Category: DC Horror

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Showcase Presents The War That Time Forgot


By Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Russ Heath, Gene Colan, Joe Kubert & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1253-7 (TPB)

Unbelievably, STILL not a Major Motion Picture, The War That Time Forgot debuted in Star Spangled War Stories #90 and ran wild there until #137 (May 1968). It skipped only three issues: #91, 93 & 126, the last of which starred the United States Marine Corps simian Sergeant Gorilla. Look it up: I’m neither kidding nor being metaphorical…

At present this stunningly bizarre black-&-white compendium is the only comprehensive collection: gathering together most but not all of the monstrously madcap material from SSWS #90, 92, 94-125 and 127-128, cumulatively spanning April/May 1960 to August 1966. Simply too good a concept to leave alone, this seamless, shameless blend of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Caprona stories (known alternatively as the Caspak Trilogy or The Land That Time Forgot) provided everything baby-boomer boys – and surely many girls too, if truth be told – could dream of with giant lizards, humongous insects, fantastic adventures and two-fisted heroes employing lots of guns and gear and explodey stuff…

Robert Kanigher (1915-2002) was one of the most distinctive authorial voices in American comics, blending rugged realism with fantastic fantasy in his signature War comics, Horror stories, Romance, superhero titles such as Wonder Woman, Teen Titans, Hawkman, Metal Men, Iron Man, Lois Lane, Steel Sterling, Batman and other genres and stars too numerous to cover here. He scripted ‘Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt’ – the first story of the Silver Age which introduced Barry Allen as The Flash to the superhero-hungry kids of the World in 1956.

Kanigher sold his first stories and poetry in 1932, wrote for the theatre, film and radio, and joined the Fox Features shop where he created The Bouncer, Steel Sterling and The Web, whilst providing scripts for Blue Beetle and the original (Shazam!-fuelled) Captain Marvel. In 1945 he settled at All-American Comics as both writer and editor, staying on when the company amalgamated with National Comics to become the forerunner of today’s DC. He scripted Golden Age iterations of Flash and Hawkman, created Black Canary, Dr. Pat and Lady Cop, plus memorable female foes Harlequin and Rose and Thorn. This last he reconstructed during the relevancy era of the early 1970s into a schizophrenic crime-busting superhero.

When mystery-men faded out at the end of the 1940s, Kanigher moved into westerns and war stories, and in 1952 became writer/editor of the company’s combat titles All-American War Stories, Star Spangled War Stories and Our Amy at War. He launched Our Fighting Forces in 1954 and added G.I. Combat to his burgeoning portfolio when Quality Comics sold their line of titles to DC in 1956, all the while working on Wonder Woman, cowboy Johnny Thunder, Rex the Wonder Dog, Silent Knight, Sea Devils, The Viking Prince and a host of others.

Among his many epochal war series were Sgt. Rock, Enemy Ace, The Haunted Tank and The Losers as well as the visually addictive, irresistibly astonishing “Dogfaces vs Dinosaurs” dramas depicted here. Kanigher was a restlessly creative writer and I suspect he used this uncanny but formulaic adventure arena as a personal try-out venue for his many series concepts. The Flying Boots, G.I. Robot, Suicide Squad and many other teams and characters initially appeared in this lush Pacific hellhole with wall-to-wall danger. Indisputably, the big beasts were the stars, but occasionally ordinary G.I. Joes made enough of an impression to secure return engagements, too…

The wonderment commenced in Star Spangled War Stories #90 as paratroopers and tanks of the “Question Mark Patrol” are dropped on Mystery Island – from whence no American soldiers have ever returned. The crack warriors discover why when the operation is assaulted by pterosaurs, tyrannosaurs and worse on the ‘Island of Armoured Giants!’ Each yarn is superbly rendered by veteran art team Ross Andru & Mike Esposito.

Larry and Charlie, sole survivors of that first foray, returned to the lost world in #92’s ‘Last Battle of the Dinosaur Age!’ when aquatic beasts attack their rescue submarine forcing them back to the lethal landmass. ‘The Frogman and the Dinosaur!’ takes up most of SSWS #94 as a squad of second-rate Underwater Demolitions Team divers are trapped on the island, encountering the usual bevy of blockbuster brutes and a colossal crab as well.

What starts out as paratroopers versus pterodactyls in #95 turns into a deadly turf-war in ‘Guinea Pig Patrol!’ before ‘Mission X!’ introduces the Task Force X/Suicide Squad in a terse infiltration story with the increasing eager US military striving to set up a base on the strategically crucial monster island. The Navy took the lead in #97’s ‘The Sub-Crusher!’ with equally dire results as a giant gorilla joins the regular roster of horrors, after which a frustrated palaeontologist is blown off course and into his wildest nightmare in ‘The Island of Thunder’. The rest of his airborne platoon aren’t nearly as excited at the discovery…

The Flying Franks were a trapeze family before the war, but as “The Flying Boots” Henny, Tommy & Steve won fame as paratroopers. For #99’s ‘The Circus of Monsters!’ they face the greatest challenge of their lives after washing up on Mystery Island and narrowly escaping death by dinosaur. They aren’t too happy on being sent back next issue to track down a Japanese secret weapon in ‘The Volcano of Monsters!’

In #101 ‘The Robot and the Dinosaur!’ ramp up the fantasy quotient as reluctant Ranger Mac is dispatched to the primordial preserve to field-test the Army’s latest weapon: a fully automatic, artificial G.I. Joe, who promptly saves the day and returned to fight a ‘Punchboard War!’ in the next issue: tackling immense killer fish, assorted saurians and a giant Japanese war-robot that dwarfs the dinosaurs. The mecha-epic carried over and concluded in #103’s ‘Doom at Dinosaur Island!’, after which the Flying Boots encored in Star Spangled #104’s ‘The Tree of Terror!’ when a far-ranging pterodactyl drags the brothers back to the isle of no return for another explosive engagement. ‘The War on Dinosaur Island!’ sees the circus boys leading a small-scale invasion, but even tanks and the latest ordnance prove little use against pernicious, eternally hungry reptiles, after which ‘The Nightmare War!’ sees a dino-phobic museum janitor trapped in his worst nightmare. At least he has his best buddies and a goodly supply of bullets and bombs with him…

The action shifts to the oceans surrounding the island for sub-sea shocker ‘Battle of the Dinosaur Aquarium!’ with plesiosaurs, titanic turtles, colossal crabs and crocodilians on the menu, before hitting the beaches in #108 for ‘Dinosaur D-Day!’ when the monsters take up residence in the Navy’s landing craft. ‘The Last Soldiers’ then pits determined tank-men against a string of scaly perils on land, sea and air, after which a new Suicide Squad debuts in #110 to investigate a ‘Tunnel of Terror’ into the lost land of giant monsters. This time, though, there’s a giant gorilla on their side…

That huge hairy beast is the star of ‘Return of the Dinosaur Killer!’ as the harried unit leader and a wily boffin (visually based on Kanigher’s office associate Julie Schwartz) struggle to survive on the tropically reptilian atoll, whilst ‘Dinosaur Sub-Catcher!’ shifts locale to ice floes as a pack of lost sea dinosaurs attack a polar submarine and US weather station.

Star Spangled War Stories #113 returned to the blue Pacific for ‘Dinosaur Bait!’ and a pilot tasked with hunting down the cause for so many lost subs after which ‘Doom Came at Noon!’ revisits snowy climes as dinosaurs inexplicably rampage through alpine territory, making temporary allies of old enemies dispatched to destroy hidden Nazi submarine pens.

Issue #115’s ‘Battle Dinner for Dinosaurs!’ sees a helicopter pilot marooned on Mystery Island drawn into a spectacular aerial dogfight, before a duo of dedicated soldiers faced ice-bound beasts in ‘The Suicide Squad!’ The big difference being that here Morgan and Mace are more determined to kill each other than accomplish their mission…

‘Medal for a Dinosaur!’ bowed to the inevitable and introduced a (relatively) friendly baby pterodactyl to balance out Mace & Morgan’s barely-suppressed animosity, and ‘The Plane-Eater!’ finds the army odd couple adrift in the Pacific and in deep danger until our leather-winged little guy turns up once more…

The Suicide Squad were getting equal billing by the time of #119’s ‘Gun Duel on Dinosaur Hill!’, as yet another group of men-without-hope battle saurian horrors and each other to the death, after which the apparently un-killable Morgan & Mace pop back with Dino, the flying baby dinosaur. They also make a new ally and companion in handy hominid Caveboy, before the whole unlikely ensemble struggle to survive increasingly outlandish creatures in ‘The Tank Eater!’ Star Spangled War Stories #121 then presented another diving drama as a UDT frogman gains a Suicide Squad berth, proving to be a formidable fighter and ultimately ‘The Killer of Dinosaur Alley!’ Increasingly, G.I. hardware and ordnance began to gain the upper hand over bulk, fang and claw and much-missed representational maestro Russ Heath added an edge of hyper-realism to #122’s ‘The Divers of Death’ wherein two Frogman siblings battle incredible underwater insects but still can’t win the respect of their landlubber older brothers, and Gene Colan illustrated aquatic adventure ‘The Dinosaur who Ate Torpedoes!’, before Andru & Esposito reenlisted to depict ‘Terror in a Bottle!’. This was the second short saurian saga to grace issue #123 and another outing for that giant ape who loved to pummel pterosaurs and larrup lizards.

Undisputed master of gritty fantasy art Joe Kubert added his pencil-and-brush magic to tense and manic thriller ‘My Buddy the Dinosaur!’ in #124, and stuck around to illumine the return of G.I. Robot in stunning battle bonanza ‘Titbit For a Tyrannosaurus!’ (#125), after which Andru & Esposito limned Suicide Squad sea saga ‘The Monster Who Sank a Navy!’ in #127. The last tale here (#128) sees Colan resurface to illuminate a masterfully moving human drama actually improved by the inclusion of ravening reptiles in ‘The Million Dollar Medal!’.

Throughout this eclectic collection of dark dilemmas, light-hearted romps and spectacular battle blockbusters the emphasis is always on human fallibility; with soldiers unable to put aside long-held grudges, swallow pride or forgive trespasses even amidst the strangest and most terrifying moments of their lives, and this edgy humanity informs and elevates even the daftest of these wonderfully imaginative adventure yarns.

Classy, intense, insanely addictive and Just Plain Big Fun, The War that Time Forgot is a deliciously guilty pleasure and I for one hope the remaining stories from Star Spangled War Stories, Weird War Tales, G. I. Combat and especially the magnificent Tim Truman Guns of the Dragon miniseries all end up in sequel compilations before many more eons pass.

