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Marvel horror anthologies

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Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Thomas Yeates COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Michael Browning Mike Mignola Brian K. Morris Rich Buckler N’Kantu Jarrod Buttery Luigi Novi Marc Buxton Martin Pasko John Cimino P. Craig Russell Comicvine Roy Thomas DC Comics Len Wein Steve Ditko Thomas Yeates Grand Comics Database Robert Greenberger Jack C. Harris Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Heritage Comics Auctions Tony Isabella Rob Kelly Jim Kingman Paul Kupperberg Stan Lee Alan Light Andy Mangels Val Mayerik

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

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BEYOND CAPES: The Living Mummy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 We unwrap the reasons why this Marvel monster didn’t make the big time

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BACKSTAGE PASS: It’s Not Easy Being Green: Swamp Thing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Movies, TV, cartoons, and action figures—Swampy’s starred in ’em all! INTERVIEW: Martin Pasko, Saga of the Swamp Thing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 The 1982 Swamp Thing revival from the perspective of its writer INTERVIEW: Thomas Yeates, Saga of the Swamp Thing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 The 1982 Swamp Thing revival from the perspective of its artist BEYOND CAPES: The Witching Hour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 It’s midnight—time to revisit this DC chiller anthology OFF MY CHEST: The Secret Wars of the “Super Hero” Trademark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Halloween costumer Ben Cooper’s trademark tussle… plus the original “Spider Man” costume! PRINCE STREET NEWS: What If Superheroes Wore Their Ben Cooper Costumes? . . . . 36 Karl Heitmueller, Jr.’s latest gutbuster cartoon FLASHBACK: Thank You for Being a Stranger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Bronze Age Phantom Stranger team-ups PRO2PRO: Paul Kupperberg, Mike Mignola, and P. Craig Russell, The Phantom Stranger . . . 44 Bob Greenberger drops in on the creative team of the 1987 miniseries

INDEX: Marvel Bronze Age Horror Reprint Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 From Beware! to Where Monsters Dwell, reprint info for Marvel’s spookfests BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 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, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $73 Economy US, $88 Expedited US, $116 International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Thomas Yeates. Swamp Thing and the Phantom Stranger TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2016 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing except Prince Street News © 2016 Karl Heitmueller, Jr. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

Halloween Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1

In Memoriam

Darwyn Cooke (1962–2016)

TM & © DC Comics.

Here’s something I wish I would’ve said to Darwyn Cooke: “Thank you.” Darwyn’s art lured me back into comics appreciation after a few rough patches in my career and life had steered me away from the flock. Were it not for his work rekindling that flame, there may not have been a BACK ISSUE magazine or the comics-history books I’ve produced. I’d also thank Darwyn for not listening to my editorial request when he drew the cover for BACK ISSUE #28, our “Heroes Behaving Badly” issue. I asked for a “Flash in jail” cover. He really wanted to do “drunk Iron Man.” I was hesitant because we’d published an Iron Man cover three issues prior, but succumbed to his enthusiasm. Glad I did. His drunk Iron Man cover (look closely at the detail) was the funniest BI cover ever. I can’t thank him personally—at least not in this life— as cancer claimed the life of this talented artist, at age 53, on May 14, 2016, just as this issue was going into production. What a tragic loss for his family and friends. And for the rest of us, as his style was a beacon of light in a business that usually peddles darkness. Rest in Peace, Darwyn Cooke. You will be missed.

ichael Eury

Iron Man TM & © Marvel. Flash TM & © DC.

by M

2 • BACK ISSUE • Halloween Issue

by A n d y

Mangels

If a comics historian were to note the most successful DC Comics characters in the media, the list would be as follows: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman… Swamp Thing? Wait… what?! With two feature films, a threeseason television series, and a short-lived animated series— all under his own name—DC’s haunted muck monster beats out Green Lantern, the Flash, and Aquaman for Hollywood bragging rights. But how did a walking collection of leaves and vines transition from page to screen so many times? Join us as we dig into the saga of the Swamp Thing…

TWISTING TENDRILS

Universally Monstrous At a time when comic-book films were rare, Swamp Thing shambled into theaters and cleared a path for a DC Comics revival and media continuations to follow. (above) Richard Hescox’s movie poster art doubled as (inset) the cover for DC’s movie adaptation. Swamp Thing TM & © DC Comics.

As revealed in BACK ISSUE #6, then-freelance comic writer Len Wein came up with the idea of Swamp Thing during a subway ride, then pitched the story concept to editor Joe Orlando. Meeting up with artistic sometimescollaborator Bernie Wrightson at a housewarming party for Marv Wolfman, Wein pitched Wrightson on the story, which was intended for one of DC’s mystery/horror titles. In it, turn-of-thecentury scientist Alex Olsen is betrayed by his co-worker, Damian Ridge, who wants to woo Olsen’s wife, Linda. Olsen is caught in a chemical explosion, but rather than killing him, the chemicals combine with the swamp matter outside the laboratory, changing Olsen into a monstrous creature known as Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing kills Ridge and saves Linda, but cannot convince his wife that he is alive. Wrightson drew the story in about a week, with art assists by Jeffrey Jones, Alan Weiss, and Michael Kaluta, and photo reference of Louise Jones (now Simonson) as Linda, Kaluta as Ridge, and himself as Olsen. The eight-page story, titled “Swamp Thing,” appeared in House of Secrets #92 (June–July 1971), and was one of the bestselling titles for DC that month (outselling even Superman); it also won the Academy of Comic Book Arts award for “Best Story of the Year.” Wein and Wrightson were almost immediately asked to revive the character for a contemporary series, but they demurred for a year. Eventually, Swamp Thing #1 (Oct.–Nov. 1972) was an updated retelling of the origin story, this time featuring scientist Alec Holland, who is working on a secret bio-restorative formula to help the environment. Holland’s lab is bombed, and Holland himself is doused by chemicals, and escapes, burning, into the Louisiana swamps. There, he eventually rises into a muscular creature who is seemingly made of plant matter, and he sets out to take revenge on the men who caused his “death” and eventually murdered his wife, Linda. The 24-issue series that followed saw Swamp Thing twice face the insane Dr. Anton Arcane, who was searching for the secret to immortality. Arcane’s niece, Abigail Arcane, became a love interest of sorts, and Swamp Thing also battled Arcane’s Un-Men, and the monstrous Gregori Arcane (a.k.a. the Patchwork Man). The series ended with issue #24 (Aug.–Sept. 1976), by which time it had transformed into a spooky superhero-like series. Although he appeared in Challengers of the Unknown for a year and made a few other minor appearances (a planned 1978 revival was killed by the “DC Implosion”), Swamp Thing remained a spooky resident of DC’s character graveyard, until 1982, when he was reborn again in a very surprising way. Halloween Issue • BACK ISSUE • 3

Let’s Run the Cast Bayou From 1982’s Swamp Thing: Dick Durock’s in the rubber suit, flanked by (left inset) Ray Wise, (right top inset) Adrienne Barbeau, and (right bottom inset) Louis Jourdan. Swamp Thing TM & © DC Comics.

