Page 53 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #4

and at comic book shops book series called War- for Atari was Centipede. This comic
towards the end of 1983. It lord.) This fantasy story was much more cartoonish than the
featured two children of the by Steve Skeates (writer) previous ones. The story, by Howard
original Atari Force, Martin and David Wenzel (artist) Post and Andrew Gutelle (with art by
Champion (leader of the told of a troll named Howard Post and Robert Smith), was
original team), and an inter- Dwayne and his some- about a young elf named Oliver who
esting cast of aliens. They what reluctant efforts to lived in a forest and was friends with a
fought against a reincar- unify his world, which was centipede, spider, flea, and scorpion.
nated Dark Destroyer, who divided into four king- An evil wizard turned the elf village's
had also been the recurring doms. The leaders of the mushroom supply into toadstools and
enemy of the original Atari four kingdoms were a set turns Oliver's arthropod friends against
Force. The series lasted of brothers who were con- him. The most likely place to find this
for 20 issues, was brought stantly at war. Beyond and the other pack-in comics is the
back for a special the fol- that, the story has little same place you find cartridges and in-
lowing year, and has not relation to the video game struction manuals: thrift stores, flea
been heard of since. The it was based on. Overall, markets, garage sales, and the Inter-
primary creators of the first dozen or so it's not bad, but I personally wouldn't net. Because of the full-sized Atari
issues were Gerry Conway (writer) and spend a lot to get it. I was able to get Force series, you can sometimes find
Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (penciller); my copy fairly inexpensively on eBay the Atari Force pack-ins in comic book
wrapping up the series were Mike (www.ebay.com), although you may stores, but it's unlikely.
Baron as writer and Eduardo Barreto also find it at comic book stores. While DC Comics went the more
as penciller. Ricardo Villagran inked Returning to the topic of DC's pack- traditional route of adapting another
the majority of the issues. in comics, shortly after Atari medium (in this case,
The reasons for the title's cancella- Force debuted, Atari began their video games) to comics,
tion were unclear. In the final issue, series of SwordQuest games. Marvel created a comic
editor Andy Helfer stated DC knew The idea behind these book-sized magazine
when they started that the story would games was that players called Blip. Blip was
have a definite ending. However, one could win valuable a mix of interviews,
can't help but wonder if the break-up prizes by buying and news, playing tips, car-
and sale of Atari by Warner and the playing the games. During toons, reviews, and
video game crash of 1984 didn't also game play, players would more. In other words,
factor in. I don't have sales figures, but get clues for where to look a fairly typical (aside
Amazing Heroes, a magazine about in the accompanying from the size) video
comics, included Atari Force in its list of comic book for a piece of game magazine from
the ten best books of 1984. Regard- the puzzle, which was a the early 1980s. It was
less, because the series was short- word phrase. Sending in apparently not a suc-
lived and independent of any major the complete puzzle to cess, however, as it
superhero "universe," today you can Atari got one considered only lasted seven is-
find back issues in the bargain bins of for the contest. The crea- sues. Given lead times
comic book stores (if you can find them tors behind the comic in the comic book in-
at all). You can find out more about books (which were much dustry, this means the
Atari Force at my own Atari Force better than the actual games) series was probably
Headquarters web site (http://home. were largely the same as those han- canceled almost as soon as sales fig-
hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/comics/ dling the Atari Force pack-ins. Gerry ures from the first couple of issues
AtariForce/). Conway and Roy Thomas again wrote were obtained. When you look at the
Atari Force was not DC's only at- the series and Dick Giordano inked it. timing, this is not particularly surprising.
tempt at bringing video games to comic The penciller this time, however, was Blip ran from February to August of
books. They also produced two fan favorite George Perez. Together 1983. Due to "The Crash," many video
graphic novels based on Atari's games. these creators told the story of twin game magazines either ceased publi-
The first was Star Raiders by Elliot S. thieves, Torr and Tarra, and their quest cation or reduced their frequency by
Maggin (writer) and Jose Luis Garcia- through four worlds for the Sword of the end of 1983. You can sometimes
Lopez (artist). This was actually DC's Ultimate Sorcery. Unfortunately, the find back issues of Blip in comic book
very first graphic novel and it predated sale of Atari Corp. to Jack Tramiel stores, but because it was a magazine
the full-sized Atari Force series. It had caused Atari to stop the contest. The not dedicated to comics, this is a rare
a brief cameo appear- third game and comic, Wa- occurrence.
ance of the original Atari terWorld, is very difficult to As you can see, there is plenty of
Force from their adven- find, while the fourth game, material for classic video game collec-
ture in the third pack-in. AirWorld, was never started. tors who also happen to be comic book
From there it went on to The AirWorld comic was collectors to find. I've actually been
tell the story of what hap- started, at least as far as surprised by the number of video game
pened after they left. It's plotting goes, but it's un- collectors who are current or former
an entertaining read and known whether any art was comic book collectors. No doubt the
worth searching out at done or where any of this marriage of these two mediums should
comic book shops. work is now. You can find make them happy. And for those who
DC's other video scans of all the released aren't comic book collectors, these
game-based graphic comics on the Internet at comics still make a
novel was Warlords. http://www.tripoint.org/sq/sq. great addition to your
(Not to be confused with html. own collection of video
their unrelated comic The final pack-in DC did game memorabilia.

Classic Gamer Magazine Summer 2000 53