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Welcome to our newest interview at All In Black & White For 75 Cents! As I've said before, one of the most fun things doing these blogs is getting the chance to talk to the people who were personally involved with these great comics and magazines.
And one of the nicest people I've "met" online is Angelique Trouvere, who as most of you will remember was famous for her amazing self-made costumes(and her even-more amazing ability to fill them out) and become real-life versions of characters like Vampirella(left), Satana, and Red Sonja.
Even though Angelique had just finished an exhaustively wide-ranging interview with Richard Ardnt over at enjolrasworld, she generously agreed to talk to me:
All In Black and White: Had you seen many comic books before discovering Vampirella?
Angelique Trouvere: As a kid, I read Superman, Superboy, Lois Lane, some Disney & Classics Illustrated. Later, I found EC's, Mad, Conan the Barbarian and underground comics of the late '60's like Cheech Wizard, R. Crumb, Zap, & my fav: the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers--it was funny and had a very cool cat named Fat Freddy's Cat in it.
B/W: What was it like, discovering Vampirella and Warrens for the first time and then being in them so soon afterwards?
AT: Nothing prepared me for my first encounter with Vampirella! The overall look of the comic magazine was breathtaking as well and the stories intriguing but it was Vampi herself(drawn by Jose Gonzales) that captured my imagination and heart.
I started collecting everything I could find on her(I still have 3 of the original Warren 6-foot posters of her). I was into costumes and once I discovered comicCons and their masquerades, I decided to recreate her costume. In my interview at enjolrasworld, I go into detail about my whole Vampi experience and how it brought me to the attention of Warren writers, Gerry Boudreau & Anthony Tollin as well as editor, Bill DuBay. It was so incredibly exciting to be included in the article that Gerry was writing about the 1973 Seuling ComicCon that I appeared at as Vampirella. When I saw it in Vampi #29 I was beside myself with joy!
B/W: Warren Publications was clearly supportive of your efforts, running pics of you in their magazines. Did Marvel ever talk to you, or show you that same kind of interest?
AT: James Warren did not care for me at all and did not support me in any way as far as promoting me in his magazines. It was the efforts of Boudreau & DuBay that allowed me to share in the article in Vampi #29.
As for Marvel, Tony Isabella told me during our talks for the interview that he did try to get Marvel to do some sort of pictorial of me as Satana but no dice. As far as I know, the only coverage I ever got from Marvel was either in the letters column of one of their Conan magazines when they used a picture of me as Satana & my friend, Kris Lundy as the 1st appearance of Red Sonja, or in The Savage Sword of Conan #29(?) that carried the whole "Red Sonja & the Wizard Show" drawn by Frank Thorne and had added mini bios & pics of each of the Sonjas.
B/W: Judging by most of your costumes, you seemed drawn to the tougher comic book heroines, like Vampi and Red Sonja, as opposed to, say, Supergirl or the Invisible Girl--more "traditional"(and passive) female comic book characters. Was that how you saw yourself?
AT: Definitely! I also preferred more challenging costumes to recreate. When I met artist, George Perez at a masquerade, he told me that a friend had told him that I refused to recreate the Scarlet Witch--which he was drawing at the time--because her costume was too simple.
Perez said that upon hearing that he decided that one day he would create a challenging costume that I would have to make and he did! It was Princess Kori (aka: Starfire) of the Teen Titans and I had that costume on my "to do" list but my life got side tracked and I sadly never got to do it.
B/W: How were you able to successfully fend off what had to be hordes of...er, overly-excited comic book fanboys at conventions?
AT: Really never had any problems with fanboys--maybe it was the sword...?
B/W: Have you always been comfortable performing, or was it something you slowly got used to?
AT: Always :) I've been a ham since I was a baby!
B/W: What did you enjoy more, the making of the costumes or the performing in them?
AT: While I enjoy the challenge of making a costume, performing is a lot easier.
B/W: I'm sure constructing costumes yourself took an enormous amount of patience and concentration. Did you enjoy that process, or was it just a means to getting to perform in them, which was the fun part?
AT: It's hard to say. Sometimes a costume would develop a glitch that would cause no end of headaches to complete. Others were great fun because I was making them with a friend. Sometimes I would be very focused on the project and found it very exciting when I completed a section. Blackadder & Queenie were like that because I had never attempted to do such a complex historically accurate pair of costumes before. I was always amazed to see each part was working out and the better it looked, the more excited I got.
As for the performing part, many times, I wasn't sure what exactly I would do until I was in costume and ready to head down to the masquerade. Although I had a general idea of what I'd like to do--it depended on the character of course.
Red Sonja was a sword-wielding warrioress and Daggit was so cute, all I had to do was walk out(on all fours), sit & twirl those ears to entertain the audience. When I became part of Kris Curling's "Doctors in the House" comedy group, then performance became more emphasized.
In fact, Kris & his co authors wrote a special piece just for me as the daggit. It was based on the early Wild Kingdom TV show and featured some hysterical slapstick between a very frustrated Jim Fowler and a wild "Bush Daggit". In one scene I was pulled across stage riding a skateboard to escape Jim! (It was called "Hunting the Wild Bush Daggit")
B/W: If you were still making and dressing up in costumes today, are there any contemporary heroines you'd try? Lara Croft, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spider-Woman?