THAT THING THAT YOU’VE BEEN CRAVEN

Following his work on such creepy “real world” horror films such as The Last House on the Left (1972), The Hills Have Eyes (1977), Stranger in Our House (1978), and Deadly Blessing (1981), director Wes Craven was chosen to shepherd Swamp Thing to the silver screen, as both director and screenwriter. The feature film project was announced in early 1981. Original plans called for a Georgia or Florida location, with interiors in Los Angeles. Production delays forced filming from March to April, with a tight wrap for June thanks to a threatened strike of the Director’s Guild. The co-producers were Benjamin Melniker, a former MGM vice-president, and Michael Uslan, a former DC staff member who had worked closely with DC on educational opportunities while lecturing at universities about comics, as well as writing comics such as Batman, Beowulf, and The Shadow. Uslan and Melniker had gained the licenses for and planned films for Batman and Swamp Thing in 1979. Artist Steve Bissette would tell Comics Scene magazine’s Daniel Dickholtz in vol. 2 #5 (1989) that the rights contract signed with Uslan and Melniker in 1979 was—in his quoting of Paul Levitz— “the worst contract DC has ever made,” and noted that it covered all materials related to Swamp Thing past, present, and future. With plans for Batman taking a long time to develop, the muck monster was the producer’s first project out of the gate. The story for Craven’s film was relatively close to its comic-book origins, though Craven would later explain that he had changed Cable into a woman to create a Beauty and the Beast-style love story, then had to change Linda into Holland’s sister, rather than his wife. For the film, Dr. Alec Holland (Ray Wise) was a scientist working at a top-secret laboratory in the

4 • BACK ISSUE • Halloween Issue

Louisiana swamps. Alongside his sister, Linda (Nannette Brown), Holland is developing a bio-engineering project that will create a plant/animal hybrid which could help crops grow in even the most world’s worst environments. Comely government agent Alice Cable (Adrienne Barbeau) arrives to check on Holland, and is flattered by his attention, then surprised when his experiments have a breakthrough. Even more shocking, though, is the attack by paramilitary forces, working for the evil Dr. Anton Arcane (Louis Jourdan, in a role originally offered to Christopher Lee), a man who will stop at nothing to gain immortality. During an attack on the lab, Linda is killed and Alice escapes, but Alec faces a worse fate—covered in his own experimental bio-restorative chemicals, he catches fire, and runs screaming into the murky swamp. Although Holland is presumably dead, he mutates into a super-strong plant creature known as Swamp Thing (Dick Durock). The man-monster soon does his best to rescue Cable, and eventually battles against Arcane, who has also been mutated by Holland’s stolen formula. The film was shot on location in Charleston, South Carolina, where actress Nannette Brown lived. The lab was created inside an old warehouse, though local construction workers had never built a movie set before, and the completely solid structure had to be chainsawed apart to use as a filmable location. Arcane’s mansion was “played” by Charleston’s Hibernian Hall. Other local locations included Cypress Gardens, Fairlawn Plantation, Magnolia Plantation, and Johns Island. Craven used low angles, shadows, garish colors, and fog to approximate comic-book storytelling. The makeup was the work of Bill Munns, then 32 years old. Munns had come to the producers with a

shockingly low $80,000 bid to create the latex suits to be worn by Swamp Thing and Arcane. Financing delays meant that Munns and his ten-person crew only had six weeks to finish all the suits and specialeffects makeup before filming began. Actor Ray Wise did makeup tests as Swamp Thing, and was set to appear in costume for some scenes, but it was decided that Durock would make a better fit in the monstrous role (after stuntman Bob Minor bowed out). As the costume had been sculpted for the 6’2” Minor, reworking it for the 6’5” Durock was tough. Dick Durock had come to Hollywood in the mid-1960s to pursue some kind of work there, but he was larger than many actors in the field. While painting houses and doing odd jobs, Durock was asked to do some stunt work, and he began training. Following his first job—doubling Guy Williams on the last two episodes of Lost in Space—Durock became a regular on shows such as Star Trek, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Rockford Files, Battlestar Galactica (he was the Imperious Leader), and more. In 1981, Durock got the call for Swamp Thing. “They needed a tall guy and someone said to meet Wes Craven,” Durock told me in a 1991 interview. “Ted Duncan was the stunt coordinator. He asked if I wanted to go to South Carolina to film this thing. He said, ‘It’s kind of a stunt thing where you put on this green suit and do the action.’ It was a five- or six-week run. I went down and had to get Wes Craven’s approval. “The producers wanted the actor who played Alec Holland, Ray Wise, to put a head and shoulder piece on for the closeups. I was to do all the physical stuff—the fights and airboat stuff. Wes is explaining this and he’s watching me. I said, ‘Well, that’s going to be rather difficult to shoot, isn’t it? You can’t go from a full-figure action shot to a closeup.’ He said, ‘You got it. What I would advise you to do is to learn the whole thing so you could do it all.’ That’s ultimately what happened. Everything in green in the first one was me.” Explaining further, Durock said, “If you put somebody else in the same makeup, it wouldn’t fit because it’s molded for me. But if you put them in similar makeup molded for them, you’d see a totally different face… They did a life mask of Ray for appliances for his face. They were going to shoot him in the closeups, but they put them side-by-side and got a totally different look. It seems funny with all the makeup, but it really works that way.” Durock recalled that Wise wasn’t overly displeased, but his agents were. “Technically, there was nothing that could be done. He was 5’10” and couldn’t play the creature with any effectiveness, no matter how good an actor he was. It would be like putting the swamp suit on Dustin Hoffman. That’s not a knock, just noting his size. Ray is a sweetheart of a guy, though, and they did use his voice.” Wise would indeed overdub all of Swampy’s dialogue, with his voice filtered by effects personnel. Although scripted as a werewolf creature (as in the comics), Munn designed a new look for Arcane, incorporating a boar’s face, a lion’s mane, and a reptilian body. The five-piece Arcane suit with a semi-articulated cable-activated head was generally worn by stuntman Ben Bates. For Arcane’s death scene—after Bates collapsed from heat exhaustion—Munn himself wore the suit, spilling his liquid urethane guts. Though Munn’s suits did allow movement for the stuntmen wearing them, tannic acid secretions in the swamp water ate away at the suits, requiring them to be regularly treated with antacids. Assistants stood by just off-camera

This Man, This Monster (top) Designer William Munns works on a life-size clay sculpture of Swamp Thing, mapping out where the vines will grow. (middle) Ray Wise getting put into latex mask by a makeup person who appears to be Ken Horn. (bottom) Makeup artist Ken Horn applies Swamp Thing’s facial prosthetic. Swamp Thing TM & © DC Comics.

