"Let's just say that me and Super-Hip, we go back."

Above is a page from dead-comic-walking Doom Patrol #20. The Patrol, due to the machinations of the powers that be at Oolong Island, their former base, as well as the hissable Thayer Jost aka Mr. Somebody, have been evicted from their home.

They need transportation back to civilization, and Cliff Steele calls in a favor. And as you can see above, that favor is none other than JBS mascot Tadwallader Jutefruice, aka Super-Hip! You know, the fellow flying in the header at the top of this very blog.

Since this is such a momentous occasion, merely the first in-continuity appearance of Tad's alter-ego since, appropriately enough, the Mento-Elastigirl wedding in the later days of the first DP series, and I wanted to share it so much with everyone...well, I couldn't wait to get the comic and scan it, or download it, so I ganked it from CBR's preview, where I read it first. You all probably know how much I'm in the tank for this comic in the first place...and dropping Super-Hip, even older, fat Elvis-style Super-Hip...well, I for one was completely geeked by it.

Best of all, since Giffen is doing some of the best writing of his career right now, and dare I say in particular on this comic- he has done an unsurprisingly great job of reintroducing him. Many writers, especially those who perpetuate the sour tone that has become de rigeur at DC these days, would have made him a pathetic figure. Pill junkie, perhaps. What if it had been James Robinson? J.T. Krul? Shudder. But Giffen gives us an older Tad, like I said Fat Elvis or Wayne Newton style, living large in Vegas- perfectly logical and very gratifying for someone like me, who loves the character mostly because, well, I thought he was really neat and cool back in 1966.

My friend Jason (@jason1749) Last Name Unknown on Twitter said "Jeez, Giffen's writing that book directly at you now, isn't he?" and given that the sales figures for DP are so low, that may be true- I may be the only one still reading at this point!

Regardless, I thought that this was just far-out, fab, gear and groovy and wanted to share.

Oh, and DC? I beg of you- next time you need cannon fodder for your big multi-issue line-wide crossover doom-and-gloom event, please forget Giffen has done this, OK? Thanks.

The Very Breast of DC.

In typical better late than never fashion, I read the second issue of Zatanna's new series this morning. One thing, or to be more accurate, two things kept jumping out at me at various junctures: Zee's boobies, placed by the artist and/or highlighted by the colorist to be the focal point of the composition. I guess the adolescent faction of the readership just will not be ignored.

Like Seinfeld so famously quipped, "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

...the less said the better.

There it is, guys and dolls...the picture that launched ten thousand (and counting) comments, tweets, and such: the controversial redesign and reboot of Wonder Woman which was announced yesterday, causing the Internet to explode.

In the course of the interview, new writer J.M. Straczynski was quoted as saying:

"What we also haven’t seen before is her new look, the first significant change in her appearance since the character debuted in 1941 (not counting the mod look used briefly in the sixties, about which the less said the better)."

Put aside that he's conveniently forgetting the black and gold biker shorts and jacket look Wondy sported in the 90's, it was the backhanded dis to the Mike Sekowsky-era Wonder Woman run that irritated me. What a cheapjack, unnecessary swipe at a decades-old run, and oh, how brave and bold (see what I did there?) it is to knock a man's work who's kinda dead now and unable to respond.

But it did set me thinking- even though I recently read all of the Emma Peel-era Wondy stories recently thanks to the trade paperback reprints, am I letting my rose-colored memories of my childhood interfere with my objectiveness and common sense (and yes, I realize that I didn't actually read many of those stories until the TPBs came out- work with me here, OK?)?

So whaddaya say that we go back in time, and take a look at a fashion show- specifically, a display of the hideous and kitschy clothes that the de-powered Diana Prince wore under Mr. Sekowsky's tenure, shall we? And these are taken from Wonder Woman #'s 178-193 (1968-1971):



After issue #184, the experiments with color pretty much stopped, and she wore various outfits of white for the rest of the run, when she wasn't in disguise. Editorial must have decided that she needed some kind of costume-like motif, for identification if nothing else. Her Brave & the Bold appearances at around this time featured her in white outfits as well.

Those are some godawful hideous outfits, aren't they. Heaven forbid that anyone would ever look back to that era for inspiration.

