Monday, October 4, 2021

Heroic Halloween in Rutland THE BEAST "...and the Juggernaut Will Get You...if You Don't Watch Out!" Part 1

We presented some basic info HERE, so read that before you begin this trilogy of terror!
Don't worry, there'll also be footnotes as we go along...

The three real-world comic writers we see here are Steve Englehart (balding blonde), Gerry Conway (long brown hair) and Len Wein (goatee), as well as Len's wife Glynis (whose real-life counterpart colored this story)!

In-joke: the real-life Steve Englehart had been writing The Beast's strip for the last five issues (as well as this story), so it's not unreasonable for "Marvel Universe Steve" to find Hank McCoy "familiar"!




Glynis is dressed as DC's Supergirl, which figures into the storyline in the other tales in the trilogy!
Also Marvel had to modify her costume insignia from "S" to "G" for legal reasons.


And on that ominous note, we end the first part of this re-presentation!
The explanation for Glynis' disappearance is in another of the stories in this trilogy.
Written by Steve Englehart, panciled by Bob Brown, and inked by Frank McLaughlin (with caricatures of the real-life comics creators by Marie Severin), this tale will conclude...
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Friday, October 1, 2021

Rutland Vermont...Where Fiction and Reality Meet...on Halloween!

Our contribution to the Annual Countdown to Halloween blogathon features Rutland, Vermont...a town where, for decades, the Halloween parade featured participants dressed as superheroes!
But, beginning in 1970, comic books began a Halloween tradition of their characters visiting the town to battle various threats both super-scientific and supernatural!
First came Marvel's Mighty Avengers...
...followed in 1971 by DC's The Batman and Robin, the Teen Wonder...
...as well as Marvel's Defenders...
...in unrelated stories, though all the characters were at the same parade!
Then, in 1972, three comic writers, Len Wein, Steve Englehart, and Gerry Conway did a three-title crossover featuring characters in a Rashamon-like story involving characters telling the same events at the Rutland Halloween Parade from different points of view!
Now here's the kool part...the books were from different comics companies, but they all told the same story with overlapping characters, as well as the writers themselves, appearing in all three books!
Though it doesn't matter what order you read them in, we're re-presenting them in this order...
Marvel's Amazing Adventures #16, featuring the X-Men's own blue-furred Beast on October 4th-5th!
DC's Justice League of America #103 on October 11th-12th!
Marvel's Mighty Thor #207 on October 18th-19th!
Plus a surprise on October 25th-26th!
You're not going to miss history in the making as we show this almost 50-year old crossover between DC and Marvel which has never been presented as one complete package...are you?
Start Reading...
NOW!!!

Wednesday, September 1, 2021

THE SHADOW "Who He Is and How He Came to Be!" Chapter 8

 

Radio Comics' The Shadow was canceled as of this issue (#8 [1965]).
Whatever conclusion the anonymous writer had in mind will never be revealed.
In the early 1980s, I worked for JC Comics (which was based at the Archie Comics offices) and also assisted on a couple of the Red Circle superhero comics as needed.
I enquired of editor Victor Gorlick, whose career at Archie spanned decades, from the Golden Age up to his retirement in the early 2010s, if there was any unpublished Shadow material.
He said there once was, but it had "disappeared", and he didn't remember who had written the text pieces!
Perhaps only The Shadow Knows...
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