Now Read This book and you will too…
© 1960-1966, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Prez: The First Teen President


By Joe Simon, Jerry Grandenetti & Creig Flessel, with Cary Bates, Neil Gaiman, Ed Brubaker, Frank Miller, Grant Morrison, Art Saaf, Mike Allred, Bryan Talbot, Mark Buckingham, Eric Shanower & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6317-1 (TPB/Digital edition)

At a time when American comic books were just coming into their adolescence – but not maturity – Prez was a hippie teenager created by industry royalty. In the early 1970s, Joe Simon made one of his irregular yet always eccentrically fruitful sojourns back to DC Comics, managing to sneak a bevy of exceedingly strange concepts right past the usually-conservative powers-that-be and onto the spinner racks and newsstands of the world.

Possibly the most anarchic and subversive of these postulated a time (approximately 20 minutes into the future) when US teenagers had the vote. The first-time electorate – idealists all – elected a diligent, honest young man every inch the hardworking, honest patriot every American politician claimed to be.

In 2015 that concept was given a devilishly adroit makeover for post-millennial generations. The result was a superbly outrageous cartoon assessment of the State of the Nation – Prez: Corndog-in-Chief. Once you’re done here, you should read that too and then ferociously lobby DC to release the concluding chapters in that saga…

Back here, however, and still in 1972, Simon (Captain America, Fighting American, The Fly, Black Magic, Young Romance) was passionately doing what he always did: devising ways for ever-broader audiences to enjoy comics. This carefully curated compilation gathers every incidence of the best leader they never had, from original run Prez #1-4 (September 1973 – March 1974), through unpublished tales from Cancelled Comics Cavalcade #2, guest cameos and revivals in Supergirl #10, The Sandman #54, Vertigo Visions: Prez #1, The Dark Knight Strikes Again and The Multiversity Guidebook #1.

It all begins in the little town of Steadfast where average teen Prez Rickard makes a minor splash by fixing all the clocks and making them run on time. Throughout the rest of the USA, dissent, moral decay and civil breakdown terrify the populace in an election year. Corrupt businessman and political influencer Boss Smiley wants to capitalise on a new amendment allowing 18-year-olds to vote. He picks Rickard as a perfect patsy, but his chicanery comes awry when newly-elected Prez turns out to have a mind, backbone and agenda of his own…

With early – if heavy-handed – salutes to ecological and native rights movements, ‘Oh Say Does That Star Spangled Banner Yet Wave?’ by Simon, veteran illustrator Jerry Grandenetti set the scene for a wild ride unlike any seen in kids’ comics. Equal parts hallucinogenic political satire, topical commentary and sci-fi romp, the mandate mayhem expanded in ‘Invasion of the Chessmen’, as a global goodwill tour threatens to bring worldwide peace and reconciliation… until America’s grandmaster provokes an international incident with the chess-loving Soviet Union. Cue killer robots in assorted chess shapes and a sexy Russian Queen and watch the fireworks…

‘Invasion of America’ tackles political assassination and social repercussions after Prez decides to outlaw guns. I think no more need be said…

The original run ended with the fourth episode, spoofing international diplomacy as Transylvania dispatches its new Ambassador to Washington DC: an actual werewolf paving the way to devious conquest which led briefly to a ‘Vampire in the White House’ (inked by Creig Flessel).

Although the series was cancelled if not impeached, a fifth tale was in production when the axe fell. It eventually appeared with other prematurely curtailed stories in 1978’s Cancelled Comics Cavalcade #2 and appears here in monochrome as ‘The Devil’s Exterminator!’ with a bug infestation in DC tackled by a mythical madman. When Congress refuses to pay his sky-high bill ($5 million or three lunches in today’s money!), Clyde Piper abducts all the children, and PotUS is forced into outrageous executive action…

There was one final 1970s appearance. Supergirl #10 (October 1974 by Cary Bates, Art Saaf & Vince Colletta) featured ‘Death of a Prez!’ wherein the Commander in Chief was targeted for assassination by killer witch Hepzibah, using an ensorcelled Girl of Steel to do her dirty work – with predictable results…

Prez Rickard vanished in a welter of superhero angst and science fiction spectacle after that, but made a quiet cameo in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman story arc World’s End. Illustrated by Michael Allred, Bryan Talbot & Mark Buckingham, ‘The Golden Boy’ (The Sandman #54 October 1993) offers a typically askance view of the boy leader’s origins, his enemies, the temptations of power and the ends of his story. It generated enough interest to spark follow-up one-shot Vertigo Visions: Prez #1 (September 1995) as Ed Brubaker & Eric Shanower crafted ‘Smells Like Teen President’. After being missing for years, America’ youngest President is being trailed by a young hitchhiker who might well be his son…

The moving search for family, identity, belonging and purpose is followed by a typically iconoclastic vignette by Frank Miller & Lynn Varley taken from The Dark Knight Strikes Again (December 2001) with the Leader of the Free(ish) World exposed as a computer simulation after which the history lesson concludes with Grant Morrison, Scott Hepburn & Nathan Fairbairn’s page on Hippie-dippy ‘Earth 47’ and its comic book landmarks (Prez, Brother Power, The Geek, Sunshine Superman and others) as first seen in The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January 2015).

I used to think comics were the sharpest reflection of popular culture from any given era. That’s certainly the case here, and maybe there are lessons to be learned from re-examining them with eyes of experience. What is irrefutable, and in no way fake news, is that they’re still fun and enjoyable if read in a historical context. So read this, vote if you can and get ready. I can guarantee not even funnybook creators can predict what’s coming next.
© 1973, 1974, 1978, 1993, 1995, 2001, 2002, 2015, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Art of Ramona Fradon


By Ramona Fradon; interviewed by Howard Chaykin (Dynamite Entertainment)
ISBN: 978-1-60690-140-3 (HB/Digital edition)

In a matter of mere weeks that have taken many accomplished, acclaimed and beloved comics luminaries (including Paul Neary, Enrique Badía Romero, José Delbo, Marti (Riera), John G. Miller and Keith Giffen) – we are particularly saddened to learn that pioneering cartoonist Ramona Fradon died on February 24th. At the age of 97 she had only just officially retired a month previously. Her incomparable works will keep her with us through characters and titles such as Super Friends, Aquaman and Metamorpho (slated to appear in the next Superman film). Until then, here’s another tome you should own…

Although present in comic books from the start, women – like so many other non-white/male “minorities” – have been largely written out of history. One of the very few to have weathered that inexplicable exclusion was Ramona Fradon. This excellent commemorative art collection celebrates not only her life and contribution, but thanks to its format – a free, unexpurgated extended interview with iconoclastic creator Howard Chaykin – shares the artist’s frank and forthright views on everything from work practise to the power of fans…

It begins with an Introduction from Walt Simonson who proclaims ‘Meet your Idol… and discover They’re even Cooler than you Thought!’, before early days are revealed in ‘Part One: Setting the Scene’ and ‘Part Two: In the Beginning’…

Ramona Dom was born on October 2nd 1926 to an affluent Chicago family with many ties to commercial creative arts. Her father was a respected artisan, letterer and calligrapher who had designed the logos for Camel cigarettes, Elizabeth Arden and other major brands, and also formulated the fonts Dom Casual and Dom Bold. He had plans for his daughter, urging her to become a fashion designer…

The family moved to (outer) New York when Ramona was five. Ramona initially attended The Parsons School of Design, and discovered she had absolutely no interest in creating clothes. Although she’d never read comic books, she had voraciously read illustrated books like John Barton Gruelle’s Raggedy Anne and Andy series, and was a devoted fan of newspaper strips. Favourites included Dick Tracy, Bringing Up Father, The Phantom, Alley Oop, Flash Gordon, Terry and the Pirates and Li’l Abner (all herein represented by 1930s examples).

Ramona soon transferred to the New York Art Students League – a hotbed of cartooning – where she met and married Arthur Dana Fradon. He became a prolific illustrator, author and cartoonist and a regular contributor to The New Yorker between 1948-1992. They wed in 1948 and he actively encouraged her to seek work in the still young funnybook biz…

‘Part Three: Gingerly Breaking into Comics’ reveals how her first forays at Timely Comics led to DC/National Comics and a Shining Knight yarn published in Adventure Comics #165 (cover-dated June 1951), 10 months later taking over the veteran Aquaman feature in #167. Fradon was one of the first women to conspicuously and regularly illustrate comic books, drawing the strip throughout the 1950s and shepherding the Sea King from B-lister to solo star and Saturday morning TV pioneer.

In the first of a series of incisive, informative mini biographies, ‘Sidebar: Murray Boltinoff’ reveals the influence of that much-neglected and under-appreciated editor. ‘Part Four: Queen of the Seven Seas’ and ‘Part Five: Man of 1000 Elements’ show how occasional stints on The Brave and the Bold team-ups led to her co-creation of Sixties sensation Metamorpho, the Element Man. However in 1965 – at the pinnacle of success – she abruptly retired to raise a daughter, only returning to comics in 1972 for another stellar run of landmark work.

‘Sidebar: George Kashdan’ tells all about the multi-talented scripter before ‘Part Six: Ramona Returns to Comics… At Marvel???’ details how the House of Ideas lured the artist back to her board and highlights her difficulties working “Marvel-style” on assorted horror shorts, The Claws of the Cat and Fantastic Four, all presaging a return to DC…

‘Sidebar: Joseph Patterson’ looks into the astounding strip Svengali who green lit Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, Gasoline Alley and more before ‘Part Seven: Back Home at DC Comics’ where she was busier than ever. As well as horror and humour shorts, Fradon drew a new Metamorpho try-out, superhero spinoff Freedom Fighters and her twin magnum opuses: revived comedy superhero Plastic Man and TV sensation Super Friends. These revelations are bolstered by ‘Sidebar: E. Nelson Bridwell’, exploring the life of the man who knew everything about everything…

In 1980, Fradon took over Dale Messick’s long-running newspaper strip Brenda Starr, drawing it for 15 years. ‘Part Eight: Leaping From Books to Strips’ explores that painful and unpleasant chore in sharp detail, supplemented by ‘Sidebar: Brenda Starr’ outlining the feature’s history and reprinting those episodes when the ageless reporter met a certain cop, allowing Fradon to finally draw childhood idol Dick Tracy…

The most fascinating stuff is left until last as ‘Part Nine: Ramona the Author’ discusses her career post-Brenda: drawing for Bart Simpson and Spongebob Squarepants comics, returning to higher education and writing a philosophical historical mystery novel – The Gnostic Faustus: The Secret Teachings Behind the Classic Text – as well as illustrated kids book The Dinosaur That Got Tired of Being Extinct.

