HORRIFIC HEROES ISSUE 2020
4 2 1 . o N $9.95
™
Man-Thing TM & © Marvel. All Rights Reserved.
ber Decem
1
82658 00408
8
Man-Thing • The Creeper • Atlas/Seaboard’s Grim Ghost and creepy crimefighters • Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch) Rides Again • featuring BRENNERT, BRUNNER, CONWAY, MACKIE, MAYERIK, THOMAS & more
Volume 1, Number 124 December 2020 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!
PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Rudy Nebres (commissioned illustration from the collection of Ryan Bunn) COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Mark Arnold Roger Ash Alan Brennert Frank Brunner Ryan Bunn Marc Buxton KC Carlson Gerry Conway Jon B. Cooke Steve Englehart Carl Gafford Grand Comics Database Jack C. Harris Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Heritage Comics Auctions Vincent Holt Tony Isabella Sid Jacobson George Khoury Alan Light
Howard Mackie Marvel Comics Val Mayerik Edwin Nebres Rudy Nebres Luigi Novi Jeff Rovin Jack Ryder Jim Shooter Mary Skrenes Bryan D. Stroud Roy Thomas Sean Wasielewski Alan Weiss John Wells Bob Wiacek Peter Young
Don’t STEAL our Digital Editions! C’mon citizen, DO THE RIGHT THING! A Mom & Pop publisher like us needs every sale just to survive! DON’T DOWNLOAD OR READ ILLEGAL COPIES ONLINE! Buy affordable, legal downloads only at
www.twomorrows.com or through our Apple and Google Apps!
& DON’T SHARE THEM WITH FRIENDS OR POST THEM ONLINE. Help us keep producing great publications like this one!
BACKSEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 BEYOND CAPES: Whatever Knows Fear: The Birth of the Man-Thing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Slogging through the muck-monster’s creation and Bronze Age appearances PRINCE STREET NEWS: If Monster Heroes Wore Costumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 A cartoon by Karl Heitmueller, Jr. FLASHBACK: Jack Be Nimble: The Creeper in the Bronze Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Steve Ditko’s freaky crimefighter and his scattershot ’70s and ’80s appearances WHAT THE--?!: Harvey Horror… But Not the Kind You Think . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 The relaxation of the Comics Code led Casper, Richie Rich, and friends into chilling directions FLASHBACK: Atlas/Seaboard’s Horrific Heroes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 From the Brute to the Tarantula, these Marvel clones pushed the envelope BEYOND CAPES: The Return of Man-Thing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62 Marvel’s swamp beast gets another shot of stardom in 1979 FLASHBACK: Ghost Rider Rides Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68 Howard Mackie’s 1990 high-octane Marvel hit BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78 Reader reactions
BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $89 Economy US, $135 International, $36 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Rudy Nebres. Man-Thing TM & © Marvel. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2020 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows, except Prince Street News © 2020 Karl Heitmueller, Jr. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.
Horrific Heroes issue • BACK ISSUE • 1
TM
by
Roger Ash
It’s common knowledge that 4F Steve Rogers so desperately wanted to be a solider that he volunteered to be injected with the experimental Super-Soldier serum, turning him into the Star-Spangled Avenger, Captain America. But did you know that the Super-Soldier serum also turned scientist Ted Sallis into Marvel’s muck monster, the macabre Man-Thing? Government scientist Ted Sallis and his girlfriend Ellen were hidden away in the Florida Everglades, where Ted was attempting to recreate the Super-Soldier serum. When his contact, Hamilton, misses their rendezvous, he and Ellen go to find out what’s happened. They discover Hamilton is dead, a couple of thugs, and a smug Ellen who’s sold the formula to the highest bidder. Sallis escapes, but his car skids into the swamp. To keep the sole vial of the serum out of enemy hands, Sallis injects it into himself. The serum reacts with the waters of the swamp, turning him into Man-Thing. As Man-Thing, he easily dispatches of the goons and burns Ellen’s face with a touch. He is left mindless, wandering the swamp, with no idea of what just happened or who he is. You can find the story in Marvel’s blackand-white magazine Savage Tales #1 (May 1971) by Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, and Gray Morrow. Being in a black-and-white magazine meant that the story didn’t have to conform to the rules of the Comics Code Authority (CCA), which, for years, dictated what could and couldn’t be done in newsstand comics. The Code came about after Dr. Fredric Wertham in his 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent charged comics with causing juvenile delinquency. The resulting governmental trials and public outcry resulted in the formation of the CCA to assure parents that what their kids were reading was appropriate.
A HEAPING HELPING OF CREATOR BACKSTORY
So now you know Man-Thing’s origin, but what about the origin of his origin? “When Stan Lee got the idea for Savage Tales, he started going over what the various stories in it would be and he decided that one of the features would be Man-Thing,” recalls Roy Thomas. “He came up with the name. He called me in to talk about it. He didn’t want to write it, and he didn’t care if I wrote it or got somebody else to write it. roy thomas He had in mind a general idea that we kicked around. As I recall, the general © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. idea was just that guy, through interaction with the swamp, becomes a creature. I suppose it was partly inspired by the old Heap character that was in comics from the early ’40s through the early ’50s, which Stan said elsewhere that he liked.
Sumpthing in the Way He Moves Frank Brunner’s 2008 recreation of his cover art for the Bronze Age classic, Man-Thing #1. Also signed by Roy Thomas. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). Man-Thing TM & © Marvel.
Horrific Heroes issue • BACK ISSUE • 3
Horrific Hitchhiker Moody Gray Morrow original art, from Manny’s first appearance in the B&W mag Savage Tales #1 (May 1971). Courtesy of Heritage. TM & © Marvel.
But the name Heap or anything like that never came up until it popped up a few years ago. It’s been reprinted in conversation. a time or two. Turned out it was several pages, just for “I didn’t like the name Man-Thing because we had a a ten-or-so-page story. Since I didn’t want to write it, character called the Thing,” Thomas continues. “I didn’t I gave the synopsis to Gerry Conway, who had started feel we should have a character also called the Man-Thing, working for us. He was about 18 or 19 years old. And but Stan was the boss… so if he wanted it, he got it. to Gray Morrow to draw.” Man-Thing’s look of reeds and vines and Also, I had, just a couple of months before, done a brow and nose of roots was, according to in The Hulk with Herb Trimpe a very similar character also based on the Heap, who Thomas, mainly designed by artist Gray was called the Glob, which was a name Morrow. “I made it real plain that I Stan gave him. That was a character thought it was basically the Heap. That’s very much like this character; a guy basically telling him to draw it like the who interacts with the swamp and Heap, which he very much did. The becomes this creature. Stan was kind character even has the little carroty nose of aware of that, since he had approved that the Heap had. The Heap was such Hulk cover and named the character. a great-looking character, and by that Maybe he had forgotten it in the stage was public domain, so we may as well take it and make a character out meantime, but I didn’t bring that up, either. I figured, ‘Okay, this’ll be a more of it. He didn’t have to be slavishly major character, where the Glob was imitative of it. There are more man-like gerry conway just a minor character.’ They’re really features that we could see on Manalmost the same character. Thing, where the Heap sometimes “I remember we went over several different ideas looked like so much vegetation. You could hardly tell he for the story. I don’t remember what any of them were had legs. We were quite happy with his interpretation except for the general outline of the one that actually of the character. I think it was really excellent.” appeared. After we’d settled on it verbally, I wrote out According to Gerry Conway, once the story was a synopsis. I didn’t remember how detailed it was drawn, he “dialoged and created the character voices and the character names for the supporting characters and the lead character.” One of the characters looked very familiar to Thomas. “When Gray drew various gun-toting hoodlums in the story, one of them was a drawn from photos of a mutual acquaintance of ours named Chester Grabowski. He worked for another guy (whose first name was ‘Ruby’) who had a comic store or dealership. I met them both because they were part of a poker game I played in for several years at the late Phil Seuling’s place at Coney Island. Every time I read that story, I’m looking at this guy I was sitting across from at a poker table every Friday night.”