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conducted in April 2016

A New Saga Begins Swamp Thing editor/co-creator Len Wein cherry-picked writer Martin Pasko and artist Thomas Yeates for this revival of DC’s muck-monster. The Saga of the Swamp Thing #1 (May 1982) cover by Yeates. TM & © DC Comics.

MICHAEL BROWNING: Marty, talk to me about getting the Saga of the Swamp Thing writing job and the pitch for the series. You were well known for your superhero work, so this was a big change. What caused you to want to write a horror-hero comic book? MARTIN PASKO: I didn’t need to pitch it; DC management had decided they needed to have a Swamp Thing ongoing, to exploit the release of the first ST movie, that awful thing that poor Wes Craven had to struggle with. For all I know, a new ST title might have been a condition of DC’s deal with [Swamp Thing movie distributor] Avco-Embassy. All I do know is that that one day, Len Wein called me up out of the blue and offered it to me, and I jumped at it. Wanting to do a horror-hero book was not a big change for me, because I always loved horror. What readers familiar only with my superhero work couldn’t know at the time, but DC editorial did, was that I’d started out writing anthology horror for Warren, and then DC (Creepy, Eerie, House of Mystery, et. al.). I’d created a few original horror-hero concepts—one of which I actually sold to Warren—the others I pitched all over the place, but no takers because by then the “horror fad” of the late ’60s and early ’70s, which had spawned the original ST, was dying down. Only sale I did make other than to Warren was to the revived Atlas Comics’ horror line, but they went belly-up before any of it could be produced or published. By the time we worked on Swamp Thing, Len was an old friend for whom I’d been having a great time writing Plastic Man [in Adventure Comics], and he knew how much I loved and respected his work on “Swampy.” That had come up back when I was assisting Joe Orlando, in which capacity I proofread and sometimes helped place balloons on Len’s last few issues of the book with Berni (now “Bernie”) Wrightson. I guess Len knew that, from that learning experience, I had certainly come to understand the values and creative goals of the original series, never mind all the complex rules about which lettering effects were used for which purpose [laughs]. Len expressed satisfaction with my first SOTST script, and I was especially thrilled that he commented favorably on the very thing I was proudest of: the way I handled the first few pages, the flashback-originrecap sequence, with the rhetorical device of “Hell is…”, “Hell is…”, again and again, building up to the payoff, “Hell is forever.” So I finally felt emboldened to ask him, “Why me?” He told me two things: 1) He’d enjoyed working with me on Plas. 2), I’d written, under a pseudonym, a Daredevil prose story for a paperback series he and Marv Wolfman were packaging for Pocket Books. [Editor’s note: That DD story appeared in Pocket Books’ The Marvel Superheroes, a.k.a. Marvel Novel Series #9, from 1979.] He said he’d been impressed with what he called my “wordsmithing.” Apparently, at the time the SOTST writing assignment had to be filled, I was the only writer available—maybe not the first choice, but available—whom he liked working with and about whom he could also be confident would “understand how the series has to be written.” The day of that phone call was one of the happiest, proudest days of my career. I consider Len one of the finest writers who’s ever worked in this industry, and a real tough act to follow. The very thought that he Halloween Issue • BACK ISSUE • 13

by M

ichael Browning

conducted in April 2016

Groovy Ghoulies Although a relative newcomer at the time, Thomas Yeates made his mark at DC Comics with his Swamp Thing run. Original cover art to The Saga of the Swamp Thing #18 (Nov. 1983) courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © DC Comics.

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Unwelcome Wagon Pitchforks and torches “greet” Swampy and his little companion Casey as they’re cornered by raving rednecks on the splash page to SOTST #2. Original art courtesy of Heritage. TM & © DC Comics.

MICHAEL BROWNING: Talk to me about getting the Saga of the Swamp Thing job. How did you get picked to draw SOTST? THOMAS YEATES: At that point in my career I was working regularly for DC, doing backup stories. I was happy with that situation and was not very interested in getting tied down on a monthly book. Len Wein was one of the editors I was working with, and one day he told me he would start Swamp Thing up again if I would draw it. It took me while to say yes—I was very leery of that monthly book sort of commitment—but I eventually agreed, obviously. BROWNING: What did you and Martin Pasko discuss about the book before you went to work drawing that first issue? YEATES: I’m sorry, but I really don’t recall. Maybe Marty can answer that one. BROWNING: You gave SOTST a very different mood than what was being done in DC’s regular superhero comics. Talk to me about drawing a superhero book that really wasn’t about superheroes. YEATES: Well, I drew it the way I draw. The art of Bernie Wrightson, Al Williamson, Angelo Torres, Wally Wood, etc., as well as Joe Kubert, inspired me to draw comic books. I have never been much of a superhero comic-book reader, sorry. So the art style of DC’s superhero books wasn’t what I was doing, though I looked at them, appreciated them, and got ideas from them. BROWNING: The original Swamp Thing series was drawn by Bernie Wrightson, Nestor Redondo, and, briefly, by Ernie Chan. What kind of influence did those early issues have on you when drawing SOTST? YEATES: The Wein/Wrightson Swamp Thing run was one of the comics I actually read and collected. So they were a big influence on my style of art, particularly, as I said before, with the terrific Wrightson art. BROWNING: The Saga of the Swamp Thing storylines were offbeat and Martin wrote some very adult themes into the book, like the anti-Christ character, demons, and vampires, which seemed really mature for a comic that was on the stands in the early- to mid-1980s alongside Superman, Batman, and Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew. What did you think of the storylines as you were drawing them, and what do you think of them now? YEATES: [Saga of the Swamp Thing] was very well written, though not exactly my cup of tea. But we were a decent team. I have no problem with adult themes, but if I’m going to draw it I have to enjoy what I’m doing. After many, many years I got the issues out and looked through them yesterday. I’m still impressed with Marty’s writing skills, though I think the demons from hell angle may have been dragged out a bit, at least for my tastes. BROWNING: Did you have any reservations drawing a storyline that was based on the anti-Christ and end-ofthe-world prophesy in the Bible’s Book of Revelations? At that time, it surely had to be a very touchy subject, especially with pastors like Pat Robertson bashing storylines in X-Men as sacrilegious and the fervor over whether or not Dungeons and Dragons was a tool of the Devil to warp the minds of role-playing gamers.