AT: Most of the current heroines are not that interesting costume-wise. I think I've gotten a bit burned out. But that doesn't mean I can't be inspired again someday. One of the last ones I did some years back was Elvira because she's fun to do.
B/W: Have you kept up with many of the people you met in comics?
AT: Thanks to both the internet and my interview, I have been in touch a lot more of my old comic con friends.
B/W: What's a Library Technician? Do the people you work with have any idea there are pictures of you (almost)dressed as Vampirella and Red Sonja around, in print? :)
AT: "Librarians: the original search engine." :) A Library Technician is another word for Library Assistant or Associate--which means that I can do many of the specialized services that librarians can offer like catalogue books, locate books & articles, request same from other libraries, etc. But I don't have a Masters degree in Library Science which expands the abilities of the librarian.
As for my coworkers knowing about my other life: only the really cool ones know.
It was soooo much fun talking to Angelique, her enthusiasm for the comics and her love for what she was doing is contagious, even all these years later. I thank her very much for taking the time to talk to me, she's a real sweetheart. Thanks Angelique!
_________________________________________________________
So with this interview with the awesome Angelique, we're ending what I'll oh-so-trendily call "Season One" of All In Black & White For 75 Cents. When I first started the blog, I had a few hundred b/w mags and I knew over time I'd go through them all. I've bought some more over time, as well(and had some sent to me) but I knew I wanted to hit a pause at some point, and that's where we're at now.
I'm going to take a two-week break from posting here, but when we come back on Monday, December 10, we'll kick off a two-week extravaganza where we'll be talking about nothing but first issues and/or magazines that have never been discussed before here on the blog. I've got some cool stuff, some long overdue stuff, and some just plain weird stuff on tap and it oughta be a lot of fun. (I also want to work on the format a little bit--a few more graphics, and maybe a little more in-depth examinations of certain important issues.)
So thanks for checking out my humble little blog, and please stay tuned, the best is yet to come. See you December 10!
This ad ran in approximately five million comics in the seventies, and only over time have I come to notice some its...stranger elements.
First up, a few years ago, I finally noticed the unbelievably odd line in panel 3 "Don't worry, this is New York. No one will help her." Holy crap, what an odd line to put in an ad for a kid's toy!
Secondly, this has to be the only time I can think of where another comic book company's character appeared in a DC or Marvel book--loooong before Superman met Spidey--and of all characters, it was the decidedly adult b/w magazine star Vampirella!
(This had to be one of those weird moments in publishing where Jim Warren couldn't run an ad for Vampirella in a DC comic, but a company licensing the character from Warren could. Weird, like the moment when Charlton almost ended up with the rights to publish the Super Friends comic)
Third, this is just a really grim ad. Frankenstein killed people, sure, but this is one of the rare times I can think of where he's portrayed as being flat-out evil, kidnapping an innocent woman off the street! Why do I think that the guys who make the Saw movies had this model kit?
This ad jumped out at me, and not for the obvious reason(s).
No, it's because the Warren marketing department really outdid themselves with the ad copy.
"9 Inches of Pulchritude!" is great, "An Asset to Any Window" is even better, but my favorite is "For Car! Cycle! Home! School!"--yeah, can you imagine how well a sticker like this would go over at school, slapped on your notebook or on your locker? You'd have an easier time carrying a knife.
This looks like such a cool item, even though you can only see one piece from it. Did anybody ever buy this?
I haven't come across it on ebay much, though I haven't been looking that hard, since the dates won't line up again until 2012. So if I bought it before then, it'd just be a bunch of pretty pictures--though with that line-up of artists, some very pretty pictures indeed!
Ah, memories of Creepys gone by with this reprint of Frazetta's cover from Creepy #5, made all the more poginant when you know that this was the next-to-last issue of the magazine. *sigh*
It says "Collector's Edition" on the cover, an indication of an all-reprint issue. Man, this is getting hard to type. Let's see what's inside...
"Forgotten Flesh" by Doug Moench and Vincente Alcazar--graverobbers get what's coming to them! (Creepy #64)
"For The Sake of Your Children!" by E.A. Fedory and Jaime Brocal. Something is happening to all the village children, something deadly. Very gory with some sexy vampire babes, always fun. (Creepy #45)
"It!" by Tom Sutton, a brilliantly-executed(no pun intended) story about a creature who rises from the grave. The first three pages are told in sixteen panels each, all the same size, and then the story opens up for the finale. A great tale, a classic. (Creepy #53)
Next is "In Darkness It Shall End!" by Moench and Alcazar again, a straightforward vampire tale, featuring Alcazar in a more photo-realistic style. Not bad, but nothing groundbreaking. (Creepy #76)
Next is "The Ghouls!" by Carl Wessler and Martin Salvador--more graverobbers, though with a gory, goofy twist. (Creepy #61)
Poe's "Berenice" is adapted by Rich Margopolous and Isidro Mones, a tale of a man driven mad(duh, it was Poe!). Excellent rendered by Mones. (Creepy #70)
Last is "The Terror-Stalked Heiress!" by Wessler and Jose Gual, a very silly and charming story of an air-headed heiress(who's, like, so hot) constantly threatened by nasty demons, but is under the protection of her dead uncle Tom. Yes, I typed that right. (Creepy #72)
...as usual with these "best of" collections, its an excellent issue sine there was so much good material to perm from. Yeah, its sad that Creepy was doing so many all-reprint issues near the end, but at least it was all good stuff!