AN ASTONISHING COMEBACK
A Man-Thing story by writer Len Wein and artist Neal Adams was completed for the second issue of Savage Tales, but the magazine was cancelled by publisher Martin Goodman prior to its publication. “Martin Goodman didn’t really like the idea of doing black-and-white magazines,” Roy Thomas tells BACK ISSUE. “I don’t know why, because he was always happy to make money and you could charge more for a black-and-white magazine than you could for a regular comic. I always wondered if it was partly because he got grief from DC, Archie, and Harvey for doing a non-Code magazine when they weren’t. “It was just something Goodman wasn’t especially comfortable with. He kept cancelling [the magazines]. There was that one issue of The Spectacular Spider-Man that was black and white. He forced it to go to color, and then cancelled that. And Savage Tales, he cancelled before anyone knew much anything about sales. I know Stan was quite unhappy about both of those cancellations. He sort of bided his time until he became publisher a couple of years later, so he could bring [magazines] back onto the schedule, which he promptly did.” But cancelling Savage Tales #2 didn’t stop the Man-Thing story from being published, as Thomas used it as part of a two-issue Ka-Zar story in Astonishing Tales #12–13 (June–Aug. 1972). “The only reason we had to run it in Ka-Zar was because I didn’t want to leave it sitting around,” Roy remarks. “Who knew if we’d ever bring back Savage Tales? If I had known we were going to be able to bring it back in short order, I probably 4 • BACK ISSUE • Horrific Heroes issue
would have saved it. As it was, it seemed best to simply run it in the color comic.” In this story, we meet other scientists who were working with Sallis and discover that the group after their work is the evil organization, A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics). When the scientists are threatened, Man-Thing comes to their aid, but is not able to prevent Dr. Wilma Calvin, an elderly African-American woman, from being shot. Two of the scientists from the Man-Thing story bring Ka-Zar to the Everglades to help find Ted Sallis, if he’s still alive. This leads to a confrontation with Man-Thing, a double cross, and a battle against A.I.M. Len Wein added something that would help define Man-Thing’s character: Whatever knows fear, burns at the Man-Thing’s touch. Wein related in the book Swampmen: Muck-Monsters and Their Makers (TwoMorrows, 2014), “In the original story, anything he touched, burned, so I surmised, ‘You know, you can never do an ongoing character who can never interact with anything without setting it on fire.’ So I came up with the idea that you had to be afraid of Man-Thing to suffer the chemical reaction.” In a few stories, the burns are caused by a reaction between the chemicals released by the person who’s afraid interacting with the chemicals in Man-Thing’s body. While this does provide some logic as to why it occurs, the explanation was quickly dropped. It was enough to know that fear caused his touch to burn.” The irony of having Wein write this story is not lost on Thomas. “It’s kind of funny because Len, at around the same time, was working on Swamp Thing.”
Swampy Smackdowns (top left) Ol’ Greenskin goes at it with the Heap-inspired Glob, in Incredible Hulk #121 (Nov. 1969). Cover by Herb Trimpe. (top right) Bernie Wrightson, artist of DC’s Swamp Thing, was the cover artist for Hulk #197 (Mar. 1976), co-starring Man-Thing. (bottom) A Man of Two Swamps: Swamp Thing co-creator Len Wein was also involved with Man-Thing in the Marvel muck monster’s early days. Hulk and Man-Thing TM & © Marvel. Len Wein photo © DC Comics.
Horrific Heroes issue • BACK ISSUE • 5
TM
by
John Wells
He wore a crimson shag rug as a cape and green-andblack-striped bikini briefs over a bright yellow body stocking. On spinner racks filled with colorful characters, he still stood out. Was this the future of superheroes, one might have asked in 1968, or should they beware… the Creeper? In November of 1965, Marvel Comics star Steve Ditko had walked away from Marvel Comics on a matter of principle. The Spider-Man co-creator had no problem finding work elsewhere, but those venues were struggling two years later. Supported by Charlton Comics editor Dick Giordano, Ditko had revitalized Captain Atom and created a new incarnation of the Blue Beetle, but the publisher opted to cancel its entire “Action Hero” line in 1967. National (DC) Comics’ newly installed art director Carmine Infantino saw this as welcome news. It’s unclear who made the first move, but Steve Ditko soon had a deal to develop new features for DC. Although he excelled at high fantasy on the order of his signature “Dr. Strange” run [in Marvel’s Strange Tales—ed.], the cartoonist leaned toward more grounded situations. He’d replaced Charlton’s Superman-esque Blue Beetle with an athletic-but-mortal character who supplemented his heroics with technology. And Ditko’s Mister A and the Question were each stylishly outfitted men who ruthlessly focused on crimes perpetrated by human villains. “I prefer conflicts that are based on reality rather than based on fantasy,” Steve Ditko explained in the 1968 fanzine Marvel Main #4. “When you get wound up with super villains, super fantastic gadgets and super incredible action, everything has to be made so deliberately that it all becomes senseless. It boils down to what you want a story to stand for.”
THE COMING—AND GOING— OF THE CREEPER
Talk show host Jack Ryder was also determined to stand for something, and it cost him his job two pages into “The Coming of the Creeper” (Showcase steve ditko #73, on sale in January 1968). Unable to hold his tongue when his guest Dr. Clayton Wetley issued a blanket condemnation of the police as symbols of violence, Ryder drew the wrath of the show’s sponsor—and a pal of the pacifist. Ryder had been fired for only minutes when the TV network’s security chief, Bill Brane, hired him back as an investigator. (Ditko may have chosen that job as a way of distinguishing his hero from news photographer
One-Hit Wonder Chief among the Creeper’s many, and scattered, Bronze Age appearances was this solo shot in 1st Issue Special #7 (Oct. 1975). Cover by Steve Ditko and Al Milgrom. Unless otherwise noted, all art scans accompanying this article are courtesy of John Wells. TM & © DC Comics.
Horrific Heroes issue • BACK ISSUE • 21
Peter [Spider-Man] Parker and TV reporter Vic [Question] Sage.) His first mission was to infiltrate a social gala where gangland forces led by “Angel” Devlin intended to deliver a Russian defector to Soviet handlers. Jack was up for the job, even with his last-minute discovery that it was a costume party and he had nothing to wear. Cannibalizing a box of remnants, Ryder arrived in a garish yellow, green, and red outfit and sustained a nasty knife wound before sequestering himself in a room with the pivotal Professor Yatz. Looking at his would-be rescuer, the scientist saw a means of hiding the creations that had made him a target of the Communist forces. First, he injected Jack with a serum that would enable him to heal almost instantly from any injury along with enhancing his strength and stamina. Yatz also implanted a disc in the investigator’s open wound, detailing that “it would rearrange the molecular structure of matter, making it weightless and invisible.” For Ryder’s purpose, it rendered his costume invisible and intangible whenever he pressed a matching disc in his palm. Yatz, inevitably, was gunned down in the melee that followed, but Ryder—dubbed “The Creeper” by a policeman—brought Devlin and many of his partners to justice. Improvising during the chaos, Jack ran with the gangsters’ reaction to his bizarre looks, adding a maniacal laugh to his act and making them question whether he was human or a demon. The performance was so good that the police wanted the Creeper almost as badly as the underworld by page 23. Following the obligatory appearance in the Showcase tryout title, Beware the Creeper (BTC) #1 went on sale in March 1968 and added new names to the credit box. The pilot had been edited by Murray Boltinoff and dialogued by Don Segall, but Ditko hoped to find a place for an old Charlton colleague. On the cartoonist’s recommendation, Dick Giordano was hired as a DC editor and succeeded Boltinoff with BTC #1. Also joining the team was Denny O’Neil, who began plotting and scripting the feature (initially under the pseudonym of “Sergius O’Shaughnessy”) after dialoging Ditko’s story for issue #1. On O’Neil’s watch, a recurring villain joined the series in the form of Proteus. A variation on Ditko’s earlier Chameleon in Amazing Spider-Man, the character sported a featureless snow-white head that he could reshape to resemble anyone he wished. Among those was the Creeper himself, whom Proteus framed for murder at the front of issue #2. In BTC #3, O’Neil also expanded Ditko’s small supporting cast of Bill Brane and social-climbing weathergirl Vera Sweet with the addition of Remington Percival Cord. A co-worker at WHAM-TV, Rip—as he was called— became fast friends with Jack and they were soon roommates. Once Proteus returned in issue #4, things went south for the relationship. The climactic issue #6 revealed that Cord was Proteus, a mad refugee from the island nation of Offalia, who’d stolen its “single state
The Creeper Faces Off (top) From the late Silver Age, Ditko’s dynamic splash to the Creeper’s premiere in Showcase #73 (Mar.–Apr. 1968). Original art scan courtesy of Heritage (www.ha.com). (inset) Proteus vs. the Creeper! The Ditko-drawn cover of Beware the Creeper #5 (bottom left) Chameleon vs. Spidey! Splash page from Amazing Spider-Man #1. Creeper TM & © DC Comics. Spider-Man and Fantastic Four TM & © Marvel.