Anyway. What do I think about the new outfit and direction? I said most of what I think on Twitter yesterday:

• I've seen worse redesigns, and Wondy is difficult, I'll concede, but that outfit is SO 1993.

• Which is approximately when Lee stopped growing as an artist, come to think of it...

• There were a dozen better Wondy revamps to be found at Project: Rooftop. Just sayin'.

• So, they're going in a "Cougar Town" direction with Wondy, then. That's what the outfit suggests...

Well, let's face it- I wasn't buying Wonder Woman anyway, I've never really been a big fan although there were periods (like the one above, as well as the brief Kanigher/Andru stab at doing a WWII retro style Wondy, as well as Gail Simone's recent arc that brought back DC's version of Beowulf) when I found her interesting, by and large I am quite happy not being all that invested in whatever direction they choose to take her. And even though I've kinda liked some of his recent Brave and the Bold stories, JMS can go eat one as far as I'm concerned. Mr. Hipster Funny Man.

Truth in Advertising.

Written by PAUL DINI • Art and cover by GUILLEM MARCH

Poison Ivy's new job as a research technician may have her working undercover, but that doesn't mean a new threat to Gotham City will stay secret! Dr. Pamela Isley is spotlighted in this special issue of GOTHAM CITY SIRENS.

Got some new posts in the pipeline, including more Thor, so stay tuned for that. But I was looking at the solicitation copy for some DC Comics that came out yesterday, and noticed the above.

Now, maybe I'm crazy, but if you're spotlighting a character in a "special issue", wouldn't it be in everyone's best interests to have that character on the cover? And yes, I see the ivy at the bottom left. That may be a subtle way to suggest said featured character, but does anybody think it's effective? Besides the artist and editor, that is? But wait- perhaps this is suggesting that hey- Ivy's undercover, and she's so undercover that she couldn't be there to pose seductively for the cover artist! Yeah, that's it! Genius! Also, the cover creator credits don't match the solicitation creator credits. Really- WTF is going on at DC these days?

Nitpicky, I know, and I don't even buy this comic. But I wanted to post something, OK?

ETA: d. has the skinny on this in the comments. Still, that's mighty shoddy marketing there.

At long last, the barely anticipated but much referenced (by me, anyway) final installment of



Sorry about taking so long between posts; one thing leads to another, and you know how it goes. Anyways, here's the first part, featuring issues 1 and 2, and the second, featuring issues 3 and 4.

I gotta tell you before we get started, that this fifth issue is one seriously loopy comic book, crammed full of all sorts of freewheeling nuttiness. The obvious inspiration for all this was Erich Von Daniken's hugely-popular-at-the-time Chariots of the Gods, which posited that we were descended from, or created by, extraterrestrial science...and it spawned several sequels and documentaries and so on, with many of these ideas becoming a staple of Science Fiction films, books and TV. Anyway, onward.

When last we left our hero, he and his companions had just engaged in mortal conflict with none other than Dracula himself, or Vlad Tepes the Impaler anyway. After Vladdy Daddy's hash got settled, BW continued on in his quest to find the magic Zumak fruit (in combination with the giant serpent's venom, which he drank in #3. Perhaps together they created the noxious substance known as Zima. But I digress.) that would give him enough strength to defeat Grendel and end the misery at Castle Hrothgar.

The story opens with the company trudging across the desert and coming upon some nicely intact standing stones, as in the ones at Stonehenge. BW even helpfully references this fact. As they speculate about the origins of the weird stones, they're suddenly surprised by the appearance of a sliver-garbed high priestess and her Druid henchmen! Typically, Wulfy attacks but is soon dismayed to find that they have sword-melting and force-beam wielding powers. Still, the band battles on as Unferth seeks a place to hide, but only succeeds in finding a huge spaceship ("...the Gods have descended to Earth!") and the presumed male companion to the Priestess. When he realizes that Beowulf is who they want, he quickly strikes a deal with the extraterrestrial, and sneaks up behind BW, who has managed to defeat one of the "Druids" by taking his sword (which was shown to be dissolved only a page or two earlier, oops) and jamming it between his arms, making a connection and causing his foe, who is now exposed as having some sort of wristband circuitry, to short-circuit. That darn Unferth cold-cocks BW from behind- and when he awakes, he and Nan-zee find themselves on the spaceship, unwilling guests of the spacemen.