If memory serves, this is the only Creepy in my collection to sport this new, slicker logo. I guess the old drippy one didn't seem "eighties" enough? (Didn't last long, though--they went back to the classic one just long enough for Creepy to go belly up)
The imposing cover is by Jeff Easely, and after an Uncle Creepy frontspiece by Rudy Nebres, we have "The Terrible Truth About Danny!" by Will Richardson and Martin Salvador. A creepy(jeez, I gotta get a thesaurus) tale of a boy with amazing powers, but doesn't know how to control them, straightforwardly told and well done.
Second is "The Saga of Popeye Jackson!" by Gerry Boudreau and Paul Neary, about a guy who finds his brain put in a robot body. Somebody call Adam Link!
Third is "Working Class Hero!" by Roger McKenzie, Carmine Infantino, and Alfredo Alcala, a goofy tale of a 9 to 5 office nebbish who longs for adventure, and gets it. Charmingly silly, and Infantino and Alcala make a nice team.
Next is "The Last Voyage of Sinbad" by Budd Lewis and Fred Carrillo which is, as the title indicates, the final adventure of Sheherazade's creation. Much fun, even if Carrillo's work here is a little gloomy; I would've liked to have seen more Sinbad stories via Warren.
"He Who Lives!" is by Lewis and Daniel Bulandi, a short(six pages) mystical/futuristic tale of Lord Purge, who hunts down and eradicates all evil. Somehow, a vampire is worked into this story, too! Not terribly involving, though it ends before it really wears out its welcome.
Last is "Strategic Retreat" by John Ellis Sech and Herb Arnold, a tale of a bloody war between two races of beings, with one thing in common--they wanna get paid. Arnold's art is cartoony in a Corben-esque manner, not bad.
Not a bad issue, not a great one--no instant classics, but no dreck, either.
I love this cover by Enrich--the confident pose is sexy as hell. Sure, it's not scary, but we can always do that next month, right?
First up is "An Eye For An Eye" by Bill DuBay and Jose Gonzales. The evil Queen of Hearts starts extracting revenge on her enemies, first by plucking out Vampi's eyes(!!) and next...Pendragon's heart! Superbly expressive art by Gonzales.
Second is "Skimpole's Monsters" by DuBay and Ramon Torrents, about a woman who cheats on her puppeteer husband(oh, not that old plot again) which leads to death. Goes on a little long, and is a little dialogue heavy, but not bad.
Next is "Brother Hawk" by Nicola Cuti, Carmine Infantino, and Alex Nino. A mystical tale of two Indian brothers on a spiritual quest. Interesting combo of Infantino and Nino, and the story is sparsely told and effective.
Fourth is "The Enchanting Tale of Thistlewhite the Bold" by DuBay and Russ Heath. A slightly less serious tale of an ex-knight whose wife is taken from him, and he finds out in the end that's not so bad, really. Fun tale a great ending, and exquisite art by Heath--his demons were scary, his faces expressive, and his women voluptuous. One of my favorite Warren stories.
Last is "Companions to the Sun" by Bruce Jones and Leopold Sanchez. A classic set-up--two guys stranded in the desert--involving a perfect odd couple--an earthman and an alien, whose spaceship has crashed! Downbeat tale, but well done.
A very good issue, with a real nice mix of stories and art.
"Naked Apes in Color!"--not the greatest tagline ever created to sell a comic. Nicely designed, Frazetta-esque cover by Don Maitz, though.
First up is "The Star Saga of Sirius Sam" by Nicola Cuti and John Severin, a goofy, Star Wars-esque tale of star-hopping treasure hunters, a lot of fun and perfect for Severin.
Next is "The Laughing Man", by Bruce Jones and Berni Wrightson. Again an ape-centric tale, this time one of brutal, gruesome horror. One of Wrightson's best.
Third is the color feature, "Murder on the Vine", by Cary Bates and Esteban Maroto, that starts off with the murder of no less than Tarzan(unofficially). More gruesome fun, and Maroto renders a very sensual jungle woman, even if she is murderous.
Fourth is "The Empire of Chim-Pan-Zee", by Cuti and Luis Bermejo, a tale of time-traveling monkeys(no, not Zira and Cornelius!) fighting for survival, and featuring a nice ending.
Next is "The Oasis Inn" by Bob Toomey and Jose Ortiz, a total comedy piece about apes going, well, ape while on vacation.