22 • BACK ISSUE • Horrific Heroes issue
Creeper in World’s Finest Comics (top) Old Yeller gets welcomed by WFC’s cast in issue #249 (Feb.–Mar. 1978). Illo by Kurt Schaffenberger, with a Ditko Creeper image. (bottom) Splash to #250’s Ditko-drafted tale. TM & © DC Comics.
THE DC EXPLOSION… AND IMPLOSION
The summer of 1978 was meant to be a celebratory one for DC, one in which the page count of its standard titles were expanded from 32 pages to 44 with an attendant price increase from 35¢ to 50¢. Among the items on the menu for the DC Explosion were spotlights on second- and third-tier characters and the Creeper was on that list. In June, he was cover-featured with Batman on The Brave and the Bold #143 (Sept.–Oct. 1978). The entry point was “the most respected man in America,” veteran Cosmic Broadcasting newsman Montgomery Walcott. Jack Ryder regarded the Walter Cronkite lookalike as a friend and idol, so he was taken aback when Batman produced evidence that the man was also a drug kingpin. Overcoming his disbelief, the Creeper ultimately helped bring Walcott down. Written by Bob Haney and Cary Burkett, the story was the first occasion that legendary B&B artist Jim Aparo had to draw the Creeper in action. At the end of 1974, Aparo had illustrated a few pages of Jack Ryder for Detective #445 but the title’s accelerated schedule from bimonthly to monthly left the artist unable to draw the subsequent Creeper guest-shot. The B&B story was meant to be followed by a 25-page Creeper solo story in August’s Showcase #106. Written and illustrated by Ditko, the tale afforded the cartoonist the length to do things that were impossible in the eight-page package. A pair of double-page spreads appeared in the story, the second featuring a cameo by the Odd Man, a new Ditko creation intended for Shade the Changing Man. There was also room for Ditko to explore a unique crisis for his hero. As a side effect of an electrical staff wielded by the mad Dr. Storme, Jack lost control of his transmitter and began involuntarily switching back and forth with his Creeper persona. At one juncture, in mid-transformation he caught a falling Fran, and she vanished along with his garish costume. Floating like a phantom until Storme inadvertently initiated another switch, Fran wrote the whole thing off as a hallucination… including the evidence that Jack was the Creeper. “I remember pitching the idea of another Creeper Showcase issue,” Harris tells BACK ISSUE. “Of course, he had appeared in Showcase before. Issue #73 (1968) had been his debut, but I thought he deserved another chance to try for his own book. So did the higher-ups, but when I pitched it, they asked, ‘Does Steve want to do it?’ When they posed that question, I realized I had never actually asked Steve if he wanted to write and draw a full-length issue! I immediately got on the phone and Steve was pitching story lines seconds after I told him of the opportunity. I thought it was a fun story and I loved it when he threw in the Odd Man.” Unfortunately, Showcase #106—and, for that matter, #105—never went on sale. An unforeseen corporate cutback crushed the DC Explosion, resulting in a burst of cancellations that included Showcase. Moreover, the titles that survived the DC Implosion shrank back to 32 pages. In the aftermath, the publisher was left with dozens of stories that no longer had a home. That required shuffling and the larger Dollar Comics like World’s Finest suddenly became a refuge for that material. [Editor’s note: We’ve touched on the infamous DC Implosion many times in these pages, but for the definitive story, see the superb TwoMorrows book Comic Book Implosion by Keith Dallas and… John Wells.] Evicted in favor of Hawkman, the Creeper was gone from World’s Finest after November 1978. In WFC #254’s story, he faced a seeming child called Mr. Wrinkles who could temporarily age anyone he wished. Hilariously, even the Creeper’s green wig and red shag rug/cape turned white. The final episode (WFC #255) spotlighted Fran as she took on the knife-wielding Dagger Lady. 32 • BACK ISSUE • Horrific Heroes issue
by
Mark Arnold
In the 1950s, prior to Harvey Comics acquiring the Paramount Pictures Famous Studios license which gave them permission to publish such characters as Baby Huey, Little Audrey, and Casper the Friendly Ghost, Harvey was publishing a line of horror comics that historians now agree are some of the best ever published, next to EC Comics. In fact, Harvey published the very first horror comic: Front Page Comic Book in 1945, which predated the EC line by five years. Unfortunately, it was a one-shot. When the Comics Code Authority started cracking down on publishers, Harvey transitioned its titles from the likes of Tomb of Terror, Witches Tales, Black Cat Mystery, and Chamber of Chills to more newspaper-comic-strip reprint titles like Blondie, Joe Palooka, Mutt & Jeff, and Dick Tracy, and the aforementioned children’s line. Eventually, the newspaper reprint titles also fell by the wayside as Harvey acquired the complete rights to the Famous Studios characters, and, by 1965, Harvey was only publishing titles featuring Casper and the rest of the Harveytoons. Harvey was also publishing titles featuring new characters inspired by the Harveytoons like Richie Rich, Little Dot, and Little Lotta. Harvey didn’t forget its horror roots. Amazingly, by Harvey publishing books with Casper, Wendy, Spooky, Nightmare, the Ghostly Trio, Hot Stuff, and a few others, the company was able to skirt the 1954 Comics Code Authority rules that stated: “All scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism, masochism shall not be permitted,” and “Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited,” because these characters hid behind a cute design and humor, and were geared toward small children. When the Comics Code Authority loosened its guidelines in 1972, every publisher took advantage of the relaxed rules. Marvel started long-running titles such as Tomb of Dracula and Werewolf by Night. DC converted House of Mystery and House of Secrets into horror anthologies and added many new titles featuring witches and ghosts. Charlton started The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves and a few other series of chillers. Some of these even predated the relaxed rules of the Code as the comic-book companies kept pushing the envelope. Even Archie Comics got on the bandwagon by converting their long-running Madhouse title into a serious horror anthology rather than the silly comic book that premiered Sabrina, the Teen-Age Witch. Sabrina also headed up her own anthology title that was more serious in nature called Chilling Tales of Sorcery. This was 40 years before true Archie horror titles such as Afterlife with Archie. One reason for the more relaxed rules surely had to do with the wild success of non-Code-approved comic magazines like Warren’s Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella; the various horror publications produced by Eerie Publications with titles such as Horror Tales, Terror Tales, and Tales from the Tomb; and Skywald with its Psycho, Scream, and Nightmare titles.