On the Road Again The series’ shifting locales kept Thomas busy digging for reference. On this splash page from issue #3—the teen vampire story— Swamp Thing and Casey are heading from North Carolina to Illinois by freight train. TM & © DC Comics.

Halloween Issue • BACK ISSUE • 19

Under Siege Yeates’ cover to Saga of the Swamp Thing #20 (Jan. 1984), the first issue written by Alan Moore. TM & © DC Comics.

though, with serious themes, too, in the Timespirits series at Marvel/Epic written by the late Steve Perry, Bissette’s friend. BROWNING: I have always heard that you had help throughout your run from Steve Bissette and John Totleben. What was your relationship to those two— why did they help and how much assistance did they give you? YEATES: My art is rather labor-intensive. So, to pencil and ink a monthly book is rough, and I got help regularly. The artists I liked, Williamson particularly, but Wrightson, too, often had their gang of very talented friends helping. It’s normal for comics to at least have a different penciler and inker. I was still in New Jersey when I did those Swamp Things, so I knew a lot of other young artists from the Kubert School I had attended who were available to help out. A guy named Chuck McVay drew the car that crashes at the end of SOTST #1. CARtoons artist Tim Hardin drew most of the cars in the rest of the series, and lots of backgrounds, too, like the hospital, etc.

22 • BACK ISSUE • Halloween Issue

Ron Randall assisted me on a few issues. Timothy Truman laid out issue #7 for me. Steve Bissette, Rick Veitch, John Totleben, and I met at the Joe Kubert School, then rented a house together in ’78 for a few years. We went to concerts, camped, went to conventions, and partied together during that time, so I knew them well. It was obvious to me that Steve and John would make a great art team for Swamp Thing, and I hired them to help me whenever possible. By the time I got Swampy in ’82, Steve and John had moved away or I would have used them more. But we’d get together occasionally and I’d give them pages to work on. John did enough on one issue, #10, that I got him credited in it. Rick Veitch and I were still living together, though, and I recall he drew a beautiful bulldozer for me. BROWNING: What were your thoughts about Marty leaving the book and Alan Moore taking over? YEATES: Very mixed. First and foremost, I was and remain extremely proud of my friends’ incredible triumphs on the book and the fact that I’d brought them to Wein when I left. I would have loved to have had some of that glory myself, but I could never have done what Steve and John did, nobody else could do that. I had no idea Marty was going to quit, by the way, and may have stayed on if I knew that, to see what a new writer would bring to the book. BROWNING: What kind of discussions did you have with Alan Moore, if any, about him writing SOTST? YEATES: I met Alan briefly once and talked on the phone a little. I liked him and I wish we could have worked together; he seemed to like my work. I was blown away by his work on Swamp Thing. [Moore’s] V for Vendetta and Promethea also impress the hell out of me. BROWNING: You remained the cover artist for a few issues after Moore took over. What caused you to stay as the cover artist? YEATES: The editor asked me to keep doing them. I loved doing covers and would have kept doing them, but eventually it made more sense for Steve and John to take over. BROWNING: Besides covers, did you do any more work with Bissette/Totleben and Rick Veitch? YEATES: Yes. They didn’t use me on Swamp Thing, but I got all of them to help me a bit on Timespirits. John then got me to help him on Miracleman. Veitch just penciled some Prince Valiants for me when he and his wife Cindy visited a few months ago. BROWNING: What did you think of the work you did on SOTST then and what do you think of it now? YEATES: I was probably a bit critical then, partly due to the rushed quality and amount of text. Today it looks pretty good, for the most part. I was working hard and the coloring by Tatjana Wood was excellent. It’s funny, Scott Allie at Dark Horse asked me to lay out Conan for Cary Nord in my Swamp Thing style. Some folks remember those issues fondly. BROWNING: Do you ever want to return to the character, and did you have any stories that you wanted to tell, but didn’t get a chance? YEATES: I don’t recall if there was a story idea I was hoping to work into it or not. I did revisit the book in the late ’80s, drawing four issues, #86–89. That was fun. And later, I roughed out two issues that Shepard Hendrix finished and Nancy Collins wrote, one of which, #113, won an Eisner Award. Len Wein once asked me to finish a Swamp Thing Special he was working on with Bernie when Bernie bowed out. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, I wish it had. I continue to draw Swamp Thing at conventions all the time.

by J i

DC Comics’ The Witching Hour debuted in December 1968, the first new anthology entry in a then-gradually surging mystery line that already included the longstanding, revamped House of Mystery and The Unexpected. Artist Carmine Infantino had been appointed art director at National (DC) Comics in 1968, and with his illustrative background the entire DC line, cemented for years in a conservative house style, shifted narrative and visual tones to better compete with the rising, dynamic Marvel Comics. The mystery books, not allowed to be officially marketed as “horror” books because of restrictions imposed by the Comics Code Authority, now emphasized a darker mood and atmosphere, highlighted by Alex Toth’s contributions in WH’s framing sequences that starred three witches: Mordred, symbolizing the crone, Mildred, the mother, and Cynthia, the maiden and Mordred and Mildred’s half-sister, narrators of each issue’s tales of terror. There was fierce competition between these three: Mordred, with her tales of “thunder and lightning… and strange twisting shapes and creatures…! Stories of ghosts that walked!”; Mildred, with her chillers of “The inhabited object. Houses with souls… ships with minds of their own…”; and Cynthia, with her tales of “E.S.P. and psychic phenomena… and hypnotism… of strange perversions of science.” And who judged these tales at night, these brewings of evil, these terrors under a full moon? You and I, the readers, although we were never given a proper letters column in which to discuss them.

m Kingman

DO YOU DARE ENTER … THE HOUSE OF GIORDANO?

Twisted Sisters Opening page to The Witching Hour #4 (Aug.–Sept. 1969), featuring the three witches, (left to right) Mildred, Mordred, and Cynthia. Art by Alex Toth. These faces were reused as corner-box headshots on some early WH covers. TM & © DC Comics.

