Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
This week in 1980, a near-month-long search came to a climax with the recapture of Hercules, the bear who'd escaped and gone to ground during the filming of a Kleenex advert on a Scottish island.
On the UK album chart, it was time to start singing of army dreamers, breathing, and married temptresses with Russian names, as Kate Bush's third album Never Forever hit the Number One spot.
Amazingly, it was the first album by a female British solo artist to ever top that chart, and did so in style by smashing straight in at Number One.
Meanwhile, Kelly Marie was still tightly gripping the pinnacle of the UK singles chart, with Feels Like I'm in Love.
Spider-Man and Daredevil are still tangling with the Unholy Three who've kidnapped a young girl and are holding her captive on Coney Island.
Am I losing my marbles or did there use to be four of them? Wasn't one of them a frogman? What happened to him? Did he decide to go solo?
If so, I'm not surprised. Why, with the powers of a frog, a man would be near-unbeatable.
In our next strip, we're yet again asked, "What if Spider-Man had stopped the burglar who killed Uncle Ben?"
Apparently, he would have had a successful career in showbusiness.
Spider-Man, that is. Not Uncle Ben.
Nor the burglar.
Elsewhere, Ms Marvel has to fight the Vision if she's to prevent a radioactive truck causing chaos and destruction.
After that, Spidey and the X-Men unite to tackle Morbius.
Then, we're once more confronted with the matter of what would have happened had a spider been bitten by a radioactive human.
And, finally, the Fantastic Four try to discover what's caused a global power blackout.
I think this is the one in which they discover aliens at the North Pole are trying to get home and, by doing so, are inadvertently endangering our world.
Spider-Man finds himself, and others, being sent into a state of paranoid rage by the mechanical machinations of Jonas Harrow.
In a tale drawn by Alfredo Alcala, the Hulk's blundered into the depths of a nuclear power plant and is smashing it to pieces, threatening to plunge the whole place into meltdown.
Rather less destructively, She-Hulk battles to hold together a collapsing suspension bridge, before everyone on it's killed.
In what may be a hallucination, Spider-Woman finds herself trapped in a huge cobweb, as a SHIELD agent threatens to stab her to death.
And, in his second appearance of the issue, Bruce Banner's about to find himself drafted into the Silver Surfer's latest bid to flee our world.
All I can say about this week's book is the late Frank Charlesworth's now taken possession of a Spitfire pilot's corpse, in order to help out at Dunkirk.
In this exciting issue, Luke Skywalker gains a father but loses a hand.
Gullivar Jones is still battling the forces of Martian evil.
Monsters of the Cosmos gives us a Lieber/Reinman tale of giant invaders who flee at the first sign of Earthling resistance, leaving behind equipment which disguises the fact they really were giants, in order to make themselves look less cowardly.
And, finally, the Watcher tells of a man who poisons a rival, in order to make contact with beings on Venus, only, when he gets there, to discover those beings are not what they seem.
Life on Venus? How strangely topical.
Posts
40 comments:
Frog Man as opposed to Leap Frog or, perhaps, the Toad? I really am not so good at keeping Marvel criminals based on amphibians sorted. Who did DD fight around issue 50-ish? I recall a great Colan cover but the Frog may have had 3 fingers?
In Daredevil #10-11 and X-Men #94 there were a team of Ani-men made up of this Unholy Three plus a Frog Man. I'm pretty sure that Frog Man wasn't the same guy as Leapfrog. Maybe the Frightful Four should have had a name change to the Terrible Trio or whatever after Medusa left rather than being so chummy with each other that a fourth member never stuck around for long.
That Marvel Team-Up magazine is reprinting MTUs in a weird order. That Daredevil teamup must be about six issues after the X-Men teamup. And that X-Men teamup had already been reprinted in the U.K., in one of the first Spider-Man issues in landscape format.
