Friday, October 29, 2021

Friday Fun MADHOUSE "Going-Going-Real Gone!"

What if Casper the Friendly Ghost was a middle-aged specter...
 ...encountering live teen "hep cats"?
This tale takes the concept to a literally-surreal level!
BTW, see how many pop-culture references you can understand without Googling them!
The Iger Comics Studio produced this tale for Ajax-Farrell's MadHouse V1N4 (1954), showing teen/young adult hipsters/hepcats encountering ghosts (apparently of middle-aged/older people) who didn't realize their attempts at creating ugly art and terrifying music resulted in cutting-edge popular culture!
When MAD became a surprise hit in 1953 (after the early issues lost money!) other comics publishers were quick to jump onto the bandwagon, eventually bringing out more than a dozen imitations with titles like FLIP, WHACK!, NUTS, EH!, UNSANE!, MADHOUSE/BUGHOUSE, and GET LOST!
These copiers realized that Will Elder’s cluttered “chicken fat” layouts were a major part of MAD’s success, and their pages were also densely-packed with all sorts of outlandish and bizarre gags!
Trivia: While most companies (like Ajax/Farrell) published just a single MAD imitation title, Atlas (the predecessor to Marvel) dove head-first into the fad, with no less than four titles, Snafu, WILD, RIOT, and Crazy!
These “parody comics” are uniquely 1950s catching the popular culture zeitgeist through a dual lens: not only reflecting '50s culture through parody but also being typical examples of that culture...ironically, in a way that MAD wasn't!
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Thursday, October 28, 2021

Reading Room SUPERNATURAL THRILLERS "Headless Horseman Rides Again!" Conclusion

Upstate New York crime lord "Bones" Bullinger murdered reporter Matt Carter to stop the newspaperman's investigations into the underworld.
But Carter's widow, Kim, and his best friend, private eye Duke Durbano, kept the investigation going.
So "Bones" hired NYC hitmen to kill the pair.
The assassins failed (though they don't know it) and "Bones" (in an elaborate disguise) is about to eliminate them...
Written by Gary Friedrich at the same time as he was co-creating the flaming-skulled motorcyclist known as Ghost Rider, this tale from Marvel's Supernatural Thrillers #6 (1973) was left open-ended with the possibility of the Horseman returning as a "Spirit of Vengeance" to deal with other criminals.
Note: 1973-75 featured the appearances of several avenging supernatural characters including Ghost Rider, Son of Satan, Man-Thing, Scarecrow (aka Straw Man), and the return of The Spectre in extremely-gruesome (for the Comics Code era) tales.
Illustrated by penciler George Tuska and inker Jack Abel, both of whom worked in comics during the horror comics era and were quite familiar with how to tell a terrifying tale!
Be Back on Halloween for a special Treat!
(No Trick, we promise!)
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Wednesday, October 27, 2021

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder MISTER MYSTERY COMICS "Brain-Bats of Venus"

For Halloween, we're presenting space opera combined with horror...
...in this wild tale by Golden Age writer/artist legend Basil Wolverton!
From Key Publications' Mister Mystery #7 (1952), one of the best horror/sci-fi tales ever!
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Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Reading Room SUPERNATURAL THRILLERS "Headless Horseman Rides Again!" Part 1

We presented the Washington Irving version of The Headless Horseman HERE!
Marvel did a never-reprinted sequel set in the "present day" almost 50 years ago!
What do they see?
Could it be...?
This book-length story from Marvel's Supernatural Thrillers #6 (1973) was the final one-shot tale from the short-lived comic before N'Kantu the Living Mummy took the book over for the remainder of its' sadly-short run.
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Monday, October 25, 2021

Monday Mars Madness WAR OF THE WORLDS "Part V: End of the Invaders"

(This was Dave Cockrum's presentation piece for the Martians and their tripods, looking decidedly-different from the aliens and war machines from the then-recently cancelled Killraven: Warrior of the Worlds series!)
You know the story.
Guy meets alien!
Alien conquers planet!
Alien suddenly ghosts guy...
Overall, not a bad job by the creatives, eh?
The Marvel Classic Comics series ran 36 issues from 1976 to 1978, the first 12 of which were reprints of the b/w Pendulum Press Now Age Books comic adaptations of literary classics which had been sold directly to schools and libraries.
(Note: Classics Illustrated had ended in 1971, leaving a void in the retail comic market that Marvel attempted to fill.
Sadly, sales of the books after the reprints in 1-12 didn't warrant continuing the ambitious project.
The Direct Sales/Comic Book Shop market was just beginning, and if the project had survived another couple of years, it might have found a successful niche, but the timing was off.)
Like Classics Illustrated, the Marvel adaptations included text pieces about the original authors...
...and other goodies like the Dave Cockrum model sheet seen at the beginning of this post!
The adaptations featuring new material (13-36) have never been reprinted in America.
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