Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
If so, you were in paradise in February 1974.
It was, after all, the month in which the world first met the sartorial sensation that is Zardoz.
And it wasn't the only memorable flick to grace our screens, that February.
We also found our first chance to see Blazing Saddles and Amicus' portmanteau horror From Beyond the Grave.
Granted, I'm struggling to remember just which one that latter movie was, as, for me, all Amicus portmanteaus tend to blur into one.
Adventure Into Fear gains a brand new star, as Morbius the living vampire gets his very own strip.
I can reveal little of what happens in this tale but I do know it's brought to us by Mike Friedrich and Paul Gulacy and that it features plenty of flashbacks.
But Morby isn't alone. We're also supplied with a reprint called Midnight in the Wax Museum! which sprang from the minds of Jack Oleck and Richard Doxsee.
I'm including this one purely because the front cover's painted by John Romita and it's not every day you get to see Conan painted by the Jazzy one.
It's another Englehart/Starlin classic, as, sent by Fu Manchu to kill our hero, Midnight makes his debut and his departure all in one tale, thanks to a battle on a construction site.
Someone at Marvel clearly has faith in the selling power of Morbius, because, not content with dominating Adventure Into Fear, he also bags a starring role in Vampire Tales.
We also encounter such tales as The Collection, Don't Try to Outsmart the Devil!, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Satana, Bat's Belfry and - at last - we get to Morbius' tale, a thing called Demon Fire!
It's a comic only a fool wouldn't want, as Marvel's premier sci-fi mag produces its adaptation of A E van Vogt's The Black Destroyer in which an alien gets aboard a spaceship and proceeds to bump off the crew, one by one. I can't help feeling that plot seems familiar from somewhere...
Instead, he's now Luke Cage: Power Man!
Of course, that might not prove such good news for a certain super-villain who already has that name but I'm sure that's a problem which can be dealt with in a future issue.
As for what's dealt with in this issue, that is a matter I can shed no light upon.
Inside, there's The Lurker From the Catacombs which, as I'm sure you already know, is Part 2 of Thomas and Smith's legendary retelling of Red Nails. It's the section in which Conan and Valeria get themselves hired to defend Olmec's half of the citadel from the other half of the citadel.
We're also granted the spectacle of The Crimson Bell, The Fury of the Femizons and three pages of Margaret Brundage's Weird Tales illustrations for Red Nails.
But what is this madness? We then get Part 3 of Thomas and Smith's adaptation of the tale, in which evil's defeated, queens are slaughtered and Conan and Valeria set off to find new treasures to steal.
It does seem strange that Marvel would use up the final two parts in one sitting, rather than saving the conclusion for the next issue.
Frankly, anyone who doesn't love this issue doesn't love fights in construction sites. I would even start to suspect they probably don't even like fights in car parks.
Or does he?
Despite him bossing the front cover, this issue's lead story's actually The Kiss of Death starring Satana, in which a preacher ungallantly tries to have our anti-heroine killed.
It's brought to us by Don McGregor, Rich Buckler and Klaus Janson but, tragically, I can shed no light upon what actually happens in it.
But we don't only get that. There's also They Wait in the Shadows! A tale reprinted from 1956's Journey into Unknown Worlds #47.
Now the world's greatest non-team are in trouble. That's thanks to the return of Xemnu the Titan who's inconveniently taken over a small town!
On the plus side, this would appear to be the issue in which Valkyrie first acquires her sword Dragonfang.
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37 comments:
The hooded reaper, on Vamp Tales # 3's cover, resembles Horror Top Trumps! At first, I thought they were identical, but they most definitely are NOT!
https://www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk/other/horror-top-trumps-and-their-evil-progeny/
My bro' had the pack fronted by Drac, whereas I had the hooded (Grim?) reaper fronted pack!
Phillip
Is Pablo Marcos (I'm one of his few big fans, in these parts!) the most savage hero of all time?
Phillip
Zardoz. Like watching an amateur dramatics class take acid for the first time.
I believe Pablo Marcos is credited inside the mag as the cover’s artist (and that’s clearly his signature on the published cover) but yeah, clearly John Romita was called in to heavily revise it, maybe even did a whole new painting based on Marcos’ original. I don’t know if the original has ever showed up online (possibly no one even photographed it before Jazzy Johnny worked his magic) but I’m sure curious to see what it looked like in its original state.
b.t.