Last is "The Old Ways" by Roger McKenzie and Leo Duranona, a much more somber tale of apes learning a horrrible lesson from Man. Nice combo of line art and collage backgrounds from Durnona gives this piece a wrecked, sprawling feel.
A very solid issue, and even though I've never been a big fan of the sci-fi stuff in Creepy or Eerie, it worked for me here, maybe because the stories and art are all top-notch.
I have to say, if I had seen this issue on the newsstands it would've been a definite "No Sale"; I never cared about sports and I sure as hell didn't want them mixed in with my comics! The $1.25 would've bought me a DC Comics Presents and a Star Wars that week.
The opening story is "Cold Sweat" by Bill DuBay and Jose Ortiz. Robots and space explorers play in a violent(I mean, more) game of intergalactic hockey. If you're a hockey fan with a lot of sci-fi paperbacks on your shelf, this is for you.
Next is the Rook(oh, joy) in "Strangers in the Strangest Places!" by DuBay and Abel Laxamana. A sort of parody of the Superman story, except the alien landing is taken advantage of by a greedy earth woman, and only the Rook can stop her. I dig Laxamana's art; it has a loose, Jack Davis-esque cartoony feel.
Third is "Let's Hear It For Homo Sapiens" by Gerry Boudreau and Aureleon. The members of the Animal Kingdom get tired of being Man's slaves and they revolt; a fun tale with a light touch.
Fourth is "Suzanna Don't You Cry" by Bob Toomey and Ortiz, another installment with the Moonshadow character. Not being too familiar with this series, I was a bit lost as to where we were and who these people are, but the lost love of a pair of assassins angle was interesting.
Another recurring character, Abelmar Jones, stars in "Bad Day To 'Cross 110th Street", by DuBay and Alex Nino. Two street kids, bored, get caught up messing around with magic--the perfect setting for someone like Nino, and he lets it rip here, the story practically bursting off the pages.
Last is "Gaffer: The Final Wish" by Roger McKenzie and Leo Duranona, a sad tale of one man's acceptance of Death.
Not one of my favorite issues, but that's due more to my personal preferences, I think--the stories in this issue look and feel very similar to me. And like a lot of Warren stories at the time, they all have that vague dystopian/future world setting and after a bunch of them in a row I start jumping to the Captain Company ads.
One of my all-time favorite issues of Creepy!
The cool cover is by Ken Kelly and there's a great Uncle Creepy frontspiece by Berni Wrightson, and then we jump right into "The Escape Chronicle" by Budd Lewis and Jose Ortiz. The story of the nebbish-y Bernard Kedward, who lives in a grim, authoritarian future world and dreams only f escape via hot air balloon. Sad, tragic, hopeful.
Next is "Phantom of Pleasure Island", by Gerry Boudreau and Alex "The Man" Toth! A murder mystery set in an amusement park--a fun, diverting tale, made into a near-masterpiece by Toth's flawless storytelling. As if I had to say that.
Third is "Snow" by Bruce Bezaire, Rich Buckler, and Wally Wood--a grim tale of doing anything to survive in a snow-covered wasteland.
Next is "Death Expression" by Jim Stenstrum and John Severin. Treachery and murder in the upper echelons of government. No horror, per se, just a tough-as-nails tale of people willing to kill to control the levers of power. Like Toth, Severin takes a good, solid tale and makes it sublime.
Last is "Thrillkill" by Stenstrum and Neal Adams--TwoMorrows' The Warren Companion ranked this as the single best Warren story ever; the all-too-real story of one insane man taking revenge on society through the safety of a sniper's perch. Adams' storyelling is perfect; and through the use of captions instead of word balloons you feel you're on the street along with these people as it is happening, and that you might be next.
As real and relevant today as it was in 1975, it's definitely a contender for Warren's best, and a perfect example of how over time Warren went from an EC clone(and an excellent one, at that) to crafting its own brand of horror, and putting something out there that only they could've done(really; could you have pictured a story like this running in The House of Mystery or a Marvel monster mag?).
There isn't one bad story in this issue, and I'd say three of them rank as some of Warren's best ever, so this just might be the best Creepy ever!
Update: Based on a comment left by a reader known only as "Weirdo"(surely not the first blogger to try and register that name!), it occurs to me that since is one of(if not the) my favorite Creepys ever, I should've posted some of the gorgeous art in this issue.
So here are three masterful splash pages from the stories drawn by Toth, Buckler/Wood, and Adams:
I feel about the Rook the way I did/do about the Legion of Super-Heroes...I just don't get it. Obviously, it was a very popular feature(the Rool even got his own magazine, albeit briefly), but it pretty much always left me cold.
And don't even get me started again on the idea of a futuristic, time-traveling cowboy strip in a magazine called Eerie. Though the cover by Luis Bermejo is very nice!
The Rook stars in "The Man Whom Time Forgot" by Bill DuBay and Bermejo, in a tale where he goes back in time, right smack in the middle of the battle for the Alamo!
Don't get me wrong--I think the strip is just fine, well-drawn and moves at a quick pace. But I personally just found it a bit repetitive and it seemed like to me the Rook was Eerie's main star, like, forever. Appopriate for a time-traveling character, I guess.
