When Last We Left Our SuperHero/Super-Spy...
...he, disguised as a hapless civilian, had deliberately fallen overboard from the nuclear submarine Patrick Henry in order to switch to his fighting gear...
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
WereWolf the SuperHero "Secret Mission"
We Have Already Seen...
...the superhero with the "Easiest to Draw Costume in History" is investigating how the Red Chinese are able to track our nuclear submarines.
Monday, October 5, 2015
WereWolf the SuperHero "Call of the Sea"
Welcome to our first Countdown to Halloween 2015 feature presentation...
...hold it!
HOLD IT!
HOLD IT!!
HOLD IT!!!
This is not what we're presenting this year!
This is...
The super-spy saga continues...
After revamping Dracula and Frankenstein into Silver Age superheroes, the team of writer DJ Arneson and artists Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico turned to the next monster in the classic Universal Studios line-up.
However, whether it was because Universal objected
to the radical change in format or because the project was actually
unauthorized by the studio, the next book couldn't use the trademarked
name "The WolfMan".
Both Frankenstein and Dracula were based on public domain books, so they could be used without legal repercussions.
But The WolfMan movie series, though based on European legends, was conceived by Universal's in-house writers, and the name "WolfMan" was trademarked.
So Dell had to go back to the generic term for lycanthropic transformers..."Werewolf", as well as a totally-new concept and explanation for his superhero/super-spy code-name!
You can see how they resolved the problem by reading the first issue HERE.
BTW, this second issue of Dell's Werewolf (1966) is by the same creative team.
So Dell had to go back to the generic term for lycanthropic transformers..."Werewolf", as well as a totally-new concept and explanation for his superhero/super-spy code-name!
You can see how they resolved the problem by reading the first issue HERE.
BTW, this second issue of Dell's Werewolf (1966) is by the same creative team.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
The Return of the 1960s Monster Super-Heroes!
Last Halloween we brought you the campy adventures of...
and
...and this Halloween, we're going to give you the rest of their sagas!
Starting Monday, and continuing until Halloween, we'll be presenting one of the remaining issues of the all-too brief runs of these weird only-in-the-60s amalgamations of classic monsters and campy superheroes each week, beginning with the second issue of WereWolf!
In the meantime, here's links to the previously-presented stories...
Dracula
Frankenstein
WereWolf
You can decide if we gave you a treat...or a trick!
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Before the Ant-Man, there was...the Fly-Man! (Part 3)
When The Fly returned in 1965, he was revamped...
... in an attempt to mimic Marvel Comics.
The Archie Adventure Line was renamed Mighty Comics Group (with a corner box graphic similar to Marvel's), and a new writer-artist team took over the book trying to match Stan Lee's scripting and Jack Kirby's penciling...
Writer "Jerry Ess" was Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, who replaced Robert Bernstein, the initial scripter of the revamped Mighty Comics Group titles.
Artist "Paul Arr's" real name was Paul Reinman, whose one saving grace was that he was incredibly-fast since he became the primary artist for all the Mighty Comics titles* including Fly-Man (which became the anthology Mighty Comics Presents as of #40), Mighty Crusaders, and The Shadow!
Now if you thought this was bad, as soon as the Batman TV series hit in January, 1966, and "BatMania" swept the country, Archie Comics' editors forced Siegel to add exaggerated "camp" dialogue and plotlines to the titles.
Unfortunately, Jerry was no better at writing those elements, then he was at mimicking Stan Lee's style.
By mid-1967, the Mighty Comics Group and Fly-Man were gone from newsstands.
There have been several revivals of the characters since then, but The Fly was never called "Fly-Man" again.
Artist "Paul Arr's" real name was Paul Reinman, whose one saving grace was that he was incredibly-fast since he became the primary artist for all the Mighty Comics titles* including Fly-Man (which became the anthology Mighty Comics Presents as of #40), Mighty Crusaders, and The Shadow!
Now if you thought this was bad, as soon as the Batman TV series hit in January, 1966, and "BatMania" swept the country, Archie Comics' editors forced Siegel to add exaggerated "camp" dialogue and plotlines to the titles.
Unfortunately, Jerry was no better at writing those elements, then he was at mimicking Stan Lee's style.
By mid-1967, the Mighty Comics Group and Fly-Man were gone from newsstands.
There have been several revivals of the characters since then, but The Fly was never called "Fly-Man" again.
When Belmont Books brought out a paperback reprinting some of the tales in mid-1966, Siegel wrote a new intro and finally received a credit for his scripting under his real name instead of the "Jerry Ess" penname.
BTW, you'll note that Fly-Man is not on the cover!
That's Turan, from the Fly-Man #36 (1966) cover at the top of this post, which makes some sense, since this tale from that issue is the only Fly-Man story in the book!
*Mike Sekowsky ghost-penciled a couple of stories, Joe Giella inked one.
BTW, you'll note that Fly-Man is not on the cover!
That's Turan, from the Fly-Man #36 (1966) cover at the top of this post, which makes some sense, since this tale from that issue is the only Fly-Man story in the book!
*Mike Sekowsky ghost-penciled a couple of stories, Joe Giella inked one.
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