The Atom: The Tiny Titan

Just a couple of months after the Idol-Head launched, the actor Damian Maffei made his own blogging debut on Monday, November 19, 2007 with The Atom: The Tiny Titan blog. Devoted to my favorite Mighty Mite, Damian produced a daily post for four months, then abandoned the project for more Hollywood work. Understandably, I felt a kinship between Damian, Rob Kelly at the Aquaman Shrine, and myself as daily Blogspot DC-hero-centric posters. I enjoyed Damian's writing style, and though I'm glad a number of similar bloggers came up in his absence, none took up the Atom's flag.

One part missing "The Tiny Titan," one part wanting to swell the ranks in my "Crisis On Earth-Blog: The DC Challenge," and a final part recognizing that after Blackest Night, the Atom has never had greater mainstream visibility, I wanted the blog back online in some capacity.  I tracked down Damian at MySpace and asked his permission to resurrect "Tiny Titan" through a mirror blog...

Hey Frank, I certainly do remember you, and appreciate that you logged into the heinous myspace to inform me of such.
Rob Kelly harasses me every now and then to post something. I keep going to the Titan, and I visit yours and Rob's pages still quite often.

I didn't want to abandon the Titan blog, but the second I began to pack up and move, things went down the tubes. After that, acting stuff began to bombard me (mostly theater, which is good) and I just never got a chance to get it back on track. That and a 3 year old son won't let down.

You can absolutely carry on the Atom torch! Yes, by all means do what you can with it. And if you want stuff from me (help, items, participation) let me know. I'm still all for it, I just can't properly update it.

So let me know what you need.

And so, I began work on reconstructing the blog. My first order of business was to create The Tiny Titan Master Index of every post Damian ever produced. I then copied every piece of artwork and link from Damian's blog and reconstituted it as closely as possible at the new Atom: The Mighty Mite blog. You really do have to put them side-by-side to tell them apart, but the easy tells are that virtually all the pictures are now larger and I ditched some extraneous stuff like widgets and webrings. I'd always itched to enhance Damian's blog's pictures, but when I tried, it produced color variations and distortions I couldn't use.

Since I had the DC Holiday Special '09 #1 (February 2010) lying around, and Damian inexplicably failed to recognize Red Tornado sucks too much to bother with, covering an RT story inside became a preview for the blog that I promoted here at Diabolu. Officially though, the new blog (re)launched with a tribute to Damian's first post, The search for Ray Palmer... blogging. My intention was and remains to write "Mighty Mite" material in a lighter style than here, but it's hard to compress nearly fifty years of a character's history into two post without it running long. That's how Amazing Heroes #162: "The Tiny Titan Returns... Again" and "The Mighty Mite Returns... Again... and Again... and Again" played out.

It was about this point Damian chimed in with another progress report...

I have been keeping tabs on the site for about a week now, as that's when I saw your message...

Yours posts are outstanding. Well written and full of goodies and information. As for no one "following" you as of yet, I mean, I was surprised that anyone found and followed thetinytitan. I guess most of the attention was out of morbid curiosity for the fool in love with DC's nugget hero.
I'm sure if people knew you were doing it, they'd want to head on over there. Does Rob know what you're up to? There must be those who are willing to shine a light on it. I know I will.

I explained that I was intentionally keeping a low profile, at least until after the crossover. For in stance, while developing how to adapt a "Choose Your Own Adventure" style interactive stories into blog terms for the event, I wrote up such a beast for a pre-shrunk Ray Palmer as The Atom in "Decisions, Decisions!" The Atom also starred in a big chunk of the event's interactive story, but since it remains unfinished, I'm not going to call attention to it.

Getting back on track with all my blogs, it was time to do Birth of the Atom!, a synopsis of the Silver Age Atom's debut story, which posted yesterday.

The plan is to update "The Mighty Mite" a couple times a week, and keep the tongue-in-cheek vibe established by Damian. While I'll keep up with the 60s stories, we'll also spend plenty of time in the present, with close looks at Identity Crisis through Blackest Night, and we'll likely dive into other eras (70s JLofA, 80s Sword & Power, etc.) as well. We'll also be looking at some other characters, both ones Damian already expressed enthusiasm about (Animal Man, Hawkman, Mr. Miracle) and others I think equally appropriate. Hopefully, you folks will give it a try.

In the meantime, here's a few "Tiny Titan" related posts from this blog, and why not-- that Master List of every post from the old blog...