Next is "The Game is Afoot" by Gerry Boudreau, Carmine Infantino, and Gonzalo Mayo, a fantasy tale of vampires fighting to take over the Earth!
Third is "Castle of the Assassin" by Budd Lewis and Jose Ortiz, about an old scrapper named Sully who goes after revenge against Ninja, who had stolen a priceless statue from Scully and murdered his daughters! The Ninja is a tough fighter, but Sully has the Luck O' The Irish.
Last is "In A Deep Sea Tomb" by Lewis and Leopold Sanchez, a really fun tale of murder and treachery at the bottom of the ocean. My favorite tale of the issue, and nicely drawn by Sanchez.
Not one of my favorite issues, the only story I really dug was the last. It's just my personal tastes, but the whole fantasy/sci-fi stuff in Eerie just turned me off, and there's a lot of that here. Oh well, there's always the next issue!
I realy like this cover by Sanjulian; nothing's really happening on it but I like the creepy wizard guy and that curious look on his face.
On the inside covers is "The Old School" by Steve Skeates, Vicente Alacazar, and Bill DuBay, a horror tale with a really goofy ending. Much fun.
After the letters page we start with "Change...Into Something Comfortable!" by Doug Moench and Rich Corben, so you know you're in for something good! A gruesome tale of a werewolf in love.
Next is "An Excuse for Violence" by Don McGregor and Adolpho Abellan, a murder mystery set on a college campus rife with racial tensions. Not bad, but I found Abellan's art a tad too all over the place, almost getting in the way of the story at times.
Third is "Shriek Well Before Dying!" by W. Eaton and Jose Bea, a Psycho-esque tale of familial devotion, even after death. Ghoulish fun.
Fourth is "Soul and Shadow" by Gardner Fox and Reed Crandall. Clearly the Old School segment of the issue, from the talent behind it to its supernatural, barren world-of-the-past setting.
Last is "The Walking Nightmare!" by McGregor and Munes, a gripping tale of a guy who all of sudden starts going on a killing spree. A little text-heavy, but I enjoyed it a lot.
A very solid issue, each tale ranging from excellent to at least not bad. One of my favorites.
Ok, as anyone who's read this blog even for a short time knows I was, and still am, a big fan of the whole Captain Company thing. I loved the idea of having pages and pages of merchandise bedecked with classic images from the Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella; the model kits, the records, the puzzzles, the posters.
But this goes solidly and firmly over the line--a line of tightie-whities featuring ghoulish monster images right over the crotch? I know a lot of comics fans have had to resign themselves to life of lonliness, partly due to their inward, nerdish natures; but wearing one of these would virtually guarantee that if you did talk a woman back to your house, you'd send her screaming into the night just at the moment it was about to Get Interesting.
And is the nude guy a piece of stock photography, or some poor Warren staffer bribed with the promise of a huge bonus and/or liquor?
This full-page ad ran on the inside back covers of Warren's Nov. 1975 issues; I think they got a little ahead of themselves with the phrase "Now in production."
This reminds me of the approximately seventy-five thousand times Stan Lee would write in his "Stan's Soapbox" column something like "The Spider-Man movie will be out next year; it'll be the smash hit of summer 1982! Excelsior!" Uh-huh.
Of course, much later, a Vampirella movie did get made, but the less said about that, the better.
What a wonderful surprise awaited me this week when I went comic shopping--a third issue of Spider-Man Magazine!
I was so happy when I came across a second installment of this magazine, and assumed that since it featured Spider-Man and FF reprints, that Marvel was tying each issue into a movie. If I was right, I figured there'd eventually be Iron Man and Hulk volumes, eventually.
Well, I was right about that, since here's Iron Man--although why this is about a full half-year before the movie, I don't know. In any case, I snapped it up as soon as I saw it.
Like the previous issues, this features comic stories, puzzles, games, pin-ups, and other fun stuff like they used to do in comics all the time. It's a perfect magazine for young kids, and I've been buying multiple copies of each issue to give them out to every kid I know.
This volume includes:
"Breaking Up is Venmous to Do!" by Fred Van Lente and Cory Hamscher(from Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man)
"Heart of Steel" by Van Lente, James Cordeiro, and Scott Koblish(from Marvel Adventures: Iron Man)
an Iron Man poster
a Super Hero Word Search
"Mini-Marvels" by Chris Giarrusso
"The Leader Has A Big Head" by Jeff Parker, Manuel Garcia, and Koblish(from Marvel Adventures: The Avengers)
coloring pages
a Spider-Man text story by David Michelinie
a history of Iron Man ala The Handbook to the Marvel Universe
...plus more!
The fact that there's been three of these so far suggests to me they must sell fairly well, or at least well enough to keep doing them. And as long as Marvel does them, I'll be buying them!
This ad(click here to see a readable version) made me scratch my head.
It's from a British Marvel reprint magazine called Chiller Pocket Book, and I guess its for the UK version of Marvel's Crazy, but locally called Frantic? Does the word crazy not...translate, for lack of a better word, in England, necessitating the change?