Bronze Age BOOs! Your favorite Harvey Comics heroes hopped aboard the horror bandwagon in the early ’70s! TM & © Classic Media, LLC.
Horrific Heroes issue • BACK ISSUE • 39
HARVEY MYSTERY/HORROR THEMED ISSUES, FROM 1972–1982 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Casper’s Ghostland #82-88, 94 Casper’s Strange Ghost Stories #1–14 Devil Kids starring Hot Stuff #67–72 Friendly Ghost, Casper #177–178, 180–183 Hot Stuff, the Little Devil #126–132 Hot Stuff Creepy Caves #1–7 Little Dot #158–160, 162 Little Lotta #113–119 Playful Little Audrey #113–118 Richie Rich, the Poor Little Rich Boy #132, 135 Richie Rich and Casper #1–45 Richie Rich and Dot #1 Richie Rich and Jackie Jokers #10–13, 16–18 Richie Rich Bank Books #15–18 Richie Rich Billions #1, 3–5 Richie Rich Cash #1–7 Richie Rich Diamonds #18–19 Richie Rich Dollars and Cents #67–69 Richie Rich Fortunes #22–24 Richie Rich Gems #1–6 Richie Rich Jackpots #15, 17–20, 22 Richie Rich Millions #68, 71–73, 82 Richie Rich Money World #16–21 Richie Rich Profits #1–8, 10, 15 Richie Rich Riches #15, 17–20 Richie Rich Success Stories #61–64 Richie Rich Vaults of Mystery #1–47 Shocking Tales Digest #1 Spooky, the Tuff Little Ghost #143–148 Spooky Haunted House #1–15 Spooky Spooktown #54, 57–60 Super Richie #1–18 Wendy, the Good Little Witch #85–87, 89–91
Harvey slowly entered the fray after the loosened Code rules with a spinoff title featuring Casper’s ghost cousin, Spooky, called Spooky Haunted House, cover-dated October 1972. At first, there was nothing to this title to distinguish it from any other Spooky title, but slowly, longer, slightly scary, and mysterious stories appeared. Spooky Haunted House lasted 15 issues, through February 1975 (cover date). Spooky Haunted House was the lone title in this new genre until 1974. Covers and stories to new titles issued in 1974 veered toward this more mystery/horror theme with Richie Rich and Casper #1 (Aug. 1974); Richie Rich Cash #1 and Richie Rich Gems #1 (both Sept. 1974); Richie Rich Billions #1, Richie Rich Profits #1, and Richie Rich and Dot #1 (all Oct. 1974); along with Casper’s Strange Ghost Stories #1 (a.k.a. Casper Strange Ghost Stories), a reprint title that featured multi-part Casper mystery adventure stories from the 1960s and 1970s, that lasted through #14 (Jan. 1977). Richie Rich and Casper kept the theme throughout its entire run through 1982. Every issue was drawn by Warren Kremer, and virtually all were written by Ralph Newman or Stan Kay. Originally, the title was to be called Casper and Richie, and artwork for the first two covers were produced, but eventually the title was changed as popularity demanded yet another Richie Rich title. The late Chris Barat, who wrote extensively about Richie Rich for The Harveyville Fun Times! fanzine, had this to say about the Richie Rich and Casper series, calling it “unique among Richie and Harvey titles for the remarkable consistency of its basic themes and general tones. Richie Rich and Casper began a few years prior to the original Harvey line’s implosion and subsequent precipitous decline, which may explain why it has hitherto been overlooked in discussions of Harvey’s classic titles. It represents a legitimate high point in Harvey’s history: the joint adventures of Harvey’s two most famous characters, drawn by the artist most responsible for the modern Harvey style, Warren Kremer, and the linking together of the two most famous venues in the Harvey World, Richville and the Enchanted Forest.” Harvey editor Sid Jacobson comments about writer Stan Kay’s role on Richie Rich and Casper: “The things he did best were these wonderful Casper stories! We created a book, Richie Rich and Casper, and it was done in a way where Richie never knew whether he really ever met this ghost sid jacobson or not, the way it was done. You could interpret it in different ways. He did all those stories, and Shure Jacobson. they were very, very good.” Barat continued, explaining how Richie was perfectly suited for the transition from abundance of wealth gags to adventure hero: “When you look at Richie’s most successful stories and strip away the frills, you find a kid who’s capable of using his guts, his brains, or his personality to solve problems, and is never willing to back away from adventure. At his very best, he’s Jonny Quest or Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse (or Carl Barks’ ducks), a quasi-realistic hero teetering on the edge of fantasy and a good role model for young kids and the young at heart.
40 • BACK ISSUE • Horrific Heroes issue
So, you want to hunt monsters? You want to protect the innocent from things that lurk in dark alleys, in primordial forests, in fetid swamps? You want to protect the innocent from flying, crouching, hungry beasts? You want to shine a light in the dark places to expose the fanged, clawed unthinkable? Well, then, if you are going to be a monster-hunter, you brave soul, then you must know your monsters. Because here, there be monsters. That’s true in today’s comic-book world and it was true in every age of comic publishing. But in the Bronze Age, oh, my dear dwellers of darkness, it was truer than ever. Marvel Comics had its pantheon of beasts that was designed to strike fear into the hearts of all who encountered them. DC Comics had its fair share of shambling, tooth-gnashing beasties that would make one’s short hairs stand at attention. Even the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Atlas/Seaboard Comics had a pantheon of creatures that deserve recognition. So get out your silver bullets, your stakes and crosses, and most importantly, your courage, as we bravely peer into the abyss at the horrific heroes of Atlas/Seaboard and uncover true terrors that have almost been forgotten. [Editor’s note: Atlas Comics was the short-lived, mid-1970s comics imprint from Seaboard Periodicals of New York City, created by former Marvel Comics publisher Martin Goodman, who left Marvel in 1972. Herewith the company will be referred to as Atlas. The Atlas roster of characters is currently under development for movies.]
by
If there was one thing that the co-founder of Atlas Comics, Martin Goodman, was good at, it was playing the hits. Back when Goodman ran Marvel Comics, before the rise of Kirby and Lee and the Marvel Age of superheroes, Goodman would chase trends. This statement is meant with no disrespect, because some truly fine comics from every conceivable genre were born because of Goodman’s propensity to follow the zeitgeist. So when monster comics became a go-to genre in the early to mid-1970s, Goodman did what he always did: he jumped on the monster train and filled it to bursting with more beasts than you can shake a stake at. The editor of the tragically short-lived Atlas line of comics, Jeff Rovin, recalls to BACK ISSUE the days the monsters competed with superheroes for the dominance of the Bronze Age comic racks: “There was a trend—the anthology titles at DC, Swamp Thing, Weird Western Tales, Weird War. At Marvel there was Brother Voodoo, Dracula, Son of Satan, Chamber of Chills, and so on.” But the trends of the day were not the main reason Rovin championed horror. “My background was horror comics: I was assistant editor on Nightmare and Psycho at Skywald, in 1971,” Rovin informs. [I was also] “Joe Orlando’s assistant on House of Mystery, House of Secrets, and others in 1972 (my first comic-book script was for Joe’s Dark Mansion), then assistant editor at Warren Publishing from 1973–1974.” With those horrific credentials, Rovin, along with legendary editor Larry Lieber, was the perfect ghoulish overseer for the coming Atlas monsters. And indeed, when it came to fanged and clawed protagonists, Atlas was ready to spring myriad freshly minted monster antiheroes on an unsuspecting comic-book public. Now, if you’re brave enough, let us learn of these monsters so we may begin our hunt, my valiant hunters of darkness. But beware, these Atlas creature features may not have been around for long, but they are not for the faint of heart.
TM & © SP Media Group.
