranger is that it’s creator, John Broome, did not recall many details about the series when he appeared at the San Diego Comic Con in 1998 (Twelve years after the predicted Atomic War of 1986). Even though Murphy Anderson had fond memories of the series despite it’s high level of detail (“Oh, yes, I remember. Yes, that is something I really enjoyed doing. Except it was a back-breaker and I was thankful it only appeared every three months.”1), Broome didn’t recall the creation of one of the Atomic Knight’s most enduring images: the giant dalmations (“That was one of the stories? That’s been long ago! Sorry.”2) The initial concept, according to Broome, was “that it had something to do with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. We thought if we could make a modern version of that spirit and the feeling, that would be a new kind of comic that hadn’t been done and we would enjoy doing it. So we worked out a third World War where life was almost destroyed and crime was all over. And the Atomic Knights stand for justice and faith and all that. So that is the way the story began.”3 (4/23/99)

            In following years, the Atomic Knights would attain near cult status and remain one of the most popular of DC’s lost series. But, of course, that only meant that eventually someone would come along to try and reinvent the concept for modern readers and shoehorn it into a continuity it was never meant to embrace.

            In the 1970's, DC had several “futuristic” series that, for some reason or other, the power-to-be decided should be connected. Jack Kirby’s KAMANDI series took place in a Atomic ravaged future Earth where animals had evolved human intelligence. In another Kirby series, OMAC, the lead character was a pseudo-Captain Marvel that existed in yet another Atomic future. Eventually, after Kirby left both series and DC, the writers who followed tied the two concepts together despite the fact that it did not work very well. In yet another series, HERCULES UNBOUND (not done by Kirby so he is mercifully blameless for this), the mythical god returns to another war ravaged Earth to bring hope to humanity (this title, thankfully, only ran for 11 issues). In the tenth issue of HERCULES UNBOUND (written by Cary Bates and drawn by Walter Simonson and Bob Layton), it is discovered that a villain from an earlier issue of OMAC has condensed Lake Ontario which brings two of the Atomic Knights to investigate. Despite the poor judgement of trying to make several series which should stand alone work together, it was not as bad as the next incarnation of the Atomic Knights.

            In DC COMICS PRESENTS #57, Superman discovers that Gardner Grayle taps into a virtual reality experiment at S.T.A.R. Labs which is exploring human reactions to Atomic wars. Grayle unwittingly taps into the experiment and makes it into a heroic fantasy with himself as a hero. Through a series of plot devices, Grayle nearly causes the Atomic War himself but comes out of the VR just in time. It is revealed that, in best DALLAS fashion, it was all a dream and it never happened at all. In the post-CRISIS ON MULTIPLE EARTH DC, the Atomic Knights never existed in the way that Broome and Anderson envisioned. A charming, completely nonsensical series is written away.

            Still later, Grayle dons some futuristic S.T.A.R. Labs armor to become the NEW Shining Knight and joins the Outsiders for some adventures. Still later, and more recently, he would join with six other heroes to form a new Seven Soldiers of Victory. Each appearance of this pale shadow of Grayle merely served to twist a knife through the hearts of the older readers who actually remembered and enjoyed the original series.

            Like so many other early DC comic series, THE ATOMIC KNIGHTS was a product of it’s time and shouldn’t be taken out of it’s context. Sure, it was absurd and goofy and made little or no sense, but that was a large part of it’s charm. Just like Space Cabby, Space Museum, Ultra the Multi-Alien and other DC science fiction series, it was meant to stand alone. It is unfortunate that the ever present desire to cram everything a publisher releases into a single, semi-coherent universe has robbed readers of things that were just meant to be read and enjoyed. Of course, one could just ignore the later rewrites and enjoy the stories as they were written!