citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . january 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message seaboard periodicals the scorpion 1 feb. 1975 . cover art by howard chaykin industry publishing founded june 1974 defunct 1975 headquarters 717 fifth avenue manhattan new york city key people martin goodman charles goodman larry lieber jeff rovin products comic books website atlasarchives.com atlas seaboard is the term comic book historians and collectors use to refer to the 1970s line of comics published as atlas comics by the american company seaboard periodicals to differentiate from the 1950s atlas comics a predecessor of marvel comics . seaboard was located on fifth avenue in manhattan new york city . contents 1 history 1.1 company creation 2 creators rights pioneer 3 chip goodman 4 other publications 5 revival 6 titles 6.1 comics 6.2 magazines 7 references 8 external links history edit company creation edit marvel comics founder and magazine management publisher martin goodman left marvel in 1972 having sold the company in 1968 . he created seaboard periodicals which opened its office on june 24 1974 1 to compete in a field then dominated by marvel and dc comics . goodman hired warren publishing veteran jeff rovin to edit the color comic book line and writer artist larry lieber brother of marvel editor in chief stan lee as editor of atlas black and white comics magazines . rovin said in 1987 he became involved after answering an ad in the new york times . i was working for warren publishing founder jim warren running his mail order division captain company and just starting to edit the black and white horror comics magazine creepy and i d edited comics for dc and skywald ... . several weeks after answering the ad i receive a call from martin goodman ... . i was one of several people martin interviewed and i got the job because i d had experience not only in comics but in mail order the latter of which was to contribute significantly to seaboard s cash flow . sharing editorial duties on the comics was writer artist larry lieber whom martin had long wanted to transplant from under the shadow of larry s brother ... . larry ended up handling about a quarter of atlas output primarily the police western and war comics and color anthologies of horror stories . 2 full citation needed lieber later became editor of the color comics following rovin s departure . steve mitchell was the comics production manager and john chilly the black and white magazines art director . goodman offered an editorial position to roy thomas who had recently stepped down as marvel comics editor in chief but thomas turned it down recalling in 1981 that i didn t have any faith in his lasting it out . the field was too shaky for a new publisher . 3 as lieber recalled in a 1999 interview when i went there martin put out two kinds of books . he was putting out color comics and he was also going to put out black and white comics like warren and marvel . now i knew nothing about black and white comics right my only experience was in the color comics . jeff rovin came from warren and he knew nothing about color comics . martin unfortunately put jeff in charge of all the color comics and put me in charge of the black and white books . it was an unfortunate thing and basically what happened was that jeff s books didn t turn out so well ... martin had to pay high freelance rates because otherwise nobody would work for a new and unproven company ... it didn t work out too well and jeff finally left angrily or something and i had to take over all his books . at this point business was bad and i tried to do what i could . one of the things i had to do was to cut rates and tell people they were going to make less money which was not an enviable position . 4 comic book collectors and others began using the term atlas seaboard to differentiate these 1970s atlas comics from the 1950s atlas comics publisher goodman s predecessor of marvel comics . 5 creators rights pioneer edit atlas seaboard offered some of the highest rates in the industry plus return of artwork to artists and author rights to original character creations . 6 page needed these relatively luxurious conditions attracted such top names as neal adams steve ditko russ heath john severin alex toth and wally wood as well as such up and coming talents as howard chaykin and rich buckler . more importantly these benefits helped initiate eventual change in the virtually completely work for hire industry citation needed in which artists and writers had no royalties rights to characters and other rights routinely held in similar creative fields such as book publishing and the music industry . but when many of the titles emerged toward the end of 1974 most proved derivative and uninspired according to critics at the time . citation needed wholesale creative changes were implemented with one observer coining the term the third issue switch . citation needed chaykin s character the scorpion for example started as a 1930s style pulp adventurer then in issue three was changed by a different creative team to a contemporary superhero with minimal relation to chaykin s work . the third issue of weird suspense featuring the tarantula changed the character from one who could change from human to spider monster at will and who was willing to eat evil human beings to one who changed uncontrollably at sunset and considered his human alter ego a different person . in issue 4 of the phoenix the protagonist tries to kill himself only to be stopped by aliens who grant him a new costume and powers to become the protector . a total of 23 comics titles and five comics magazines were published before the company folded in late 1975 . no title lasted more than four issues . of the characters chaykin s scorpion would inspire his dominic fortune at marvel 7 and rich buckler s demon hunter would inspire his devil slayer at marvel . 