Frank, J'Onn, and Ray
The Atomic Bomb
2008 Michael Netzer Martian Manhunter and the Atom (Ryan Choi) Art
2008 Michael Netzer Martian Manhunter and the Atom (Ray Palmer) Art

Editorial
The search for Ray Palmer... stuff.
The Martian march towards death row...
M.O.T.A
Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Merchandise
Defenders of Freedom shirt and the usual business
The All New Atom Heroclix
Justice League party loot bags!
Atom switchplate
The Search for Ray Palmer: The T-shirt!
DC Super Heroes Super Healthy Cookbook
Atom transfer
Atom switch plate: Part 2

Toys
Al Pratt
DC Direct's JSA Atom action figure
Atom Pocket Super Hero
Ryan Choi
First Appearance - DC Direct: Ryan Choi
Ray Palmer
Justice League Unlimited action figure
Justice League Unlimited Atom 10"
DC Super Heroes from Hasbro
Model and Toy Collector #24
JLA Pocket Heroes: Day 1 - Box set
JLA Pocket heroes: Day 2 - Martian Manhunter with JLA Conference Table and Chairs
Justice League Unlimited Atom 10 inch #2

Chronos
Chronos Heroclix figurine

Cards
Comic book foldees 1966: Atom
Atomo- Super Amigos trading card!
Atomo trading card (a.k.a. The lil Captain)
Another (Power of the) Atom card?
The Atom and Hawkman "Great Teams" trading card (1989)
Skybox card - 1994
DC vs. Marvel impact cards
VS Card: Ray Palmer * The Atom
Hombre Atomico card!
VS Card * Chronos
VS*Chronos - Injustice Gang card
The Atom "Legacy" card

Comics
The All New Atom #1
The All New Atom #2
The All New Atom #3
The All New Atom #4
The All New Atom #5
Sword of the All New Atom #13
The All New Atom #14
The All New Atom #15
The All New Atom #16
The All New Atom #17
The All New Atom #18
The All New Atom #19
The All New Atom #20
The All New Atom #
The Brave and the Bold #9
Brave and Bold #73: Crisis on Earth B-List!
Countdown Special: The Atom #1
Countdown Special: The Atom #2
Green Lantern #24 (2007)
Hembeck Atom
Hembeck Comic Reader #197 Back Cover (1981)
JLA #27
JLA Classified #
JLA Classified #47
JLA Classified #48
JLA Classified #50
JLA Classified #51: First Contact
JLA Classified #52 - The Truth Hurts
JSA #54:Thanksgiving
Justice League of America #110- DC 100 SUPER SPECTACULAR PAGES: The Man Who Murdered Santa Claus!
Sword of the Atom - Book One: Stormy Passage
Sword of the Atom - Book Two: A Choice of Dooms
Sword of the Atom - Book 3: Mourning's End
Sword of the Atom - Book 4: Look Homeward, Atom

Art
JLU Atom sketch double header!
Norm Breyfogle sketch
Model and Toy Collector #24
Fred Hembeck sketch
Michael Netzer Atom and The Martian Manhunter sketch
Michael Netzer Atom and The Martian Manhunter sketch #2: We will not go quietly into the night...
Atom vs. Ant-man: #1 - Gary Gretsky
Atom vs. Ant-man: #2 - Gary Gretsky

Pin-Ups
The Atom: Who's Who Entry
The Atom (Golden Age): Who's Who entry
Sword of the Atom: Action Pin-up No.1!
Sword of the Atom: Action pin-up Part 2!
DC Comics Super Heroes coloring book: Atom page
DC Comics Super Heroes Coloring Book: Atom page #2
Bug-Eyed Bandit Who's Who entry



Media
The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure animation cel
Justice League tv pilot 1997
Justice League tv pilot continued...
The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure production drawing

Ads
Comic Cavalcade ad
Debut of The Atom ad!
Debut of the Atom ad Part 2
Meet Chronos: Atom #2 ad
The Atom #10 ad
Aquaman and the Atom: The Brave and the Bold ad
The Atom team-up ad
The Atom subscription offer!
DC favorites subscription ad
Mystery in Space and The Atom ad
DC on TV Ad!
Comic Books price guide ad - 1983
Sword of the Atom insert (1984)
Power of the Atom ad poster
JLA vs. Teen Titans ad poster

Animal Man
Animal Man #1 ad!

Hawkman
Super Amigos: Hawkman!
Hawkman transfer
Hawkman Brave and Bold ad
Hombre Halcon bottle cap - 1978
El Halcon - the Super Amigos card!
Hembeck Hawk-heroes
Hembeck Hawkman #2
Hawkman patch
DC Official Licensee display
Hembeck Hawkman #3
Hawkman Super Powers stamp set

Mister Miracle
Super Powers: Mister Miracle

The Red Tornado
The Red Tornado Shrine: Minimates!
Red Tornado Shrine: Custom Red Tornado Lego!