Monday, October 30, 2023

Macabre Monday Madness THE SPECTRE & THE FLASH "Phantom Flash, Cosmic Traitor" Part 3

We Have Already Seen...

Cover art penciled by Flash artist Carmine Infantino and inked by Spectre artist Murphy Anderson
...while visiting Earth-Two, The Flash is possessed by the ghost of World War I fighter pilot Luther Jarvis, who feels his comrades who survived the war allowed him to die due to their cowardice!
Using the Scarlet Speedster as a cats-paw to give him an davantage in a dogfight, the ghostly pilot pits the mind-controlled Flash Against The Spectre!

Next Week: Back to Our Usual Monday Madness!

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(which reprints all The Spectre's Silver and Bronze Age Appearances...in color, which the black-and-white Showcase volume doesn't do!)
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Sunday, October 29, 2023

Halloween is a Month-Long Party at RetroBlogs!

Art by the late, great, Dave Stevens!

Every RetroBlog Posted New Halloween/Horror Material During October, and Almost All are Posting New Entries on Halloween Itself!
Don't Miss Out on the Fiendish Fun!!!
(In Alphabetical Order)
Atomic Kommie Comics
(That's this blog, in case you've forgotten!)
Crime & Punishment
Hero Histories
(Part of the Countdown to Hallowen 2023 Blogathon)
Heroines!
Horror Comics of the 1950s
(Part of the Countdown to Hallowen 2023 Blogathon)
Medical Comics & Stories
(Part of the Countdown to Hallowen 2023 Blogathon)
Not Safe For Work Comics
Pop Art Martial Arts
Secret Sanctum of Captain Video
Seduction of the Innocent!
True Love Comics Tales
Western Comics Adventures
War: Past, Present & Future
Wow!
No Wonder I'm Exhausted!

Saturday, October 28, 2023

Spooky Space Force Saturdays STRANGE GALAXY "Space Monsters"

Art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito
...except, it both was and wasn't the final tale!
The script was used, almost verbatim (but with a renamed lead character), for a new story in the first issue of the short-lived 1970s b/w magazine Strange Galaxies!
All the other names, including the female lead, Maeve, and various locations, remained the same...
In fact, all the stories in Eerie Publications' Strange Galaxy V1N8 (which was the first issue), were re-dos of earlier stories from various defunct comic companies!
I guess they figured that no one would remember the original 1950s tales in 1971...
The rewriter/adaptor is unknown, but could be editor Carl Burgos, who created, among others, the Golden Age Human Torch and the first Silver Age Captain Marvel (the android who said "Split"!).
The stories don't have individual art credits, but according to the Weird World of Eerie Publications by Mike Howlett, the illustrator is one of the artists who were regular contiburors to the Eerie Publications line, Oscar Fraga.
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Friday, October 27, 2023

Frightening Friday Fun CHILLING ADVENTURES IN SORCERY AS TOLD BY SABRINA "Boy Who Cried Vampire"

The now-cancelled CW series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was not the first time the "Teenage Witch" did actual horror...
... in 1972, she hosted her own series of horror stories told in the Archie "vein" as you can see in this never-reprinted (in color) terror-tale...
Now there's an ambiguous ending if ever I heard one...
In 1971, the Comics Code Authority loosened its' regulations regarding monsters, allowing limited use of "classic" creatures including vampires, werewolves, and zombies.
While DC and Marvel went monster-happy, unleashing new strips and several new titles, Archie Comics' response was this book with an unusual combination of horror writing and Archie house-style art, which tended to conflict with the theme of the stories!
To be fair, writer Frank Doyle, penciler Dan DeCarlo, and inker Rudy Lapick tried their best with this tale from Chilling Adventures in Sorcery as Told by Sabrina #1 (1972), but it just doesn't work.
After two issues, the series was revamped (pun intended) into a more-traditional horror title with non-cartoony art by Gray Morrow and associates, dropping Sabrina as the hostess.
It survived nine more issues.
Speaking of survival, reruns of the TV version of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina can be seen on Netflix!

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(which reprints this story...but in black-and-white) 

Thursday, October 26, 2023

Reading Room GHOST COMICS "Face in the Shroud"

It's been a while, boy fiends and ghoul friends...
..but during the season when ghosts and goblins dominate pop culture, we felt it was time to rise up out of the coffin and tell a sordid story!
As horror stories go, this tale from Fiction House's Ghost Comics #8 (1953) is fairly mild, but the art by the underrated Bill Benulis and Jack Abel has a couple of kool "camera angles" and storytelling tricks that other artists of the period like Alex Toth and Ross Andru were also experimenting with.
The writer's name has been lost to the mists of time.
BTW, this tale was recently-reprinted (for the first time in over 60 years) in IDW's Haunted Horror, but was oddly-attributed to Don Heck, even though the story is signed by Benulis and Abel in the first panel!

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