WEREWOLF HUNTER "Introduction"

Here's a long-lost supernatural series that most comics fans have never heard of!

Not surprising, since it never made the cover of it's home title, Fiction House's Rangers Comics,  even once!

When Fiction House's Rangers of Freedom Comics shortened its' name to "Rangers Comics" as of #8 (1942), the editors jettisoned several backup features and added new ones, including this series.

Seemingly-inappropriate for a military-themed comic, the strip survived until #41, ironically just when horror comics were coming to prominence!

Written by an anonymous writer under the pen-name "Armand Weygand" and illustrated by Gustaf Schrotter, this premiere presents the main characters cleanly and concisely and sets up the premise.

It's the most sedate and "traditional" story in the series, which will eventually jump into other supernatural threats and even time-travel!

Buckle up and be here next Thursday!

It's going to be fun!

BTW, we're part of the amazingly-kool CountDown to Halloween 2019 Blogathon!

Click HERE to see the other pround participants!

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Cycle of the Werewolf

by

Stephen King & Berni Wrightson

Summer Blogathon BLACKHAWK "D-Day for the Blackhawks" Part 3: Showdown at Omaha Beach

We Have Already Seen...

...in the present (1964), Blackhawk and his team respond to a message from a French Resistance fighter who aided them on their first mission, right before D-Day, twenty years earlier!

After they re-unite, the assembled veterans relive the adventure that brought them together...

As we said, this origin rewrites history since Blackhawk and crew were shown operating in late 1940-early 1941 in their original Quality Comics incarnation...and the DC version was carried over, lock, stock, and Grumman XF5F Skyrockets from Quality to DC without a break in publication schedule or format!

Unofficially, this never-reprinted tale from DC's Blackhawk #198 (1964) was considered the origin of the Earth-One Blackhawks, with the Quality stories considered the Earth-Two team's tales!

This helped explain the Justice League's presence during the infamous "New Blackhawk Era" when the middle-aged aviators became super-heroes!

(You've got to see it to believe it!)

This was reinforced by DC using the back of the book to tell new WWII stories in "Combat Diary", which sometimes contradicted Quality stories they were based on!

But even this "update" wasn't exactly adhered to!

When the "New Blackhawk Era" mercifully-ended and the group went back to their WWII roots, the first issue of their revamp presented another new origin for the characters!

And, when the Justice League and Justice Society did their annual summer "Crisis on..." multi-part story in 1973, they ended up on Earth-X, where most of the Quality characters (including the Blackhawks and Plastic Man) had been killed by the Nazis, who had won World War II!

After yet another reboot making the Blackhawks high-tech mercenaries, there was one final revamp putting them back in the 1940s in the hopes a rumored Steven Spielberg film would be made.

(The HTF paperback novel listed below is a by-product of that incarnation.)

Don't even ask about the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths history of the Blackhawks!

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Blackhawk

by William Rotsler

The only novel based on the comic book!
(and it tells a radically-different version of their origin!)

Summer Blogathon BLACKHAWK "D-Day for the Blackhawks" Part 2: Jigsaw Goliath

When Last We Left the Newly-Unified Blackhawks...

...they were heading out on their first mission as a unit, just before D-Day, June 6, 1944!

To Be Concluded...
TOMORROW!

Writer Arnold Drake, penciler Dick Dillin and inker Chuck Cuidera update the vague origin Blackhawk was given (in his first appearance in Quality's Military Comics #1 (1941) and a somewhat more detailed tale from Blackhawk #50 (1952) in this never-reprinted story from DC's Blackhawk #198 (1964)...though this tale contradicts the fact that Blackhawk and his team were operating from 1940 onward, long before D-Day!
What's the explanation?
Find out tomorrow!
Note: This is part of our annual Summer RetroBlog Blogathon, this year covering how various comics characters participated in D-Day!
You can see the Normandy invasion activities of Sgt Rock HERE and Sgt Fury HERE!

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Official Blackhawk 12" Action Figure

Summer Blogathon BLACKHAWK "D-Day for the Blackhawks" Part 1: Origin of the Blackhawks

We've covered the Blackhawks' unfortunate dabbling in 1960s superhero antics...

..but even before that, DC was tinkering with the team, changing them from wartime aviators to a team of scientific adventurers handling all sort of weird threats!

(You'll note as the tale begins, the team are in their red and green "adventurer" uniforms instead of their WWII leather outfits!

Also note that, in the final panel of the page directly below, Blackhawk and Stan are speaking each other's dialogue!)

To Be Continued...
TOMORROW!

Writer Arnold Drake, penciler Dick Dillin and inker Chuck Cuidera update the vague origin Blackhawk was given (in his first appearance in Quality's Military Comics #1 (1941) and a somewhat more detailed tale from Blackhawk #50 (1952) in this never-reprinted story from DC's Blackhawk #198 (1964).
Note: This is part of our annual Summer RetroBlog Blogathon, this year covering how various comics characters participated in D-Day!
You can see the Normandy invasion activities of Sgt Rock HERE and Sgt Fury HERE!

Please Support Hero Histories

Visit Amazon and Order...

Blackhawk: the Movie Serial

starring Kirk (Superman) Alyn

Valentines Day Special NOT BRAND ECHH "Best Side Story"

What if the Silver Age Doctor Strange and Wonder Woman fell in love?

We'd probably have ended up with a serious version of this titanic tale!

Written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Tom Sutton, this titanic tale was included in Marvel's Not Brand Echh! #6 (1968)...

...a romance-oriented issue that also included a look at how a Human Scorch (Human Torch)/Gristle (Crystal) marriage would work out, and Spidey-Man (do I haveta tell you?) marrying the unlikeliest character of all!

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Marvel Masterworks

Not Brand Echh!