Packed throughout with candid photos, and stunning pencil sketches, painted pictures and privately commissioned works – like Aquaman, assorted Super Friends, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin; Metal Men, Aqualad, Brenda Starr, Black Canary, Shazam/Captain Marvel, Shining Knight, The Atom, The Spirit, Metamorpho & cast, Marvel Girl, Miss America, Power Girl, Catwoman, Hawkman, numerous illustrations from The Story of Superman book plus convention sketches, this celebration concludes with even more fabulous sleek super art images in ‘Part Nine: Ramona Today’ and ‘Part Eleven: Bibliography’…

This is an amazing confirmation of an incredible career and any fan’s dream package. Amongst gems unearthed here are complete Aquaman stories ‘The Kid from Atlantis!’ (Adventure Comics #269, 1960), ‘A World Without Water’ (Adventure#251, 1958) and ‘How Aquaman Got his Powers!’ (Adventure #260, 1959), plus tales from Star Spangled War Stories (#184, 1975) and ‘The Invisible Bank Robbers!’ (Gangbusters #30, 1952).

Also on show are unpublished sample strips by Dana & Ramona Fradon and a monumental cover gallery of unforgettable images from Super Friends #3, 5-8, 10, 11, 13, 17, 19, 21, 22, 24-27, 31, 33, 36-39 & 41; Plastic Man #16-20; The Brave and the Bold #55, 57, 58, Showcase #30 & 33, Metamorpho, the Element Man #1-5, Namora #1 (2010), Fantastic Four #133 and Freedom Fighters #3.

These are supported by selected interior pages in full colour or monochrome from Star Spangled War Stories #8; Adventure Comics #190; Metamorpho, the Element Man #1; 1st Issue Special #3; Fantastic Four #133; The Brave and the Bold #57; House of Secrets #116 & 136; Secrets of Haunted House #3 & 14; House of Mystery #232 & 273; Plop! #5; Freedom Fighters #3 & 5; Plastic Man #14; Super Friends #6-8, 10, 13, 16, 19, 21, 23 & 25 and the Super DC Calendar 1977.

A truly definitive appreciation of the Comic Book Hall of Fame inductee 2006, this oversized (229 x 305 mm) hardback reproduces hundreds of pages and covers, plus a wealth of out-industry artwork and commissioned wonders, as accompaniment to an astonishingly forthright testament and career retrospective of a phenomenal and groundbreaking talent.

The Art of Ramona Fradon will delight everyone by showing everybody how comics should be done….
Marvel Characters © and ™ 1941-2013 Marvel Characters, Inc. DC Comics Characters © and ™ DC Comics. Brenda Starr™ © 2013 Tribune Media Services. All Rights Reserved.

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Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre & The Spectre: Tales of The Unexpected


By Will Pfeifer & Cliff Chiang, David Lapham, Eric Battle, Prentis Rollins, Tom Mandrake & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-577-X (TPB Aftermath): 978-1-84576-668-9 (TPB Unexpected)

The Spectre first appeared in More Fun Comics #52 (cover-dated February 1940), brainchild of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and artist Bernard (Hourman) Baily. Jim Corrigan, a murdered police detective, was ordained an open-ended mission by a glowing light and disembodied voice to fight crime and evil: swiftly becoming one of the most overwhelmingly powerful heroes of the Golden Age.

The astral avenger has been revamped and revived many times since. Latterly and powerfully (by John Ostrander &Tom Mandrake) revealed to be God’s Spirit of Vengeance bonded to a human conscience, Corrigan was finally laid to rest and Hal Jordan replaced him. Jordan was a Green Lantern who nearly destroyed the universe when possessed by antediluvian fear-parasite Parallax, before redeeming his soul and sacrificing his life to reignite our dying sun in the Final Night miniseries.

Bonded and bound to The Spectre force, Jordan became more a Spirit of Redemption than Retribution and, following a complex series of events in the wake of the Infinite Crisis was resurrected as a mortal superhero – leaving The Spectre without human guidance or scruple…

Collecting 3-part miniseries Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre and the lead stories from Tales of the Unexpected #1-3, this book follows the Ghostly Guardian’s search for a new host. This it finds in the reluctant, intangible form of by-the-book cop Crispus Allen, a black detective in Gotham City’s police force, and a just man callously murdered by fellow officer/ dirty cop Jim Corrigan (no relation to the original).

Will Pfeifer (Batman, Catwoman, Blood of the Demon) & Cliff Chiang (Human Target, Paper Girls, Wonder Woman) open the account in ‘Dead Again’ as The Spectre tries to convince what remains of angry atheist Allen to bond with him and jointly dispense Heavenly Justice. It then must prove the validity of the admittedly random and illogical way the Spirit of Retribution selects targets/victims from the billions of murderous sinners in sore need of the grim phantom’s personal, bloodily ironic attentions.

Subtle, compelling and challenging, the inescapable tragedy of the ending lends desperately needed depth to a timeless character far too powerful for traditional tale-telling. It is followed by the first quarter of an 8-part epic by David Lapham, Eric Battle &Prentis Rollins that featured in DC’s revival of the classic anthology title Tales of the Unexpected.

Slum-lord Leonard Krieger has been murdered in one of his own rat-traps. He was found chained and tortured (for two weeks) in the foul basement of a tenement filled with desperate people and outcasts on the edge of society. When he was very nearly dead Krieger was then stabbed repeatedly. There’s certainly no shortage of suspects…

Crispus Allen may be dead but he’s a still a detective and knows there’s a terrible secret buried in the wasteland of the Granville Towers. So do investigating officers Marcus Driver and Josh Azeveda. When The Spectre identifies and dispatches the killer it seems the case is over, but all the dark mysteries of the tenement are not yet revealed and all the horrors within keep calling out to both the harassed unsettled cops and Allen as well…

David Lapham (Shadowman, Stray Bullets, Silverfish) took The Spectre into uncharted waters with this raw and savage portmanteau saga. Rather than one baroque crime and one appropriately grisly punishment, he examines the nature of evil by focusing on all inhabitants of the slum and their degree of culpability in this murder as well as other sins. Can every door hide a secret worthy of God’s Punishment? Moreover, does Crispus have the power – and inclination – to temper the Spectre’s awful judgements?

‘The Cold Hand of Vengeance’ is engrossing and challenging stuff, well worth your attention, but to truncate the saga this way (the remaining issues 4-8 are collected in sequel volume The Spectre: Tales of the Unexpected) is annoying and unnecessary. Even with a gallery of alternate covers by luminaries like Neal Adams & Moose Bauman, Michael Wm. Kaluta & David Baron, Michael Mignola, Matt Wagner & Dave Stewart, this brilliant tale screams “unfinished business”…

 

Spectre: Tales of the Unexpected

Completing the intense horror-suspense begun in Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre murdered detective Crispus Allen returns, newly-bonded to an all-powerful supernatural force and finds himself irresistibly drawn back to the tenement house where slum-lord Leonard Krieger was killed.

Eventually killed. Prior to that he was chained in the basement for weeks, starved, tortured, abused and generally made to regret the miseries he had inflicted on his many tenants. One man has already paid the Ghostly Guardian’s ghastly price for that, but somehow the sin remains unpunished and Allen, as well as GCPD grunts Marcus Driver and Josh Azeveda, are convinced there’s more to know and further horror to come from God’s Spirit of Vengeance.

Already the ameliorating human influence is being challenged and has little effect when the Spectre – unable to leave Gotham – goes on a rampage of grotesque and barbaric retribution in the murder capital of the world. As the police chip away at the mystery of Krieger’s death and the wall of silence from the other tenants of seemingly accursed Granville Towers, Crispus becomes ever more inured to the atrocities humanity perpetrates on a daily basis. Without intervention, he may become more ruthless and relentless than The Spectre itself.

With outstanding guest-appearances by Batman and The Phantom Stranger (the latter illustrated by veteran Spectre illustrator Tom Mandrake) this volume reprints #4-8 of the lead strip in anthological revival Tales of the Unexpected, including original covers by Bernie Wrightson, Mike Huddleston, Bill Sienkiewicz, Art Adams, Prentis Rollins, Eric Battle & Dave Stewart.

A harsh, uncompromising exploration of justice, provocation and guilt, this is not a story for the young or squeamish and the mystery, engrossing though it be, is secondary to the exploration of the events that produced it. Can the modern world still use an Old-Testament solution to sin, or is every crime now too complex for prescribed punishments?

It’s rare for superhero comics to be this challenging but Tales of the Unexpected manages that and still delivers a visceral, evocative thriller that is a joy to read. These are lost gems crying out for a fresh chance to shine in the darkness… and at 128 pages for the first one and 144 for the follow-up, would it be so hard to make them one volume?
© 2006, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Legends of the DC Universe Carmine Infantino


By Carmine Infantino, with Arthur Peddy, Alex Toth, Joe Giella, Frank Giacoia, Frank McLaughlin, Joe Kubert, Bernard Sachs, John Giunta, Sy Barry, George Roussos, John Celardo, Dave Hunt, Tony DeZuñiga, Joe Orlando, Klaus Janson, Carl Gafford & Linda Kachelhofer: written by Gardner F. Fox, Robert Kanigher, John Broome, Joseph Greene, Arnold Drake, Len Wein, Gerry Conway, Cary Bates & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-6054-9091-5 (HB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Shining Star Remembered… 10/10

Born on May 24th 1925, Carmine Michael Infantino was one of the greatest comic artists America ever produced: a multi award-winning innovator there when comic books were born, he reshaped the industry in the Silver Age and was still making fans when he died in 2013.

