Number 665


Twice told tale


Yesterday's posting was of a Sheldon Mayer science fiction story told both through Mayer's original art and the printed story. Today we also have something with two versions.

It looks like plagiarism. Someone at Eerie Publications, producers of some of the schlockiest black and white horror comics of the late '60s though the '70s, came up with the idea of just re-drawing old horror comics stories. After all, it'd save them from having to pay someone* to write a story, and who'd know, really? Well, the Eerie Publications folks probably didn't figure on the obsessive-compulsive comic book types who love this sort of trivia. Obsessive-compulsive types like Pappy, for instance.

The black and white version, "It Cried For Blood" is done by a Spanish artist whose signature looks like Torre Radiso. Let me know if I'm wrong (as I'm sure someone will). It comes from the April 1979 issue of Weird Vampire Tales Volume 3 Number 1,** and is a near word-for-word knockoff of "Name From the Nether World" from the early 1950s Ace comic, Web of Mystery #17.

You can read "Name From the Nether World" at Karswell's The Horrors Of It All blog.

*I'm assuming here. They could have paid. I just don't know. They re-drew several old stories, many from Harvey's horror comics line.

**It could also have showed up in other publications from this company. They continually recycled stories amongst their magazines.

I enjoyed the stories in the Batman: Battle for the Cowl Companion, but indeed that's just what they are -- stories. The five specials collected here range from closely or tertiarily connected to Batman: Battle for the Cowl, all the way to advertisements for other comics entirely; there's not a bad one in the bunch, but you hardly need this companion to understand Battle for the Cowl.

Both the "Commissioner Gordon" and "Underground" chapters intersect directly with Battle for the Cowl. In Battle, Gordon mentions his "run-in" with Mr. Freeze, and indeed this is that run-in. Chris Yost's "Underground" -- apparently what we call Batman's villains these days -- answers my earlier question as to what became of Catwoman during Battle for the Cowl; I'm not sure the timeline of the two stories quite fits, but Catwoman running in to Black Mask (whom she believes she murdered) and the post-Countdown to Final Crisis reunion of Harley Quinn and sometime-Catwoman Holly Robison are both great moments.

Unexpectedly, my favorite of the stories was "Arkham Asylum." The story is an unabashed lead-in to writer David Hine's forthcoming Arkham Reborn miniseries, but it also takes on the concept of insanity, inprisonment, and the meaning of asylum with striking seriousness. Through the narration of Jermiah Arkham, Hine introduces three fasinating inmates -- one obsessed with his own looks, one so ugly her face drives men insane, and with no face other than what he himself draws -- and the detailed description of Arkham's treatment of the inmates is equally interesting. The cliffhanger ending comes seemingly out of nowhere, but it does its job -- whereas I might otherwise have skipped that miniseries, now I'm curious to see what happens next.

"Man-Bat" and "The Network" round out the book. Joe Harris's "Man-Bat" makes good use of Dr. Phosphorus, last seen in the recent Batman: Detective stories, and also references Man-Bat's wife Francine's ties to the Outsiders, but the story also ends on a cliffhanger which I'm not sure where, if ever, will be followed up. Fabian Nicieza's "The Network" -- as strange a name as "The Underground" -- works as a Birds of Prey story in that Oracle gets the spotlight, though his ultra-violent characterization of the Huntress is largely outdated. There's also a suggestion in the story that former Bird of Prey Misfit is ill, though again it's hard to know if that's something that will be continued elsewhere.

The Battle for the Cowl Companion spotlights a good cross-section of the Batman universe, and each of the stories has a fair or twist at the end; I also appreciated reading a selection of writers I wasn't familiar with. Most of these stories are pretty well disconnected from the main Batman events, however; either they don't branch well from Battle for the Cowl or it's unclear where they're meant to fit elsewhere in the DC Universe. Inasmuch as one might have thought DC would have learned their lesson by now, these seem to be fairly needless crossover issues, banking on rather than adding to Battle for the Cowl. The saving grace indeed is only that they're all surprisingly well written; otherwise this volume might not get the recommendation that it does.

Number 664


"Dear Senator..."