NEW HORRORS AWAKEN
44 • BACK ISSUE • Horrific Heroes issue
Marc Buxton
THE BRUTE
“Out of the past he came, a nightmarish beast-man from the very dawn of time. A murderous, blood-hungry monster caught somewhere in the evolutionary twilight between ape and man.” This very Bronze Age and wonderfully overwrought intro serves as the opening to Atlas’ man-monster: the Brute. And if you choose this creature for your hunt, my monster finders, know that you put yourself in grave peril of being savaged to pieces. Because this Brute has no fear. This overly muscled killing machine made his debut in The Brute #1 (Feb. 1975) at the dawn of the Atlas/ Seaboard era, where ideas sprung up like fungus on an ancient cave wall. The Brute was obviously Atlas’ answer to Marvel’s Incredible Hulk as the Brute was an overly muscled engine of raging destruction. As we mentioned, brave monster hunters, the Brute and his Atlas monster ilk were a huge part of the heroes that kicked off the Atlas wave. “I felt strongly that with DC and Marvel still primarily leaning heavily on classic and celestial superheroes, ‘the supernatural’ would be a strong, distinguishing ‘through-line’ for Atlas characters,” Rovin tells BACK ISSUE. “It was actually June 1974 when Atlas got underway. The TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker had been announced for debut in September. Assistant editor Ric Meyers and I were fans of the original TV movies and, with that on the horizon, the Goodmans [Martin and his son, Chip—ed.] agreed that the genre might be hot. So horror became our foundation.” If horror became the foundation, the Brute and his close character proximity to the Hulk would, at least in theory, become a pillar of that foundation. “He’s a hairy Hulk!” artist Alan Weiss quips recalling his time on The Brute. However, Weiss was not the first artist to bring Atlas’ engine of rage to life. The Brute #1 was penciled by longtime Justice League of America artist Mike Sekowsky, with a script by Michael Fleisher.
Edited by Rovin, the inaugural issue of Atlas’ prehistoric monstrosity sports an eye-popping cover by Dick Giordano. The Brute that appears on the cover of issue #1 was a crystalline blue creature that really jumped off the page. The cover Brute was not visually derivative of the Hulk at all, but was a uniquely colored giant that was a hellish sight to behold—even for the most seasoned monster hunter. While Sekowsky’s interior art is capable and memorable, the Brute in the comic is not of the same color or anatomical design that was featured on the cover. “We did the best we could to make it distinctive,” Rovin recollects. “The character wasn’t supposed to be solid blue, but more crystalline as on the first cover. Unfortunately, the coloring process didn’t allow that.” That’s not to say that The Brute series wasn’t a worthy attempt at creating a memorable comic-book monster… it just fell into the big criticism that all things Atlas suffered from—it was more of the same of what had already worked for other companies. One thing can be said for the first issue of The Brute, the titular character certainly lived up to its name.
Home of the Whopper Wow, that Brute’s a big’un! Original Sekowsky/Marcos art from The Brute #1 (Feb. 1975). TM & © SP Media Group.
After Atlas One-time Atlas Comics editor Jeff Rovin, with X-Files actress/author Gillian Anderson, from their book promotion for A Vision of Fire, written by Anderson with Rovin. Courtesy of Jeff Rovin. Horrific Heroes issue • BACK ISSUE • 45
What’s in a Name? (left) Tales of Evil editor Larry Lieber had, over a decade earlier, worked on a Marvel story that used the “Bog Beast” name. From Tales to Astonish #56 (June 1964). (right) Bog Beast is hunted on the splash page of Tales of Evil #2. Ant-Man and the Wasp TM & © Marvel. Bog Beast TM & © SP Media Group.TM & © Marvel.
title a horror version of DC’s perennial Showcase. In issue #2 of Tales of Evil (Apr. 1975), writer John Albano and artist Jack Sparling continue the tale of the Bog Beast. Sparling renders his sticky monstrosity as a misshapen hunk of melting stone, a gaunt and oddly angled nightmare that really does pop off the page. Of course, the Beast instantly runs afoul of two crooks on the run and the police soon arrive. The issue opens with a beautiful woman, with a burly dude complete with patented 1970s no-shirt and vest ensemble. These groovy anarchists just bombed a bank and run into the titular muck monster. The Bog Beast fights off cops and goes on the run with the corrupt fringe. As Bog Beast and the vest guy camp out, the lady crook stumbles across a traveling circus and sells poor Boggy to the freak show. A bunch of carnival roustabouts net the Beast and drag him off to the circus. The guy and the girl get into a violent shouting match about her betrayal of their new friend. The woman shoots the guy and runs off. Dying, the dude stumbles to the circus, where he frees Bog Beast. The saga of The Bog Beast continues a backup feature in Tales of Evil #3 (July 1975) as Levy and Romero return to the feature they introduced in Weird Tales of the Macabre #2. The creative team introduces elements of the supernatural into the Bog Beast’s third appearance. The wandering muddy scientist stumbles over a gruesome murder. A group of scientists are torn to pieces and the helpful Bog Beast finds an unconscious woman.
54 • BACK ISSUE • Horrific Heroes issue
Seeking to get the woman help, he gently carries her towards the city when suddenly, she transforms into a werecat. Bog Beast fights his first monster, but when the woman transforms back to her human form, the police arrive and see the hideous tar monster standing over the prone form of a battered woman. The police capture Bog Beast as the final Atlas appearance of its very own muck monster comes to a close. Another Bog Beast story did see the light of day in an unexpected place. In 1982, an Australian anthology comic, Fearful Spectres (1982) from Gredown Comics, published a “lost” Bog Beast story that was prepared for publication at Atlas. In this installment by Romero and Levy (presumably; there are no credits in the issue) entitled “The Sun-Spawn Stalks,” Boggy debuts a new power: To escape confinement, Bog Beast turns into liquid form and oozes between the bars of his cell. He then confronts a woman who is made of living flame and the Beast once again turns into liquid to smother the power of his new adversary. And with that lost unexpected lost tale, the wandering scientist made of tar shambles off into history. There really was something special about Bog Beast, something atypical. Maybe it was his sensitivity, his inquisitive nature, that made him more than just another muck monster. Like most Atlas Bronze Age creations, the shifting creative teams did Bog Beast no favors, but there was a little bit of gold hidden beneath the lawyers of ooze and muck. Remember that, monster hunters, if you encounter Bog Beast during your travels.