As an artist he co-created among others Black Canary, Detective Chimp, King Faraday, Pow-Wow Smith, the Silver Age Flash, Elongated Man, Strange Sports Stories, Deadman, Batgirl and The Human Target whilst placing his unique stamp on characters such as Adam Strange and Batman. Infantino worked for many companies, and at Marvel ushered in a new age by illustrating the licensed Star Wars comic whilst working on titles and characters such as The Avengers, Daredevil, Ms. Marvel, Nova, Star-Lord and Spider-Woman. His work on two separate iterations of Batman newspaper strips is fondly remembered and whilst acting as Art Director and Publisher of National DC, Infantino oversaw the most critically acclaimed period in the company’s history, overseeing the “relevancy” era and poaching Jack Kirby from Marvel to create the Fourth World, Kamandi, The Demon, OMAC and more…

Very much – and repeatedly – the right man at the right time and place, Infantino shaped American comics history in a manner only Kirby ever equalled, and this long overdue bumper compendium barely touches all his contributions to DC’s history. Hopefully we’ll be seeing a few more in future…

After appreciative and informative Introduction ‘Carmine the Icon’ by author/ historian J. David Spurlock, this small sampling from decades of triumphs opens with hard-hitting social commentary as ‘The Plight of a Nation’ details how the Justice Society of America (The Flash, Hawkman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Dr. Mid-Nite, The Atom and Black Canary) hunt a gang of thieving hoodlums whilst tackling the true threat – how charismatic hoods like the Crimson Claw Gang have become insidious role models for youngsters…

Scripted by John Broome, and limned in collaboration with Arthur Peddy, Alex Toth & Bernard Sachs, the saga from All-Star Comics #40 (April/May 1948) tackled head-on the glamour of crime, goad of poverty and contemporary obsession with “juvenile delinquency” but still offered spectacular action and drama to sweeten the harsh message…

Black Canary was one of the first of the pitifully few female heroes to hold a star spot in the DC Universe – or indeed any comics before 1980s. She followed Wonder Woman, Liberty Belle, antihero Harlequin and Red Tornado (who masqueraded as a man to comedically crush crime – with a couple of kids in tow, too!). The Canary predated Merry, the Gimmick Girl – remember her? No, you don’t – and disappeared with the majority of costumed crusaders at the end of the Golden Age: a situation that was not remedied until her revival with the Justice Society of America in 1963.

Created by Robert Kanigher & Infantino in 1947, the Canary echoed worldly, dangerous women cropping up in crime novels and Film Noir movies better suited to the more cynical Americans who had endured a World War and were even then gearing up for a paranoiac Cold one. Clad in a revealing bolero jacket, shorts, fishnet stockings and high-heeled pirate boots, the devastating shady lady – who looked like Veronica Lake – began life as a thief…

In the desperate days of post-war uncertainty, continuity was negligible and nobody cared much about origins. All that mattered was pace, plot, action and spectacle. Flash Comics #86 (August 1947) was just another superhero anthology publication, suffering a slow sales decline wherein perennial B-feature Johnny Thunder had long since passed his sell-by date. Although a member of the Justice Society of America, Johnny was an old-fashioned comedy idiot; a true simpleton who just happened to control a lightning-shaped genie – Thunderbolt.

His affable, good-hearted bumbling had carried him through the war, but changing fashions had no room for a hapless (adult) hero anymore. In the tale presented here, when he meets a seductively masked female Robin Hood who stole from crooks, the writing was on the wall. In debut yarn inked by Joe Giella, ‘The Black Canary’ tricks him and T-Bolt into acquiring an invitation to a crime-lord’s party, where she lifts the ill-gotten loot and leaves Johnny to mop up the hoods. It was lust at first sight and the beginning of a legend…

In the same issue Infantino allowed his wacky sense of humour full expression in another tale of The Ghost Patrol – three French Foreign Legion aviators who were killed in the early days of WWII but somehow stuck around to fight Nazis and other evils. Scripted by John Wentworth ‘The Case of the Extra Ghost!’ finds ectoplasmic trio Fred, Pedro and Slim in post-war America investigating a haunted house and scuppering a scheme to defraud its latest inheritor…

Flash Comics #90 (December 1947, written by Kanigher & inked by Joe Giella) featured a sporty tale for lead hero The Flash to shine in. Scientist Jay Garrick was exposed to fumes of “Hard Water” to become the first “Fastest Man Alive” – one of the Golden Age’s leading stars. In this instance he uses his gift to save a baseball team from defeat and their mangers from death by despair by filling ‘Nine Empty Uniforms!’ after which fellow superstar Green Lantern/Alan Scott solo stars in Kanigher-scribed tale ‘The Unmasking of the Harlequin!’ (All-American Comics #95, March 1948) wherein the Emerald Gladiator again clashes with the mesmerising super thief when mysterious imitators frame them both for vicious crimes…

Tiny Titan and eternal apparent underdog The Atom was solid B-Feature throughout the Golden Age and here – courtesy of Infantino and writer Joseph Greene – solves the ‘Mystery of the Midway Tunnel!’ (Comic Cavalcade #28, August/September 1948) as college student Al Pratt resorts to his masked persona when his professor – a former GI turned civil engineer – finds his dream project is being sabotaged by gangsters.

Times were changing and superheroes vanishing as the forties closed and new times called for fresh ideas. Created by Kanigher & Bob Oksner, Lady Danger appeared in Sensation Comics#84-93: determined, safety-averse crime reporter Valerie Vaughn who regularly risked life and limb in pursuit of a scoop. Infantino and an unknown author produced another gripping tale for #87 (cover-dated March 1949), uncovering skulduggery at a charity bazaar whilst looking for ‘The Needle in the Haystack!’

Crime comics were not the only beneficiary of the decline of Mystery Men. Science fiction also enjoyed renewed public popularity and DC responded with two themed anthologies: Strange Adventures and Mystery in Space. Each combined stand-alone tales of fantastic imagination with continuing character features such as Captain Comet or – as here – Future Paladins The Knights of the Galaxy. Scripted by Kanigher as “Dion Anthony” and inked by Frank Giacoia, Joe Giella & John Giunta, Mystery in Space #3 (August/September 1951) led with ‘Duel of the Planets!’ as Round Table champion Lyle finds his comrades divided over Mercurian member Millo when the first planet declares war on the rest of the galaxy…

The biggest trend of the era was Romance Comics as almost every publisher jumped on the bandwagon created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby in 1947. Amongst National/DC’s tranche of tearjerkers was Secret Hearts and in #8 (February/March 1952) Infantino (& Giacoia) limned a case study of Ann Martin, counsellor for Romance, Inc. Anonymously scripted, ‘Condemned Love!’ details how a client responds to learning her current beau is married…

Infantino regularly claimed his favourite character was not human but an hirsute anthropoid crimebuster. In The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog #4 (July/August 1952) readers were first invited to ‘Meet Detective Chimp!’ in charming comedy thriller by Broome and inked by Giacoia. The first outing of seminal comics lunacy saw Oscaloosa, Florida sheriff Chase solve a murder at the Thorpe Animal Farm with the help of Bobo and consequently adopt and deputise the super-smart simian. Bobo was assistant sheriff right up until the final issue (#46, November 1959) and has enjoyed new fame in the 21st century when a new generation of creators and fans rediscovered him.

Despite years when superheroes all but vanished America’s comic book industry never really stopped trying to revive the genre. When Showcase #4 was released in 1956 it was on the back of two successful DC launches: Captain Comet (December 1953-October 1955) and Manhunter from Mars (November 1955 until the end of the 1960’s and almost the end of superheroes again!) What made the new Fastest Man Alive stand out and stick was style!

Cover-dated September/October 1956, the epochal issue was released in late summer and from it stems all today’s print, animation, games, collector cards, cos-play, TV and movie wonderment.

Once DC’s powers-that-be decided to try superheroes once more, they too moved pretty fast. Editor Julie Schwartz asked office partner, fellow editor and Golden Age Flash scripter Kanigher to recreate a speedster for the Space Age: aided and abetted by Infantino & Joe Kubert, who had also worked on the Jay Garrick incarnation.

The new Flash was Barry Allen, a forensic scientist simultaneously struck by lightning and bathed in exploding chemicals from his lab. Supercharged by the accident, Barry took his superhero identity from a comic book featuring his childhood favourite. Now a major talent rapidly approaching his artistic and creative peak Infantino designed a sleek, streamlined bodysuit, as Barry Allen became point man for the spectacular revival of a genre and an entire industry.

Scripted by Kanigher & inked by Kubert, ‘Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt!’ sees Barry endure his electrical metamorphosis and promptly go on to subdue bizarre criminal mastermind and “Slowest Man Alive” Turtle Man, after which ‘The Man Who Broke the Time Barrier!’ – scripted by Broome – sees the Scarlet Speedster battling a criminal from the future: ultimately returning penal exile Mazdan to his own century, and proving the new Flash was a protagonist of keen insight and sharp wits as well as overwhelming power.

The return of costumed heroes was cautious and gradual and Infantino continued drawing his regular fare extraordinarily well. For Western Comics #73 (January/February 1959) he illustrated “Indian Lawman” Pow-Wow Smith with this example – ‘The Return of the Fadeaway Outlaw!’ scripted by Gardner Fox, with Sioux sleuth Ohiyesa again outwitting a bandit who specialises in astounding escapes…

Inevitably the superhero boom dominated comic books with the Scarlet Speedster in the vanguard of the revolution. A new star was born in The Flash #112 (April/May 1961 by Broome, Infantino & Giella) as ‘The Mystery of the Elongated Man’ introduced an intriguing super-stretchable newcomer to the DC universe, who might have been hero or villain in a beguiling tantaliser. The continuing adventures of the Scarlet Speedster were the bedrock of the Silver Age Revolution, with key writers Broome and Fox setting an unbelievably high standard for superhero adventure in sharp, witty tales of technology and imagination, illustrated with captivating style and clean simplicity by Infantino.

Fox didn’t write many Flash scripts at this time, but the few he did were all dynamite; none more so than the full-length epic which changed the scope of US comics forever. ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ (Flash #123, September 1961 and inked by Giella) introduced the concept of alternate Earths to the continuity which grew by careful extension into a multiversal structure comprising Infinite Earths. Once established as a cornerstone of a newly integrated DCU through a wealth of team-ups and escalating succession of cosmos-shaking crossover sagas, a glorious pattern was set which would, after joyous decades, eventually culminate in the spectacular awe-inspiring Crisis on Infinite Earths…

During a benefit gig, Flash accidentally slips into another dimension where he finds the comic book hero upon whom he based his own superhero identity actually exists. Every ripping yarn he’d avidly absorbed as an eager child was grim reality to Jay Garrick and his comrades on the controversially designated “Earth-Two”. Locating his idol, Barry convinces the elder to come out of retirement just as three old foes make their own comebacks.

It was a time when anything was worth a punt, and Schwartz’s dream team indulged in in a truly bizarre experiment combining tried-&-tested science fiction tropes with America’s greatest obsession. Try-out title The Brave and the Bold dedicated five issues (#45-49) to testing the merits of Strange Sports Stories and here #49 (August/September 1963) sees a unique conquest by stealth as ‘Gorilla Wonders of The Diamond!’ sees an all-anthropoid team play baseball with a hidden agenda in a captivating coup by Fox, with Infantino producing some of his most innovative drawing for Giella to ink.

By the end of 1963, Julius Schwartz had spectacularly revived much of DC’s line – and the entire industry – with his modernisation of the superhero, and was then asked to work his magic with the creatively stalled and nigh-moribund Caped Crusaders. Bringing his usual team of top-notch creators with him, Schwartz stripped down and back to core-concepts, downplaying aliens, outlandish villains and daft transformations to bring a cool modern take on crimebusting. He even oversaw a streamlining and rationalisation of the art style itself.

