Famous Monsters of Filmland #191 - Warren

March 1983 - The final issue of the legendary Famous Monsters of Filmland!

Like the rest of Warren's line, FMOF went out with a whimper, not a bang--no formal announcement that this was the last issue. Famous Monsters of Filmland, responsible for an entire generation of horror/monster/sci-fi fans getting together and eventually taking over most of popular culture, simply disappeared from the newsstands.

So, without superflous comments from me, here's some of what this final issuse concerned itself with:

There's the usual Captain Company ad section (lots and lots of Star Wars stuff) and then on the inside cover is an ad for the next issue. Kinda cruel, really, since you probably had (at minimum) tens of thousands of kids looking out for this cover, waiting month after month for it to arrive:

...of course, Famous Monsters of Filmland did "return", many years later, but that eventually got so ugly that I'm not sure too many people really think of it the same way they think of the original.

If not for Forry Ackerman and James Warren, who blazed a trail for this kind of material, there would be no Warren Publications, no Creepy, no Vampirella, probably no Marvel b/w magazine line, and certainly no All In Black & White For 75 Cents. Thanks guys.
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Those of you who follow this blog closely might wonder why I've been talking about nothing but final issues lately. I generally don't do theme weeks, so what's with all the doom and gloom in the b/w magazine world?

Well, that's because this is, for the foreseeable future, the final post here at All In Black & White For 75 Cents.

I've put this blog on brief "vacations" before, so I can build up new material to talk about, having exhausted my b/w magazine collection a while back.

And while I would never say this blog will never, ever return (that's the beauty of blogging; things are only as final as you want them to be), I realized events have caused me to have lighten my blog load a little. Frankly, I've overextended myself, both time-wise and money-wise, and it got to the point where this was the only blog of mine that costs me money to produce. I was able to subsidize it for a while, but I knew at some point I'd have to put the brakes on it.

I really thank everyone who followed this blog regularly, and everyone who left a comment or sent me an email saying how much they liked it. It meant a lot to me, to know that this little obsession of mine was striking a chord with other people out there.

I also thank the people who took time to talk to me for the blog--Angelique Trouvere, Chris Ryall, Nick Cuti, and Joe Jusko. It was a total thrill getting to talk to these people, and it made the blog so much better, hearing from people involved in the production of these great magazines.

And who knows? Maybe as I attend comic cons over the next couple of years, I'll start picking up some old Creepys or Savage Sword of Conans again, and eventually they'll pile up high enough that I say to myself, "Hey, I should start scanning those in..."

Until then, Ciao!

The Hulk! #27 - Marvel

June 1981 - The final issue of The Hulk!

Behind a beautiful Joe Jusko cover (I always liked the way Joe rendered the Hulk...he always looked so massive) are the final two stories of the Hulk's b/w adventures.

Unlike most of Marvel's other b/w magazines, though, the editors of The Hulk! announce up front (in an editorial by Ralph Macchio) that this is the last issue. You would think with The Incredible Hulk still on TV, that selling a second Hulk comic book would easy as pie, but Macchio says many retailers still couldn't figure out where to "rack" the magazine, leading to middling sales, so Marvel finally decided to pull the pug.

The first story is "Feudin'" by Lora Byrne, the great Gene Colan, and Dave Simons:

Bruce gets picked up while hitch-hiking, and then runs into trouble (of course) when another hitch-hiker kidnaps the trucker, as part of a larger scam.

Of course, they don't realize someone else in the truck. And when they do, they draw Bruce into their backwoods society, but it all goes wrong when they think Bruce has made a pass at one of the women:

...this story is unusual in that doesn't end with the Hulk destroying everything. Rather, the Hulk is as gentle as he can be here.

Next is a text-piece that is a history of the Hulk by Steven Grant:

The article runs five pages, and near the end, Grant mentions that "The Hulk! was cleared away to make room for other material--namely, Marvel Universe."