I do love the idea of Marvel using one of their lamest characters to sell the book.
I didn't, strangely enough, find this ad in a black and white magazine, but in a British digest-sized Marvel reprint magazine called Chiller Pocket Book.
Can't go wrong with a John Buscema Conan piece!
This was the final issue of Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, a giant-sized special.
It was typical in that Marvel frequently ended some of their b/w mags in oversized annuals or specials(they did it for Dracula Lives! and Monsters Unleashed!, for example). It was atypical in that almost all of the material in this special was new, not reprinted from earlier issues.
As editor Roy Thomas explains in his introduction, they had enough material built-up for several more new issues, so when word came down the book was cancelled, they could go out with a bang of fresh stuff. And to make it even more special, this book ran 10-12 pages longer than the other specials/annuals, but for no extra money. Squa-tront!
First off, we have this gorgeous painted cover by the late, great Don Newton. You didn't see much painted work from Newton in DC or Marvel books, which is a damn shame--as you can see, this one's a beaut!
First up is "A Martian Odyssey", adapted from the story by Stanley Weinbaum, by Don Glut and Yandoc. A story of one man's life-or-death trek across Mars, as he befriends one creature by saving his(its?) life from the other inhabitants of the red planet. Fun and inventive.
Next Alan Brennert(my fav!) interviews Theodore Sturgeon, and then is "Journey's End" by Bruce Jones and Alex Nino, a great story filled with twists and turns about we what we "know" to be reality, which is of course the perfect kind of story for Nino.
Next is "The Forest For the Trees!" by Jones and Vincente Alcazar, about three space explorers fighting the creatures they find on a new planet. But that's not what eventually doomes them...
Don and Maggie Thompson contribute a text piece about their dual love for sci-fi, called "Fantastic Worlds", and then next is "Clete", this time with story and art by Bruce Jones(Jones was to Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction what Archie Goodwinw as to Creepy and Eerie--indispensible). "Clete" is an excellent tale of an alien race who comes to catalog Earth long after most of civilization as we know it has died off, but comes to care for something he finds left behind. One of my favorite tales the magazine ever ran.
Next is "Preservation of the Species" by Jones(!!) and Redondo, a really goofy, gruesome tale of a future society, featuring lots of sex, violence, alien births, and a woman whose innermost feelings display themselves as words written across her forehead. After reading this tale, take a sip of water and lie down.
What could follow that? Well, something even more unusual--"Sinner", a quick tale of religious fanaticism, written and drawn by Archie Goodwin! We've all seen Archie's cartoons in various magazines, but this is the first time I've ever seen him illustrate a story. And you know what? It ain't half bad! Archie had a definitely dynamic and unusual style:
...man, I would've loved to have seen more of this!
Next is "Arena", from the story by Frederic Brown, adapted by Gerry Conway, John Buscema, and Dick Giordano. This is the only story that previously ran in the color comic Worlds Unknown(issue #4)--still cool though, since its a great story well told, and its neat to see a story so familiar from the Star Trek episode done a different way.
Last is "Threads" by Mat Warrick and Gonzales, an unrelentingly grim(thank god its only three pages!) tale of a family dealing with the End of the World. As the table of contents page says, if the world can go out with a whimper, why not a magazine?
One odd side note: Near the end of the issue, there's a little blurb about Alex Nino's promised story "Man-Gods." Apparently the story was completed by Nino, and then lost by the Post Office! Yee-ikes! So to fill space they ran the Goodwin piece and "Arena"--as last-minute replacements go, pretty darn good. ("Man-Gods" was later found, and ran in Marvel Preview #1)
...and so we come to the end of Unknown Worlds of Science-Fiction. On the contrary to Mr. Thomas, I thought this mag went out on a bang--with a solid collection of fantastic stories and some of the best comic art around.
Quite the savage cover, this time from Boris Vallejo! I like how Ka-Zar is popping out in front of the logo.
The Ka-Zar story is "Requiem For a Haunted Man!" by Gerry Conway, Russ Heath, and the Crusty Bunkers. Ka-Zar is battling a crocodile when suddenly another man saves him using a bow and arrow, then silently retreats. ?
Ka-Zar then gets in the middle of two warring tribes, one of whom has captured the other's women and is holding hem hostage. While in the middle of the fight, the mysterious archer shows up again and we then find out who he is, where he came from--he's a man running from his past in the regular world. No longer fearing death, he has come to the Savage Land and has found a new reason for existence--the love of a woman.
Next is a text fiction piece by John Jakes called "The Running of the Ladyhound", featuring some spot illustrations by Michael Whelan and Rick Bryant, all the more unusual in that they feature some nudity, a strict no-no I thought in Marvel mags.
Last is Sheena in "Blood Purge!" by Carla Conway, Ross "Andry"(methinks someone didn't proofread this issue too carefully), and Vince Colletta. In a slightly similar story, Shanna finds herself in the middle of a civil war between two factions on the slope of the Himalayas. How in the heck does Shanna not freeze to death in that outfit running around a snowy mountaintop??
