Saturday, October 25, 2014

Reading Room: BLACK CAY MYSTERY "Halloween Nightmare"

Here's a re-presentation of a topical terror tale about Halloween from Harvey's Black Cat Mystery #34 (1952).
Penciled by Many Stallman and inked by John Giunta.
The writer is unknown.
Unlike many other Harvey Comics horror stories, when this one was reprinted in Black Cat #52 (two years later), nothing was altered!
Most of the horror-era tales were literally butchered when they were reprinted, as you can see HERE and HERE.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Reading Room SPACEHAWK "Pirates of Uranus"

If there was ever a space adventurer who experienced Halloween ever day of his career, it was...
...with aliens and monsters that even today's special effects would be hard-pressed to match!
If this story from Novelty's Target Comics #10 (1940) looks a little odd, there's a good reason for it.
Archival Press released a SpaceHawk trade paperback in 1978.
Though the book itself featured b/w line art interiors and a color cover, Archival made a deal with Marvel to provide Epic Illustrated a SpaceHawk story in color to accompany an article by Ron Goulart about Basil Wolvertont.
Unfortunately, Epic only gave them 8 pages, so the 10-page story had to be edited to fit the page count.
Be here Monday to see the original longer version of the story.
BTW, the hand-coloring, which was photographically-color separated (they didn't have scanners then), was done by Rick Veitch.
It has a wonderful "organic" feel computer coloring just can't match.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Cover Gallery: DRACULA CHRONICLES

When Marvel reintroduced Dracula as a major character in the mid 1990s...
 ...Topps took one last shot at the character, reprinting their poor-selling 1992 Vlad the Impaler mini-series (which we've been re-presenting on this blog for the past couple of weeks) as Dracula Chronicles with new covers by Joseph Linsner.
It didn't sell any better, and with the phenomenal success of X-Files, Dracula was dropped from Topps' roster.
BTW, for other comic book versions of the legendary vampire, check out...
and

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Reading Room VLAD THE IMPALER "To Rise Again" Conclusion

When Last We Left Vlad the Impaler, he was dead for over a century...
...but, as the cover for Topps' Vlad the Impaler #3 (1993) shows, that's about to change...
It's kool how writer Roy Thomas and artist Esteban Maroto explain why the "historical" Dracula, who's still in his tomb, looks different from the many "vampiric" pop culture incarnations!
BTW, for other comic book versions of the legendary vampire, check out...
and

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Reading Room VLAD THE IMPALER "To Rise Again" Part 2

...but, he does not know the fearful fate that awaits him on the battlefield!
Tomorrow:
We jump ahead a couple of centuries to discover...
Dracula is (Un)Dead!
BTW, for other comic book versions of the legendary vampire, check out...
and