Dr.Doom got angry when Frog Man turned his castle (the American franchise) into a Disneyland-style theme park. Dictators hate entrepreneurs - although Thatcher created Arthur Daley figures countrywide (sorry - getting a bit political, there!)
In this week's 'Forces in Combat', at Dunkirk, Frank Charlesworth meets the sailor of a small boat/little ship, called "Captain Mannering" ! A good job it wasn't spelled "Mainwaring" ! American readers may have been unaware of what that surname implied, to British readers, in respect of military competence!
In 'Wacky Weapons', sergeant Mike explains pungii sticks to the readers. No fun if you step on one!
The results of the 'Forces in Combat' vote-in - at last! Shang-chi is hereby replaced by the Golem! Sean will be furious, as Shang-chi had Rudy Nebres art! Out of all the stories, Rom got the most votes. Do we seriously believe Paul Neary counted the votes from hundreds of readers? Maybe I'm just cynical.
In Rom, the story becomes quite involved. The Dire Wraiths, disguised as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, move the body/armour of the villain who was wearing Firefall's armour. We also see how Brandy Clark's boyfriend, Steve Jackson, looks just like Rick Jones (another reason Sean would hate this issue.) Rom then has a flashback to Galador, in which the reader learns he has (had?)a girlfriend who's similar to Shalla-Bal. Back in the present, Bill Mantlo introduces Dr.Rachel Sweet - a villain compared to whom Captain Marvel's Dr.Minerva seems positively angelic. The story ends with the dogs of the Dire Wraiths being unleashed - literally. At the moment they still look like real dogs (M.P. - get behind the sofa!) Next week these dogs transform into something resembling the Ring-wraiths from Bakshi's 'Lord of the Rings', but with powers like the Vision! Rom has his hands full.
Baron Brimstone finally arrives in Machine Man - but no sign of his henchman, Tong - yet! The Rawhide Kid is - very Larry Lieberish. Fury has stereotypical Japanese soldiers shouting, "Banzai!"
'Spider-man & Hulk Weekly' # 393 has a utilities theme. Spidey trails Jonas Harrow's device to a water tower; the Hulk's at a nuclear plant; and the She-Hulk's investigating disappearing Oil at Roxxon, not Exxon! (Just like the Maggia isn't the Mafia!)
The Spidey story's most interesting thing, is a panel in which Byrne draws a building with a sign saying, "Zeck - Kung Fu Instructor." I wonder how many other Marvel guys did martial arts (of course, there was Judo Jim Starlin.)
In the first Hulk story, a boss at the nuclear power plant, named Jenkins (Welsh ancestry?), gets the Hulk to do whatever he wants, by using reverse psychology - "That door is too strong even for you, Hulk" - type of thing. Plus, the Hulk has trouble lifting something that weighs a measly 14 tons.
In the second Hulk story - a Sal Buscema & Bill Mantlo one - Banner saves a girl from a charging bull, before the Silver Surfer is planning to offer him a deal! I remember the following week, the Surfer beat the Hulk, simply by transforming him back to Bruce Banner. I wonder if the Surfer could have beaten the Hulk anyway, as he trashed the Abomination at close quarters. Then again, the Surfer was evenly matched against Thor - and found Spidey more difficult than any of them! Who knows?
Spider-woman is just a boring - not for her - hallucinations story. But at least it's less boring than one of the Hangman's dreary lectures!
Phillip
Sorry - a boss named Jenkins, at the nuclear power plant! Not the Three Miles Jenkins Island!
Phillip
Sorry - the sailor was named "Captain Mannering", not the ship! I seem to be doing a lot of this, tonight!
Phillip
A pedant writes -
There were always only three of the Unholy Three, Steve - they wouldn't have been called the Unholy Three if there were four of them, right? Thats only logical.
They did originally appear with Frog Man - as dangermash points out - in the last of Wally Wood's DD issues (no wonder Stan Lee let him have a writing credit!) but they didn't have a group name then.
