The Atom debuted in Showcase #34 (July 27, 1961) from the DC Comics precursor, National Comics.
Editor Julie Schwartz had been planning a new version of the Atom and had asked artist Gil Kane to sketch designs. Kane said he did “a series of drawings” on large illustration boards, including a depiction of the new Atom riding a German shepherd dog and another of a pistol firing at the Atom, who wore the costume he eventually would in his comic debut but without a belt. Schwartz, after seeing the drawings, had the belt added, a detail Kane said he disliked since “it broke up the costume lines.” Schwartz said he had not wanted to reuse the Golden Age Atom, Al Pratt, and had read about dwarf stars and thought a fragment of one could power the new hero’s miniaturization. He added that he and Fox together plotted the early stories of this new Silver Age Atom. His civilian name, Ray Palmer, was an homage to science-fiction magazine editor Raymond A. Palmer. Raymond “Ray” Palmer, Ph.D., is a physicist and professor at Pace University in the city of Ivy Town, somewhere in New England, specializing in matter compression as a means to fight overpopulation, famine and other world problems. Using a mass of white dwarf star matter he finds after it lands on Earth, Palmer fashions a lens that enables him to shrink any object to any degree he wishes. He decides to use this effect to become a superhero.