8 chip goodman edit some reports at the time citation needed suggested goodman was angered that cadence the new marvel owners had reneged on a promise to keep his son charles chip goodman as marvel s editorial director . marvel and atlas writer gary friedrich recalled i never really felt that martin did it for that reason . i think he did it to make money and that he thought with larry in charge and paying good rates that he could do it . now he probably wouldn t have minded if it would have taken a bite out of marvel s profits but i don t think it was done out of revenge . i think martin was too smart for that . 9 full citation needed page needed marvel art director john romita however believed chip was supposed to take his place . but that part of it must not have been on paper because as soon as martin was gone they got rid of chip . that s why martin started atlas comics . it was pure revenge . 10 although chip goodman was also in charge of the seaboard comics he was a lightweight in making decisions about them according to rovin . 5 historian and one time marvel editor in chief roy thomas recalled one of the problems was just being martin goodman s son . i don t think that martin respected chip very much he put chip in charge but would treat him with less than benign contempt in front of other people . martin was a little cruel sometimes . 11 full citation needed page needed this father son conflict was fictionalized by a magazine management staffer ivan prashker who wrote a short story with a thinly disguised unflattering portrait of a character based on chip goodman . when this story the boss s son was published in the february 1970 issue of playboy prashker expected he might be fired but instead wrote comics historian jon b. cooke he was rewarded with his own editorship of a magazine as martin was apparently more impressed that one of his staffers was published in the premier men s magazine than with any insult made to his son . 12 full citation needed page needed other publications edit seaboard periodicals also acquired the men s magazine swank citation needed which chip goodman continued to publish after the comics line ended until 1993 when it was sold to another company . revival edit circa 2010 martin goodman s grandson jason goodman announced a partnership with ardden entertainment to relaunch atlas comics starting with two 0 issues featuring the grim ghost and phoenix . 13 with another character wulf the barbarian they were the stars of a miniseries atlas unified announced in september 2011 for publication that november . 14 jason goodman s nemesis group inc. belatedly discovered that one jeffrey stevens had acquired the trademark atlas comics for comic books on october 11 2005 . nemesis filed suit on september 28 2010 arguing that stevens had no demonstrated use of the trademark and on march 13 2012 the trademark trial and appeal board allowed the case to proceed to trial . 15 the board ultimately ruled against goodman and on august 10 2014 stevens assigned the trademark to dynamite characters llc . 16 titles edit devilina 2 may 1975 one of atlas seaboard s black and white comics magazines cover art by george torjussen . comics edit source unless otherwise noted 17 barbarians featuring ironjaw 1 issue blazing battle tales featuring sgt. hawk 1 issue the brute 3 issues the cougar 2 issues created by steve mitchell demon hunter 1 issue the destructor 4 issues art by steve ditko and wally wood who inked the first two issues fright featuring son of dracula 1 issue grim ghost 3 issues hands of the dragon 1 issue ironjaw 4 issues morlock 2001 3 issues ; 3 retitled morlock 2001 and the midnight men phoenix 4 issues ; last issue retitled phoenix ... the protector planet of vampires 3 issues police action featuring lomax and luke malone 3 issues savage combat tales featuring sgt. stryker s death squad 3 issues the scorpion 3 issues tales of evil 3 issues ; the bog beast in 2 man monster and the bog beast in 3 targitt 3 issues ; 2 retitled as john targitt ... man stalker on cover tiger man 3 issues vicki 4 issues reprint of tower comics humor title tippy teen weird suspense featuring the tarantula 3 issues western action featuring kid cody and comanche kid 1 issue wulf the barbarian 4 issues magazines edit devilina 2 issues gothic romances 1 issue 18 movie monsters 4 issues 18 thrilling adventure stories 2 issues ; tiger man in 1 weird tales of the macabre 2 issues ; the bog beast in 2 references edit rovin jeff february 1987 . how not to run a comic book company . the comics journal 114 . p. 97 . archived from the original on january 11 2012 . rovin pp. 96 to 97 . interview with roy thomas the comics journal 61 winter 1981 p. 87 a conversation with artist writer larry lieber . alter ego . twomorrows publishing . 3 2 19 in print version . fall 1999 . archived from the original on august 21 2010 . retrieved 2008 01 31 . a b jeff rovin interview in rise & fall of rovin s empire . comic book artist 16 . december 2001 . archived from the original on september