Frog Man was back with them when they backed up Count Nefaria in the All-New All-Different X-Men, and as it happens there were five of them at that point, but they were just billed as the Ani-Men.
Even though iirc the fifth one was an ani-woman.
Glad we got that cleared up!
-sean
Rudy Nebres drew Shang Chi? That I'd like to see - his Iron Fist stories in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu looked amazing.
-sean
You're right Sean - I'd forgotten about that insecty woman in X-Men #94
I don't think I'll be able to sleep at night, for worrying about what Frog Man was up to during the time when he left the Unholy Three.
Phillip, thanks for that epic summary of this week's events.
Charlie, DD fought a killer robot in the issues around #50, thanks to the pencils of Barry Smith. It was green but wasn't frog-related. In his time, DD fought both Frog Man and Leapfrog. It was Leapfrog who tended to be drawn by Gene Colan, with Man Frog drawn by Wally Wood.
Dangermash and Sean, thanks for confirming that Frog Man was part of the Ani-Men and I wasn't imagining him.
Was first introduced to the Ani-Men/Unholy 3 in Wally Wood's DD. Cannot remember at all what the plot was, but the battle scenes were good.
Didn't see them again till issues of the "new" X-Men, as Count Nefaria's henchmen. Frog Man had stupid Abomination-style ears on his mask then. I'm unsure if it was the original Frog Man.
Maybe Leap Frog, The Toad, and Frog Man should have formed a team. I can see the cover blurbs now:
"Lo... the Lethal Leapers!"
Or...
"Here come...the Hopping Hellraisers!"
Uhhh... then again, maybe not.
Gulliver Jones was the only reason I'd pick-up copies of Creatures On The Loose. Guess they carried his storyline in their B&W mag Monsters Unleashed, which I never got to read as Marvel full magazines seemed extremely rare on the mag racks in my area.
Pretty funny Gil Kane would draw John Carter after that.
The name "The Unholy Three" seemed to me like a weird name for a trio of crooks in animal suits, (what's unholy about that) but I guess the idea came from an old Tod Browning movie about three carnival performers who embark on a life of crime.
But yeah, they were usually known as the Ani-Men.
It was hard to keep track of those guys. They had a tendency to get killed. Apparently writers viewed them as expendable, which seems to me almost mean-spirited.
Like that Scourge storyline. Why kill off a bunch of characters like that? At least the original Leap-frog got to retire.
I'm still mad about what happened to Stilt-Man.
M.P.
KD- The Hopping Hellraisers??? ROTF LMAO!!!
Having thought at least 2 - 3 seconds about MP suggesting Leap From, Frog Man, and Toad team up with Stilt Man, one would think someone like Gene Colan could have drawn some really outrageous stuff with those 4! I mean, having Stilty looming in the center background, with the three troglodytes up front coming at you... Don't know why but it would work in my mind's eye!
The Enforcers vs. the Ani Men! Who wins?
Phillip - how do you remember all these stories in these weeklies? My impression from you UK fellows is that these things were so chopped up and out of chronological order that it is nigh impossible to really put them in context and recall what was happening?
I'm not doubting... it's just even the stalwarts like Sean, DM, Colin J, and SDC the Man Himself always seem to eventually say... "I can't remember!"
Charlie, I suggested nothing of the sort! That team-up is from your brain, not mine!
I am often misunderstood...
M.P.
Charlie - I got those weeklies out of old cornflake boxes in the garage, where they are stored. Thus, I skimmed through the stories, and provided a quick summary! The thing about the stories being chopped up & out of sequence didn't seem to matter,somehow. I suppose whatever you're used to seems "normal".
Phillip
Wasn't there a frog-based member of Magneto's 2nd Brotherhood of Evil Mutants? The one he launched when he was hiding out in Ka-Zar's Savage Land?
Colin, so far, no one seems to have been able to come up with an alternative explanation as to how the phosphine could have got there, so the chances seem quite high.