Sheldon Mayer was with DC Comics from the days before Superman and Batman. He was an editor for Max Gaines' All-American Comics branch of the company known collectively as DC. He quit his editor job so he could draw Scribbly, a very funny, somewhat autobiographical view of himself as a boy cartoonist. In 1956 he created Sugar and Spike, for which he's mainly--and justifiably--known. But late in life Shelly Mayer did try other genres, including science fiction and horror. He wrote and drew "Dear Senator" for Unexpected #217 in 1981.

It's hard to tell if he was trying for a more serious style, because some of his cartoony side shows up, like the robot which looks more like something from the 1930s or '40s. But I like this fish-out-of-water story, anyway. Who can resist a story about Abraham Lincoln brought to the future?

I took the original art from Heritage Auctions. I love looking at original art, but if you don't you can scroll down to the printed version.

Number 663


I went to my own sex change!


What are the odds that I'd be presenting not one, but three pre-Code comic book stories about sex reassignment? Yup, we had two stories in October, and you can find them in Pappy's #606.

In the October posting there's a story by Dick Giordano and another by Wally Wood. Here's yet another Dick Giordano story using a sex change as a springboard for a plot. This time instead of the earlier science fiction take on the subject, it's a crime story. Either way it's goofy. It stretches credulity until...snap! Oops, credulity got stretched too far!

From Strange Suspense Stories #16, 1954:

Of the four volumes of the modern New Teen Titans Archives, this fourth volume is by far my favorite. I have been impressed with Marv Wolfman and George Perez's use of "years" in these volumes -- every twelve issues have had something of a common tone and a beginning and ending climax. In this fourth volume, Wolfman and Perez close out the second year with the advent of Brother Blood and an attack by Starfire's sister Blackfire; the third year brings with it the start of Robin and Starfire's relationship, and appearances by a mysterious girl later known as ... Terra. There's such fantastic pacing in this book, and such a sense of coming possibility, I was riveted the whole way through.

Throughout the volumes, the writers have visited and re-visited the question of whether heroes should kill, and I'm remiss not to have mentioned it before now. Here, Brother Blood kills Cyborg's childhood girlfriend, and he and Starfire seek vengeance over Changeling's protests when they think the other Titans have been murdered; in space, the Titans fight a war against the Citadel alongside the Omega Men, and it's suggested the Titans do kill, if unwittingly, in a number of hectic battles.

I appreciated here how Wolfman and Perez challenge cultural relativism. Sure, killing your enemies is forbidden in Gotham City, but that's not necessarily the case on Starfire's warrior planet of Tamaran. Similarly, what stands in the course of catching super-villains isn't necessarily the case for soldiers drafted into a full-fledged war. The writers contract the Titans' attempt to hold on to their morality with the increasing violence of the district attorney Adrian Chase, just one of many intricate plotlines being weaved together in these pages.

Another storyline that comes to fruition is Robin admitting his affection for Starfire. Perhaps Nightwing and Starfire have been such a constant in the DC Universe since I've been reading comics that the start of their relationship never occurred to me. Over the first two years of New Teen Titans, without too much melodrama, Wolfman and Perez portrayed a Starfire who might love Robin if not for her own naivete, and a Robin who might love Starfire if not for his inherit distrustfulness, and very slowly brought the two characters together.

We see now the importance even of Starfire's relationship with Franklin Crandell way back in volume two, turning the Robin/Starfire romance "off" for an issue without making a big deal of it having been "on." The page of Cyborg and Kid Flash discussing Robin and Starfire's relationship as the team returns from space reinforces how important this change is to the team. Once again, this fourth volume suggests so much to come in the future; it must have been terribly, terribly exciting to read these issues as published.

I noted in this volume a shift in the public's perception of the Titans, caused mainly by Brother Blood's machinations. I remarked in an earlier review how amazing it was that no one distrusted these Teen Titans solely because of their age, as would be standard with any current teen group; here, that very mistrust begins to come to light. It suggests the end of a more innocent era for the "new" Teen Titans, carrying over from when they were just the Teen Titans proper; surely, once Terra comes on the scene, the innocence of teen groups will be ruined but good.

