Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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We may all know what it feels like to have our flesh crawl but do we know how it feels for that organ to actually creep?
We did in February 1973 because it was the month which first unleashed The Creeping Flesh, that film of terror starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee as rival scientists who get more than they bargained for when a mysterious corpse is unearthed.
That film was, of course, brought to us by Tigon, the Hammer-like company which gave us those classic tales of dread Doomwatch, The Blood on Satan's Claw, The Beast in the Cellar, Curse of the Crimson Altar, Witchfinder General, The Blood Beast Terror and, er, Black Beauty.
This is it. After long months of teasing, FOOM #1 hits a letterbox near you!
I could give you a detailed rundown of what issue #1 contains but I refuse to do so. Mostly because I don't know what it contains.
It does, however, have a picture of Stan Lee on the front of it. And that's good enough for me!
Thanks to that triumphal cover, I know the Valkyrie only goes and makes her ever-loving debut!
At least, the Barbara Norriss version of her does, as different incarnations of the character have already appeared in the Hulk and Avengers mags.
In all three cases, however, it's been down to the machinations of the Enchantress.
Why he has to do this, I can't recall.
Granted, it comes purely in the form of reprints from 1966 issues of Strange Tales.
Also, it's destined to last for just five issues before disappearing.
As for the plot, it would appear Nick Fury blasts his way into an underwater base but is trapped by energy waves. Somehow, AIM and androids are also mixed up in all this.
And does so by bringing us nightmares that bear such titles as The Thing that Grew!, The Withered Hand, The Man in the Box! and Poor Mister Watkins. All of them reprinted from the 1950s.
All of this issue's tales are reprinted from 1968's Not Brand Echh #8 but this book won't replicate the success of that mag and will disappear after just three months.
Having said that, her book will only survive for another seven issues before it too folds.
Can Subby convince her to see there's good in the people of Atlantis as well as bad?
And is there actually any good in the people of Atlantis?
More urgently, can he prevent her from blowing the entire place up before we even get the chance to find out?
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24 comments:
"Come on in Namor - the dying's fine!"
Is there some cultural reference I'm missing here? I'm only asking because I remember "Come on in Wasp - the revolution's fine!" from that Avengers women's lib issue (Avengers #83?).
Dangermash:
I think the original saying was, ‘Come on in, the water’s fine!’ I have no idea if it was from a movie or TV show or commercial or what — maybe just some clown freezing his shriveled nuts off in a lake in ‘real life’, trying to lure an unwary pal into following suit.
Steve W :
FWIW, the entire contents of FOOM #1 (and #2 as well) are online at Marvel Editor Tom Brevoort’s blog, if you’d care to check em out. Just google ‘Tom Brevoort Experience FOOM’.
b.t.
Somewhat surprisingly, it was Tigon films that made 'Hannie Caulder', Steve.
I think my favourite of theirs is another you didn't mention, 'Zeta One' -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BMMcyrpoTs
A fascinating glimpse into the collective British cultural consciousness of the time...
Agent of SHIELD #1 has to be the most egregious example of the old Marvel bait and switch - pick it up for the Steranko cover, and find Don Heck inside.
Although I suppose in fairness it isn't one of Jaunty Jim's best.
Even Our Pal Sal did a better job - Defenders #4 seems the obvious choice for cover of the month. Whats not to like about the first (proper) appearance of Val, on a flying horse?
-sean
Sean:
I was thinking that horse was a bit too well-drawn to be Sal’s work (and Val is a bit prettier than Sal’s usual ladies). So I checked the GCD and sure enough, they say it’s big brother John’s pencils, with Giacoia inks — all over a cover rough by young Jim Starlin. But I do agree with you that it’s a nice cover.
I will also totally agree that this is one of Steranko’s weaker covers. But my fave of this batch is Billy Graham’s bombastic HERO FOR HIRE cover.
b.t.
Charlie keeps trying to read Luke Cage 8 while watching the insanity that is this super bowl. I haven’t got past page 3. I can tell you the art by Superstar Billy Graham is OUT OF THIS WORLD!
Also Luke starts out the story beating the crap out of some dudes for several pages and on page 3 he gives us a MOTHERLESS FREAKIN SCUM!!!
Can I get an AMEN???!!!
Charlie keeps trying to read Luke Cage 8 while watching the insanity that is this super bowl. I haven’t got past page 3. I can tell you the art by Superstar Billy Graham is OUT OF THIS WORLD!
Also Luke starts out the story beating the crap out of some dudes for several pages and on page 3 he gives us a MOTHERLESS FREAKIN SCUM!!!