KD, in their first DD appearance, weren't the Ani-Men trying to help some crook or other become the mayor, in some way I can't recall?
Then again, were they working for Mr Fear?
Perhaps it was Mr Fear who wanted to become mayor. "Vote for Mr Fear," who could say no?
MP, I agree. "Ani-Men," is definitely a better name for them than, "The Unholy Three."
In DD #10-11 they were working for The Organiser who turns out to be one of the candidates in the mayoral election. I can't remember how the election fits in with whatever the ani men were up to. What I do remember is that the identity of the Organiser was a big mystery and that clues were deliberately dropped into the story that would help us identify him. The clues turned out to be that he was wearing the same ring as one of the candidates. I managed to spot it the first first time I read the story, although I was in my early 30s by then.
Did Marvel ever adopte this clue dropping idea again, though? The closest examples I can think of are:
- Spider--Man/Nova crossover where the murderer was Jason Dean and we were supposed to spot how the murderer victim was clutching six pages of a calendar with the first letters of the months spelling out J-A-S-O-N-D.
- a mystery figure in the shadows In the early ASM #150s that we could have identified as Doc Ock if we spotted how he held a newspaper with two hands while not having to put a bottle down or how he managed to trip someone up from ten yards away.
- later on, lots of clues to Hobgoblin's identity but lots of red herrings too as every writer and artist had different ideas about who he should be.
Definitely nothing to compare to Daredevil #10-11 though.
Pity Mr.Fear wasn't behind this week's(in 1980) Team-up story, too - the story would have gained an added dimension. Several Marvel heroes battle external representations of what they most hate/fear (Jungian shadows, sort of.) In Daredevil's case, this is Mr.Fear(for a man without fear). In fact, to me, Mr.Fear is DD's ultimate antagonist - not Bullseye, Kingpin, or the Owl - and Cranston, the Colan & Palmer Mr.Fear, was the best Mr. Fear.
This week(in 1980)'s DD & Spidey team-up had good & bad points. For a start, the art is mediocre at best. Also, Ape Man snaps Spidey's webbing - in the past, this was usually reserved for Spidey's toughest foes, like the Lizard. Yet, early in the battle, Daredevil (who has no super strength) easily knocks Ape Man out! Admittedly, Ape Man soon revives, ready for the final showdown.
What the story does well is it shows Daredevil's radar sense & hearing determining how he's viewing the fight, and the reactions of his opponents. When written well, Daredevil had a unique fighting style, informed by his radar sense (UK MWOM annual 1979? had a good section on this). To me, Frank Miller ruined DD, when he turned him into just another martial arts fighter - DD lost some of his uniqueness when this happened. The 'gritty realism' stunk too!
Dangermash - those calendar clues in the Spidey & Nova story, with Photon, were lost on me, as I was too young to get it, at the time. Photon said he had the strength of 20 men, so I was trying to work out how this compared with Spidey! But, basically, anyone who looks middle aged, and who wears glasses - Jason Dean, Cranston, Dr.Faustus, etc - is highly likely to be the villain!
Phillip
Phillip! How in the world can you be storing these priceless treasures in old cornflake boxes in a garage??? Are you in the UK? No chance you are in the states? LOL. I'd gladly take a few off your hands!
And why the heck did you eat so much corn flakes?
MP - I don't think you are misunderstood! I suspect you are some sort of transmogrification of The Puppet Master, The Mad Thinker, and The Tinkerer and trying to get me to do something I wouldn't normally do... like put in a full day's work!
If you don't want to put in a full days work Charlie, maybe you should consider trying to fill the forthcoming vacancy for Prime Minister of the UK.
Steve, re: frog based members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants - perhaps you were thinking of Amphibius? Although strictly speaking I believe he was one of the mutates rather than a member of the Brotherhood.
Seems Frog Man was French. Seriously.
I looked him up online to see if he did much while the Unholy Three got up to no good, but no joy. Maybe he wasn't in the US?