This fourth volume of the New Teen Titans Archives is the last volume, perhaps, because the story continues in paperback in New Teen Titans: Terra Incognita. Unfortunately, there's three uncollected issues between Terra Incognita and The Judas Contract (#35-37; #38 appears in New Teen Titans: Who is Donna Troy), so an uninterrupted reading of New Teen Titans ends right after. Still, what we have here are stories which are not only captivating, but still hold up as paragons of storytelling thirty years later.

[Contains full covers, introduction by Marv Wolfman]

Number 662


Legacy of Horror!


Murphy Anderson drew this horror story for DC Comics' Sensation Mystery #113, dated Jan.-Feb. 1953. In the pre-Code era DC didn't wander too far into horror comics territory, but they did at least dip their big toe in the fetid swamp. DC emphasized mystery and not gore (even though there is a "decapitation" panel in this story) and there is a non-supernatural explanation for the goings-on. It's an absurd plot that wraps up with a spooky last panel.

The Grand Comics Database says Sy Barry is the inker. I admire the moody splash page; it sets the mood perfectly.

This is the third part in our series on the New Teen Titans Archives:

Volume three of the New Teen Titans Archives is essentially a collection of short stories. I understand from Marv Wolfman's introduction in volume two why he felt a string of done-in-one issues was necessary, breaking up the flow of a number of epic Titans adventures; it also helps return to the root of the series -- that is, the characterization of these heroes before their wild heroics. Reading the archive collection, I admit to feeling impatient with these four issues and the four-part, character-focused Tales of the New Teen Titans miniseries -- in following the early history of the Titans, I'd rather read about the rise of Brother Blood than in a one-off team-up with Hawkman -- though certainly there's much to like in this volume.

I'm a Red Star fan from way back -- but by way back I mean "Titans Hunt," and not the earlier story collected here, when Red Star was still called Starfire. Despite that "A Pretty Girl Is Like a -- Maladi" telegraphs the end all the way from the beginning, what's gripping and endearing here is Red Star's stoic self-sacrifice in the face of tragedy; it's impossible not to like this character. Wolfman and George Perez use Kid Flash to offer a healthy dose of 1980s Cold War paranoia in opposition to Red Star, and it's fascinating to watch this buttoned-up, conservative Wally West as compared to the hero we know today (as is true for the later Wally story, "Dear Mom and Dad").

The Tales of the New Teen Titans miniseries collected here serves two purposes -- to offer backstory on the "new" Titans introduced at that time, and to tease some future Titans stories (also introduces the Titans campout, referenced time and again especially in later Titans series). Most notable is the introduction of Starfire Koriand'r's sister Komand'r, who I believe appears in the next volume and has been a reoccurring DC Universe baddie ever since. I also found interesting Raven's revelation that the denizens of Azarath actually created Trigon, something I don't think I knew; one of these days I'll have to go back and re-read "Titans Hunt" up through Nightwing and Starfire's wedding, and try to pin down who exactly possessed whom and why in that whole thing.

The Cyborg spotlight stood as the favorite of the miniseries issues. I felt so touched by Cyborg Victor Stone and his father Silas's reconciliation in the first volume that this second look at the origins of their estrangement was all the more moving. We find here that it was not just that Silas couldn't accept Victor's lack of interest in science, but also that Victor fell into a bad crowd that caused him to rebel against his parents. The writers spin a tale of peer pressure that spans both Victor Stone's early life and the unexplored time after he became Cyborg but before he joined the Titans; this story too, though mildly cliched, offers an interesting look at the person behind the hero.

I've enjoyed George Perez's art, with inking by Romeo Tanghal, throughout the books so far, though I admit it leaves me hungry for Perez's later, wider-screen art in Crisis on Infinite Earths or Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds. In the Tales of the Teen Titans miniseries, Perez pairs with one of my all-time favorite inkers, Brett Breeding, and also Pablo Marcos, and the art on the Cyborg and Raven issues reflected some of the bold life I've been waiting to see in Perez's pages.

There's nothing wrong with smaller stories, but these have left me hungry for an epic -- I'm eager to see if the fourth volume delivers.

[Contains full covers, introduction by Len Wein, pin-up pages (also reprinted in volume one)]