Mercury Comics ‘Atomika’
Atomika was the creation of Artist Sal Abbinanti in 2005. Up until that point, Sal was doing what most artists did who aspired to work for the Big Two (Marvel or DC). He was honing his craft, building his portfolio. Going to every show he could to put his work out there for anyone who would look. However, like many artists, the rejections tested his resolve and perhaps, his career choice. That’s when he decided that if he wanted to pursue his love of comic art, there were other opportunities beyond Marvel or DC. So, he created Atomika along with writer Andrew Dabb and colorist Aldrin Aw for Speakeasy Comics.
About Atomika
Atomika, which is set in an alternate universe, portrays a Soviet Union where technology rules and religion has been outlawed. In this apocalyptical setting, the sky is dead and much of the planet has become an industrial wasteland. America has fallen to the USSR, and they are tapping the earth’s core to control the only source of energy left. In a sense, the planet has evolved into a giant machine. Its only goal is feeding the furnaces of its industry.
In 1934, a man named Arohnir creates Atomika, a super-strong, nuclear-powered being, from the molten fires of the earth’s core. The new, red “god” confronts the old gods. Despite his victories, when Atomika confronts Baba Yaga, he begins to have doubts about his mission.
Publishing
Speakeasy published Atomika issues #1–4, from March–July 2005 . It did well as it was Speakeasy’s most popular title, thus vindicating Sal’s belief in himself. In December 2005, however, with Speakeasy facing business problems on multiple fronts, Sal split from Speakeasy. He created his own label, Mercury Comics to publish Atomika #5 and the remaining seven issues. Soon, after publishing issues #5–6 in short order, Mercury collected the first six issues into the trade paperback Atomika: God is Red.
Atomika Omnibus
Fast forward to 2021 and Sal and Mercury Comics are compiling all 12 Atomika issues into an Omnibus which will come to Kickstarter in September. Sal recently spoke to us about why he’s doing the Omnibus and what fan’s have in store with it:
Sal Abbinanti
So when it [Atomika] came out, it came out as individual issues. And you know individual issues…sometimes you pick them up, and sometimes the comic store doesn’t order the next issue. So there was this kind of broken continuity of people trying to get the whole 12 issue series. So we’re putting it out as an Omnibus this September through Kickstarter. It’s very exciting and there’s so many contributing artists that did covers and pin-ups and interior stuff on that book. That never got seen until now, which is great! Like Alex (Ross) and (Bill) Sienkiewicz and Darwin Cook, and Claudio Castellini and Glenn Fabry did these amazing covers. At the time, I was doing a lot of Artist Alley’s and doing a lot of shows. So I had the opportunity to hit up a lot of my heroes that were there. Like Ernie Chan, Alex Niño and Tony DeZuniga, John Romita, Sr. and guys like that. Travest Charest, Michael Turner… So there’s a tremendous amount of great art that’s going to be included in the Omnibus for Atomika.
Stay tuned for more information as the Kickstarter campaign draws near. In the meantime, you can hear the full conversation we had with Sal about his love of comic art, self-publishing Atomika, his book The Hostage which ran a successful Kickstarter Campaign earlier this year, his work with Alex Ross and Bill Sienkiewicz and more. Coming soon, here on Geek Vibes Nation.
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Senior Writer at GeekVibesNation – I am a 50 something child of the 70’s who admits to being a Star Trek/Star Wars/Comic Book junkie who once dove head first over a cliff (Ok, it was a small hill) to try to rescue his Fantastic Four comic from a watery grave. I am married to a lovely woman who is as crazy as I am and the proud parent of a 18 year old boy with autism. My wife and son are my real heroes.