Um, what is Marvel Universe?

According to Grant, "Marvel Universe will be a full-color magazine, much like Marvel's Epic Illustrated, featuring a number of Marvel superheroes as well as the Hulk."

Wow, that sounded really cool. I guess MU never got off the ground...that's a shame. I think a more adult-oriented magazine, done in the same style as Epic, but featuring the stars of the Marvel universe, would have been really interesting.

Anyway, The Hulk! has one more story to go, this time by J.M. De Matteis, Colan, and John Tartaglione, where he finds himself in the strange, strange world of...Las Vegas!:

...like most of De Matteis' best work, its a very human-centric story, told with a lot of compassion for its protagonists. Colan's work here under Tartaglione is much more recognizable than it was under Simons in the first story. Gene Colan = awesome.

There's a letters page where Marvel says goodbye, and then we get one last send-off:

The Hulk! (in its earlier incarnation, The Rampaging Hulk) was one of the first b/w magazines I ever bought as a kid, and I guess I can attest to Macchio's statement that newsstands never knew where to place it, because I had a hard time finding it after picking up after first finding it.

That's too bad, because there was a lot of good material in this magazine. What a shame it all had to stop because newsvendors couldn't quite do their job.

Farewell, Jade Giant!

Marvel Super Special #41 - Howard The Duck

Nov. 1986 - The final issue of Marvel Super Special!

After a long, storied run, it's a damn shame that Marvel Super Special went out with an adaptation of...Howard The Duck.

The Howard movie is one of Hollywood's all-time bombs, wrongheaded in both conception and execution. So I don't see the need to pile on here. Instead I'll focus on the comic book adaptation.

The script is by Danny Fingeroth, who really couldn't do too much with what he was given. So it's a pass there.

But the art--pencils and inks--is by the great Kyle Baker, who gives it his all. Baker normally wild, dynamic storytelling style is hampered a bit here by endless talky scenes, but there are traces of his signature style here:

...that's a Kyle Baker chair if I ever saw one!

And he does his best with this icky sequence:

...I know Marvel tackled the "duck sex" question in previous Howard stories, but it seems so much ickier in color.

During the action sequences, there are some spiffy moments:

...I love that last panel, with the soldiers. It looks like a panel from Two-Fisted Tales.

Fingeroth and Baker do their best, but there's only so much one can do when adapting this stink-bomb of a movie. What a shame that it was a homegrown movie disaster that Marvel Super Special wrapped up its solid eight-year run.

Tales of The Zombie #10 - Marvel

March 1975 - The final issue of Tales of the Zombie!

Tales of the Zombie suffered the same sad fate as we saw with Monsters Unleashed!--namely, no mention is made of this being the mag's last issue. TOTZ simply...disappeared.

As if that weren't bad enough, poor Simon Garth--the "zombie" of the mag's title--doesn't even get to appear in the final issue of his own magazine other than than on the (very nice) cover by Earl Norem! Man, what's a zombie gotta do?

The reason for that is mentioned in the editorial by Don McGregor. Apparently, scripter Gerry Conway wrote a 30-page Simon Garth story, which was sent to artist Rico Rival. Somewhere along the way, though, the script ended up in Guam(!), so...no Simon Garth story this time around.

Instead, we do get a Brother Voodoo tale:

...you can always rely on Doug Moench to turn out a great story, and Tony DeZuniga handles the creepy art quite nicely.

The story is full of zombies, witch doctors, beautiful lasses, and some stuff that's inadvertently funny, like when BZ boards a plane:

"...would you like a cocktail, Mr. er, Voodoo?"

The story runs 20 pages, and features lots of slam-bang action, like this very iconic sequence of Brother Voodoo:

Next is "Eye For An Eye, Tooth For A Tooth" by the aforementioned Gerry Conway with art by Virgilio Redondo and Rudy Nebres, featuring zombies and Mr. Scratch himself:

Next is "Malaka's Curse!" by John Warner, Carl Wessler, and Vincente Alcazar:

Alcazar's art here looks smoother, a little more Marvel-ized than it normally did. No inker is listed, but I wonder if someone else didn't have a hand with this story. It ends with a double electrocution, which is always fun.