THE MAN-MONSTER
pitch: Challengers of the Unknown, Jonny Quest, that Marvel had a Man-Thing and a Man-Wolf; DC had sort of action-adventure comic. The second pitch: a Man-Bat. So Atlas answered with its very own The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Jack Man-Monster! Kirby monsters in general.” And that’s Half-man, half-monster (duh), exactly what the initial Man-Monster Man-Monster starred in Tales of Evil #3 story tried to be: a classic Kirby monster, and was brought to the unsuspecting a hapless, flawed man transformed monster-hungry public by plotter into the unthinkable. Tony Isabella, writer Gary Friedrich, The one and only Man-Monster and co-plotter and artist Rich story opens with champion Olympic Buckler. According to Isabella, swimmer Paul Sanders out frolicking on however, the credits of the debut a beach with two bikini-clad “women’s issue of “Man-Monster” were not lib magazine reporters.” Paul is the son exactly accurate. “There was no of an oil billionaire and he takes two collaboration with my friend Gary,” ladies out on his yacht to show them Isabella reveals. “I wrote a panelhis father’s oil rig. To further impress larry lieber by-panel plot for the first story. the women, Paul jumps into the water Rich Buckler got his name on the to show off his swimming skills. At that story as a co-plotter, but he wasn’t. Tenebrae/Wikipedia. moment, the oil rig digs too deep When I got busy with Marvel work, which was my and a strange “bacterial force” transforms Paul into main source of income, I told Larry I would be unable the amphibious Creature-like Man-Monster. From there, to write the script. the ladies try to help Paul, who transforms back and “I’m fairly certain it was Larry Lieber who came forth uncontrollably. While Paul is human, a costumed up with the name ‘Man-Monster.’ He designed the visual for the character.” We should pause here, my fellow monster hunters, and take this moment to acknowledge Mr. Lieber. His name, bold professionalism, endless creativity, constant class, and editorial stewardship are all over the Atlas Bronze Age line. It was Lieber’s dynamic energy and limitless imagination that birthed so many characters that never reached their potentials for myriad reasons. To Isabella, Lieber was one of the major bright points of Bronze Age Atlas: “I enjoyed working with my longtime friend Larry Lieber…” Between Marvel, DC, and Warren, the Universal pantheon of horror icons was pretty much re-created in comic-book form during the Bronze Age. There were plenty of vampires, werewolves, monsters created by a Frankenstein, and mummies to go around. The gill-man Creature from the Black Lagoon archetype monster was noticeably absent. Other than the Manphibian at Marvel, there really was no attempt to cash in on Universal’s success with the Creature. Until Man-Monster. [Editor’s note: Artist Dave Cockrum, who co-created Manphibian for Marvel’s 1975 blackand-white magazine The Legion of Monsters #1, also introduced Devil-Fish a year earlier in DC’s “Legion of Super-Heroes” feature appearing in Superboy #202.] Rovin tells BACK ISSUE that the Man-Monster feature was “originally conceived as a throwback to The Horror of Party Beach (a 1964 horror movie spoof which had also been a fumetti magazine at Warren) and the early Roger Corman films.” Soon, the camp approach was jettisoned for a more classical horror treatment. Rovin continues, “I had worked with writer Gary Friedrich at Skywald, but Larry Lieber tossed that innocent approach for something more Marvel-like—again, at Martin’s [Goodman] insistence.” So what started out as a riff on The Horror of Party Beach became a part-Hulk, part-Creature from the Black Lagoon, part-beach monster potpourri of Bronze Age chills. Tony Isabella has his own memories of developing Man-Monster in Tales of Evil #3. “I pitched Atlas. Twice,” Isabella says. “My first pitch would have set most of the initial action in a high-science research facility with the title character traveling the world on missions. They wanted more of a monster approach, which led to the second pitch.” The second pitch is what mostly saw the light of day. The idea was, according to Isabella, “My original
Creature Feature Splash to Tales of Evil #3 (July 1975), starring the beach-bound Man-Monster. TM & © SP Media Group.
Horrific Heroes issue • BACK ISSUE • 55
What is it about the swamp that both draws and repels us? Is it the abundance of life, some quite harmless, with others more lethal? The unknown is everywhere, and therefore, so is the inevitable fear of the unknown. What secrets are hiding in the swamp, where visibility is so very limited? The swamp is the ideal backdrop for the unexpected and the bizarre, and those terms are easily at the top of the description of the bog beast known as Man-Thing. Man-Thing received his own series in 1974 and that 22-issue run is covered in detail elsewhere in this magazine. The run ended with the final edition cover-dated October of 1975, but you can’t keep a good Man (-Thing) down and the series was revived in 1979, starting over again with #1’s “Frightful 1st Issue” and sporting the tagline above the title, “Whoever knows fear burns at the touch of the Man-Thing.”
“BOB WIACEK IS INTERESTED IN MAN-THING.”
The first issue (Nov. 1979) was scripted by Spectre and Jonah Hex writer Michael Fleisher under a cover by Bob Wiacek, who would go on to render all the covers for the series and more often than not inking the interiors, this time over the pencils of Jim Mooney, who had been the penciler for the last several issues of the 1974 series. Bob shares with BACK ISSUE his lobbying efforts when he learned of the probable resurrection of the swamp monster: “I’d heard that Man-Thing was coming back, so I went by the Marvel offices and I went to [editor-in-chief] Jim Shooter and I said, ‘Jim, if it comes in, I’d like to do it.” He said, “Okay, Bob, we’ll consider you, no problem.” And then I didn’t hear anything about it, so I figured, I don’t want to be a pain, but I’ll just remind them, so I went in to see Jim again. I wanted to show how interested I was and he said, “All right,” and he put up a sign on his door that bob wiacek said, “Bob Wiacek is interested in Man-Thing.” He was just trying to © Luigi Novi / be funny, as usual, and he said, Wikimedia Commons. “We’ll give you a shot at this, Bob. “So, I asked him if it would be possible for me to pencil and ink the covers and he said, ‘Okay, we’ll give you a shot and see how you do.’ So, they liked the first cover and they liked the second and it went along and then they thought my composition was a little weak, so that’s why they brought in Ed Hannigan [to lay out covers], whom I learned quite a bit from.” When asked why he approached the newly minted editor-in-chief, it was quite simple: “Well, the thing was I didn’t know who the editor was going to be.
Frightful First Issue Man-Thing vol. 2 #1 (Nov. 1979), beginning Manny’s short-lived, 11-issue return. Cover art by Bob Wiacek. TM & © Marvel.
62 • BACK ISSUE • Horrific Heroes issue
TM
by
Bryan D. Stroud
If I had known, I’d have gone to the editor and not Jim. I just heard rumors they wanted to bring back Man-Thing and I asked Jim who to talk to and he said, ‘No, we haven’t picked an editor yet.’” Jim Shooter acknowledged that Bob’s story sounded familiar: “Bob was great and he never bugged me. He’s just one of the greatest guys in the world. Someone must have come up with a proposal for [Man-Thing] and found it good. At that time, we were on the rise. We’d turned it around and were doing well and so, we were looking to publish stuff basically and Man-Thing had its little cult following.” Issue #1 re-establishes the backstory that led to the man trapped in the Man-Thing, biochemist Dr. Ted Sallis, who had managed, in his isolated laboratory/shack deep in the Everglades, to reproduce the fabled Super-Soldier formula responsible for the transformation of Steve Rogers into Captain America. Unfortunately, others took a keen interest in the formula and Sallis was able to escape an ambush, but in the process of fleeing in his car, he took the extraordinary measure of injecting himself with the serum before plunging over an embankment and into the waters of the swamp. What emerged was no longer Ted Sallis, but the mute, unthinking Man-Thing, who only responds to strong emotions in those that surround him. The Super-Soldier serum remains a desperately soughtafter commodity by both friend and foe, and soon there are infiltrators into the Everglades to seek out the Man-Thing. Their goal is to restore enough of his intelligence to extract the formula. He is successfully trapped and being brought gradually back to some awareness when armed forces arrive to intervene. In the melee that follows, the efforts are for naught as all has been destroyed and the mindless Man-Thing again seeks shelter in the Florida swampland. In the following issues, things take a decidedly strange turn as the macabre Man-Thing is transported via an experimental device being field-tested in the swamp by scientists into the snowy climes of the Himalayan Mountains. Before the strange journey is over, the Man-Thing will have encountered a climbing party searching for the legendary Abominable Snowman, encounter genuine Yeti creatures, and rescue the female member of the climbing party by grabbing onto the strut of an airplane departing the region. Bob Wiacek offers an interesting recollection for the early part of the series: “On the second issue, I don’t know if they were lost or stolen or what, but they’d lost the pencils. They had Xeroxes of them in those pre-computer days, but they had to have someone light-box those pencils. So, I had these really beautiful, definitive pencils to go by and I was able to tighten them up and ink them off the light-boxed stuff. So, it was interesting, that second issue of Man-Thing was not the original pencils that I had inked.”
Reborn in the Bayou Original Mooney/Wiacek art to the splash page of Man-Thing #1. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © Marvel.