The priestess gives the pair a tour of the ship, and provides some convenient exposition: She reveals that they were chosen to capture specimens of Earth's heroes for the scientists of their world, and were set up as gods to the Druids, who help them with their hero-gathering. They are shown the "Chamber of the Sleepers", where their subjects remain frozen for transport to another planet. The priestess also arranges for a little demonstration, as she blasts the area of the stones with a destructive beam, which apparently atomizes everyone- Druids (who have "served their purpose"), Wiglaf, Shaper, Sydriit and Unferth, too. But somehow, the Company has managed to escape unharmed. Unfortunately, before they can confront Unferth about what he did, they're set upon once more and overcome by a mysterious band of strangers. And that's all we will get from the Wulfy's posse this issue.

Back on the ship, the quite understandibly pissed off Beowulf tries to attack the Priestess, stating for the record that nothing will stop him in his quest to get the Zumak fruit- to which the evil spacelady replies that they have already harvested it all, and there is none left! This drives BW into a frenzy, and he breaks loose, kicking Druid ass (some apparently made it to the ship) and destroying large hunks of machinery...and waking the sleepers in the process. They quickly thaw as BW battles on, and he leads them to revolt against their extraterrestrial captors, and dispatching the Priestess as well. You know, killing her. After the dust has settled, one of the sleepers approaches BW and reveals himself to be none other than HERCULES! Herk thanks him for releasing them, then informs him that there is indeed some Zumak left, on the island of Crete. Then, they look through the viewscreen and see that they are flying over ATLANTIS! BW hatches a plan (and really, not much of a plan)- they will forcibly land the ship in the "advanced city" of Atlantis, and make their way from there. But, they are interrupted in their plotting by the "real" alien masters, named Ishtar and En-Lil, who don't appreciate BW mucking up their ship. Wulfy disarms one of them (almost literally- he bites his arm!), and fires upon the controls of the spaceship- and as the aliens strive to regain control, the captives leap out of the burning ship as it hurtles through the sky, over a smoldering volcano, and manage to land on the ground intact...just as Atlantis is racked with tremors and begins its legendary trip to the bottom of the ocean! BW, Nan-zee and Hercules manage to secure a raft and set sail just as the volcano erupts and Atlantis crumbles. They then drift for what we're told is several days, until they are interrupted by none other than the Goddess Athena, who whisks Hercules away to resume his destiny, and leaves BW and Nan in the lurch. Which is where this nutball issue ends. But things get even nuttier next issue!

For this, the final issue, artist Ricardo Villamonte was on hand for inks only as DC's all-purpose artist of the 70's, Ric Estrada, did the pencilling honors. Estrada on his own had a loose, cartoony style which on its own wouldn't have fit this book at all, especially given the fine job his predecessor did in the previous five issues...but fortunately, Villamonte was able to provide finishes and this story's art didn't suffer too much for it, except for the occasional flat pose or odd facial expression. Who can say if this would have just been a fill-in, or if Ricardo already knew the book was dead and was starting another project...we'll never know.

So, as #6 begins, BW and Nan are still adrift on the raft, approaching the island of Crete- but Satan sends a storm which destroys their vessel and almost drowns them in a whirlpool...but because of dumb luck, and the need to fill the next 16 or so pages, the couple survive and are carried ashore by the tide, unconscious. Next, we see what has happened to the rest of the company, who was set upon and captured by unnamed warriors of indistinct nationality. Turns out their captors are, as the helpful caption says, the "Yondo sect of the T'ang (settle down, Beavis) tribe in the land of Pikadon". Unfortunately, they are drawn to look exactly the same as the Hebrew Asher tribe, with flowing robes, turbans and pointy chin-whiskers, so I suppose there was a breakdown in communications there. Wiglaf cooks up a plan- he tells one of the Yondos that the Shaper will grant a request of magic for them if they let them go free. The warrior is agreeable, but the Shaper stubbornly refuses to use his abilities to amuse others. He changes his mind after a bit of friendly persuasion (in the form of armlocks and piling on) from the rest of the company, and stating "Ydnic d'nabob egairram yppah", he turns reality upside down inside the cave where they're standing, and with a command of "Kertrats noem rofmoor erehtsi!" turns it right side up again. This understandibly dismays and frightens the Yondos, who eagerly set Wiglaf, Sydriit, and Unferth free...but insist the Shaper stay with them. Reluctantly, they agree after Shapey reassures them that he will be all right, and "will be in Daneland before (them)", which he proves as he fades away as soon as the company is out of sight, much to the chagrin of the Yondos.
Back now to BW and Nan, as they come to on the beach of an unknown island, which is of course Crete. They realize that either his diety Wyrd or enemy Satan have caused this to happen, but they are determined to press on anyway. As they explore inland, they encounter a aged beggar who calls himself the "Peeper" who offers to lead them to the maze which has the Zumak fruit tree in its center.