Not a bad issue, and the Crusty Bunkers inking on the Ka-Zar story is especially nice.
An fairly unusual cover by Earl Norem--some wizard getting the drop on Conan, for once--leads off this issue of SSOC, featuring the story "The Sorcerer and the Soul" by Roy Thomas, John Buscema, and Rudy Nebres.
Set in Arenjun, the City of Thieves, it opens with Conan drinking, wenching, and fighting(of course), and he overhears talk of a valuable amulet called the Eye of Erlik. While attempting to steal it--all the while fighting other thieves who want it--he encounters the wizard Hisarr Zul.
Zul and Conan fight for a bit, which is always fun, since Conan doesn't like things he can't just slice up with his sword. Zul manages to trap Conan's soul in a magic mirror, which allows him to enlist Conan to do his bidding, by sending him to overtake the thief who has gotten ahold of the amulet! To be continued, by Crom!
There's a text section called "The Hyborian Reporter" all about a Halloween party thrown by Roy and Dannette Thomas, and featuring a pic of the Thomases dressed up as Conan(Roy doesn't quite pull this off, but who could?) and Red Sonja(works for me).
The other story is "Wings in the Night!" by Don Glut and David Wenzel, starring Solomon Kane. Adapted from the REH story, Kane finds himself in a village beset by cannibals---and if that wasn't enough, also a giant winged demon who swoops from the skies at night! Aaaahhh!
Both stories are fun and move a brisk clip. Buscema and Nebres make an ok pair--Buscema's forceful, strong work always shows through, and the facial expressions he puts on Conan are priceless.
This annual was another instance where Marvel, having cancelled the regular magazine, gave a title one last hurrah by releasing an annual or special edition featuring some of the best material it had run in the regular series. *sigh*
After the ehhh cover by Ken Bald, we have a letters page telling us that is in fact the final Monsters Unleashed! (see *sigh*, above), and then we have:
"The Cold of the Uncaring Moon" by Steve Skeates, George Tuska, and Klaus Janson--who actually make a pretty fine pair
a "They Might Be Monsters" segment by Tony Isabella and Pablo Marcos
"World of Warlocks!" by Gardner Fox, Roy Thomas, and Gene Colan, a solid tale of another dimension that needs a hero, and takes one from the rice paddies of Vietnam! As usual, Colan delivers the goods.
"Lifeboat!" by Gerry Conway and Jesus Blasco, which improbably works a monster into the story set totally in the title object
"Demon of Slaughter Mansion!" by Don McGregor and Juan Boix
the classic "Birthright!" by Thomas, Gil Kane, and the Crusty Bunkers
"To Love, Honor, and Cherish..." by Chris Claremont and Don Perlin
the Man-Thing in "All The Faces of Fear!" by Isabella and Alcazar
and then finally two one-page features, "Thunderbird", and "Monsters From The Sea", both by Isabella and Ernie Chua
...there is a lot of great stuff here, and if Monsters Unleashed! had to go, at least they were allowed one last curtain bow.
This is was one of the first magazines I profiled after starting this blog, and it was one of the ones that reminded me how much great material was out there in these b/w magazines--everyone remembers the giants of the format, like Creepy and Savage Sword of Conan; but there was a lot of great stuff in these other mags, too!
The cover is by Michael Whelan, and the sexy Red Sonja(redundant) frontspiece is by Howard Chaykin. Kull is of course the star of the opening tale, "The Omen in the Skull" by Doug Moench and Vincenet Alcazar.
Kull and his friend Ridondo are sailing their way to Kull's homeland of Atlantis, when a mysterious message--in a foreign language--burns itself onto his sword! He consults an old witch who tells him it concerns Atlantis and its eventual king--could that be someone named Kull? In his pursuit for answers he takes on the evil Thulsa Doom and other menaces, and it ends with Kull finding a giant city where, just ten years ago, there was nothing! To be continued!
Next is a text piece about Solomon Kane by Fred Blosser, and then its Red Sonja in "The Day of the Sword" by Roy Thomas, Moench, and Howard Chaykin, in what is essentially The Secret Origin of Red Sonja. A brutal, gripping story, we see the tale of murder, rape, and eventual rebirth that led to Sonja's quest for vengeance. An excellent story, and Chaykin's art is just great, but, boy, tough going there during some parts!
Last is Solomon Kane in "Into the Silent City" by Thomas, Alan Weiss, and Pablo Marcos. Kane tries to help a small village fend off an attack by hordes of zombies, the only way he knows how--by brute force. The concluding chapter of "The Hills of the Dead", a Robert E. Howard story.
All three stories are full of bloody, violent fun, dark humor, and superb art. It's a damn shame Kull and the Barbarians(which also could've been called The Conan Family, I guess) didn't last longer than this issue, since from the two of the three issues I've read, the material was top-notch. One of Marvel's best, if very short-lived, magazines.