AN X-CELLENT NEW WRITER
With issue #4 (May 1980), a shakeup in the creative team takes place. Michael Fleisher’s scripting duties have given way to popular X-Men scribe Chris Claremont, and Don Perlin is now penciling Man-Thing. Claremont jumps right into the cliffhanger he’d inherited, as the bog beast and Elaine Simpson, who he’d managed to save, plunge from the aloft aircraft to the mountain peaks below. Before we can learn of their fate, we segue to a battle between Dr. Stephen Strange and a menace known as Azrael. As Claremont was the current scribe for the Doctor Strange title, it was likely an easy way to do a crossover maneuver. (Claremont was unavailable for comment for this article.) Once Strange triumphs, he and his companion, Madeleine De St. Germaine, are on their way to Citrusville, Florida. Dr. Strange is seeking information about Baron Mordo and begins by making a call on the Citrusville Sheriff’s Department and specifically, Sheriff Daltry. There have been multiple disappearances in Cypress County and Strange suspects Baron Mordo is behind them. The duo’s destination is deeper into the swamp, and soon Strange’s suspicions are confirmed when they come upon Elaine Simpson and a hostile Man-Thing. It is soon evident the swamp creature is under the thrall of Baron Mordo, who is responsible for transporting the two refugees from the Himalayas. After a titanic battle, Dr. Strange seems to be felled by the Mordo-manipulated Man-Thing, but for resolution, the reader is directed to the next issue of Doctor Strange. Issue #5 (July 1980) introduces Barbie Bannister into the swamp. A girl of privilege, Barbie has followed some impulsive decisions that nearly led to her demise after her parents were murdered, but she managed to escape kidnapping at sea and has landed in the Everglades. Her captors continue to pursue her, but her fear has triggered the response of the swamp beast known as the Man-Thing. Soon the pursuers attract the bog beast’s attention and are quickly dispatched, while Barbie finds her way to a road where she’s discovered and taken to Citrusville for medical treatment. There she meets Sheriff John Daltry. By the end of this issue, she begins to regain her health and confidence, even managing to subdue the leader of her captors. The letters columns in Man-Thing seemed to reflect approval of Chris Claremont’s succession as writer. Interestingly, Chris himself answered them and promised that “…the next batch of issues will concentrate on the more fantastic side of the quag-beast’s nature.” Horrific Heroes issue • BACK ISSUE • 63
TM
Born to Be Wild Javier Saltares’ Ghost Rider #1 cover art, reinterpreted in color by Bill Wray. From the Shamus Modern Masterworks Collection, via the archives of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © Marvel.
by
68 • BACK ISSUE • Horrific Heroes issue
P e t e r Yo u n g
A quick Google search and a brief scan of the search results are all it takes to discover that the 1990s were a very polarizing time for the comic-book industry. At the peak of the decade, the industry as a whole was selling about 48 million copies per month. Flash-forward about seven years to the very end of 1999, and the industry that was now suffering from its great collapse was only selling about seven million copies each month. Yes, the ’90s was a time of corporate greed, gimmick covers, and shock-value storytelling that never boded well for the industry. However, to completely write off the 1990s like some fans do is crazy, because the ’90s gave us some of the best comics ever, such as Garth Ennis’ Preacher, Jeff Smith’s Bone, and Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross’ Marvels, to name a few. In fact, if you were to ask top current comic creators like Robert Kirkman of The Walking Dead or Skottie Young of I Hate Fairyland and Deadpool what they thought of the ’90s, they would answer just like I would, that the ’90s was their decade for comics. I am a millennial, and a self-professed lover of 1990s comics. Though controversial with the readership today, many of the replacement legacy characters of the decade are what I consider to be my versions of the iconic heroes. Ben Reilly is my Spider-Man, Azrael to me will always be the coolest Batman, and I wouldn’t be opposed if Marvel brought back Thunderstrike. While all these aforementioned characters were met with… let’s just say divisive responses amongst fans, a few characters were embraced, such as Kyle Rainer as Green Lantern. One character that did emerge out of the ’90s and was not only liked by fans, but also transcended to become arguably more popular than the legacy character from whom he took the mantle, would be Danny Ketch as Ghost Rider.
A BRIEF GHOST RIDER HISTORY
Johnny Blaze, the original Ghost Rider with a flaming skull and motorcycle, made his debut appearance in Marvel Spotlight #5 back in 1972. According to Roy Thomas while he was editor-in-chief at Marvel, his friend Gary Friedrich approached him with the idea of a new villain for Daredevil called Ghost Rider, reusing the name of an old Marvel Western character that was later redubbed Phantom Rider. Thomas told Friedrich no, claiming it was too good of an idea for a villain and that the character needed his own series. Artist Mike Ploog, who at this time had just finished drawing three issues of Marvel Spotlight featuring Werewolf by Night, was tasked with designing the character, including the flame around Ghost Rider’s head, which made for a cool visual. The final design was then run by Stan Lee, who insisted that the character be called Johnny Blaze. The origin of this Ghost Rider is pretty straightforward. Johnny, in an attempt to save his adopted father and stuntman Crash Simpson from an incurable disease, turns to occult magic in hopes of summoning the Devil and striking a deal. Johnny ends up accidentally summoning the demon (and Marvel supervillain) Mephisto, who agrees to cure Crash in exchange for Johnny’s soul. Crash never learns that he is cured and ends up dying while attempting to jump over 22 cars in front of an audience at Madison Square Gardens. After Crash’s death, Mephisto shows up to take Johnny’s soul, explaining that he upheld his end of the bargain because Crash didn’t die from his disease. Using the same occult book Johnny had been studying and through the love she had for him, Roxanne Simpson was able to drive off Mephisto and save Johnny’s life. Down, but not defeated, Mephisto used what little control he still had over Johnny to bond the demon Zarathos to him. Now, every night, Johnny would be cursed to transform into the Ghost Rider. Through the success of his tryout issues in Marvel Spotlight, Ghost Rider graduated to his own series, which sold fairly well through the ’70s. In the ’80s, sales on Ghost Rider began to dwindle. At the time J. M. DeMatteis was writing the book in 1982, he was informed that Ghost Rider was being cancelled and was given ample time to finish the series’ storylines properly, something almost unheard of in comics. In the final story arc to the series, Roxanne Simpson, finally finding peace in life after leaving the love of her life Johnny and the Ghost Rider behind, settles in a small town called Holly. Roxanne quickly discovers that something is up when the local pastor of the town renames himself the “Sin Eater” and begins to turn the populace into hollow shells of themselves, claiming he is devouring their sins. Roxanne seeks out Johnny and begs him to use the Ghost Rider to help the town of Holly. At first Johnny sees nothing wrong with the pastor and agrees to have his sins absolved. During this process the Sin-Eater triggers Johnny’s
Hell on Wheels It all started here: Marvel Spotlight #5 (Aug. 1972), introducing Johnny Blaze as Ghost Rider. Art by Mike Ploog. For BACK ISSUE’s previous coverage of the Bronze Age Ghost Rider series, see issues #15, 71, and 95. TM & © Marvel.
transformation into the Ghost Rider, trapping Johnny in the Sin Eater’s Soul Crystal, the Ghost Rider (Zarathos) now free of being a host to Blaze. During this confrontation, the true villain, a creature called Centurious, emerges from the crystal. Zarathos is pleased at first now that he is free to go back to his evil demonic ways, though soon realizes that without Johnny Blaze his powers are weakened, and not having a host means he will eventually die. Zarathos ends up confronting Centurious and in their final battle both he and Centurious end up trapped in the Soul Crystal, freeing Johnny of his curse. The series ends with Ghost Rider #81 (June 1983), with Johnny and Roxanne deciding to put the events of the whole series behind them as they ride off into the sunset.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Shortly after DeMatteis’ time on the book, a young and up-and-coming assistant editor named Howard Mackie was hired by Marvel. Mackie was a huge fan of the Ghost Rider series, after being introduced to the character in his pre-teens, the image of a skull consumed by fire captivating him. “Johnny Blaze was particular favorite of mine, right through to the series ending, when it was being drawn by Bob Budiansky and written by J. M. DeMatteis,” Mackie tells BACK ISSUE. Horrific Heroes issue • BACK ISSUE • 69
A New Ghost Rider is Born (opposite page) Highlights from Ghost Rider #1 (May 1990). (top left) Title page, with creator credits. (top right) The Ketch sibs take an ill-fated cemetery detour. (bottom left) Danny’s encounter with a motorcycle changes his life. (bottom right) Ghosty evades the cops! (this page, top) Courtesy of Heritage, original Saltares cover art to Ghost Rider #4 (Aug. 1990), featuring longtime Marvel baddie Hyde. (bottom) Judging from this stunner (courtesy of Heritage), it’s no wonder why the team of penciler Javier Saltares and inker Mark Texeira, along with writer Howard Mackie, quickly became fan-favorites. From Ghost Rider #6 (Oct. 1990). TM & © Marvel.