Meanwhile, in Hell, Satan is hatching some evil schemes with his new right-hand-man, Dracula- whom you'll recall was taken away by the devil at the end of #4. Grendel's mom overhears their conversation, and runs back to her monstrous son, telling him that he must act quickly or he'll never get his rightful due as heir to Hell. Grendy rationalizes that Satan is afraid of him now, and he won't stand for it- he stalks off, snapping off a stalactite as he advances, just in time to hear Satan instructing Dracula to go to Castle Hrothgar in the form of a bat (one of his new powers) and indulge in a little good old-fashioned bloodletting. Grendel advances...and...

We go back to Beowulf and Nan-zee, as they arrive at the maze with the Peeper. Peeps opens a secret entrance in the wall, and as BW and Nan go inside, he slams it shut, locking them in the maze! It is then revealed that the Peeper is no old beggar at all, but is really the Slave Maid of Satan, who we met back in issue #2! They press on, and encounter the maze's sole occupant- the legendary Minotaur of Crete, who's guarding the Zumak tree and is not in a sociable mood. BW engages him in desperate combat, and barely holds his own, and things go from bad to worse as Satan takes a hand and boosts the Minotaur's strength to superhuman levels. Things are looking grim for BW, to the point where Satan sits on his throne and ponders whether to kill him at that moment or wait until he gets back to Daneland...when suddenly, Grendel strikes and effing stabs Satan with the stalactite, KILLING HIM! What the f-?! Anyway, Grendy proclaims himself the new King of the Underworld, and prepares for Dracula's return.

Meanwhile, robbed of Satan's energy boost, Beowulf rallies against his suddenly weakened and reeling foe and presses the attack until he vanquishes him. He is then free to eat the Zumak fruit, which instantly heals his wounds and boosts his strength to higher levels than ever before, which enables him to break down the maze wall and walk off into the sunset with Nan-Zee, swearing vengeance for his murdered comrade Hondscio and the others.

Which we never got to see, along with any of the other dangling plot threads, because this, friends, is where the saga of DC's version of Beowulf ended, with its abrupt cancellation. In the 30 plus years since the last issue was on the stands, it has remained mostly forgotten and overlooked, except for a small group of fans who read it and enjoyed it back in the day. This series wasn't perfect- sometimes the humor and action-adventure didn't mix as well as you'd like, and sometimes the internal logic of the story wasn't as tight as it could have been. But for my money, it hit a lot more than it missed and at its best was a downright enthralling mix of high spirits and high adventure, and I for one wish it could have had half as many issues as the vastly inferior and inexplicably more popular Warlord did.

Thanks for your patience as I finally batted this out, and by all means let me know what you think!

Good Evening. Permit me to introduce you to...

First, the usual disclaimers. This is a list of horror-and-supernatural themed comics that have made a big impression on me in my longer-than-I-like-to-think-about comics reading experience. I do not intend for this to be a "all-time best" list, nor do I even claim that these are shining examples of works of sequential fiction. Also, I'm sure much of what I'll be writing is already familiar territory for many, so apologies in advance if it gets tedious. I just want to share with the rest of the class some titles over the years that I've grooved on, man. So here goes nothing.