In the early bimonthly issues of The Witching Hour, the first 13 edited by Dick Giordano, the witches lived in a terrifying castle, apparently somewhere in Eastern Europe. Every evening as the witching hour loomed, Egor, a shadowed man-beast whose face was never seen that lived in the swamp that separated the castle from civilization, would enter the castle and toll its bells at midnight. Mordred, Mildred, and Cynthia would then each tell a tale to see whose was the most frightening. As noted above, Mordred and Mildred’s were more traditional horror stories, steeped in the supernatural and things that go bump in the night, while Cynthia, a stylish hippie with the grace and vernacular to back it up, told tales with a more modern slant. Though the telling of tales was a competition involving the three, Mordred and Mildred always made it clear that they didn’t approve of Cynthia’s hipper and more happening storytelling techniques. © DC Comics. From time to time, civilization or fellow ghoulies encroached. New neighbors were subjected to their tales (issue #4), and in becoming too critical had their house rocketed into the night (the witches did not take their criticism lightly). A mysterious little girl appeared in issue #8, apparently a friend of Egor but certainly no resident of the swamp in her clean attire, staying long enough to pose in a photograph with her beastly friend. Then she was gone, never to return, never to be explained, arguably the truest mystery in the entire series. The most offbeat framing sequence involved the death and resurrection of Mildred in issue Halloween Issue • BACK ISSUE • 23

Sinister Spectacular (top) Witching Hour #38 (Jan. 1974), one of DC’s 100-Page Super Spectaculars. (In case you missed it, BI #81 featured an in-depth look—with an issue-byissue index—of DC’s fondly remembered Super Specs and is still available at twomorrows.com!)

The Final Hour (bottom) Cynthia hosts this tale from the final issue of The Witching Hour, #85 (Oct. 1978). Original art by Ernestro Patricio and Ernie Santiago, courtesy of Heritage. TM & © DC Comics.

happened again in Unexpected #203 (Oct. 1980), although Cynthia narrated a seven-page tale. Even with the additional pages, “The Witching Hour” feature remained well under ten pages per issue. In Unexpected #204 (Nov. 1980), the three witches shared the introductory page with Abel and received a one-page “Witching Hour” feature, along with a five-page tale. “The Witching Hour” logo appeared for the last time on the cover of Unexpected #205 (Dec. 1980). In that issue the three witches, Abel, and Judge Gallows appeared on the introductory page, followed by a new Johnny Peril tale, and backed up by “Witching Hour” and “House of Secrets” features. Unexpected had become a mighty crowded book. And yet, it worked: Unexpected #208 (Mar. 1981), for example, had two single-page features starring the three witches, and Cynthia had room to spin a six-page yarn. While the three witches appeared with Abel on the splash page of Unexpected #210 (May 1981), none of them narrated a tale in the book. Then the “Witching Hour” feature returned in the next issue. Dick Giordano became editor of Unexpected for all of one issue with #213 (Aug. 1981), and The Witching Hour‘s first editor included two “WH” tales in the issue. Cary Burkett was on board as editor with Unexpected #214 (Sept. 1981), which kicked off with the three witches booting Abel out of the book, and after the Cynthia-narrated tale the terrible trio appeared at the end of the book only to go their separate ways, an unusual, perhaps foreshadowing, sequence that hadn’t been seen since the Giordano-edited issues of the series. Dave Manak became editor of Unexpected with #215 (Oct. 1981), and suddenly the three witches took over the book. A mysterious cat also made the scene to give the gals trouble. In Unexpected #216 (Nov. 1981), that same darn cat got the three witches unceremoniously booted out of the book. In the framing sequence of Unexpected #217 (Dec. 1981), the three witches were reported missing, and at book’s end a mysterious figure stood over their graves. Then they were alive and well in the All-Hallow’s Eve splash page in Unexpected #218 (Jan. 1982), in which Cynthia inexplicably called her sister “Mouldred,” and Mordred then narrated “The Mask of Medusa.” With that, the three witches were finally, seriously, thoroughly gone from the book, 13 years after their debut in The Witching Hour #1. Mordred, Mildred, and Cynthia appeared years later in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman #2 (Feb. 1989), summoned by Morpheus to help locate possessions of power stolen from him during a long imprisonment. More was revealed about the witches, a deeper origin that went back centuries. The Witching Hour returned as a Vertigo miniseries in 2000, and received its own Showcase edition in 2011, which collected issues #1–19. Of course, the three witches have never truly left us, so when you hear the tolling of bells at midnight, check your surroundings and be on your guard, for they may be near, demanding that you judge their latest round of terror tales. JIM KINGMAN purchased his first comic book, DC’s World’s Finest Comics #211, on a family road trip in March of 1972, and has been reading and collecting comic books ever since (with no end in sight).

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It all started in the 1930s, when two high school students, writer Jerome Siegel and illustrator Joseph Shuster, created the first superhero, Superman. Today, the superhero business is bigger than ever and has become a pop-culture phenomenon all over the world. With the hundreds of products, movies, cartoons, etc. being released every year bearing the likenesses of DC Comics and Marvel Comics characters, it should be no surprise that both companies jointly own the copyright to the term “Super Hero.” But did you know that wasn’t always the case? Did you know that back in the day, both companies didn’t even recognize the importance of the term? Yup, as crazy as that sounds, it became a big mistake that reluctantly brought the two competing comic-book companies together and changed the market forever. So, however you want to spell it—“Super Hero,” “Super-Hero,” “super hero,” “superhero,” and all its plural forms—the word means a lot more than just your average costumed crimefighter. by J

ohn “THE MEGO STRETCH HULK” Cimino

THERE SHALL COME A SUPERMAN, AND A GENRE SHALL FOLLOW

It states in the Oxford English Dictionary that the term “superman” was coined in the 1903 book Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw, imitating Friedrich Nietzsche’s “ubermensch.” But it was in 1933 that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster first used the word outright in “Reign of the Superman,” a story from their self-made, mail-order fanzine they started in 1932. It was about a poor man who is transformed by a mad scientist into a telepathic giant who wanted to control the Earth. Two years later, they refined the evil, bald-headed madman into a handsome, cape-wearing hero in tights who possessed powers far beyond those of mortal men. He was a champion of the righteous and protector of the weak that fought against evil and had a secret identity of a mild-mannered newspaper reporter named Clark Kent. Siegel and Shuster’s “Super Villain” (which is a term they are also credited as first using) had become a new fictional archetype known as “the Super Hero,” and his name was Superman. Siegel and Shuster first intended their Superman strip for newspaper publication, but they had no luck finding a publisher until December 1937, when DC Comics contracted them to produce a 13-page comic-book story featuring their new character. Thus, Action Comics #1 was released on April 18, 1938 (cover-dated June 1938), and the Super Hero market was born. With a plethora of new Super Hero characters being created, DC Comics would be the first to register (or copyright) “super” in a word when they registered “SUPERMAN” in October of 1939 (it seems that George Shaw never thought to do it back in 1903) since the character and comic were becoming extremely popular and the company didn’t take kindly to all the copycats coming out from other publishers. Soon after that, in November of 1941, DC registered the

What’s in a Name? From the super-’70s, box fronts for Ben Cooper® Batman and Batgirl costumes reflecting the changing “Super Hero” trademark. Batman, Superman, Batgirl, Superman, and Wonder Woman TM & © DC Comics.

