Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
After last month's almost melodramatic increase in output; this month, the company settles down a bit and gives us just five books.
But what will those books be?
You've got to hand it to Grimmy. He might dress funny but he takes his job seriously.
But not before he's had the chance to slaughter yet more innocents and guilty, including the odd bear or two.
Having said that, I'm seriously struggling to recall what happens in this issue. I do suspect, however, that he's temporarily reunited with his wife before butting heads, once more, with those pesky aliens.
From what I can recall, the hard-bitten government agent is out for revenge when someone explodes his wife.
The other thing I recall is that, despite the script's Dirty Harry vibe, Howard Nostrand draws the tale in a style more suited to something published by Archie Comics.
And in that issue, we encounter:
The Bog Beast.
Dr. Mercurio's Diary.
Carrion of the Gods.
The Films of Edgar Allan Poe.
Who Toys With Terror!
and
The Staff of Death.
Masterpieces all, I have no doubt.
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14 comments:
Congrats McScotty! 70 years is quite a wait. Nice game!
Targitt. Charlie still has it in a long box. The first Scorpion by Chaykin… Targitt… proof positive Charlie was not totally hooked on men in tights.
Funny you mentioned that Targitt #1 being out of synch Steve. Charlie recalls having similar thoughts while standing at the spinner rack! Being concerned about missing issues, I had assumed i had missed number 1 and was seeng it a month late… so where was #2???
Not sure if you UK guys had the spinner experience but this meant flipping through 4 (?) columns that were 6 (?) comic slots high with several more comics hidden behind each comic showing. Each slot should have been holding only one title. But dip shits like Charle, perhaps short on change, would hide comics in other slots (e.g., hide a Spidey at the back of a slot full of Kamandis) hoping no one else would spot it and thus Charlie could come back and buy it.
Charlie - I used to do a similar thing with CDs in the early 90s. I’d find something I wanted and have to pop out to the ATM to get cash so I’d hide the CD so no-one else could nab it.
I was an adult though, so the behaviour is less excusable.
Targitt - that cover is apparently by Dick Giordano. But does anyone else think it looks bit like Klaus Janson inks?
Back in the day, I bought IRONJAW 2, PHOENIX 2 and TARGITT 1 off the spinner. I’d have bought the second issues of GRIM GHOST and WEIRD TALES OF THE MACABRE if I’d seen them for sale anywhere but alas, I did not.
Then and now, TARGITT 1 was my favorite of this batch. I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first — Howard Nostrand’s light-hearted drawing style seemed an odd fit with the hard-boiled “DIRTY HARRY MEETS DEATH WISH” storyline. But the quirky combo quickly won me over. Nostrand’s bouncy graphics juxtaposed with the explosions and knifings and gun violence worked surprisingly well. If it had been drawn by someone more obviously “realistic” like Gray Morrow, it would have been just fine, but perhaps a bit dry and predictable. As it is, it’s a big ol’ bag of fun. Even with all the nutty issue-by-issue changes to the series (Targitt gets a superhero suit in #2 and acquires actual super-powers in #3) it’s on my short list of favorite Atlas titles.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but Neal Adams’ Ironjaw cover is obviously an homage to Frazetta’s “Rogues in the House” - inspired cover of Lancer’s CONAN, right down to the swirling red cloak. Best thing about issue #2. Pablo Marcos’ art is much more palatable and appropriate than the Sekowsky/Abel art on the first issue, but that’s a pretty low bar. Mike Fleisher’s script is unpleasant as usual, but hey, at least Ironjaw didn’t eat anyone! I didn’t dig this issue much in 1975 and it hasn’t gotten any more appealing on subsequent re-reads over the years.
b.t.
Charlie:
The spinner at Michael’s Liquor Store was kept very tidy. When new books came in, they’d clear out the older books right away. The rack at Smith’s Food King was a bit more unkempt and the one at The Treasury department store was an unruly mess. Well-thumbed books could stay in those crowded racks for literally months before some employee would go through them and toss the older ones out. I remember a STRANGE TALES featuring The Golem that hung around for a LONG time. First time I bought an issue of RIMA at Michael’s Liquor and discovered that I really liked the Redondo art, I recalled that I’d seen an earlier RIMA issue at The Treasury, buried amongst the Archies and Gold Keys and Charltons and lesser DCs and Marvels— rode my bike over there, flipped through their jammed rack and found it (a bit beat-up but just barely “Acceptable”). Before comic book shops became commonplace, the sloppy, over-stuffed Treasury spinner was the closest thing I had to a Back Issue bin.
And yes, I pulled that same trick if I didn’t have enough money on me to get all the titles I wanted. Hiding ‘em behind WONDER WOMAN and BETTY AND VERONICA was my go-to move. Sometimes they were even still there a day or two later when I returned with funds.
b.t.