Of course, the first (and in most cases, the best) real horror comics of note, but not necessarily the first ones I was exposed to, were the EC titles such as Tales From the Crypt, Vault of Horror, and others, which saw print in the 50s. Before I was born, believe it or not. I didn't read any of these classic books until I was in my late teens/early 20s and had a friend who had a few of the reprint editions, and they were as good as I had been led to believe. I have never owned one, either in original or reprint format, so I don't really include them on my list, but they're damned good. I especially tended to like those illustrated by Ghastly Graham Ingels, Bernie Krigstein, and the SF stories that Wally Wood drew. That stout-hearted stalwart, the Pop Culture Gadabout, has saved me the trouble of writing more since he has recently posted a nice overview of the line with emphasis on a story illoed by another good one, Johnny Craig. Go here, read, then come back. I won't wait long for you.



The first horror comics I remember being exposed to were the line of B&W magazines published by Warren- Creepy, Eerie, and later the original incarnation of Vampirella, which kinda came late to the party. After all the dust settled from the Wertham trials, and after EC had folded all its horror titles with the advent of the Comics Code, the only place these sort of stories could appear were in the pages of magazines like these, which weren't displayed in the same locale as comic books, nor were they aimed at the same audiences. Actually, the first horror comics I remember reading were probably the seven-or-eight page illustrated adaptations of movies like The Mummy's Hand that appeared in Famous Monsters of Filmland and Monster World, and although I didn't know it then those were Warren's way of testing the waters for a whole magazine of nothing but illustrated horror stories. And oh, boy- what talent they assembled between their covers, especially in the first year of both titles: Archie Goodwin was the editor (and main scriptwriter) in the early days, Frank Frazetta did most of the covers, and the likes of Reed Crandall, EC's Wally Wood, Joe Orlando and Jack Davis, Neal Adams, Steve Ditko, Tom Sutton, Dan Adkins, Gene Colan, Gray Morrow, and my personal favorite Jerry Grandenetti, whose hallucinogenic, expressionistic style just blew me away. Much later the likes of Berni Wrightson and Richard Corben, then all those Filipinos, came along and revitalized the line. The Warren titles were, to me, artist showcases first and foremost- the scripts were all tight and well written, but most were riffs on the EC template. Either way, those Warren magazines really got their hooks in me early on and I spent many an allowance coin on them whenever they came out on the magazine rack at the Houchens Market.

Also coming out at about the same time were the supernatural titles of Gold Key, formerly Dell. Dell had changed over to the Gold Key imprint at roughly about the same time I was aware that there were even such things as comic books, so I don't really remember Dell all that much, but I remember the GK imprint very well. Gold Key comics were also unusual (on Planet Dave) in that they weren't sold on the same racks as DCs or Marvels or even Harveys, but were always found at the local Ben Franklin five and dime store, and nowhere else. Well, OK, also at the Stevenson's five and dime down the street, but they weren't there long. I think Ben Franklin sold Gold Keys exclusively until the early 70s, when they shared spinner rack space with DCs. But I digress. Gold Key didn't have the superstar artist firepower that Warren did, but they had some solid illustrators like Russ Manning, Jack Sparling and Doug Wildey and Gold Key books were often pretty darned entertaining. They published several horror-themed titles, all with lush painted covers and featuring code-approved but no less remarkable tales of terror aimed at kids and teenagers. One story I remember in particular illustrated the legend of Spring-heel Jack, in Ripley's Believe it or Not, I think...really creeped me out, as I recall. I always had at least one GK horror title like Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery or The Twilight Zone around when I was in grade school. If I had the patience and the money I'd track some of these down but have little of either, so I'll just have to get by with my memories.