Halloween Issue • BACK ISSUE • 31

TwoMorrows

The Future of Comics History.

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Time-trip back to the frightening era of 1957-1972, when monsters stomped into the American mainstream! This profusely illustrated full-color hardcover covers that creepy, kooky Monster Craze through features on Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, the #1 hit “Monster Mash,” Aurora’s model kits, TV shows (Shock Theatre, The Addams Family, The Munsters, and Dark Shadows), “Mars Attacks” trading cards, Eerie Publications, Planet of the Apes, and more! It features interviews with JAMES WARREN (Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella magazines), FORREST J ACKERMAN (Famous Monsters of Filmland), JOHN ASTIN (The Addams Family), AL LEWIS (The Munsters), JONATHAN FRID (Dark Shadows), GEORGE BARRIS (monster car customizer), ED “BIG DADDY” ROTH (Rat Fink), BOBBY (BORIS) PICKETT (Monster Mash singer/songwriter) and others, with a Foreword by TV horror host ZACHERLEY, the “Cool Ghoul.” Written by MARK VOGER (author of “The Dark Age”). (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-064-9 • NOW SHIPPING!

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by R o b

Kelly

First Encounter We’re up in arms over this gripping Neal Adams cover for the first Batman/Phantom Stranger team-up, in The Brave and the Bold (B&B) #89 (Apr.–May 1970). TM & © DC Comics.

As you might imagine, someone named the Phantom Stranger doesn’t lend himself to being a team player. You can’t look the guy in the eye. He rarely answers any question directly. He comes and goes at will. He never ponies up for gas. And yet, as we’ll see, he’s been a popular team-up star in the DC Comics Universe since his first (re)appearance almost 50 years ago. DC clearly had high hopes for the character, when he was (re)introduced in Showcase #80 (Feb. 1969). His first appearance was an odd hybrid of new material by Mike Freidrich, Jerry Grandinetti, and Bill Draut surrounding reprints from the 1950s Phantom Stranger series, but he quickly graduated into his own book a few months later. The new/old mix continued for a few issues, and then took off for a solid run of horror-tinged mystery stories that continued into the mid-1970s. But it didn’t take long at all for DC to bring the Phantom Stranger into its burgeoning larger universe. In The Brave and the Bold #89 (Apr.–May 1970, written by Bob Haney and drawn by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito), the descendents of a religious sect who settled Gotham City centuries ago show up to demand reparations, in the form of the land itself! As you might imagine, most of Gotham’s citizenry and political class are against this— except for Councilman Bruce Wayne, who quickly agrees to turn over the Wayne Foundation building to the sect and its leader, Josiah Heller! As Heller watches from his newfound, lofty perch, the Phantom Stranger arrives, much to Heller’s displeasure. He tries to attack the Stranger, who disappears before Heller can lay a hand on him. Naturally, Batman gets involved, who at one point tries to put this stranger under “Bat-Arrest” (really), wrongly assuming he is in league with Heller. Eventually, professional wet blanket Dr. Thirteen shows up, trying to convince anyone who will listen that the Stranger is a dangerous fraud. But all that is put aside when it’s the Stranger who reveals that Heller is a criminal, and is instrumental in stopping his mad quest for power. The story ends with Batman realizing that this Phantom Stranger guy may be weird, but he’s a force for good. And with that, the template for almost all of the Stranger’s future guest appearances is set. Sales must have been particularly solid for that issue, because the Stranger returned to B&B just nine issues later, in #98 (Oct.–Nov. 1971), again written by Haney but this time drawn by The Phantom Stranger’s artist, the legendary Jim Aparo, in the first time he rendered Batman (but certainly not the last). In “Mansion of the Misbegotten,” Batman goes to visit his godson (uh, because he has one of those), a little tyke named Enoch (!), who lives in a big, creepy mansion with his mom. It seems like the misbegotten mansion in question is haunted by some sort of ghostly blob of light, and the Phantom Stranger shows up to tell Bats the bad news: the house is a cover for a coven of witches! As if that wasn’t bad enough, little Enoch is the evil being they all worship! This being a Bob Haney story, there’re more, much more, and it all ends with little Enoch alive, still Batman’s godson and probably a sore spot for DC continuity cop E. Nelson Bridwell for decades to come. Having dealt with the Stranger earlier, this time Batman is much more willing to trust what the Stranger tells him, even the bad news about Enoch. The Phantom Stranger then showed up in Justice League of America #103 (Dec. 1972), going so far as to calling the various team members together (including Batman, who vouches for him) to alert them to a mystical threat brewing in the small town of Rutland, Vermont. Writer Len Wein was writing the Phantom Stranger solo series and JLA at the time, so it was only natural for them to cross over. Wein had the Stranger pull the ultimate mike drop at the end of the story, when the JLAers offer him membership, only for the mysterious one to disappear before ever giving them an answer! Despite some later writers considering the Stranger a full-fledged JLAer, Wein never did, as he told me in a 2008 interview for my blog JLASatellite.com: “He was offered membership but vanished, as per usual, without actually accepting the offer. Over the years, other writers have assumed PS was a member, but in my world, he never really said yes.” Wein used the Stranger again in the classic “The Man Who Murdered Santa Claus!” (Justice League of America #110, Apr. 1974, drawn by Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano), with the mystery man showing up at the end Halloween Issue • BACK ISSUE • 39

to help the team defeat the Key, who believed he managed to kill many of the JLAers once and for all (SPOILER ALERT: He didn’t). Wein’s assertion that despite all this team participation, the Stranger wasn’t an actual League member was challenged just a few months later in Wonder Woman #218 (July 1975, written by Martin Pasko and drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger), when he is one of the JLAers who subject a newly repowered Wonder Woman to a series of trials to determine whether she’s “fit” to rejoin the team. If he’s not a member, why is he in on this? Maybe that’s because in this issue, it’s malevolent mage Felix Faust who is causing problems, a perfect villain for the Stranger. However, when it comes time to vote on Wonder Woman’s membership, the Stranger once again disappears before officially casting a ballot. A few months later, however, in Wonder Woman #222 (Mar. 1976), the Stranger shows up just to cast a vote, which he does—in Wonder Woman’s favor. That makes it unanimous, and the Amazing Amazon is welcomed back into the Justice League. (To underline his pro-member status even further, the Stranger attends a JLA party, held at the satellite, seen as a poster in Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-46, an all-reprint Justice League treasury.) After the power of the Comics Code Authority diminished in the early 1970s, DC and Marvel had gone full blast on horror/supernatural characters and titles. When this wave crashed, it took many of those characters down with it, leading to the cancellation of the Phantom Stranger’s solo title, leaving him “homeless” for the first time in his rebooted career. After a few more appearances with the JLA (in issues #139, 145, and 146, all written by Steve Englehart), he

