''Atomic Age'' is an American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

four-issue

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format ...

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d November 1990 to February 1991, published by the

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in ...

creator-owned

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Epic Comics Epic Comics (also known as the Epic Comics Group)Shooter, Jim. "Bullpen Bulletins: The Truth About the Epic Comics Group!" Marvel comics cover-dated November 1982. was an imprint of Marvel Comics from 1982 to 1996. A spin-off of the publisher's ...

. It was created by writer

Frank Lovece Frank Lovece () is an American journalist and author, and a comic book writer primarily for Marvel Comics, where he and artist Mike Okamoto created the miniseries ''Atomic Age''. His longest affiliation has been with the New York metropolitan ...

and

penciler A penciller (or penciler) is an artist who works on the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with a focus on the initial pencil illustrations, usually in collaboration with other artists, who provide inks, colors ...

Mike Okamoto Mike Okamoto (born Detroit, Michigan, United States) is an American comic book artist and commercial illustrator best known for co-creating Marvel Comics' ''Atomic Age''; as a " good girl art" cartoonist; and as the five-time International Networ ...

, and

inked Inked may refer to: * ''Inked'' (video game) * ''Inked'' (magazine) See also * Ink (disambiguation) {{dab ...

Al Williamson Alfonso Williamson (March 21, 1931 – June 12, 2010) was an American cartoonist, comic book artist and illustrator specializing in adventure, Western, science fiction and fantasy. Born in New York City, he spent much of his early childhood in ...

. The series was among the items featured in the

Bowling Green State University Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a public research university in Bowling Green, Ohio. The main academic and residential campus is south of Toledo, Ohio. The university has nationally recognized programs and research facilities in the ...

exhibition "The Atomic Age Opens: Selections from the Popular Culture Library". Collaborator

won the 1991

Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are List of Eisner Award winners, prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Acad ...

for Best Inker for his work on it and other series that awards-year, with Okamoto winning the

Russ Manning Award The Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award is an American award presented to a comic book artist whose first professional work appeared within the previous two years. It was named after comic book artist Russ Manning. The winner is chosen from ...

for most promising newcomer.

Synopsis

Set in October 1957, immediately upon release of the

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artificial satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisoto ...

Sputnik Sputnik 1 (; see § Etymology) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for ...

, ''Atomic Age'' is an ensemble

seriocomedy Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

of individuals affected by the first confirmed contact of humans and extraterrestrials. The principal cast is: Joe Nuñez, a put-upon, twentysomething

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

stringer for the ''Los Angeles Eagle'' newspaper in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

; his beautiful, blond girlfriend, Nan Stoddard, an ambitious and restless young woman whose feelings for him may be genuine or an attempt at being transgressive through

interracial dating Interracial marriage is a marriage involving spouses who belong to different races or racialized ethnicities. In the past, such marriages were outlawed in the United States, Nazi Germany and apartheid-era South Africa as miscegenation. In 19 ...

in that pre-

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

era;

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Col. John Patrick Lear, a proud yet pathetic figure who at the end of his career has been relegated to commanding the backwater Pacific Ocean military base Charity Island; and Nimbus, a mysterious alien who has arrived on Earth confused of his origins but programmed to find and kill members of a genetically engineered slave race from his planet. The slaves, called drones, hope to commit species suicide — what the story calls "geneticide" — by destroying the scattered pieces of the original split of the drone race's original "mother cell". Nuñez, frequently beset by racial prejudice, has developed a rueful humor and a resentful hyper-ambition as a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

. Using his connection with Nan's father, Dr. Stoddard, the head of a U.S. government

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. ...

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, Nuñez meets clandestinely with a scientist who has classified data on what he believes is alien first contact; near retirement and stung by the Joseph McCarthy Red Scare hearings of a few years earlier, he sympathizes with Nuñez's desire to verify this important event despite government stonewalling. Nuñez makes his way to Charity Island, where Lear, bitter over what he considers unfair treatment by the military after his long but nondescript career, warily joins forces with Nuñez to spin the presence of Nimbus — who was first seen over Charity Island and has left a dead drone there — in both men's favor. Nuñez returns with Lear to California, where the observatory has tracked Nimbus. Nuñez's ambitions soon affect his relationship with Nan and her family, and though he questions how far he will compromise himself, he rationalizes that the racial prejudice against him requires moral corner-cutting to overcome. Lear's increasing desperation to prove himself not a failure leads to extremes that eventually threaten Nuñez while also forging a bond between Nuñez and Dr. Stoddard. Nimbus, who has uncovered a second, female drone, gradually learns of his true nature, and fulfills his mission in an unintended manner that betrays the billions of slaves on his world. Counterpointing these personal stories are the fads, clothing, architecture, pop-culture imagery and prevailing social attitudes of the late 1950s, which inform the characters' actions and expectations.

Production

The creators spoke of the series' authenticity in a 1990 interview, with Lovece saying: "Every car, for example, is a real car. We have a drag race in one of the issues, and the cars are a '56

Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...

and a '57

Chevy Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and oust ...

". Okamoto said of a scene involving a

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: Long-distance ...

: "We were going to put a Harley in the book, but ... kids back then couldn't afford a motorcycle as expensive as that, so most of them used

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

rand The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is finan ...

bikes". A rudimentary early version of ''Atomic Age'', set in the present day, appeared as an eight-page initial chapter by Lovece,

Robb Phipps and inker Sam de la Rosa in the comics magazine ''Woweekazowie'' #4 (Fall/Winter 1978). A digital 30th-anniversary edition was published by Apex Comics in 2019.

Reception

''Nuclear Texts & Contexts'' #6 (Spring 1991) wrote: "''Atomic Age'' (Frank Lovece, writer, &

, artist,

) is a four-part series dealing with alien invaders set during the

era. ... Although no nuclear war is featured, there is plenty of wry

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming o ...

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

paranoia, and on racism". Reviewer Paul Carbonero in ''

Amazing Heroes ''Amazing Heroes'' was a magazine about the comic book medium published by American company Fantagraphics Books from 1981 to 1992. Unlike its companion title, ''The Comics Journal'', ''Amazing Heroes'' was a hobbyist magazine rather than an analyti ...

'' found it "a pretty worthwhile series encompassing thoughtful writing and attractive art. ... Writer Frank Lovece should be commended for striving to make every one of his characters highly distinct from one another. ... Okamoto creates an effective '50s feel".

Awards and distinctions

''Atomic Age'' was among the items featured in the

exhibition "The Atomic Age Opens: Selections from the Popular Culture Library".

won the 1991

for Best Inker for his work on this and other series that awards-year. For his painted work on Innovation's five-issue adaptation of the Piers Anthony novel ''On a Pale Horse'' in 1991, Okamoto won the Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award.

References

External links

* * * *{{cite web , url=http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/MASC/finders/cg710.htm , publisher=

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant uni ...

Libraries Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections: Paul Brians Comics Collection, 1950-2004 , title= Series 1: 1950-2004 , accessdate= October 6, 2015 , archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20150302125608/http://ntserver1.wsulibs.wsu.edu/masc/finders/sc003_3.htm , archivedate= March 2, 2015, url-status=live