Can I get an AMEN???!!!
Charlie is hirtin big time! While lookin fer HERO FOR HIRE 8 he realized he hadnt put FANTASTIC FOUR 130 back in its bag from a month ago. Sure as shit the tape on the bag snagged the cover. MEDUSA no longer has an abdomen… sniff sniff…
Sean - that bait and switch continues to this day.
In the 80s you’d look at the newsstands and go ‘ooh, nice Sienkiewicz cover!’ but it’d be Luke McDonnell art inside. In the 90s, ‘ooh Bolland!’ etc.
It’s become a major selling point these days - the ‘variant’.
Thats a fair point Matthew - I should really have written 'an egregious example' and maybe specified the '70s.
Although in the case of variants I think the punters are more specifically buying the comic for the cover. Or have I got that wrong? I don't really get the whole variant thing. I understand the logic behind occasional variants, but Marvel have 67 titles out next month (I looked it up the other week, replying to Charlie)... with a total of 229 different covers! Thats just mad.
b.t., I thought that looked a bit too good for Sal Buscema! As you say, the horse in particular is a bit of a giveaway (although considering where he was at this point, I dread to think what it would have looked like if Jim Starlin had done the finished drawing).
Thanks for the correction.
-sean
I first saw that red woman in the pages of Super-Villain Team Up #7, and I did not know what her deal was. I later figured out she was an alien.
Henry Kissinger was in that comic too, as I recall.
At age seven, the whole comic was confusing to me, but at the same time, rather compelling. It was my introduction to both Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner, and if I didn't completely understand what was happening, I was determined to figure it out.
It piqued my curiosity. What more can you ask from a comic book?
One thing I did notice as a kid, was that Namor looked a lot like Mr. Spock. In fact, I think Herb Trimpe drew him that way.
M.P.
You don't recommend #4 then, Matthew?
I was thinking of giving it a miss anyway, and just wait for the book. It was hard to resist a new Miracleman comic (one that wasn't some old reject by Grant Morrison CBE, obviously) but #3 didn't exactly get me excited for more.
Mind you, I always found Gaiman's Miracleman to be a bit like that. He's a competent writer with enough interest in the source material not to f&@# it up - admittedly no mean feat considering where #16 left things - but theres something deeply uninvolving about it. And Mark Buckingham's artwork doesn't help.
-sean
I remember Super-Villain Team-Up #7, M.P.
"Americans! The most double dealing people on Earth!" Namor really did not like Henry Kissinger.
Tamara Rahn didn't do much in the comic, but that was fairly typical of her appearances. Not sure what the point of the character was, but red women who didn't stay around too long seemed to be a thing in 70s comics - Pyra (Kamandi), Volcana Ash, Binary...
What was that all about?
-sean
Re: the whole ‘Cover Bait and Switch’ thing — yeah, as Matthew says up-thread, in the 80s and 90s it was Sienkiewicz and Bolland covers doing a lot of heavy-lifting for comics with mediocre interiors. I confess I fell for it more than once — I’ve got a decent-sized collection of torn-off covers by those two, plus Mike Golden, Kevin Nowlan, Bernie Wrightson, Mike Mignola etc. I’ll still occasionally buy a comic if it has a particularly nice Adam Hughes cover (I have binders full of his CATWOMAN, WONDER WOMANN and FABLES cover runs).
b.t.
Bt, thanks for the FOOM/Tom Brevoort info.
Sean, thanks for the Zeta One trailer. It's a film I was previously unaware of but any sci-fi film that has Charles Hawtrey in it is clearly a work of art.
Thought you might be interested, Steve.
I believe its actually based on a comic strip that appeared in Zeta - a 60s Men Only-type magazine, with a bit of an Oz-style aesthetic (the photo shoots with tits had trippy backdrops) - but I couldn't tell you much else about it.
Matthew, I find Gaiman to be good at what he does - better than most comic book writers - but not quite to my taste a lot of the time.
Miracleman: Golden Age was ok, but it seemed a bit of a coda to the Moore run. Nothing wrong with that - he had a tough act to follow, and didn't embarrass himself - but even without the wait you'd think three issues into his second MM arc things would be more interesting.
Actually, now I think about it, I haven't actually read much by Gaiman since about '92 (I was going to mention 'Norse Gods' but thats an adaptation from his work).
For ages now I've been meaning to try his Eternals... but I guess if I was that keen I'd have done it by now.