co-headlined DC Super-Stars #18 (Winter 1978) with Deadman, squaring off against longtime foe Tala, and also tangling with Dr. Thirteen, still doggedly on the Stranger’s tail. The book is divided into two stories, with the first (Deadman) leading into the second (the Stranger), with both heroes meeting up for the third chapter. It reads like a “lost” issue of The Phantom Stranger, as it deals with some plot threads left over in the last issue of his series. Oddly, it references a story in House of Secrets #150, which had not yet been published. Also appearing in the story: Gerry Conway (who wrote the issue), Carla Conway, Martin Pasko, Paul Levitz, and Romeo Tanghal, meaning they are now all officially owned by DC Comics. Despite not having a solo book, 1978 was a busy year for the Stranger: He reappeared in Justice League of America (#150, again fighting the Key), and then co-starred with Superman and Batman in World’s Finest Comics (#249) to help out when the Man of Steel is turned into a vampire. After the Man of Steel is incapacitated by a mysterious force at the bottom of the sea, Batman goes to investigate, where the Phantom Stranger is there waiting for him… underwater! After it becomes clear that Superman has turned into a “Vampire of Steel,” the Stranger gets really hands on, going so far as to track down a magic stake with which Batman has to use on his old pal. It’s only at the last moment that the true nature of the evil is revealed, and Superman is saved. That same month, remembering his mystery roots, the Stranger popped up in The House of Secrets (#150, Mar. 1978) to tell a story about a man named Thomas Corbett, a warlock who once tried to kill a friend of the Stranger’s. In May, he participated in the book-length adventure “There Shall Come a Gathering” in Showcase #100, a story featuring every character to headline the title to date, rubbing shoulders with not just the Flash and Green Lantern, but also Sugar and Spike, Dolphin, Angel and the Ape, and dozens more. A disruption in the time stream starts pulling Earth from its orbit, so a large group of heroes meet on the JLA Satellite to address the problem. They break up into smaller groups to keep our big blue marble spinning, as well as dealing with catastrophes on the planet itself. When Flash and some of the others fail in their outer space mission, they call in some “big guns,” one of which is the Stranger. He, along with Flash, Green Lantern, the Atom, Adam Strange, and Space Ranger hold a séance, which conjures up the Spectre. The Spectre then tries to literally hold Earth in its place, while the cause of all this trouble (I’m not saying it was aliens—but it was aliens) is dealt with by some of the other heroes, including Lois Lane and the aforementioned Angel. Written by Pauls Kupperberg and Levitz and drawn by Joe Staton, “Gathering” remains a high-water mark for DC anniversary issues, managing to give each of the main heroes (including the Stranger) a moment to shine while also finding a way to work in dozens of disparate characters. After some more appearances in Justice League, the Stranger re-teamed with Batman in Brave and the Bold #145, once again drawn by Jim Aparo and written by Bob Haney. In “A Choice of Dooms!” these two men of mystery join forces to stop a voodoo cult. At one point the

Just One of the Guys (inset top) The Stranger played a role in Wonder Woman’s “Twelve Trials.” Cover to WW #218 (June–July 1975) by Bob Oksner. (inset middle) Nick Cardy’s hair-raising cover to Justice League of America #103 (Dec. 1972). (middle) The Stranger fades out after being offered JLA membership. (bottom) Terry Austin and Dick Giordano’s JLA Satellite pinup from Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-46, showing PS with the JLA. TM & © DC Comics.

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Stranger changes a bad guy’s gun into a snake mostly just to freak him out, which shows that, hey, even the Phantom Stranger can have a little fun sometimes! He then jumped over to Superman, helping the Man of Steel take on no less than Dracula and Frankenstein in issue #344 (Feb. 1980), in a story co-written by Paul Levitz and Len Wein and drawn by Curt Swan. The Stranger doesn’t do a whole lot this time around, pretty much just appearing at the end of the story, but the issue is worth it just for José Luis García-López’s brilliantly scary, moody cover. After attending a Christmas party with Madame Xanadu being thrown at the House of Mystery (DC Special Series #21), and (thanks to an impish Terry Austin) making a gag cameo in The Uncanny X-Men #125 (told you he gets around!), the Stranger continued with the “equal time” bit by appearing in DC Comics Presents #25 (Sept. 1980), teaming with Superman to take on the Stranger’s old nemesis Tala. After the Stranger appears unexpectedly in the Fortress of Solitude, the story changes the formula up a bit—the Stranger explains to Superman that there’s trouble a-brewin’, and disappears as usual. But the story (by Paul Levitz) then follows the Stranger, who finds himself face-to-face with his longtime foe. Tala’s plot involves taking over Pete Ross (wow, that’s a plan) and using him to take control of Superman. For most of the issue, Superman and the Stranger are not together, making this team-up an interesting change of pace. He went back to Batman (c’mon Stranger, there are other heroes in the DCU other than the big two!) in Detective Comics #500, appearing in Alan Brennert and Dick Giordano’s classic “To Kill a Legend,” which led off the anniversary issue. In “Legend,” the Stranger appears to offer Batman something truly special—the chance to right the wrong that set him on his path, namely the murder of his parents. Explaining that this horrible crime might be taking place on an alternate Earth, the Stranger tells Batman that, if he wants, he can be sent there to prevent it. Robin—meeting the Stranger for first time—is dubious in the extreme, but nevertheless Batman takes the trip. Aside from the gut-level appeal of the tale, writer Brennert throws in some great moments of characterization, like when the Stranger goes so far as to call Batman his “friend.” An instant classic, “To Kill a Legend” has been reprinted many times (and discussed in depth in these very pages) and remains of the great Batman stories of all time. Brennert doesn’t recall whose idea it was include the Stranger in the story