To be honest, I'm not sure which of the Big Two (who both published horror comics pre-Code, but pretty much ceased after it was introduced) actually got around to doing supernatural comics in the 70s, when the Code relaxed its anti-vampire, zombies, and werewolves restrictions a bit, but I seem to recall Marvel testing the waters with its Morbius, The Living Vampire character in an issue of Spider-Man before DC revamped its House of Mystery/Secrets titles, so I'll go with the House of Ideas first. When the Morbius story went over well, Marvel rush-released its own takes on a Werewolf (By Night, actually not bad when Mike Ploog drew it), Frankenstein's monster (ditto), and the big kahuna of sanguinary doings himself, Dracula. After a shaky beginning, the Tomb of Dracula, as it came to be called, got in a real groove, with writer Marv Wolfman (not the first scripter, but he came aboard very early on) creating and developing a solid supporting cast to interact with Drac, as well as giving the lead a well-developed, if belligerent personality, and stalwart Gene Colan did some of the best work of his career, illustrating (I believe) all 70 issues, plus a story or two in other books at the time. Colan has always drawn his figures and backgrounds as if they were on the verge of dissipating into mist, something which came in very handy when he was given a character that could actually do this. ToD, despite its subject matter, was still a Marvel comic and sometimes listed into melodramatics and compromise (one specific instance, I recall, had Drac encountering an angel, late in the series' run- an angel dressed in a spandex costume, of course), but it was still one of the best things Marvel did in the 70s and is well worth one's time if one cares to invest it. They've finally released that long-awaited Essential edition of the first 25 issues, plus three other Drac appearances, and it's well worth the 15 bucks. Not long after the Morbius issue of Spider-Man, we got two horror anthologies, Tower of Shadows and Chamber of Darkness. Don't remember much, if anything, about CoD, but I'll always remember the lead story in Tower by Jim Steranko which is one of the best pieces of sequential storytelling I've ever seen. Above is the more sedate-by-comparison cover that appeared on the newsstands, then the rejected design (complete with groovy logo) by Steranko colored for the Steranko-Graphic Prince of Darkness one shot which came out a few years ago, then an interior page example. The original title for the tale of greedy heirs and a weird old house was: "Let Them Eat Cake", which was so cool that it came as no surprise to read that Stan didn't like it and somewhere down the line it got re-titled "At the Stroke of Midnight". Zzzz. But the story itself- whoa mama. Steranko was at his graphic storytelling peak then, and this tale was a tour-de-force. You can see a B&W example of one of the pages above.



One other Marvel supernatural book of note was Man-Thing. Another swamp-dwelling creature who was semi-intelligent and whose touch burned those who feared him, as the copywriters kept telling us again and again. At first, he appeared as the all-new lead in a reprint title, Adventures Into Fear, most notable for the first appearance of Howard The Duck. Eventually, they put MT into his own title, and assigned the team of Steve Gerber and, after issue #5, Mike Ploog to do the script and art chores. Gerber's stories tended to be of the "Man-Thing and company encounter weird strangers and menaces in the swamp" variety, but written in his typically quirky style with human interest shadings and Ploog's quirky, Eisner-inspired art brought just the right tone to the proceedings. My favorite of these was the one depicted above, "Night of the Laughing Dead", (a two-parter in #'s 5 and 6) in which MT and his friends encountered a suicidal clown who had come out to the swamp to do the deed, and wind up fighting for his soul with demons from hell. Gerber crafted a touching script out of a very odd premise, and this was the most memorable of their run together, which lasted until issue 11, and included the infamous-for-its-title-and-the-legion-of bad-jokes-it's-inspired Giant-Size Man-Thing #1.

Moving on to DC now, it seems that about the same time Marvel stuck its toe into the horror comics pool, DC followed suit in the late 60s by revamping (no pun intended) its former flagship supernatural titles, House of Mystery and House of Secrets, which had been featuring superhero takes like Eclipso, Dial H for Hero, Prince Ra-Man, and others. Also at about this time they launched a title whose lead had actually been created in the 50s, and had a very short-lived book of his own then, the Phantom Stranger. Early issues consisted of the Stranger, that enigmatic character whose origins were clouded in mystery but could usually be counted on to show up, introduce the story, dispense warnings and advice and bicker with Doctor Terry Thirteen, a skeptical James Randi-type paranormal debunker/investigator who was determined to prove the Stranger was a charlatan. This went on for several issues, until a young writer named Len Wein showed up and, combined with artist Jim Aparo (who did the best art of his career, in my opinion, on this title), ushered in the most creatively fertile period that the character has ever known. Wein gave the Stranger a girlfriend of sorts, a blind psychic named Cassandra Craft, and set him to battle a murderous cult called the Dark Circle, led by a sexy high priestess named Tala with aid from a cynical, morally ambiguous magician named Tannarak, who had appeared several issues back in the run. This was truly PS's golden age, because after Wein and Aparo left, it was back to becoming a glorified horror host (the Rod Serling of comics, some called the character at the time) before the inevitable cancellation. That Wein/Aparo run, though, was some great stuff, and it was issues 14-26, in case you were wondering. Also appearing in the last few W/A books was an interesting back feature, The Spawn of Frankenstein, by Wein and Mike Kaluta, in which Dr. Thirteen gets mixed up with Frankenstein's monster. The episodes that Kaluta drew were really great, and issue #26 was a fun crossover between the Stranger and the SoF, with Aparo interiors and a Kaluta cover.