Btw, while checking out Frog Man, I found out that the Ape Man, Cat Man and Bird Man from DD #158 (I hope everyone who spent a lot of money to get Miller's first issue enjoyed reading about the Ani-men!) aren't the same Ape Man, Cat Man and Bird Man as the ones from DD #41. And yet their different bosses in those stories - Death-Stalker and the Exterminator - are the same person!
-sean
PS The Ani-men were created by Wally Wood, as was Stilt Man - no wonder he's so highly regarded as a comic creator!
-sean
I hate to say this but Wally Wood's work on DD or superheroes in general never did much for me (loved his work at EC though). Anyone else?
I'd much rather see Colan on DD... any day.
About Venus, I read somewheres recently that life there or possible colonization were acceptable concepts in science fiction until maybe the '60's. I guess that was around the time scientists figured out the planet was uninhabitable by life as we know it.
I can think of a couple examples: Lovecraft wrote a story about a human on a colonization mission running into very nasty alien trap, and in C.C. Beck's original Captain Marvel Dr. Sivana took his family there in a rocket. It was a jungle planet and they were clearing out brush and building huts like the Swiss Family Robinson.
And who can forget Basil Wolverton's Brain Bats from Venus? Not me, I assure you.
When I was a little kid, I remember, I think, seeing a question on Jeopardy or some quiz show about which planet was called "the Earth's twin?" Being crazy about planets and space in general my ears perked up. The answer was Venus; on the basis of size the two planets are almost identical.
This sent my six-year-old brain to spinning. I imagined trees and rivers and grass and maybe farms and towns and who knows what.
M.P.
"The thoughts now coursing through your revived brain are those of a brain bat, to make of you -- a zombie!"
Who indeed could forget that, M.P.? Not me either.
Brian Aldiss edited an anthology at the end of the 60s "Farewell Fantastic Venus" full of old stories and essays about Venus - by Burroughs, CS Lewis and people like that - which had just then become obviously dated as Russian probes finally identified conditions on the planet.
Philip K Dick included colonists on Venus in "The World Jones Made", but he wasn't particularly interested in the scientific plausibility. Funnily enough though, space colonisation in the solar system has made something of a comeback in science fiction over the last couple of decades thanks to ideas about terraforming.
Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312 is partly set on Venus, and well worth reading if you come across a copy.
-sean
* Burroughs - to be clear, thats Edgar Rice, not William S.
Although the latter did write about Venusian time travelling invaders in "Cities of the Red Night".
-sean
I'm gonna check that stuff out, Sean. Man, you either do good research or have a hell of a memory.
Technically speaking, Venus is the final outpost of the Soviet Empire. They sent those Venera probes down there but they didn't last more than an hour or two; the heat and sheer pressure of the atmosphere crumpled 'em like tin cans. But they own it! At least we own Mars and the Moon.
There was also the Ray Harryhausen flick 20 Million Miles to Earth in which a creature hitches a ride on a spacecraft coming back from Venus. On our world it starts to grow, swiftly, from the size of a cat to being big enough to beat up farmers, and finally, big enough to kill an elephant. It finally gets knocked off the top of the Roman Colosseum by a bazooka. Not as cool as being knocked off the Empire State Building.
I wonder if that might not have been the inspiration for the Growing Man.
M.P.
Steve, as I said, I do not recall the plot to the DD/Ani-Men and/or Unholy 3 storyline.
I just remember the fight scenes, and DD cleaning Frog Man's clock, I think in a sewer, then taking his costume and infiltrating there base of operations.
Charlie, While Colan IS and ALWAYS WILL BE the best DD artist, I did enjoy Wood's work also.
Though not as fluid in action sequences as Gentleman Gene, whose segmented-motion panels were a sight to behold, Wally's art was still quite dynamic.
Well M.P., I do read a fair bit and remember all kinds of useless sh*t (although I did look up the Ani-men earlier).