The most apparent innovation was a yellow circle around the Bat-symbol, but far more importantly, the stories also changed. A subtle aura of genuine menace re-entered the comfortable and absurdly abstract world of Gotham City. Infantino was key to the changes that reshaped a legend – but this was while still pencilling The Flash – so, despite generating the majority of covers, Infantino’s interior art was limited to alternate issues of Detective Comics with the lion’s share of narrative handled by Bob Kane’s then-uncredited deputies Sheldon Moldoff, Giella, Chic Stone & others, plus occasional guest artists like Gil Kane…

Infantino’s part in the storytelling revolution began with Detective #327 – written by Broome and inked by Giella at the peak of their own creative powers. ‘The Mystery of the Menacing Mask!’ is a cunning “Howdunnit?”, long on action and moody peril, as discovery of a criminal “underground railroad” leads Gotham Gangbusters Batman & Robin to a common thug seemingly able to control them with his thoughts…

When Schwartz took editorial control he finally found a place for a character who had been lying mostly fallow ever since his debut and six subsequent walk-ons in The Flash. Designed as a modern take on Golden Age great Plastic Man, The Elongated Man was Ralph Dibny, a circus-performer who discovered an additive in soft drink Gingold which granted certain people increased muscular flexibility. Intrigued, Dibny refined the drink until he had a serum bestowing the ability to stretch, bend and compress his body to an incredible degree.

When the back-up spot opened in Detective (a position held by Martian Manhunter since 1955 and only vacated because J’onn J’onzz was promoted to lead in House of Mystery) Schwartz had Ralph slightly reconfigured as a flamboyant, fame-hungry, brilliantly canny globe-trotting private eye solving mysteries for the sheer fun of it. Aided by his equally smart but thoroughly grounded wife Sue, the vignettes were patterned on classic Thin Man films starring Nick and Norah Charles, blending clever, impossible crimes with slick sleuthing, garnished with outré heroic permutations and frantic physical antics.

The complex yet uncomplicated sorties, drenched in sly dry wit, began in Detective #327 with ‘Ten Miles to Nowhere!’ (by Fox & Infantino, who inked himself in early episodes). Here Ralph, who publicly unmasked to become a celebrity, discovers someone has been stealing his car every night and bringing it back as if nothing had happened. Of course, it must be a criminal plot of some sort…

Almost all of Infantino’s Silver Age stories have been collected somewhere but as he was transitioning to managerial levels he co-created one last landmark character just as DC faced an existential crisis. As the 1960s ended and costs spiralled, the superhero boom became a slow but certain bust, with major stars no longer able to find enough readers to keep them alive. The taste for masks was again diminishing in favour of traditional genres, and one rational editorial response was to reshape costumed characters to fit evolving tastes.

Publishers swiftly changed gears and even staid, cautious DC reacted rapidly: making masked adventurers designed to fit the new landscape. Newly revised and revived costumed features included roving mystic troubleshooter The Phantom Stranger and Golden Age colossus The Spectre. Supernatural themes and horror-tinged plots were shoehorned into the superhero titles that weathered the trend-storm. Arguably, the moment of surrender and change arrived with the creation of Boston Brand in the autumn of 1967, when science fiction anthology Strange Adventures was abruptly retooled as the home of an angry ghost…

Without fanfare or warning, Deadman debuted in #205 with ‘Who Has Been Lying in My Grave?’ by Arnold Drake, Infantino & George Roussos wherein we attend the funeral of high wire acrobat Brand: a rough, tough, jaded performer who had seen everything and masked a decent human heart behind an obnoxious exterior and cynical demeanour. As “Deadman”, he was the star attraction of Hills Circus and lover of its reluctant owner Lorna Carling, as well as a secret guardian for the misfits it employed and sheltered. That makeshift “family” included simple-minded strongman Tiny and Asian mystic Vashnu, but also had some bad apples too… like alcoholic animal trainer Heldrich and chiselling carnival Barker Leary. The aerialist kept them in line… with his fists, whenever necessary…

One fateful night, Brand almost missed his cue because of Leary and Heldrich’s antics but also because he had to stop local cop Ramsey harassing Vashnu. It would have better if he had been late, because as soon as he started his act – 40 feet up and without a net – someone put a rifle slug into his heart…

Despite being dead before he hit the ground, Brand was scared and furious. Nobody could see or hear him screaming, and Vashnu kept babbling on about the chosen of Rama Kushna – “the spirit of the universe”. The hokum all came horribly true as that entity made contact, telling Brand that he would walk among men until he found his killer…

The sentence came with some advantages: he was invisible, untouchable, immune to the laws of physics and able to take possession of the living and drive them like a car. His only clue was that witnesses in the audience claimed that a man with a hook had shot him…

Outraged, still disbelieving and seemingly stuck forever in the ghastly make-up and outfit of his performing persona, Deadman’s first posthumous act is to possess Tiny and check out the key suspects. Soon the dormant Hercules finds that the cop and Heydrich are involved in a criminal conspiracy, but they definitely are not Brand’s murderers…

Eventually Infantino returned to his drawing board – primarily for Marvel – but returned to DC in the 80s. The House of Mystery #296 (September 1981) shows his mastery of horror themes and short stories in ‘Night Women’: written by Gerry Conway, with John Celardo inking and Carl Gafford colouring, but the move was primarily to draw The Flash again (from 1981 with #296), but here we see a lesser known yarn from DC Comics Presents #73 (September 1984) teaming the Vizier of Velocity with Superman in ‘Rampage in Scarlet’. Written by Cary Bates, with Dave Hunt inking and Gafford on hues, it sees the heroes unite to save an alien civilisation from an army of Phantom Zone villains, after which Secret Origins #17 (August 1987) reprises ‘The Secret Origin of Adam Strange’, with Conway, Tony DeZuñiga & Joe Orlando joining Infantino in revisiting the artist’s other signature Silver Age star.

This book closes with a complete miniseries similarly reviving one of Infantino’s lost 1950’s triumphs. King Faraday debuted in Danger Trail #1 (July 1950): a two-fisted globe-trotting US spy co created by Kanigher & Infantino. The book was cancelled with the fifth issue and one last tale was published in Worlds Finest Comics #64 (May/June 1953). An attempt to revive The Intercontinental Operative failed in early 1964 when reprints of his adventures appeared in Showcase #50-51 under the code title I… Spy! King eventually joined the integrated DCU in 1979 as a guest in Batman #313, scripted by Len Wein.

In 1993 the writer gave the spy a second shot in a 4-issue miniseries spanning cover-dates April to July, inked by Frank McLaughlin & coloured by Linda Kachelhofer. Danger Trail (volume 2) #1-4 comprises ‘The Serpent in the Garden File’ as the aging agent chases a mystery schemer around the world in ‘Chapter One: On the Road Again!’, drops a growing pile of bodies in ‘Chapter Two: Hot Pursuit!’ and discovers his quarry is not the usual ideological adversary and that no friend can be trusted in ‘Chapter Three: Coiled to Strike’.

With the world at stake, Faraday – and notional ally Sarge Steel – at last confront the pitiless hidden enemy in ‘Chapter Four: Into the Snake Pit’ and barely save the day again…

Although the book features every pertinent cover by Infantino, the comic delights conclude with a stellar ‘Cover Gallery’ of graphic glories inked by Giacoia, Giunta, Giella, Drake, Roussos & Orlando plus a brief biography.

These tales are pure comics gold: must-not-miss material any fan would be crazy to miss.
© 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1952, 1956, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1981, 1984, 1987, 1993, 2023 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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El Diablo


By Brian Azzarello, Danijel Zezelj & various (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1625-2 (TPB) 978-1-84576-777-8 (TPB Titan Books edition)

This extra-adult all-Vertigo interpretation of the classic DC Western avenger dates from a 2001 4-issue miniseries, and is an early precursor to the superb Loveless. None of these – as far as I’m aware – are available digitally yet, but they bloody well should be.

Moses Stone is a gunman turned sheriff in frontier town Bollas Raton. His fearsome reputation, as much as his actions, serves to keep the town peaceful, and he’s perfectly content not shooting anybody.

One night, the awesome and terrifying El Diablo comes to town: exacting his signature brand of gruesome vengeance on a band of outlaws, he inexplicably refuses to kill Stone when the lawman tries to halt the carnage.

Unable to understand or let it lie, sheriff and posse trail the vigilante to Halo, New Mexico where the bloodshed continues and a ghastly secret is revealed.

Although he is still a deep, brooding mystery tainted by supernatural overtones, fans of the original western avenger created by Robert Kanigher & Gray Morrow (who debuted in All-Star Western #2, October1970) will be disappointed to find that tragic Lazarus Lane – brutalised by thieves, struck by lightning and only able to wake from his permanent coma at the behest of Indian shaman White Owl – is all but absent from this darkly philosophical drama.

DC’s demonically-infested agent of vengeance is long, long overdue for a comprehensive reappraisal and definitive curated collection. The original occasional series of short tales from All-Star and Weird Western was illustrated by Morrow, Joe Kubert, Alan Weiss, Dick Giordano, Neal Adams, Alfredo Alcala and Bernie Wrightson, and the scripters included Sergio Aragonés, Cary Bates & Len Wein… And that’s not even counting the Sagebrush Satan’s many team-ups with the likes of Jonah Hex in various iterations of the bounty killer’s own titles.

In this moody epic, however, the phantom of the plains is more presence than personality.

There’s an awful lot of talking and suspense-building, but thanks to the moody graphics of Danijel Zezelj tension and horror remain intensely paramount and when the action comes it is powerful and unforgettable.

The dark star is a force but not a presence in El Diablo, but the tale of Moses Stone is nonetheless a gripping thriller to chill and intrigue all but the most devoutly traditional cowboy fans.

So can we PLEASE be having a proper compilation soon, yes?
© 2001, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved

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Deadman Tells the Spooky Tales


By Franco and a few of his Fiendish Friends! – Sara Richard, Andy Price, Derek Charm, Mike Hartigan, Christopher Uminga, Abigail Larson, Morgan Beem, Justin Castaneda, Tressina Bowling, Boatwright Artwork, Scoot McMahon, Isaac Goodhart, and Agnes Garbowska with Silvana Brys – & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0384-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

Here’s a little post-Halloween treat for youngsters of every vintage to ease our communal dark awaiting us at the end of all things. Never to soon early to start traumatising preschoolers, right?

As the 1960s ended, the massive superhero boom resolved into a slow but certain bust, with formerly major successes unable to find enough readers to keep them alive. The taste for superheroes was diminishing in favour of traditional genres, and one rational editorial response reshaping costumed characters to fit evolving contemporary tastes.