One reason Wein left the Stranger was so he could focus on DC's latest horror star, the Swamp Thing, who had just earned his own brand new title in the late summer of 1972. This particular run tends to be overshadowed by Alan Moore's brilliant re-imagining of the character some 13 years later, but I've always had a soft spot for its original incarnation, which featured the best artwork of Berni Wrightson's career and some clever reworkings of classic horror-film icons; a Frankenstein monster, here called the Patchwork Man; a werewolf, witches, and so on. In #7 Swampy met Batman in Gotham City, which treated us to Wrightson's lithe version of the Dark Knight, complete with fifty-foot long cape, touched on Lovecraftian territory in #8 when he encountered M'Nagalah, a malignant "old god" in a mine shaft, and so on. After issue #10, Wrightson tired of incessant deadlines and left, along with Wein, who went over to Marvel and began his quick slide to obscurity, and new creators came aboard: David Michelinie (fresh off an underrated run on the Unknown Soldier comic) and Nestor Redondo, who was easily one of the best of the then-new Filipino artists that were prevalent in comics in the mid-70s. They had a tough act to follow, but they often excelled and Swamp Thing was consistently good for a long time, but eventually sales dwindled and the book got cancelled, and then a few years later Alan Moore, Steve Bissette and John Totleben happened. But that's another story.

A sort of wild-card entry into DC's 70s horror stable was the Mike Fleisher/Jim Aparo take on the Golden Age character, The Spectre. After DC had revived the Discarnate Detective in the early 60s, first in one of those JLA/JSA team-ups of yore, then in his own short-lived series in which he was treated as sort of DC's answer to Dr. Strange, the decision was made to give the character a spotlight in one of DC's anthology-type books, Adventure Comics, which had been floundering in sales. Fleisher took the earliest appearances of the Spectre as his inspiration, specifically the instances where the Spectre would kill a man dead in his tracks by giving him a death stare, or pick up a car full of fleeing gangsters and fling it into space, watching it catch on fire as it left the atmosphere. This grim, avenging angel aspect of the character had been pretty much ignored previously, and Fleisher decided to take it and blow it up to imaginative, outlandish, Grand Guignol (or as much so as one could do in a Code-approved comic) levels. Killers disguised as hairdressers? Spec would gesture at a pair of scissors out of one of their pockets, enlarge it to giant size, and cut one of them in two! Trapped kidnapper in a sawmill? Transformed into wood and cut into sections! Fake swami, with crystal ball, ripping people off? Transformed into glass and shattered! This was a gruesome hoot for a while, and this relaunch of the Spectre was quite popular at first...but eventually it became formulaic and stale, and sales dwindled as well, and was eventually replaced in Adventure about a year after it had begun. But these issues were PG rated, gory good fun and Jim Aparo turned in some outstanding art on these as well. They're well worth checking out if you find them, and I'll always remember them fondly.



I think there was a pretty long dry spell for interesting horror-themed books in the late 70s and 80s; other than Moore's (and later, Rick Veitch's not-bad) Swamp Thing, and Gaiman's Sandman of course. Seems like all the independents like Eclipse and Pacific tried their hands at horror anthology books, and most were forgettable. But one character, created by Moore as sort of a gadfly during his Swamp Thing run, soon became a star and eventually got his own title in the late 80s, which helped launch the entire Vertigo line: John Constantine: Hellblazer, still going strong to this day. Ol' JC has had a number of different writers and artists in those one hundred eighty-plus issues, but has always remained a fascinating and charismatic character. Perhaps the best run of this title was Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's long run in the 90s which introduced a lot of great characters, developed the lead in new and interesting ways, and set the tone for their subsequent Preacher series. Another long run by Paul Jenkins and Sean Phillips was outstanding as well. Actually, JC:HB is as good right now as it's been in a long time, with Mike (Lucifer) Carey at the helm. Speaking of Sandman, I gotta mention Carey's excellent Lucifer ongoing series, which is as good as it gets in mainstream comics right now, in my own humble opinion.