Isn't the the moon - or at least the dark side of it - Chinese now?
Possession is 9/10 of the law, and its been ages since you lot have been there; and last I heard, according to the current US president the moon is part of Mars so it sounds like you won't be going to either for a while yet...
-sean
If Donald Trump decides he wants to go to the Moon or Mars I'm all for it.
...might I suggest Pluto.
M.P.
Charlie - Forty years ago, for tidying up my comics, cereal boxes were convenient, being readily at hand. 'Cornflake box' was used generically - other cereal boxes are implicated in this curious custom. One cereal box itself (Shredded Wheat?) is a historical artifact - it has a scene from 'Octopussy' on it!
M.P. - re Russian Venus probes crushed due to atmospheric pressure & unable to return to Earth. M.P. - Don't you remember your Steve Austin? The Death Probe successfully returned from Venus, giving the Six Million Dollar Man a fight second only to Bigfoot!
I'm embarrassed to say I've never heard of Basil Wolverton - I'll have to look him up.
My father collected Analogs, from the 1950s onwards. The speculation in Analog about the Moon, prior to the 1969 landings, is incredibly uninformed by today's standards. As you say, with Venus, it would be even more so.
Sean - I thought Edgar Rice Burroughs' Venus stories with Carson were rubbish - much worse than the Barsoom series. Possibly you agree.
Phillip
Correctamundo Phillip, I do agree... and its not like the Barsoom series was all that great either.
Although I do like the Carson stories I have in a couple of old DC comics but thats down to Mike Kaluta really, just like Marvel's John Carter was worthwhile because it was drawn by the world-beating team of Gil Kane and Rudy Nebres.
Its Conan syndrome really - I don't much care for Robert E. Howard, but how can anyone dislike the comics by Barry Smith or John Buscema & Alfredo Alcala?
Don't agree with you about Daredevil though - it was miles better once Frank Miller became writer.
-sean
Sean - Here's my take on it. For adults, Burroughs' books are unreadable, for the most part. However, for kids, Burroughs wrote (apart from Carson stories) stories with action & exotic settings. They say, "You shouldn't judge a book by its cover", but that's exactly what kids do. And Edgar Rice Burroughs books' covers had the best artwork going - Boris Vallejo & Neal Adams on Tarzan ( Ballantine Books/Del Rey?), & Michael Whelan for the Barsooms. As a kid, there were several occasions when I tried a new author, solely based on the cover art. In 1982, the fantastic cover art, by David Roe, on Anne McCaffrey's 'Dragon Song' alone sold me the book - I digress!
Conan by Robert E. Howard suffered more during the "King Conan" stuff, as Howard made the large scale battle scenes tedious - he'll not alone in this regard amongst authors of that genre!
As regards Conan in the comics, here's a typical Conan plot:
1.) Conan rescues a slave girl.
2.) They take refuge in a deserted city.
3.) There's a mysterious sleeper/corpse in the city.
4.) The sleeper/corpse comes back to life & runs amok.
5.) Conan kills it & discovers the 'slave girl' is actually a princess in disguise.
6.) The deserted city self-destructs, with Conan & the princess fleeing.
7.) The princess is grateful & offers Conan great riches, titles, etc, but he turns her down.
8.) The end.
I agree Rudy Nebres excelled himself in the John Carter comics. I remember one panel with John Carter lifting Dejah Thoris's seemingly lifeless corpse (she was probably just unconscious), which really conveyed the heaviness of dead weight. I can't remember who Nebres was inking, but it wasn't Kane (possibly Cockrum?) It's crazy Marvel never did an Essential John Carter. Maybe they don't own the rights anymore.
I tend to associate books with memories. My father bought me 'The Gods of Mars' on a family holiday in Malta (I don't remember my brother's book!). We were in a bookshop in Rabat, on a very hot, still day. Rabat, alongside Mdina, Malta's "silent city", is kind of a citadel, on a hill - almost like a Burroughs location, itself! The bookshop, run by some brothers, is/was? well known in Malta. Anyway, it's a special memory I associate with 'The Gods of Mars'!