Publishers swiftly changed gears and even staid, cautious DC reacted rapidly: redesigning masked mystery men to fit the new landscape. Newly revised and revived costumed features included roving mystic troubleshooter The Phantom Stranger and golden age colossus The Spectre, whilst resurgent genres spawned atrocity-faced WWII spy Unknown Soldier and cowboy bounty hunter Jonah Hex, spectral westerner El Diablo and game-changing monster hero Swamp Thing, spearheading a torrent of new formats, anthologies and concepts.

The earliest of that dark bunch was assassinated trapeze artist Boston Brand who began his career by dying in Strange Adventures #205 (cover-dated October/November 1967). An ordinary man in a brutal, cynical world, Brand was a soul in balance until killed as part of a pointless initiation for a trainee assassin.

When the unlucky aerialist died, instead of going to whatever reward awaited him, he was given the chance to solve his own murder by conniving spirit of the universe Rama Kushna. That opportunity evolved into an unending mission to balance the scales between good and evil in the world. The ghost is intangible and invisible to all mortals, but has the ability to “walk into” living beings, possessing and briefly piloting them.

You should read all his stories because they are really good; all the previous has no real bearing on what follows. I just love showing off my wasted youth.

Here he holds the hallowed position of quirky narrator and curator to a collection of terror tales entirely scripted by Franco (Aureliani) and lettered by Wes Abbott, and drawn by a host of artists…

The eerie soirée and each following vignette are preceded by our supernatural star offering ‘A Die-er Warning’ (all limned by Sara Richard). Commencing in ‘The House of Madame Pyka’ – rendered by Andy Price in tones of blue – wilful Brooke moves into an expired spiritualist’s house…

Deadman interjects between tales to test our resolve but undaunted, we see Derek Charm illuminate in living colour the shocking result of Mr. Smith’s visit to the optician in ‘Eyes’, before Mike Hartigan exposes the spook in the ‘Litter Box’ and Christopher Uminga & Silvana Brys silently show the downside of too many ‘Neighborhood Cats’…

Abigail Larson provides the art for an exceptionally effective argument for why kids should stay out of ‘The Cemetery’ and Morgan Beem captures the mordant gloom and imminent immolation of ‘Fall’ before Justin Castaneda homes in on little kids and playground bullies to expose ‘A Boy and His Skull’…

Tressina Bowling renders tall tales painfully real in ‘The Fisherman’ whilst Boatwright Artwork take a long last look at ‘Mannequins’, before Scoot McMahon peeks ‘On the Inside’ of Batman’s most tragic foe.

Franco gets artistic with ‘The Fly’ prior to Isaac Goodhart exploiting DC’s monstrous back-catalogue for fearful film show ‘Inattentive Blindness’ before Agnes Garbowska & Silvana Brys confirm that the end is near and that bright shiny colours have no bearing on safety and security in ‘The Box’.

Silly and chilling, this splendidly glitzy grimoire shows that our love of scaring ourselves and each other starts early and never stops. Fearful fun for all: get some now!
© 2022 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase Presents The House of Mystery volume 3


By Joe Orlando, Michael Fleischer, Maxine Fabe, Jack Oleck, John Albano, Sergio Aragonés, Steve Skeates, Mark Evanier, Robert Kanigher, George Kashdan, Doug Moench, Sheldon Mayer, E. Nelson Bridwell, John Jacobson, David Micheline, Gerard Conway, David Izzo, Dennis O’Neil, Marv Wolfman, John Broome, Paul Levitz, Bob Rozakis, Mark Hanerfeld, David Kasakove, Michael J. Pellowski, Martin Pasko, Bernie Wrightson, Michael William Kaluta, John Calnan, Murphy Anderson, Ruben Yandoc, Alex N. Niño, Romy Gamboa, Adolfo Buylla, Sonny Trinidad, Nestor Redondo, Rico Rival, Gerry Talaoc, Fred Carrillo, Tony DeZuñiga, Bernard Baily, Abe Ocampo, Alfredo Alcala, Frank Thorne, Frank “Quico” Redondo, Eufronio Reyes (E.R.) Cruz, Ralph Reese, Ramona Fradon, Frank Robbins, Bill Draut, Howard Purcell, Dick Dillin, Neal Adams, Mort Meskin, George Roussos, Frank Giacoia, Mike Sekowsky, Jack Kirby, Don Heck, Joe Giella, Jack Sparling, Pat Broderick, Leonard Starr, Carmine Infantino, Bernard Sachs, Bill Ely, Jess M. Jodloman, Curt Swan & George Klein, & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2183-6 (TPB)

American comicbooks started slowly until the creation of Superman unleashed a torrent of creative imitation and invented a new genre: superheroes. Implacably vested in the Second World War, they swept all before them until the troops came home whereupon older genres supplanted the Fights ‘n’ Tights crowd.

Although new kids kept up the buying, much of the previous generation also retained their four-colour habit but increasingly sought older themes in the reading matter. The war years altered the psychology of humanity, and as a more world-weary, cynical young public came to see that all the fighting and dying hadn’t really changed anything their chosen forms of entertainment (film and prose as well as comics) reflected this. As well as Western, War and Crime comics, madcap escapist comedy and anthropomorphic funny animal features were immediately resurgent, but gradually another periodic revival of spiritualism and interest in the supernatural led to increasingly impressive, evocative and even shocking horror comics.

There had been grisly, gory and supernatural stars before, including a pantheon of ghosts, monsters and wizards draped in mystery-man garb and trappings (the Spectre, Mr. Justice, Sgt. Spook, Frankenstein, The Heap, Zatara, Dr. Fate and dozens more), but these had been victims of circumstance: the unknown as a power source for super-heroics. Now the focus shifted to ordinary mortals thrown into a world beyond their ken with the intention of unsettling, not vicariously empowering, the reader.

Almost every publisher jumped on the increasingly popular bandwagon, with B & I (which became the magical one-man-band Richard E. Hughes’ American Comics Group) launching the first regularly published horror comic in the Autumn of 1948, although Adventures Into the Unknown was technically pipped by Avon who had released an impressive single issue entitled Eerie in January 1947 before launching a regular series in 1951, by which time Classics Illustrated had already long milked the literary end of the medium with adaptations of The Headless Horseman, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (both 1943), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1944) and Frankenstein (1945) among others.

If we’re keeping score this was also the period in which Joe Simon & Jack Kirby identified another “mature market” gap and invented Romance comics with Young Romance #1, (September 1947) but they too saw the sales potential for spooky material, resulting in the seminal Black Magic (launched in 1950) and boldly obscure psychological drama anthology Strange World of Your Dreams (1952).

The company that would become DC Comics bowed to the inevitable and launched a comparatively straight-laced anthology that nevertheless became one of their longest-running and most influential titles with the December 1951/January 1952 launch of The House of Mystery. When the hysterical censorship scandal which led to witch-hunting hearings of the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, April- June 1954 was curtailed by the industry adopting a castrating straitjacket of self-regulatory rules HoM and its sister title House of Secrets were dialled back into rationalistic, fantasy adventure vehicles. They even briefly became super-hero split-books (with Martian Manhunter and Dial H for Hero in HoM and Eclipso subletting with veteran mystic adventurer Mark Merlin – who latterly became Prince Ra-Man – in HoS).

However nothing combats censorship better than falling profits and as the 1960s waned the Silver Age superhero boom stalled and crashed, leading to surviving publishers agreeing to loosen their self-imposed restraints against crime and horror comics. Nobody much cared about gangster titles but as the liberalisation coincided with another bump in global interest in all aspects of the Worlds Beyond, resurrection of scary stories was a foregone conclusion and obvious “no-brainer”. Even ultra-wholesome Archie Comics re-entered the field with their Red Circle Thrillers…

Thus, with absolutely no fanfare at all issue #174, cover dated May-June 1968 presented a bold banner asking Do You Dare Enter The House of Mystery? whilst reprinting a bunch of admittedly excellent short fantastic thrillers originally seen in House of Secrets from those heady days when it was okay to scare kids.

With covers by Michael William Kaluta, Bernie Wrightson, Luis Dominguez, George Evans, Nick Cardy, Bill Draut, Alfredo Alcala & Gerry Talaoc, this second compilation reprints in moody monochrome the contents of The House of Mystery #212 to 226. The contents span cover-dates March 1973 to August/September 1974 and begin with ‘Ever After’ by unknown scribe and illustrators John Calnan & Murphy Anderson, wherein a ruthless chancer picks the wrong recently bereaved heiress to marry. Michael Fleischer, Maxine Fabe & Alex N. Niño’s ‘Oh Mom! Oh Dad! You’ve Sent Me Away to Summer Camp… and I’m So Sad!’ reveals a strange logic to why the kid in a wheelchair is being picked on by his supposed chums before the issue ends with Jack Oleck & Ruben Yandoc sharing a grim ride with a guilty passenger heading ‘Halfway to Hell!’

John Albano & Niño’s ‘Back from the Realm of the Damned’ opens #213 as a greedy son murders his stepfather and learns an eternally damning lesson. Although fear was key, fun was always the goal and the tales were interspersed with blackly comedic gag pages. Here, Sergio Aragonés delivers a bunch of sidesplitters in a ‘Cain’s Game Room’ segment. The pages – alternated with Page 13 and ‘Cain’s Gargoyles’ – provided painfully punny pranks (originally just by Aragonés but eventually supplemented by other cartoonists like John Albano, Lore Shoberg and John Costanza). The feature was popular enough to be spun off into bizarrely outrageous comic book Plop! – but that’s a subject for another day…

Here the terror is turned up after a married couple’s pleasant drive deposits them on ‘The Other Side!’ (Steve Skeates & Romy Gamboa), before Oleck & Adolfo Buylla reveal the fate of a modern day wizard who creates a slave ‘In His Own Image!’

HoM #214 leads with Oleck & Yandoc’s ‘Curse of the Werewolf’, as a trickster’s scheme founders when he picks the wrong target. Another visit with ‘Cain’s Gargoyles’ courtesy of Aragonés, brings us to Mark Evanier, Robert Kanigher & Sonny Trinidad’s tale of a daredevil and a thief who know exactly when they’re going to die thanks to ‘The Death Clock!’ A double dose of ‘Cain’s Game Room’ leads to the tale of pet-hater and her just fate in Skeates & Nestor Redondo’s ‘The Shaggy Dog.’

