Retro Scan Special Edition: Atari Force #1 In-Depth Extravaganza!
July 31st, 2006 by Benj Edwards
Today we’ll be looking at Atari Force #1, which is a mini comic book (5″x7″) that came as a free pack-in with the game Defender for the Atari 2600 in 1982. Much more after the jump!
Much of what we know about this mysterious “Atari Institute” comes from the following ultra-futuristic paper telegram…
The vacuous dialogue here is absolutely delightful. I could stick my whole head through this panel without tearing any paper.
At this point in the story, I fell asleep and ruined half of the comic book with my drool.
Apparently, the writers of Atari Force wedged some sort of “UN Peacekeeping Mission” story (whatever that is) into the script, but the artist only knew how to draw flashbacks from ‘Nam.
Need I remind you that, at this point, nine-year-olds across America reading this book for the first time in 1982 were still trying to figure out how exactly all this related to Pac-Man. Soon after, they shrugged and got back to melting green army men with Bic lighters on the back patio.
Boring characters, trite dialogue, and the fact that it has absolutely nothing to do with video games makes this the most disappointing and ill-conceived comic book series ever. The group might as well have been called the Supercream Choo-Choo Force. Nobody would have cared either way.
But who the heck am I kidding? It’s just a freebie video game pack-in mag made by D.C. Comics, pioneer of the famous “world’s crappiest comic books” formula. In this case, their reputation remains unscathed.
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July 31st, 2006 at 8:11 am
Impressive. Most impressive. Apparently Obi taught you well…
July 31st, 2006 at 9:58 am
Apparently this actually brings back memories more of the games then the comics. then again it could be the fact i still own all the games. and yes even the comics.
July 31st, 2006 at 8:37 pm
I just ran across some of these at a yard sale. I was indifferent to my adult cynicism. I bought all of them, and stand by it. Sure is fun to look back at ’05 through the eyes of my disaffected atari youth. Sure DC sucks, they always have, but what if, one day, they did something right? Reminds me of the Bush administration…
August 1st, 2006 at 3:53 am
Your commentary is far more enjoyable than the subject it is on, that is for sure.
August 2nd, 2006 at 8:46 pm
Thanks for the comments, guys. If somebody sends me Atari Force #2 (I only have #1 and #5, I think), I’ll review that one as well.
November 24th, 2006 at 1:12 am
(Trips over site.) Ow, that hurt. (Wonder if anyone will read this…?)
Love the review. Man, did we really like this stuff as kids, or did we think it was cliche even back then? I can’t remember.
Anyway, I can’t send you the comics, as I lack them, but I can send a link – they’ve got them scanned at http://www.atariage.com/comics/ . Except there’s two pages missing – and I LOVE this – the big climactic splash panel in issue five! It’s almost as if to say, “Okay, you have the stock setup with the stock Ultimate Bad Guy and the stock hero’s stock method of beating the stock Bad Guy, along with the stock pacifist trapped with the stock traitor. You don’t really need to see precisely how they win. Just guess. You’re probably right.”
Still, it’s amusing pulp, and ripe for poking fun at. Hope to see more in the future.:)
August 8th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Brings back a lot of memories. I remenber playing the game and reading the comic book.
You have to remenber that this was intended for a younger audience not your typical 30 year old video game guys.
Quite frankly, I find you to be rather arrogant and quite pompus.
“world’s crappiest comic booksâ€
Just this comment alone leads me to believe you either A) A complete Idiot. B) A person who NEVER in his life read comic books.
DC Comics have given us great excellent stories. Do please don’t make stupid analysis base on your puny knowledge.
August 8th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Glad you enjoyed the piece. I stand by my analysis of D.C.’s pioneering work.
October 9th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
No arguments about the original, but I must say the sequel Atari Force series, that picked up on the story 20 years later, was quite awesome, as I recall. It had some great aliens, ships, guns, fonts!, cool characters and an impressive story arc to boot.
Believe it or not!
October 10th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Hahaha, neat stuff 🙂
I liked how the name “Atari” was (perhaps unintentionally) spelled out to be a recursive acronym: Atari Technology and Research Institute, unless that is actually what Atari stood for, which is even more funny to me 🙂
October 12th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
@Mr. KnowitAll:
Actually, DC was making the worlds crappiest comic books. Then Marvel arrived and usurped DC of such dubious honor.
Well, I guess we still have the indies, and some manga is OK, right?
December 31st, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Marvel>DC>DC&Atari Monstrosities
January 21st, 2008 at 12:31 pm
can i buy mario toys from here
November 17th, 2010 at 5:14 am
Thanks for the great images, you can check out my painting
“don’t pee your spacesuit” based on panel #6 it is on facebook and other sites.