The thing that bugs me 50 years later is I only saw one other time someone buying at the spnners at either Weiss’s Grocery in Gary, Indiana or the News Agency in Crown Point, Indiana.
Someone was buying comics besides Charlie but who?
Charlie just knew he had to camouflage the desirable ones like Spidey, Avengers, and FF.
I think i even tried hiding some behind Cartoons and Mad Magazines and such because the mag racks were next to the spinners!
BT - my back-issue aources were the drug stores, the places that only carried a handful of comics on display with the magazines.
I distinctly remeber buying Defenders 1 or 2 (it cost $.25) at a drug store in Winthrop Harbor Illinois by my great aunts. NEVER saw it on a spinner anywhere. Why was it in a lonely drug store in a tiny village?
Found that issue of "Iron Jaw" at a flea market a couple years ago. Bought it for the Adams cover; sure enough the cover was the best part of the book.
"Tales of the Spinner Rack" - maybe a good name for a blog? Anyway, like you all I haunted the spinners early on, and yes, hid the occasional goodie. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Like Charlie, I frequented drug stores, whose employees seldom changed their stock. But my biggest spinner rack find was a copy of Giant Size Chillers #1 with Dracula; 2 1/2 years after it was published. Actually found it on a spinner at the small pharmacy adjacent to my Optometrist (had to get my glasses checked, and figured it made sense to look in the shop next door). Incidentally, the book was in like-new condition despite it's lengthy shelf life; apparently the eye doctor's patients didn't include many comic fans...
Redartz:
Your story of finding a “Like New” GIANT-SIZE CHILLERS 1 on a spinner 2 and 1/2 years after publication reminds me of something similar, but not nearly as cool. When I first got into buying comics at good ol’ Michael’s Liquor in 1973, there was a little Mom and Pop Pharmacy directly across the street that was clearly struggling. They had a rack for greeting cards that was mostly empty and a sad little paperback spinner that likewise only had a few books on it, most of them not terribly interesting to me — things like self-help books, maybe a Harlequin romance or western or two. The one sci-fi book was a drab-looking thing called THE BITE OF MONSTERS by Dennis O’Neill (better known to us nerds as “Denny” O’Neill). The cover price was 75c, at a time when most paperbacks of a similar size typically sold for 95c, so I knew it had probably been sitting on that rack for some time. Looking it up online just now, turns out it was published in 1971, two years earlier. A few years later, , I checked back on a whim and Denny’s magnum opus was still on that spinner rack!
I’ve occasionally come upon copies in various used bookstores over the years, have thought about buying it but have never pulled the trigger. Poor little thing…
b.t.
Ah, the spinner rack. Damn I miss those.
God knows how much time I loitered in front of them.
I am unfamiliar with "Weird Tales of the Macabre".
But isn't the title a bit redundant?
Are there tales of the macabre that aren't weird?
Or vice versa?
M.P.
Fun to read that so many of us used to hide comics we wanted but couldn't afford, behind other titles in order to pick them up when wee had the pennies/cents . I had all these Atlas titles at the time and still have Grim Ghost, Iron Jaw and Targitt . I recently picked up a tatty copy of Weird Tales of the Macarbe #2 ( having given my original away years ago) and I had forgotten just how nice a book it was with some lovely art.
Charlie: In UK ( central Scotland at least) we had spinner racks in most newsagents although UK comics were usually presented on the counter along with newspapers.
Red: Oooh Tales of the Spinner Rack" if not already used is a great name for a blog, wish i had used that.
For Atlas fans I will shortly be putting up some pages from Thrilling Adventure Stories on my blog. End of shameless plug.
Well, its the story drawn by John Severin that looks lovely in Weird Tales of the Macabre #2, Paul. Like Russ Heath in Thrilling Adventure Stories #1, he totally out-classed the rest of the mag.
Steve, that is correct about Phoenix being re-united with his missus in the eponymous second issue. But straight away he leaves her, because he has a higher calling - saving the human race. And not just from the aliens, as he goes all messianic (the bit where he walks on the water in New York lays the religious allegory on a bit thick).
-sean
Actually, now I think about it Phoenix also parted the waters in New York so people trapped on a pier could walk to safety. So the allegory was a bit confused really...
Hey, anyone know what was the deal with the Grim Ghost?
He had a fair bit in common - like being of 18th century Irish origin - with the DC character formerly known as the Gay Ghost. I appreciate the latter wasn't renamed tíl the mid-80s, but it seems like there must be some connection there.
And you have to wonder how did the 21st century comic featuring the Atlas character -
https://www.comics.org/issue/814162/
- got away with using the same title.
Phoenix made a bit of a 21st century comeback too -
https://www.comics.org/issue/814765/
Although there is still no Atlas Cinematic Universe yet....
-sean
*get away with using the same title
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