In #215, Fleischer, Fabe & Rico Rival’s ‘The Man Who Wanted Power over Women’ details how a lonely homely guy consults the wrong witch in his desire to be loved, and George Kashdan & Talaoc see an arrogant sculptor swear ‘Your Corpse Shall I Carve!’ in his ruthless search for the perfect muse. A fresh Aragonés ‘Cain’s Game Room’ page refreshes the palate for some ‘Brain Food’ as Fabe & Fred Carrillo detail how the dumbest kid in school becomes a supergenius…

Albano & Tony DeZuñiga’s ‘Look into My Eyes… and Kill!’ opens #216 in the saga of a paroled convict with new powers and old grudges before an anonymous writer joins veteran chill-crafter Bernard Baily visiting the ‘Graveyard Shift’ of a mean cab driver getting paid off in kind. A double bill of ‘Cain’s Game Room’ & ‘Cain’s Gargoyles’ takes us back to unhappy spouses as a weary wife makes herself a widow to run the family business herself: a very bad deal from Doug Moench & Abe Ocampo, as proven in ‘Special Sale: Canned Death ½ Off’…

HoM #217 has Sheldon Mayer & Nestor Redondo reveal the fate of an impressionable young thing who inherit a parcel of desert and learns ‘This Ghost Town is Haunted!’, and E. Nelson Bridwell & Talaoc ask carnival freaks/murders suspects ‘Hoodoo You Trust?’ before John Jacobson, Skeates & Alcala detail how wildlife in a swamp unite against encroaching humans in defence of their ‘Swamp God!’

Fleischer, Russel Carley & Talaoc open #218 with a small midwestern city and its avaricious murderous trash-handling subcontractor getting a well-deserved dose of ‘The Abominable Ivy!’ ‘Cain’s Game Room’ then ushers us into ‘An Ice Place to Visit!’ as Fleischer, Carley & Frank Thorne expose a contaminated cold store/ice-plant and what happens to the boss who hushed up the contagion’s source…

Bridwell & Bernie Wrightson launch #219 with pun-ishing intro ‘Welcome to The House of Mystery’, after which Fleischer & Alcala take us to Nazi-occupied Tunisia where the invaders systematically succumb to ‘The Curse of the Crocodile!’, whilst a ‘Pledge to Satan’ (Mayer & Nestor Redondo) sees a medieval witch-hunter romance and cheat the wrong woman…

Another ‘Welcome to The House of Mystery’ page – by Bridwell & Alcala – kicks off #220 followed by ‘They Hunt Butterflies, Don’t They?’ Fleischer & Alcala’s tale sees a greedy guide regret betraying his lepidopterist client before an Aragonés-curated visit to ‘Cain’s Game Room’ takes us to the end with exposure of ‘The Hunter!’ who stalks the infernal realms in a macabre safari by Albano & Niño…

Fleischer & Thorne reunite in #221 (January 1974) as killer clown ‘Pingo!’ fails to have the last laugh whilst – after a Cain’s Game Room’ interlude – Len Wein, Wrightson & Michael William Kaluta magnificently cap off the dread jollity with another motley yarn as ‘He Who Laughs Last…’ shows murdering conmen how close a family circus folk are…

Oleck & Frank (AKA Quico) Redondo open #222 with ‘Vengeance is Mine!’, as a resurrected vampire hunts the family of the man who staked him, making the greatest mistake of his renewed life. It’s counterbalanced by a surreal serial killer yarn as Fleischer & Alcala see justice done and foggy Victorian London relieved on ‘The Night of the Teddy Bear!’

Issue #223 (March and the last monthly issue for some time) launches with a whaling yarn by Wein & Eufronio Reyes Cruz. ‘Demon from the Deep!’ details the mutual hatred of a seaman and the kraken he hunts, and Oleck & Ralph Reese’s ‘Message From Beyond’ shows why fake spiritualists never prosper. Teamed with wonderful Ramona Fradon, Oleck then riffs on The Picture of Dorian Gray in ‘Upon Reflection’ with a tragic twist for today’s readers…

In an effort to combat rising costs The House of Mystery #224 (April/May 1974) began an experiment with format and page count. Reduced to a bi-monthly schedule but offering 100-pages (albeit many of them reprints) it started with a ‘Welcome to The House of Mystery’ by Joe Orlando, before David Micheline & Frank Robbins followed a criminal conspiracy and deadly killer in ‘Night Stalker in Sun City’. ‘Cain’s Game Room’ segued into the first reprint with a gothic chiller of forbidden knowledge. ‘The House of Endless Years’ by Gerard Conway & Bill Draut originated in House of Secrets #83 (1970).

All-new ‘The Deadman’s Lucky Scarf’ by David Izzo, Fleischer & Alcala is a weird western vignette of cheatin’ and bitin’, followed by ‘The Reluctant Sorcerer’: a Silver Age creature feature of wonderous transformations by Howard Purcell for HoS #49 (1961).

As superheroes retreated at the end of the sixties those that could retooled as horror titles. The Spectre became a narrator of anthological tales and from #9 (March/April 1969), Dennis O’Neil & Wrightson’s ‘Abraca-Doom!’ sees the Ghostly Guardian attempts to stop a greedy carnival conjurer signing a contract with the Devil. Close behind comes Marv Wolfman, Dick Dillin & Neal Adams’ ‘The One and Only, Fully Guaranteed, Super-Permanent, 100%?’ from HoS #82 (November 1969): a darkly comedic tale of domestic bliss and how to get it…

Originating in HoM #120 (March 1962), ‘The Gift That Wiped Out Time’ – illustrated by Mort Meskin & George Roussos sees a thief encounter time-bending beasts before ‘Sheer Fear!’ (Mayer & Talaoc) finds a ruthless woman go too far in ferreting out a rival’s secrets…

An Aragonés ‘Cain’s Game Room’ precedes Kashdan & Niño’s ‘The Claws of Death!’ with a career soldier paying the ultimate price for telling the truth before a classic mystery hero gets another chance to shine.

The Phantom Stranger was one of the earliest transitional heroes of the Golden Age of comics, created at the very end of the first superhero boom as readers moved from costumed crimefighters to other genres. A trench-coated, mysterious know-it-all, with shadowed eyes and hat pulled down low, he would appear, debunk a legend or foil a supernatural-seeming plot, and then vanish again.

He was coolly ambiguous, never revealing whether he was man, mystic or personally paranormal; probably created by John Broome & Carmine Infantino, who produced the first story in Phantom Stranger #1 (August/September 1952) and most of the others. The 6-issue run also boasted contributions from Jack Miller, Manny Stallman and John Giunta. The last issue was cover-dated June/July, 1953, after which the character vanished until rebooted at the dusk of the Silver Age.

Broome & Frank Giacoia’s ‘Mystery in Miniature!’ hails from that last issue as the living enigma repels invaders from time, before Skeates & Mike Sekowsky develop a fourth-wall busting ‘Photo-Finish!’ for a blackmailer in advance of a closing ‘Cain’s Game Room’.

Cover-dated June/July, HoM #225’s ‘Welcome to The House of Mystery’ is by Paul Levitz & Wrightson, heralding Oleck & Alcala taking us to Paris in 1789 for a ghostly wizard/zombie yarn about ‘The Man Who Died Twice’. Bob Rozakis drafts a ‘Mystery Maze!’ (bring your own pencil!) and ‘Cain’s Game Room’ brings us to a treat from House of Secrets #4 (May/June 1957). The ‘Master of the Unknown’ seems destined to take the big cash prize on a TV quiz show… until the producer deduces his uncanny secret…

Fleischer & Frank Thorne again expose human depravity in ‘Fireman, Burn My Child!’: a timeless attack on medicine for profit and Aragonés’ ‘Room 13’ and ‘Cain’s Game Room’ set up a classic comics novelette.

Illustrated by Don Heck in The Sinister House of Secret Love #1 (October/November 1971) ‘The Curse of the McIntyres’ was the first of a series of book-length graphic epics in the manner of gothic romances like Jane Eyre, before transforming into a more traditional anthology package as Secrets of Sinister House with #5 (June/July 1972): reducing to the traditional 36-page format with the next issue. The format remained until its cancellation with #18 in June/July 1974.

The dark love stories were extra-long affairs like this 25-page period chiller ‘The Curse of the MacIntyres’ (possibly written by Mary Skrenes?) recounting how recently-bereaved Rachel lost her scientist father and fell under the guardianship of her cousin Blair. Moving to his remote Scottish castle she befriends Blair’s son Jamie but can’t warm to physically stunted cousin Alfie.

As days and weeks pass, she becomes increasingly disturbed by the odd household and the family’s obsessive interest in “mutations”…

‘See No Evil’ by Oleck & Niño depicts the fate of a death row inmate who sells his soul before the 1950s Man in Black pops back to expose the incredible secret of ‘The Hairy Shadows’ (by Broome, Anderson & Joe Giella from Phantom Stranger #4) whilst The Spectre #9 repeats a sinister ‘Shadow Show’ by Mark Hanerfeld & Jack Sparling.

David Kasakove, Kashdan & (ER) Cruz then finish up with a tale of two very different brothers in Halloween set shocker ‘This One’ll Scare You to Death!’…

Concluding this classic chiller compendium are the cracking contents of The House of Mystery #226 (August/September) with Levitz & Pat Broderick’s ‘Welcome to The House of Mystery’ escorting us into Oleck & Alcala’s ‘Garden of Evil’, as mismatched Mace and Myra find far more welcoming worlds – and mates – inside a painting…

After a pause in ‘Room 13’ Martin Pasko & Robbins reveal why – on a teenager’s wedding day – ‘Teddy Doesn’t Seem to Smile Anymore!’ A writer unknown & Leonard Starr meddle with ‘The Devil’s Chessboard’ as logic faces magic from HoM #12 (March 1953). Phantom Stranger #5 then offers ‘The Living Nightmare!’ (Broome Infantino & Bernard Sachs).

Oleck & Nestor Redondo detail a period tale of monster children and body-swapping in ‘Monster in the House’, and Wolfman & Wrightson return with prophetic vignette ‘Scared to Life’ from HoM #180, whilst from HoM #74 we visit ‘The School for Sorcerers’ (illustrated by Bill Ely). Michael J. Pellowski, Kanigher & Jess M. Jodloman, reveal ‘The Perfect Mate’ (for Balkan nobility!) in anticipation of a factual(ish) ‘Cain’s Gargoyles’ by Levitz & Boderick and another vintage thriller. Limned by Curt Swan & George Klein from HoM #10, ‘The Wishes of Doom!’ treads in Monkey’s Paw territory whilst Ely’s ‘The Haunted Melody’ (HoM #58, January 1957) sees a street musician squander an incredible gift…

Levitz & Broderick provide plans and diagrams when asking ‘Do You Dare Enter The House of Mystery?’ and one last Aragonés ‘Cain’s Game Room’ leads to final terror tale ‘Out of This World’ as Oleck & Talaoc reaffirm the link between Devil and Rock & Roll. Finally you can regain some sedate equilibrium with Rozakis word-search ‘Hidden in the House!’.