On the subject of cover paintings, I sure love Luis Dominguez’ VAMPIRE TALES cover. He did roughly a dozen or so cover paintings for the Marvel Magazines and I think they’re all really nice. He’s literally underrated - I see a lot of online praise for Boris (of course) and Bob Larkin and Earl Norem but almost none for Dominguez. I think he’s easily as good as the others, and I actually prefer his work to theirs in most respects. He also did scores of effective line art covers for DC’s horror books —in that arena, the cover art of Wrightson, Kaluta and Adams hog the limelight, but again I think Dominguez’ art is unfairly overlooked.
b.t.
Ah, Morbius. Marvel certainly seemed to think they had a winner on their hands, didn’t they. I always kinda
liked him, though in retrospect I think I liked his visual and the basic idea of the character more than the actuality. In practically all of his stories he lacks any genuinely redeeming qualities, and when he’s not whining about how horrible it is to be forced to kill innocent people so he can survive, he’s short-tempered, arrogant and just pain unpleasant. Kind of a dick.
I liked Gulacy’s art in that first color Morbius comic a lot (his first pro’ job, i believe). His later work on Shang-chi was much better, of course, but there’s a youthful exuberance in his earliest comics works that I still find very appealing. Even at this early stage, he’s wearing his Steranko-isms on his sleeve, and I dig it.
I liked the b/w Morbius stories in VAMPIRE TALES back in the day, but I don’t think they hold up very well today. McGregor’s writing on Black Panther and Killraven was much better. Decent Buckler/Janson art on this one, at least.
b.t.
Steve, I’m guessing Roy probably ran the last two chunks of “Red Nails” in one issue because SAVGE TALES had always seemed to be on the cusp of being cancelled, and since he had the last chapter in hand, he probably thought he’d better get it all in print while he could. Remember, this was still months before SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN was a gleam in anyone’s eye, there was no guarantee that Part 3 would ever see the light of day if SAVAGE TALES kicked the bucket.
b.t.
The country singer Toby Keith has died aged 62. I loved his song RED SOLO CUP from 2011.
Red solo cup
I'll fill you up
Let's have a pardee...
Personally I think HERO FOR HIRE is a much cooler title than the uber-generic POWER-MAN but hey, they got six more years of publication after the title-change, so what do I know.
That Satana story in VAMPIRE TALES is so pretty , it makes you wish Esteban Maroto had done more work for the Marvel Monster Mags.
Hey, Morbius fans: try saying ‘FRIGHT-FRAUGHT’ five times, fast!
b.t.
Charlie's been jonesing for a Kane nostril shot. Thank for posting Unknown Worlds Steve! I shall sleep soundly!
STEVE –
Thanks for the Power Man shout out! Tbh, Marvel giving Brother Luke a “commercial” name like Power Man killed a lot of the emotional connection I had to Lucas given I was growing up in Gary, Indiana, when he first came out.
I mean Hero for Hire is very unconventional for a title. Actually Luke's name was simply Luke, he didn't have a superhero name until Power Man.
Charlie did grab a few not featured here (didn’t we all?)notably
Shadow #3 with a really cool Kaluta cover inked by Wrightson per “Mike.” It really is a departure from the typical comic book cover. Kind of like Impressionism hits comics?
I know it has a cover date of March but Mike has it as Feb-March. So… Got to give it a plug for next month’s 50-years-ago column!
Steve, I'm not sure why anyone would complain about getting two parts of 'Red Nails' drawn by Barry Smith instead of just one..?
b.t., Savage Tales #3 does actually have an editorial in which Houseroy explains that its probably the last issue, as initial sales reports for #2 were low (as it happened, they turned out to be misleading according to #4, which came out a few months later). Its an interesting window into how the comic biz worked at the time.
I'm afraid I have to differ on Fear #20, as Paul Gulacy's first work is not good. Sure, he was trying, but his skills fell short of his ambition. In fairness, that was also true of Steranko really... but Gulacy's figures - especially the dramatic perspective shots - were worse.
Full marks to whoever it was - Roy Thomas probably? - that saw something in his work worth encouraging though.
The formulaic writing didn't help either. Although the Morbius series did get a lot better starting with the following issue, when new writer Steve Gerber dropped the 'Marvel horror' approach in favour of a freewheeling mix of fantasy and science-fiction about alien geneticists, wizards, mutants, other dimensional barbarians, and weird cat people. Drawn by Gil Kane in #21, followed by Luis Dominguez (we can agree on him) and finally a P-less pre-Killraven Craig Russell. Nice.
Gotta say I found Dauntless Don's more generic Morbius in Vampire Tales a bit of a hard slog.
-sean
PS Steve, the Savage Tales piece about the original 'Red Nails' reproduces Margaret Brundage's Weird Tales cover, but the rest of the illustrations - b&w líne drawings - are by a fella called HD Delay (actually, Harold de Lay).