Tales of the Zombie goes out well, with this final story, "Grave Business", written and drawn by the great Tom Sutton:

Sutton's stuff was always so distinctive, so fun, it makes me want to hunt down all those Charlton horror comics he did work for, since by his own admission (in Comic Book Artist) it was there he was the most unrestrained creatively.

As I said, "Grave Business" is a lot of ghoulish fun, and a nice way to end the issue, and the series.

Adios, Mssrs. Garth and Voodoo!

Monsters Unleashed! #11 - Marvel

April 1975 - The final issue of Monsters Unleashed!

Marvel's obsession with monsters had about run its course (in terms of sales, at least) so by the 11th issue, it had come time to pull the plug on Monsters Unleashed!

Let's see how MU went out:

...this is on the inside cover, and is fairly unusual in that it deals with a recognizable monster, The Creature of the Black Lagoon, a character still fully under the grip of copyright, unlike Dracula, Frankenstein, and assorted mummies.

This piece is drawn by the late, great Dave Cockrum, and I'm happy to see it, because the Creature is my favorite Universal monster.

Marvel must have pulled the plug abruptly, since there is no mention that this is the last issue in either the letters page or the editorial by writer/editor Don McGregor. That has to be really frustrating, finding out your magazine has been canceled out from under you, without the chance to wrap it all up in whatever way the writers and editors saw fit.

Anyway, the first story stars Gabriel, Devil Hunter in "An Angel Felled" by Doug Moench and Sonny Trinidad:

Its a long story--22 pages--dealing with Garbiel exorcising a truly horrid demon, brought to excruciatingly-detailed life by Trinidad. Dark and somber.

Next is "The Empire" by Gerry Conway and Rico Rival:

...a truly goofy, nasty and, yes, fun, tale about evil inside the publishing industry, with an end that is so crazy its inspired, in a "Good Lord! Choke!" EC-kind of way.

Last is the regular team of Don McGregor and Billy Graham bringing us "This Is Valiant One, Signing Out!":

...a tale of scientific experimentation told in a unique style--along with the sequential art by Graham, we have the addition of text, so the piece reads like an old pulp story from Astounding Science Fiction or Weird Tales.

There's some spiffy ads (more than usual) for other Marvel b/w mags, and then...Monsters Unleashed! was no more.

Cracked #212 - Major Magazines

July 1985 - The sort-of final issue of Cracked!

Why do I say "sort of"? Well, we'll get to that in a moment...

Despite the cover image, Cracked does not lampoon then-smash TV hit Magnum P.I. No, instead they satirize another CBS detective series, Simon & Simon:

...does anyone remember this show? I watched a lot of TV as a kid, but I don't think I ever saw more than two minutes of this show. It seemed so bland it never left any sort of impression on my brain.

I think goofing on a show as anemic and inoffensive as Simon & Simon shows that the sources of satire was like a food chain--Mad got to the big stuff first, and Cracked was left with the rest. I mean, were kids really dying to see Simon & Simon parodied? Luckily, it was drawn by John Severin, who could make anything worth looking at.

As it was for every issue, Cracked was a grab bag of disconnected features, though sometimes the writers went outside their comfort zone. Like in this piece, which is a parody of all the new programs available through the miracle of...Cable TV:

"Harrison Ford, shown here in 'Star Wars IV: Please Don't Let Han Die Because I'm Making Too Much Money' has agreed to star in a made-for-cable movie tracing the life of Tatum O'Neal. Ford will play a home computer salesman who once bought a glass of Tang from Tatum's Tang stand when she was 4."

...what the hell does that even mean? Harrison Ford, Tatum O'Neal, Tang? This particular joke is so nonsensical its almost Dada-esque.