Phillip, that sounds right about why Burroughs and Howard work better in visual, adapted form.
I'd add that the comics also tend to play down what we might call somewhat dubious social attitudes by... well, I was going to write "by modern standards", but judging from some of what I read in online comment threads (not here thankfully) that might well be wishful thinking on my part.
-sean
Anon, I remember those Tarzan paperbacks. As you said, the covers were amazing, but as a kid I had a hard time getting through them, I think I only read two.
The '60's -'7o's were a golden age for great paperback covers. Who can forget the Ace Conan series? Franzetta and I dunno who else. Now those books I read voraciously.
I admit they are largely formulaic (damsel in distress, super-natural threat etc.) and I wince a bit when I read them now.
Still, I think Howard was a natural story teller and who knows what he might have accomplished had he lived longer.
His knowledge of world history was amazing. I'm a history buff and I majored in it in college (don't ask) and I've often come across things that REH used in his stories.
The Middle Eastern Order of the Assassins or the Cossacks, for example.
He must have had access to a hell of a library, in early 20th century East Texas no less.
Phil, I remember the Venus probe. That was a two-parter as I recall, just like Steve Austin's epic battle with Sasquatch!
That damn Sasquatch was everywhere in the '70's. He needed to be taken down a peg.
He was the reason I wouldn't sleep under a window.
M.P.
MP - you could have saved a ton of money and skipped going to college, to study history, by buying Classics Illustrated comics.
That's where I first learned about Cossacks, when I was around 7 years old. My father thought that if his son must read comics, he should as well try and slip an intellectual one in the mix. I guess it sort of worked: to get him off my back, I did buy the Ben Franklin one, while on vacation in Philadelphia.
Phil, there's no cause to be embarrassed, but if you're unfamiliar with Basil Wolverton, strap on your space seat-belt and get ready for weirdness.
Might I suggest, as a jumping-off-point, "They Crawl by Night?"
"Yaaaahhh! The crabs! The crabs!"
Yes, a bunch of crab-men invading a mental ward after dark might rattle the patients.
M.P.
M.P. - Thanks for the tip. I'll see if "They Crawl by Night" is on kindle, for my bedtime reading (for nice peaceful dreams!) It sounds like something out of Creepshow! Or maybe Abraham Merritt.
As regards Conan, I remember those Frazetta covers, too. In the UK, they were published by 'Sphere' publishing. I read my first 2 of those in 1982. In fact, I did a lot of reading in 1982, as I hated high school so much!
You could be right. Maybe historical aspects were one way in which the Conan books outdid the Conan comics (my memory of the novels is a bit hazy). With the Roy Thomas stories, there were historical bloopers all over the place (not that we'd have noticed, then), so you just had to suspend disbelief. Conan's adventures are supposed to take place in an age before recorded history. Yet in that incredibly long story, "People of the Black Circle", the countries are "Iranistan", "Afghulistan", and you have the "Irakzai" people! In "The Haunters of Castle Crimson", you have a fourteenth century castle, straight out of medieval Europe, yet the Normans didn't even exist in Conan's epoch. In another story, Conan makes reference to "mesmerism" - when Mesmer lived in the nineteenth century. (See, Sean - I can be pedantic, too! ;)
Despite all this, Roy Thomas knew how to tell a story, and was supported by the very best artists in Marvel's stable. My first ever Conan was "The Song of Red Sonya", in Avengers Annual 1978 (actually Christmas 1977.) A Barry Windsor Smith classic.
I've got the Dark Horse collection (a bit like Marvel Essentials) Volume 2, in which Roy Thomas uses variations on that 'sleeper awaking' plot for about 3 different stories! On other occasions, though, he's less formulaic.
Phillip
Post a Comment