Being from 1936, they show a Conan with short(ish) swept back hair, wearing baggy shorts. How fashions in barbarism change, eh?
It's followed by a feature you didn't mention - The Once And Future Talon, by none other than the one and only Jim Steranko. In which Jaunty Jim explains how he developed the greatest fantasy concept ever - the Talon Saga - and a whole new approach to visual storytelling to convey the broad sweep of its narrative power.
Only he got sidetracked by writing a multi-volume History of Comics, and just drew a pic of his Talon character instead, which he printed up as a poster (cheques to Jaunty Jim at...)
Theres also a Red Sonja, She-Devil of the Turanian Steppes feature, which is basically another glorified ad. But you do get a rather stylish double spread of the Sonj by Estaban Maroto out of it, which I think must be the first published sighting of her metal bikini.
And a bit of Roy Thomas text promising more to come soon, for all lovers of epic fantasy and feminine pulchritude (his words, not mine).
-sean
If anyone's interested - Charlie? - there was an piece about the French comic biz in the Grauniad yesterday.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/06/france-comic-book-tradition-is-hitting-new-heights
They had the Angouleme festival last week, and what has the UK have?
Yesterday it was PopCon '24 - guests: Liz Truss, Jacob Rees-Mogg
I dread to think what the cosplayers were like...
-sean
*and what has the UK had?
Apologies for some poor editing there. Duh.
-sean
To any Zardoz nay-sayers, I say thee PHOOEY!
'Tis a topsa piece of cinema, make no mistake.
Giant stone heads flying through the air - a very powerful image!
Phillip
Today is exactly 25 years since Blondie's MARIA reached #1 in the UK - Blondie's final UK chart-topper.
She looks like she don't care
She's walkin' on imported air
Mareeeeea...
You know what people are like, B Smith - l bet the naysayers are the kind of people who make out John Boorman's next film Exorcist 2: The Heretic wasn't a masterpiece of world cinema.
Phillip, the gun is good, the penis bad.
-sean
I didn't watch the film much beyond the giant, flying stone head, Sean. Nevertheless, I'll take your word for it.
Phillip
Actually Phillip, I got that slightly wrong. The penis is evil -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gavlcbunY00
-sean
Sean, I think two of McGregor’s Morbius stories are above average — ‘Lighthouse of the Possessed’ in VT 4 and ‘Where IS Gallows Bend?’ In VT 7, both drawn by Tom Sutton. I consider ‘Lighthouse’ to be one of Sutton’s best art jobs ever. Morbius never looked more hideous.
b.t.
It does get better once Tom Sutton is on board, b.t. The series still seems to lack the aspects of Dauntless Don's writing that make his better work worthwhile though.
Have you - or anyone from the Steve Does Comics massive - actually seen the Morbius film? Any thoughts?
The Spidey enthusiasts round these parts have to be excited about the Sony Spider-Man Universe, right? You know, with Madame Web incoming, and Kraven the Hunter to follow. Not to mention a third(!) Venom flick...
-sean
60 years ago todY the Beatles landed in New York. And the rest is history….
Funny thing is their big draw here was their hair style initially. That and putting out 9 albums in two years here.
Times have changed, gents. Some days i would perhaps (naively) prefer the simplicity of 60
Years ago at least for n terms of music and comics and TV and movies.
Sean- I have printed the Guardian article on French comics! The French do have a certain je ne sais quoi when it comes to comics. Lol. Thanks amigo! Charles 47
And Sean — no, I haven’t seen the Morbius movie , nor any of the Sony ‘Spiderverse’ movies. My interest level is zero.
Agreed that even those two Morbius stories drawn by Sutton don’t compare to McGregor’s best work on Black Panther and Killraven . You can sure tell they came from his typewriter though! The captions are so overly verbose and overwrought , so packed with tortured similies and metaphors, and just …. so many WORDS.
b.t.
b.t., I'm tempted to reply that the purple prose isn't one of the more worthwhile aspects of McGregor's writing...
But tbh when I was a kid I was much more impressed by that kind of thing. Even so, back in the day when I still thought Dauntless Don could do no wrong his Morbius puzzled me. How come they weren't really great, like Killraven or the Black Panther? I felt so let down!
A quick aside: I read a fair bit of that Morbius series in a now largely forgotten late 70s British mag called Castle of Horror (they must have licenced the b&w horror stuff that Marvel UK presumably felt it inappropriate to reprint).