Mackie hoped one day that Marvel would revisit the character. During the 1980s, Marvel editor/writer Mark Gruenwald was Mackie’s mentor and friend. Around 1989, after years of Mackie pressing people at Marvel to revive the character of Ghost Rider, Gruenwald approached Mackie, encouraging him to turn in a pitch for a new Ghost Rider series. “When I was asked to do a pitch for a new Ghost Rider, I said great, and I was told at the time by editorial the only caveat was [that it could not be] Johnny Blaze. That is why Danny Ketch was invented. So I did Danny Ketch, and once the series was a successful as it was and I had a little bit more clout, I immediately brought Blaze back into the book.” Mackie’s pitch for the new Ghost Rider was simple, just like its predecessor’s premise. The series revolved around Danny Ketch, loosely based upon Mackie himself. “One of the things that they tell you, one of the early rules of writing, is to write what you know, so I took that literally,” Mackie says. “There are many, many aspects of Danny Ketch that are me.” javier saltares When coming up with a name, Mackie drew inspiration from the lore of early hangmen who were called “Jack Ketch.” After playing with this name for while, Mackie discarded it in favor MarvelFandom.com. of Danny Ketch because the phonics of “Jack Ketch” made it sound like it was all one word. Jack would later become the name of Danny’s childhood friend. While the original Ghost Rider series focused heavily on the nomadic, wandering Johnny Blaze, this series would be based in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, an area of New York where Mackie had grown up. One of the primary settings especially in the early issues of the series was the Cypress Hills Cemetery. Mackie recounts that the local cemetery was a huge place of interest for him as a child. He would often hang out at night in the cemetery and even go sledding when it would snow. “That is where I grew up,” Mackie remembers. “I used to hang out in those cemeteries and imagine ghost stories it in my head and get all scared.” Initially Mackie was upset to hear the news that this new series couldn’t be his childhood favorite character and reluctantly began thinking up a new character and origin. What Mackie didn’t know at first was that multiple well-established, fan-favorite writers were also coming up with pitches as well. Today Mackie believes that had he known that several people were going to be turning in pitches, he probably wouldn’t have accepted Gruenwald’s encouragement to come up with an idea that would be liked by marketing. As Mackie went into his weekend brainstorming, at no point did he ever take into account of what the fans would want. Nor did he ponder what the marketing team would want. It turns out that luck was on Mackie’s side, as it was his pitch that won over editor-and-chief Tom DeFalco. “When my pitch was approved by editorial and was moved up the ranks of sales and marketing, marketing said no,” Mackie reveals. “Marketing said this book can’t be published as an ongoing series, because [Ghost Rider] is a failed character because the previous series was cancelled because of poor sales. [They said,] ‘You are an unknown writer,’ which is true—I had written some stuff, but a lot of one-shots and the Avengers Spotlight stories featuring Hawkeye at that point, and it had two unknown artists, relatively unknown artists, in terms of Javier Saltares and Mark Texeria. They said, ‘It’s just not going to sell, so we shouldn’t do it.’ This was a months-long argument between the editor-in-chief… and sales and marketing, and ultimately we had to reconfigure how the story was going to be done so many times that ultimately Tom DeFalco had to put his foot down and say, ‘The hell with it, we’re just publishing it!’” Horrific Heroes issue • BACK ISSUE • 71
Despite the flash of luck that took him from an assistant editor to a full-fledged writer in such a short amount of time, Howard Mackie was still a name nobody knew outside of the actual Marvel office; the same could be said of penciler Javier Saltares and inker/finisher Mark Texeira. In retrospect, it is amazing to think that Ghost Rider would be launching the careers of so many people at one time. Prior to this, Saltares didn’t have much work under his belt, while Texeira had a few penciling credits to his name on Marvel titles such as ROM and Buckaroo Banzai. The basic premise of the new Ghost Rider was a mutual collaboration between Mackie and Saltares, with Javier drawing mostly what was being described to him. According to Mackie, almost every character in Ghost Rider is an extension of the writer himself or based on someone in his personal life. Even Ghost Rider himself embodies the idea of what a true defender of Brooklyn would be. Mackie and Saltares kept the original Ghost Rider’s tight -fitting clothing, but Javier opted for a more modern biker’s look. Mackie insisted that this new Ghost Rider be much more muscular than his Johnny Blaze predecessor. Saltares modernized Marvel’s new Spirit of Vengeance by giving him an ensemble of a leather jacket, jeans, biker boots, and studded gauntlets around his forearms, complete with his very own mystical chain for a weapon. Mark Texeira has stated in interviews that he and Javier Saltares drew inspiration from Frank mark texeira Miller’s Daredevil as well as Miller’s Ronin series from a few years prior. In a pinch, © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. Ghost Rider can whip his mystical chain, turning the individual links into shuriken (Japanese hand blades). Further evidence of Miller’s inspiration can be seen when the series introduces Hand Ninjas early in the series. Perhaps the only design conflict to occur between Mackie and Saltares came when designing the new Ghost Rider’s bike. Mackie believes that every incarnation of Ghost Rider should ride a Harley Davidson. “Ghost Rider is a biker dude, but that is just my preference,” Mackie says. Saltares pushed back, arguing that at the time you didn’t see people riding Harleys as much anymore, with younger riders instead favoring Japanese custom bikes. The artist further stated that if this Ghost Rider were to efficiently ride around the crowded streetsof Brooklyn, he would want a motorcycle that could move swiftly and turn sharply, something you simply would not be able to do on a Harley. A big fan of Akira, manga that YOUSaltares ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, was very popular at theIFtime, drew Ghost Rider’s CLICK THE LINK TO bike design from that source. Honoring thatORDER comics THIS is a ISSUE IN and PRINT ORMackie DIGITAL FORMAT! collaboration between a writer artist, consented to Saltares, and the team was now all set to begin their first issue together. “Ultimately, it all worked out, though,” Mackie admits. “I like the design. That front piece that Javier created looked almost like a skull. That to me was cool.”
Tex Takes Over After (top left) solo illustrating the cover to Ghost Rider #6, inker Mark Texeira became the artist of Ghost Rider beginning with (top right) issue #7 (Nov. 1990), featuring the creepy criminal Scarecrow. (bottom) Autographed Texeira original art to theBACK blazing-skull cover for ISSUE #124 HORRIFIC HEROES! With Bronze Age histories of Man-Thing Ghost Rider #15and (July 1991), courtesy of heroes, Heritage. the Creeper, Atlas/Seaboard’s horrifying and Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch) rides again! Featuring the work (inset) Its published form, with its glow-in-theof CHRIS CLAREMONT, GERRY CONWAY, ERNIE COLON, MICHAEL GOLDEN, JACK KIRBY, MIKE PLOOG, JAVIER dark cover gimmick. SALTARES, MARK TEXIERA, and more. Man-Thing cover by TM & © Marvel.
72 • BACK ISSUE • Horrific Heroes issue
RUDY NEBRES.
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_54&products_id=1534