These fright-fables captivated the reading public and comics critics alike when they first appeared and it’s no exaggeration to posit that they probably saved the company during the dire downward sales spiral of the 1970s. Now their blend of sinister mirth and classical suspense situations can most usually be seen in such series as Goosebumps, and other kid-centred fare, but if you crave beautifully realised, largely splatter-free sagas of tension and imagination, not to mention a huge supply of bad-taste, kid-friendly creepy cartooning, book into The House of Mystery…
© 1973-1974, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Bizarro


By Heath Corson, Gustavo Duarte, Pete Pantazis, Lee Loughridge & Tom Napolitano, with Bill Sienkiewicz, Kelley Jones, Michelle Madsen, Francis Manapul, Fábio Moon, Gabriel Bá, Darwyn Cooke, Raphael Albuquerque, Tim Sale, Dave Stewart & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-5971-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

One of the most consistent motifs in fiction is the “Dark Opposite” or “player on the other side”: a complete antithesis of the protagonist. Rock yourself to sleep at night if you wish, listing deadly doppelgangers from Professor Moriarty to Sabretooth to Gladstone Gander…

The Caped Kryptonian’s “imperfect duplicate” Bizarro either debuted as a misunderstood freak and unwilling monster in Otto Binder & George Papp’s captivatingly tragic 3-part novel ‘The Battle with Bizarro’ (Superboy #68, cover-dated October 1958) or in the similarly titled Superman newspaper strip sequence written by Alvin Schwartz (episode 105/#6147-6242 spanning August 25th – December 13th 1958) with the latter scribe claiming that he thought up the idea months earlier. The newsprint version was certainly first to employ those eccentric reversed-logic thought-patterns and idiomatic speech impediment…

Although later played primarily for laughs, such as in his short tenure in Tales of The Bizarro World (June 1961 to Aug 1962 in Adventure Comics #285-299), most earlier comic book appearances – 40 by my count – of the dippy double were generally moving, child-appropriate tragedies, unlike here where we commemorate his 65th anniversary with possibly the funniest book of the last twenty years… at least if you’re a superhero fan.

Post Crisis on Infinite Earths, he was a darker, rarer beast, but this tale by screenwriter and comics scripter Heath Corson (Justice League: War, Nightwing/Magilla Gorilla, Super Pets: The Great Mxy-Up) & Gustavo Duarte (Monsters! & Other Stories, Guardians of the Galaxy, Dear Justice League) stems from DC’s brief New 52 continuity sidestep and refers almost exclusively to his earlier exploits and character.

Collecting 6-issue miniseries Bizarro and material from DC Sneak Peek: Bizarro #1, the saga starts as another misunderstood and deeply unappreciated visit to Metropolis – augmented by a new origin – sees the lonely, bored, eternally well-intentioned living facsimile teamed up with boy reporter Jimmy Olsen on a road-trip to “Bizarro-America” (we call it Canada)…

It’s ostensibly to prevent a disastrous super-battle but more importantly, someone suggested that the journey could provide enough candid material for a best-selling coffee table book that could liberate the eternally cash-strapped kid from his financial woes…

Jim’s certain he can handle the big super-doofus, but not so sure that applies to a pocket alien Bizarro picked up somewhere. After ‘The Secret Origin of Colin the Chupacabra’, the story truly starts with ‘Bizarro-America: Part 6’ and a weary ‘Welcome to Smallville’ where the need to fix the car leads to a clash with a dynasty of very familiar villains at King Tut’s Slightly Used Car Oasis. It all goes without incident until some other ETs give papa Tut a reality-altering staff and he seeks to achieve his great dream – selling everyone a used car…

Having navigated their way out of that bad deal, the Road Worriers further embarrass themselves in ‘Bizarro-America: Part 5’ with stopovers and pertinent guest stars in Gotham, Central, Starling and Gorilla City, before doing more of the same in Louisiana, Chicago and all points lost. Somewhere along the way they pick up a tail and in seeking to ditch their pursuers drive into Ol’ Gold Gulch: a ghost town with real spooks and a distant descendant of a legendary gunfighter. Chastity Hex is a bounty hunter too, which comes in handy when Bizarro is possessed by an evil spirit in ‘Unwanted: Unliving or Undeaded’ and a destructive rampage triggers the spectral return of great grandpa Hex as well as Cinnamon, Nighthawk, Scalphunter and El Diablo…

Another issue (‘Bizarro-America: Part 3’ if you’re still counting) and another city sees the automotive idiots catching mystic marvel Zatanna’s act in ‘Do You Believe in Cigam?’ and fresh disaster as Bizarro’s backwards brain allows him to accidentally access the sorceress’ backwards spells, prompting diversions to many, many alternate DC realities and Jimmy and Bizarro trading bodies (sort of) before order – if not sanity – is restored…

As they near their final destination, the covert shadows finally move in. A.R.G.U.S. agents Stuart “chicken Stew” Paillard and Meadows Mahalo get their X-Files on: compelling the travellers to infiltrate Area 51, but aren’t happy with the outcome once the idiots unleash every alien interned or interred there…

Ultimately the voyage concludes with ‘Bizarro-America: Part 1’ and long-deferred meeting with Superman (drawn by Tim Sale & Dave Stewart) in ‘Who Am on Last?’ The last of the Tuts returns for another stab at vengeance and high-volume marketing and as chaos reigns Colin comes up trumps, before assorted former guests coagulate as the never to be reformed Bizarro League to save the world in a way it has never been saved before.

All that’s left is to get Bizarro into Canada but there’s one last surprise in store…

This outrageous romp is punctuated with a round-robin of guest illustrators (Bill Sienkiewicz, Kelley Jones, Michelle Madsen, Francis Manapul, Fábio Moon, Gabriel Bá, Darwyn Cooke, Raphael Albuquerque and more) adding to the manic madness via their signature characters, and a variant cover gallery provides more boffo yoks courtesy of Kyle Baker and Kevin Wada. Topping off the fun is an unmissable sketch section by Duarte, packed with many scenes and moments somebody was too nervous to publish…

Fast, funny, fantastic and far too long forgotten, Bizarro is a superb romp that would make a magnificent movie. Do not miss it.
© 2015, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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G.I. Zombie – A Star-Spangled War Story


By Justin Grey, Jimmy Palmiotti, Scott Hampton & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-5487-2 (TPB)

When DC rebooted their entire continuity with the New 52 in 2011, most reader and critical attention was focussed on big-name costumed stars. However, the move also allowed creators to revisit older genre titles from those eras when superheroes were not the only fruit.

A number of venerable war titles and stars were revisited and re-imagined (even iconic and presumed-sacrosanct Sgt. Rock) and many novel ideas and treatments were created – although largely ignored by the audiences they were intended to attract.

One of the most appealing, fashionably intriguing and well-realised appeared in a revitalised Star Spangled War Stories, outrageously blending the global war on terror, then-current socio-political disaffection and Earth’s ongoing fascination with the walking dead to spawn a spectacular, tongue-in-cheek blockbuster romp tailor-made for TV or movies.

Perhaps that was the point all along…

Written by Justin Grey & Jimmy Palmiotti and illustrated by Scott Hampton, the serialised saga from SSWS volume 2 #1-8 spanned cover-dates September 2014 to May 2015 and was collected into one riotous read, albeit augmented by a smart little epilogue culled from Star Spangled War Stories: Future’s End #1 (September 2014).

The premise is deliciously simple and sublimely subversive. Soldier Jared Kabe has been the Republic’s most secret weapon for decades: an unkillable agent infallibly serving the nation in secret through most of its wars and so many of its unpublicised black-ops counter-strikes against America’s implacable enemies.

And just so we’re on the same page here, he’s unkillable because he’s already dead…

When not battling on numerous officially sanctioned war fronts, this perfect operative has tackled pervasive social ills such as drug cartels and human traffickers, and it’s just this kind of simple mission which leads to an unlife-changing moment as his commanding officer/ handler Codename: Gravedigger pairs him with maverick – but still breathing – agent Carmen King.

They were only supposed to infiltrate a biker gang militia, but the case takes on a life of its own when the smelly redneck nut-jobs buy medium-range missiles and a deadly bio-agent to use on Washington DC.

After an astounding amount of cathartic bloodshed, Carmen is soon deep undercover, playing house with a slick madman running a clandestine organisation of would-be world conquerors. Jared meantime strives to prevent the strike on the government. He succeeds by bringing the missile down in unlucky Sutterville, Tennessee, only to discover to his horror that he has a personal connection to the payload and must face a horrific ‘Small Town Welcome’…

As Jared and Special Forces units struggle to contain a spreading contagion, Carmen is deep underground in a sybaritic paradise housing an enclave of wealthy fanatics in Utah. Everyone is eager to remake the world to their specifications, but even whilst playing along with the head loon, she has one eye on the citadel’s labs and armoury and the other on her ‘Exit Strategy’…

Southern crisis contained, Kabe rushes to rendezvous with King, selecting a uniquely undead methodology to enter the subterranean fortress: one offering ‘Door-to-Door Delivery’, but the head paranoid panics and chooses to abandon his base and acolytes in the ‘The Living Desert’. Taking Carmen and a few select, trusted individuals, he flees to San Francisco after first employing his private nuclear option…

‘Two the Hard Way’ sees Jared survive the detonation – and another bio-bomb outbreak – before heading for the coast where Carmen’s cover has been blown and she is attempting to blast her way out.

With the disclosure of Kabe’s past connections to the madmen-in-charge, ‘The Final Countdown’ begins with the G.I. Zombie, Carmen and a dedicated cadre of special agents invading a locked-down fortress determined to prevent the “City by the Bay” becoming another glowing toxic crater…

The main event magnificently completed, there’s a little extra treat for readers: ‘United States of the Dead’ appeared in Star Spangled War Stories: Future’s End #1, part of a company-wide publishing event set “five years from now”. It reveals how a zombie bio-agent has been used to infect Gotham City with Kabe and Co. in play to stop the rot to save the world…

With cover and variants by Dave Johnson, Howard Porter and the late, great and much-missed Darwyn Cooke, this is a fabulous high-velocity action adventure: fast paced, devastatingly action packed and simply dripping with sharply mordant black comedy moments. G.I. Zombie is the kind of graphic extravaganza you use to convert folks who hate comics. Are you ready to be turned?
© 2014, 2015 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.