Seeing as (deservedly) obscure horror mags are a bit of a thing on this blog - I'm actually a bit surprised Steve hasn't done a post on recalling an issue yet (; - here's the GCD entry for the one with that Luis Dominguez cover flipped from Vampire Tales #3 -
https://www.comics.org/issue/1457575/
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, McGregor's writing on Morbius... it actually reminds me of the stuff he did for Warren, much of which isn't really that good either. I wonder if that's how he approached work for Vampire Tales? A bit like, say, Alan Moore doing Spawn - its obviously the same guy, but just doing the job and not much else.
The Marvel b&w mags - early on anyway - did seem like a bit of a go at competing with Warren.
-sean
*How come it wasn't really great
One day I will get the hang of editing a comment properly.
-sean
Sean, I bought the Morbius film on DVD. It wasn't as bad as some of the reviews gave it, but it certainly wasn't that good either .It was one of those films that lost its way after about 20 mins.
The Tom Sutton illustrated "Where the Gallows bend" tale gave me the creeps when I first read it, especially the splash page of the hung man .
Is no one a fan of Frank Robbins Morbius? ...... i'll get me coat.
Sean, thanks for that Castle of Horror link. The book vaguely rings a bell but I'm not sure why.
b.t.'s distinction between Giacoia & Esposito's still resonating in the 'air'. It's SDC's sharpest observation since M.P. identified Conway's exposition deficit (usually), ages ago. I feel a deep dive is necessary, to explore Giacoia/Esposito further, at some point.
Sean - My brother praised Morbius, but the specifics he gave, I've forgotten. I'll ask him again, on Sunday (weekly phone catch-up.)
Phillip
To settle the Giacoia v Esposito thing perhaps one of Steve Does Comics' legendary polls is called for, Phillip.
Steve, possibly Castle of Horror rings a bell because you're thinking of Halls of Horror, a title the House of Hammer mag used for a while?
Tbh, I had it my head that that was where the Morbius stories had been reprinted, but realized it actually seemed pretty unlikely. So I double checked online before commenting, to make sure I actually knew what I was going on about (there's a first time for everything!)
Or, you know, maybe you read an issue of Castle of Horror in the 70s but completely forgot about its existence until the internet reminded you. Does that seem like the kind of thing that could happen...?
-sean
McScotty:
Why yes, I did like Frank Robbins’ Morbius stuff. Not immediately, mind you, it took a few issues to ‘grow on me’.I even own an original from his first issue , with the little girl Tara transforming into her whip-wielding grown-up self (inked by everyone’s new fave, Frank Giacoia). One of the later issues is inked by the legendary Stan Drake under the pseudonym ‘D.Fraser’ and its really nice.
One last note about Esposito — he also inked this month’s THOR (and several subsequent issues too) over John Buscema’s pencils and they actually look pretty good.
b.t.
See if I can finish this before Steve posts a new topic…
A few other notable comics published that month:
BRAVE AND THE BOLD 111 — the famous Batman / Joker team-up illustrated by the great Jim Aparo
KAMANDI 14 — the awesome Klik-klak story, Kirby’s post-apocalyptic take on OLD YELLER. It still chokes me up every time I read it. Whener someone says Kirby was a lousy writer, I want to jam this in their face and yell ‘SHUT UP! SHUT UP!’ just like Kamandi sobbing over Klik-klak’s dead body.
KULL THÉ DESTROYER 12 — Ploog inked by Our Pal Sal and an uncredited John Romita.
TOMB OF DRACULA 17 — first issue if TOD I ever bought and oh buy did I love it.
WEIRD MYSTERY TALES 10 — beneath an excellent Dominguez cover is a nifty Sword and Sorcery story by Gil Kane that I’m pretty sure is inked by Tom Sutton but he’s not credited for some reason.
WEREWOLF BY NIGHT 14 — Ploog again, ‘nuff said. Just look at that cover — WOW.
b.t.
Forgive all the typos and mis-spellings, I was typing REALLY fast.
I hate to be That Guy, but holy crap, comics were great back then. Steve, your site is awesome, it reminds me of how amazing it was to be a brand new comics fan discovering all these treasures on the spinner racks. Thanks, buddy!
b.t.
Thanks, Bt. :)
Sean, I've taken a look at the Halls of Horror covers, online, and I've seen them before but I've definitely never read any of the issues.
I guess we all recognize covers of comics we never read, Steve.
b.t., So, once you got used to Frank Robbins on Morbius, what did you make of the next artist, when it switched to er... Don Heck?
Not to mention writer Bill Mantlo (maybe Dauntless Don wasn't that bad after all...)
-sean
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