-sean
I actually found Miracleman disappointing as soon as the Warrior material ran out. Obviously the post Alan Davis stuff is horribly illustrated and, while I generally like Totleben, his Miraclmean was stodgy and slow (albeit very popular with most readers). It felt very much like each issue of book 3, had the same amount of story as a single 6-page episode in Warrior, but spread (ornately) over 16 pages. I'm guessing the whole future Miracleman framing device wouldn't have been necessary had the thing run its course, monthly, in Warrior.
I'm not a fan of Gaiman and found Golden Age a further exercise in treading water. However, I've quite enjoyed the first four Silver age issues. Buckingham appears t have put in a lot of work re-drawing the art, and it may simply be that I haven't read a new comic in years, and so am enjoying the monthly hit. I wonder how badly they'll stuff up the inevitable movie.
DW
Charlie thinks HERO FOR HIRE #8 lives up to the hype now that he can read it in peace!
Basically two sisters hire Luke to find out who wants to kill their uber-wealthy grandfather who is stricken with polio (iron lung) and only has a week to live. To protect gramps, Luke moves in to gramps's mansion.
Long story short their long-missing brother (LMB) needs to kill gramps before LMB turns 25 in a few days, in order to inherit the estate.
Unbeknownst to anyone, gramp's caretaker is actually LMB.
LMB had turned gramp's collection of armor into radio controlled robots and uses them to attack Luke!
Classic line during this attack when Luke screams at the robots "Duck you suckers! Cage is coming through! You're my meat!"
Also LMB turned off gramps's iron lung so Luke does mouth to mouth to save him.
LUKE CAGE never seems to touch racism directly like FALCON does in Cap America?
Equally interesting is NBC's 2-page add for the new SATURDAY MORNING CARTOON LINEUP! Prominent among the shows are: UNDERDOG, PINK PANTHER, AND JETSONS! Wow... wish I was 11 again!!!!
Matthew-
I have never heard of this "Dickie Dauntless."
It sounds like the stage name for a male stripper.
M.P.
DW, obviously there were problems with Miracleman book 2, but - despite finding Totleben to be a little over-rated (it might have been better to have had someone else pencilling, or at least doing layouts imo) - I really like book 3.
Funny you should think it was too slow moving, because it seemed to me that a lot of stuff (eg the trip to the Qys homeworld, Mike Moran's last switch to MM) happened more quickly than it otherwise would have as Warrior-style episodes, and where it didn't - like the confrontation with Kid Miracleman - the luxury of a full length comic was a plus.
Irrespective of page counts I guess you could say the text heavy flashback narrative reads more slowly than 'real time'. But I kinda liked the return of Moore's purple prose (no doubt Don McGregor was green with envy).
-sean
Charlie, I recall reading a criticism of 70s Luke Cage comics by Jim Owsley (under his pen name Christopher Priest the first regular black writer at Marvel) that the character seemed derived from 'blacksploitation' films rather than any observed reality of African American life.
Which is a fair point. But you could probably say something similar about the white characters, who generally didn't seem to conform to reality that much either?
-sean
Matthew, I like the idea of where MM is headed under Gaiman, at least from what I understand of the intended ending.
But then I also understood that he was going to write two 'books' after Golden Age, whereas now it seems like he's just doing the one, Silver Age. So he needs to pull a rabbit out of the hat pretty soon if he's going to make his run worthwhile.
-sean
It's Clobberin Time!
I Say Thee Nay!
Hulk Smash Puny [Human]!
Suffering Shad!
Motherless Freakin Scum! You're my Meat!
Only one of those at Marvel would represent an ethnic group that actually exists so Owsley would be correct, probably. (I have never seen a blacksploitation film.)
But to this 11 year old, Luke's vocabulary was part of the show. I mean, having grown up in Gary, Indiana, they could have used expressions I actually heard like "I'm going Fk you up, Mr Fker." But that would not have been appropriate, lol.
Seems like DC avoided this problem?
OHHHhhhh… Charlie, you’re talking about Luke Cage Number SIX, not EIGHT. I was so confused….
b.t.
Sean -
Last I heard he was still doing Dark Age at some point…?
God knows when, maybe 2050 or something.
I can’t imagine the storyline we seem to be pursuing right now ramping up enough to come to anything - it seems to be an extended second act preceding some sort of massive Warpsmith / Qys falling-out leading to Bad Things.
I wish Gaiman hadn’t gone small on this. If he’s jumped ahead into a future centuries away to tell his story it might be more interesting. As it is it seems the Golden Age lasted about 10 minutes.
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