Cracked certainly got their money's worth out of John Severin. Here's another feature he illustrated, about imitations of Cracked magazine, like this one, Fool:

...considering this was Cracked magazine, I'm not sure how much justification they had in goofing on other magazines being copycats. Just saying.

There's this one page feature, which stands out because of its unusual look (at least in relation to the rest of the magazine):

...I think this is where Alan Moore got the idea for V For Vendetta from.

Severin does even more work in this issue, like a parody of The Cosby Show, and this feature, about Censors running amok on TV:

...ye gods, those caricatures are spot on. Severin could draw anything.

I was disappointed to see that Cracked's regular "Interviews..." feature does not star Bill Ward pulchritudinous character Nanny Dickering, but a more generic reporter:

...sure, she's called Nanny here, but that ain't Nanny. Where's the 6 foot tall, 38DD, mascaraed sweetie perched on dominatrix stillettos that I came to know and love as a kid?

Too bad, too, since I would've liked thing I saw in Cracked to be Nanny. She helped usher me into adolescence.


Why do I say this was the last issue, when Cracked in fact did keep going, all the way up to issue #346? Well, that's because after this issue, the magazine was owned by a different publisher, shifting from Major Magazines to Globe Communications Corp. (and then again a few years to yet another publisher).

And, for whatever reason, Globe seemed to have a problem distributing the magazine, because it never showed up again in my area. A quick scan of the covers of the magazine published after Globe picked it up produces not a single memory of ever seeing them as they were published.

Cracked continued on, erratically, all the way until 2004(!), but to me, this was the real final issue.

Savage Tales (Vol.2) #8 - Marvel

Dec. 1986 - The final issue of Savage Tales!

Sadly, Marvel's experiment in more adult, non-superhero-related material didn't quite pan out, for after just eight issues, Marvel's second attempt at Savage Tales folded up shop.

Not for lack of trying--indeed, a lot of the material in Savage Tales Mk.2 is good stuff--terse, well-told, drawn by a great group of artists.

And you can see that right off the bat, with this cover by our pal Joe Jusko--usually, when artists draw people falling from some great height, they look like still figures. But Joe here really delivers a sense of movement with our buxom blond ass-kicker, as he falls toward the camera, ready to shoot (and stab, apparently) some ne'er-do-well. Nice job, Joe.

First up is "The Long Ride Home" by Chuck Dixon and the incomparable John Severin.

Usually I post the title page for a story, but there's a sequence featuring a brutal gun battle that Severin executes with perfect elan:

...someone should really collect John Severin's b/w magazine material. Really.

Next is "Rescued by Luck" by Sam Glanzman:

...like Severin, Glanzman didn't romanticize war and combat, instead told adult stories about adults. No Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandoes here.

Next is "Dead Ringer", which opens with one of the more gruesome splash pages you'll see:

..I would not want to be that guy!

By John Arcudi and Vincent Waller, the story only gets more weird and gruesome from there.

Next is "Chindits!" by Wayne Vansant, followed by "The Killing Kind" by Dixon, Mike Docherty, and Armando Gil:

If anything, "Killing" is even more brutal than the previous stories.

Next is "Feud" by the late, great Archie Goodwin and Val Mayerik:

..tt features, among other things, a guy in zoot suit blowing himself up by his own grendade, a murderous thug who looks like Jimmy Olsen, a guy getting splashed with scalding coffee, ending with a woman chopping a man with a meat cleaver. Fun!

Last in this jam-packed issue is a short story (only four pages), "Blood and Ice" by Charles Santino and Val Semeiks, a grim tale of life in the arctic wilderness:

...it has a very grim ending, an appropriate way to wrap up the Savage Tales series, when you think about it.

Unfortunately, Marvel must have canceled the series very abruptly, since no mention is made of this being the last issue on the letters page. Savage Tales just...disappeared.