Frank Brunner contributes the cover to this, the last regular issue of Marvel's other b/w magazine experiment, Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction. (I haven't seen it, but apparently Frank's original--already pushing the envelope with the Christ imagery--was changed a bit for printing)
Pat Broderick offers a weird, hippy-dippy frontspiece, and then editor Roy Thomas delivers the bad news that sales just weren't enough to keep the magazine going. I've heard this many times--that sci-fi fans just don't read comics that much, which never made any sense to me until I realize that I read a lot of comics but don't read a lot(er, any) of sci-fi. Hmm.
Anyway, the issue opens with, as it always does, with the "Slow Glass" framing sequence, this time by Thomas and artists Gene Colan and Dan Adkins, who make a nice pair. I've seen a lot of incompatible inkers on Colan, but Adkins smooth lines work out quite nicely.
The first story is "Behold the Man", adapted from the Michael Moorcock story by Doug Moench and Alex Nino, so you know you're in for a head-trippy time. Running twenty-three pages, the story is about a man who thought he was a messiah, and the story travels through various eras and confronts different religions--something in here to offend everybody! Took guts for Marvel even to cover this, and it makes for an effective, memorable tale.
Next is a text article by and about "Slow Glass" author Bob Shaw, complete with diagrams detailing how refracted light works in relation to the "Slow Glass" concept. I think we can see why regular comic readers, more used to the Hulk smashin' stuff, didn't buy this magazine.
Third is "Old Soldier" with story and art by Bruce Jones, a cool story of a man who explores space and what it does to his soul. Effectively told and involving.
Next is "Mind Games" by John Allison, a really out-there story of a solider who dies in WW III, and that's only the beginning of his problems. Like Allison's previous work for the magazine, I think this story works best while you're high and have on a Pink Floyd album in the background.
"Visitation" is by Don Glut and Reuben Yandoc, about some alien visitors who land and find themselves in the middle of a superstitious town about to burn a witch at the stake! You can imagine they don't take too well to that. Very fun morality play, in the classic EC tradition, nicely done by Glut and Yandoc.
It ends with one last "Slow Glass" page; a melancholy moment for both the characters and the readers. UWOSF would be granted one lone special edition after this, which we'll talk about soon. But a moment of silence for a solid, entertaining magazine that brought some of the best sci-fi tales around together with some of comic's top talents.
Ken Barr delivers a spooky, 50s-monster movie-ish cover to the (*sniff*)final issue of Marvel's Doc Savage b/w magazine experiment. Marvel tried Doc as a color comic, then as a black and white magazine; he would only make one more appearance in a Marvel comic--in an issue of Marvel Two-In-One, of all things(no pun intended)!
After a pin-up by Tom Sutton, and an editorial by John Warner delivering the bad news, we have "The Crimson Plague!" by Doug Moench and Ernie Chan.
One by one, different brilliant scientific minds are kidnapped by a strange glowing tentacled creature. Doc Savage is of course called in to investigate, and he gets even more involved when some of his own team--Monk, Remy, and Ham--are kidnapped also!
Doc travels all over the world on the hunt for his friends and the others, until he breaks his way into a secret hideout(there's always a secret hideout), and does indeed find his friends, under the control of the tentacled creature as well as one of the strangest-looking foes Doc has ever faced:
...yep, its a guy with a giant brain for a hat.
Anyway, Brain Guy here needs other people's big smart brains to turn into energy that will help him control the world. Fool-proof plan!
Once Doc Savage stops laughing(off-panel), he knocks the brain hat off the guy's head. That causes him to lose all common sense, apparently, and he lunges at Doc, who easily moves out of the way, leaving the bad guy to plunge directly into the tentacle monster/ball of energy thingy, killing both of them.
It ends with Doc and his team in the hospital, visiting some of the scientists, and their descriptions of how it felt for this brain creature to be in their heads is strikingly similar to the language Jean-Luc Picard would use on Star Trek: The Next Generation when talking about the Borg. Hmm, did some future Trek writers read this issue growing up?
The issue wraps up with a letters page and two Doc pin-ups, one by Ed Davis and another by Bob Layton and Dick Giordano.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Doc Savage series and Moench's genre-hopping adventures--each issue featuring Doc and his team in a slightly different setting--jungle adventure, globe-hopping spy story, Marvel-style comic book melodrama, and with this issue 50s-era-science-fiction. The art by solid all around, and overall Marvel did pretty well by Lester Dent's creation, I think!
Sometimes you can still find amazing stuff in these old magazines--Marvel did an adaptation of Tommy? What?!? Didn't they learn their lesson from their KISS and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band comics? I have got to go find this book!
(Pause)
...ok, just checked on ebay and the only copy I could find was selling for sixty-two dollars, a bit steep for me right now.
But at some point I simply have got to get my hands on this thing.
Man, comics in the seventies were awesome.
This was just run in the latest issue of The Jack Kirby Collector(#49)--Jack's cover rough for In The Days of the Mob #1. One of the reasons I subscribe to JKC is that they manage to find this amazing stuff.
As you can see, he had most of it pretty well done in his head(no surprise there; this is Jack Kirby we're talking about here), and the finished cover looked pretty close to this--the one exception being the old-timey "Comics" tag at the end of the title, eventually dropped.