Dark Horse Comics' major contribution to the horror comics genre is, of course, Mike Mignola's Hellboy, the always entertaining adventure/horror series featuring a seven-foot demon who gets called "The World's Greatest Paranormal Investigator" and has become, thanks to Mignola' innovative style, a stylistic benchmark for any sort of subsequent supernatural-themed illustrated endeavor. Big Sunny D recently posted a great commentary on this series, and I'll just point you here so you can read it. One of the best things about the Hellboy series, in my opinion, is the organization he works for, the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, aka the BPRD, which is staffed with a fascinating cast of characters and provides a lot of depth for the entire series. I want a BPRD cap, damn it.

Another series I like a lot originally appeared as a backing feature in Hellboy before getting its own one shot a couple of years ago, The MonsterMen by Gary Gianni. Gianni's meticulously retro artwork recaptures the feel of old pulp magazine illustrators more convincingly than anyone since Mike Kaluta, and the concept (which still hasn't been fully explained yet, due to the sporadic nature of MonsterMen appearances), is just downright wiggy. Most of the tales so far revolve around one Saint George, a fellow who dresses in a smoking jacket and wears a medieval armored helmet to help people do battle with the malignant forces of evil. Lotsa fun, and well worth checking out when possible. This series has had a lotta names as well: it was originally called "Gary Gianni's MysteryMen", then was changed for obvious reasons to "Corpus Monstrum", and is now known as "Gary Gianni's MonsterMen". Whatever they call it, I like it.

X-Men saturated Marvel really didn't have much of note coming out in the 90s, unless you count its Ghost Rider book...they attempted several times, especially in the wake of the success of DC's Vertigo imprint, to revive their supernatural stable to no avail. However, in my opinion they did publish one standout title in that period: Warren Ellis and Leo Manco's Hellstorm series, which I included in my 12 comics series everyone should read list. Go here to read what I wrote then.

Finally, I want to mention a couple of Fantagraphics' forays into supernatural comics, especially my personal favorite: Richard Sala's Evil Eye. Sala's made a career out of writing and illustrating oddball murder mysteries and ghost stories, and I really like his quirky, Charles Addams-meets-Nancy Drew style. Eye is his ongoing series, which features a mystery serial Reflections in a Glass Scorpion and the stand-alone exploits of his somewhat enigmatic and waifish Peculia. This book, and all of Sala's work like this, is an acquired taste, I suppose, but I acquired it a long time ago so I'm in for the long haul. Besides, Sala draws, in my twisted opinion, some of the sexiest women I've ever seen. Also from Fantagraphics, and speaking of acquired tastes, is Meat Cake, by performance artist Dame Darcy. Darcy's primitive art style and whimsical, sometimes surreal, Neo-Victorian gothic stories don't appeal to everyone, for sure, but I find them charming. I also get a strong antebellum Southern-style ambiance from them as well. Darcy has been known to do the occasional ghost story as well, in her turn-of-the-previous-century style, and these are always excellent. Plus, if you send her 20 bucks and a copy of your palm, she'll tell your fortune! Where else are you gonna find that in a comic book? The Bros. Hernandez, in both incarnations of their Love and Rockets series, also sometimes dip into the supernatural well, most notably the Mexican legend of La Llorona. Fantagraphics also publishes Charles Burns' Black Hole, a title to which I was initially attracted, but I found it kinda dry and uninvolving after a couple of issues so I moved on. I really like Burns' style, though (especially on those great El Borbah stories), so I might try to buy a collection of this down the road sometime.

I know there are probably a lot of great books I've overlooked, or didn't mention because they just didn't fit somehow (like Dr. Strange, Neilalien) but these are ones that have left the strongest impression on me in the past, so there ya go. Sorry it's taken me so long to finish this; I've had all kinds of stuff going on non-stop around here and it's seriously cut into my time in front of the butterfly curtains...so...thanks for your patience and Happy Halloween!