(perhaps the suggestion of editor Paul Levitz), but had this to say when I interviewed him in 2009 just about this story: “I did like using the Stranger. I liked the idea of him coming to Batman and offering him a chance to alleviate some of the guilt and grief he’s carried over since his parents’ death. It was a chance to show superheroes acting like real people, not just fighting crime but showing real kindness to one another (and I also had fun contrasting the Stranger’s stentorian pronouncements with Robin’s more casual attitude).” The Stranger’s very next appearance was yet another anniversary issue, Justice League of America #200, written by Gerry Conway and drawn by an all-star roster of artists such as George Pérez, Joe Kubert, Gil Kane, Dick Giordano, and more [Editor’s note: We gave that landmark issue a close inspection recently in BACK ISSUE #87, in case you missed it]. The Stranger appears in Chapter 2 (drawn, again, by Aparo), there to ensure that Aquaman—under the spell of the Apellax aliens—defeats Red Tornado, which he does with a well-aimed lightning bolt, which puts the android out of commission long enough for the Sea King to escape. Like Kupperberg and Levitz did with Showcase #100, Conway manages to throw a wonderful party, giving each member of the JLA plus a gaggle of guest stars a moment in the sun while still telling a powerful, dynamic story of superheroic adventure. For those of you watching closely, you can’t help but notice that for a guy so concerned with being an outsider, a loner, a man of mystery, the Stranger sure does show up at a lot of parties—House of Secrets #150, Showcase #100, Detective Comics #500, and Justice League of America #200: Plan an anniversary issue, and the Stranger will be there! After a few years of guest-starring gigs, the Stranger returned to lead-star status with a backup feature in the new Saga of the Swamp Thing series, written by Bruce Jones and Dan Spiegle. With the second issue, the feature was taken over by Mike W. Barr, who mostly eschewed an ongoing Stranger-centric storyline, instead featuring one-off horror or mystery-tinged morality tales in which the Stranger acted as narrator and occasional participant. Barr spoke to me in 2009 about his work on the strip: “The glory—and the curse—of Phantom Stranger is that he works on a number of levels. I wrote the first Who’s Who entry for him, where I referred to his occupation as ‘conscience, advocate.’ The glory of the character is that he can be used equally well in the role of active hero or the role of narrator. The curse of the character is

A Pair o’ Aparo Covers (left) An extra-length team-up in DC Super Stars #18 (Winter 1978). (right) The spooksters first met when Deadman guest-starred in The Phantom Stranger #33 (Oct.–Nov. 1974). A year later, Deadman returned for the final three issues of the Stranger’s book, #39–41. TM & © DC Comics.

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Art Team Supreme The Mignola/Russell team’s handiwork in original art form, from issue #2. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions. TM & © DC Comics.

KUPPERBERG: Yeah. GREENBERGER: Was that intentional on your part to vary the tone from when Len and Conway and the others wrote them? KUPPERBERG: Yeah, partly. And partly just my natural inclination that most of my characters have some darkness and it’s who I am … I look at everything through a humorous lens, darkly. So part of it was just my natural inclination. But I was trying to do him differently. I didn’t want him to be striding around with a pseudo-Shakespearian speech pattern and posturing. By the time I got to write the Phantom Stranger, I had spent several years writing Superman and Superboy and Supergirl and Superman newspaper strip and Superman DC Presents and Superman Ehapa German Edition Album stories [Editor’s note: Publisher Ehapa produced original Superman stories for the European market during the early to mid-’80s], and all kinds of superhero stuff on top of that. And superheroes are, no matter how well you do them, they’re never going to be realistic because there’s never been a superhero. In the history of mankind, nobody has ever put on a costume and gone out to fight crime, much less with superpowers. So anything we’d ever do in the realm of superhero comics is, by its very nature, unrealistic. GREENBERGER: Yep. KUPPERBERG: And then there’s that tendency to have what I call “the Ultimate Nullifier Effect.” You write yourself into a corner, it doesn’t matter because you can always pull the Ultimate Nullifier out of your behind and save yourself. “Superman, I thought you were dead.” “I was, but I went to the planet Fonebone and got better.” [Greenberger laughs] He’s always got that, right? GREENBERGER: Sure. KUPPERBERG: But in Phantom Stranger, even though, yes, I was dealing with supernatural elements, in horror, the story isn’t about the monster. It’s about the victim, and the victim is very human. And my stories were 50 • BACK ISSUE • Halloween Issue

about the victim. They weren’t about the Stranger so much. I mean, the miniseries was more about the Stranger, but it was also about Jimmy Olsen, it was also about Jim Gordon, it’s also about Valentina Vostok. And in the Action Comics Weekly series, all the stories were about the victim. They were about this person who something weird was happening to and the Phantom Stranger was the mysterious figure who swept in and used his wisdom and power to save the day. GREENBERGER: That sounds absolutely brilliant. KUPPERBERG: Thank you. I just made it up. GREENBERGER: I’m sure you did, because you do that for a living. You make things up. KUPPERBERG: Yeah, yeah. GREENBERGER: Why do you think it took so long for this story to be collected, considering how well regarded it has been since its publication? KUPPERBERG: I think part of it, there was always kind of a resistance to it on a sales level. I mean, there isn’t a lot of intense Phantom Stranger material out there, certainly not in collections. GREENBERGER: Right. KUPPERBERG: A year or so ago I asked one of DC’s collected editions editors—I believe it was still Bob Joy—why this was never reprinted. And Bob said, “That’s one of the books I’ve always wanted to get done before the move to L.A.,” but DC no longer had the negatives of the miniseries. GREENBERGER: Oh, seriously? It was one of those books? [Interviewer’s note: DC’s foreign department at one time sent the actual film negatives from runs of various titles, rather than duplicate the film. As a result, large numbers of titles saw reprint projects delayed due to lack of material availability or the necessary budget to recreate the artwork.] KUPPERBERG: Seriously. Yes, and it didn’t cost out to recreate the art for that book so it wasn’t getting reprinted. Somebody via Facebook—which sometimes comes in handy and is not always an evil place of whining and complaining—somebody told me they had a British edition of it and someone else pointed out a Spanish edition. I had a pretty good idea how things still worked at DC in those days from personal experience, including the Film Library, so I assumed they had sent the miniseries to those foreign publishers, which likely never returned it. I passed this information on to Scott Nybakken and Bob, and they got in touch with the publisher. And I never heard back from them directly, but then a few months ago, there was an announcement that there was indeed a trade paperback coming of your Secret Origins issue and the four-issue miniseries. That was supposed to come out, I think, early this year, but then got pushed back to the middle of the year— GREENBERGER: Yeah, it’s due in April, I think. KUPPERBERG: —and I think may have disappeared on Amazon since, but I’m not sure. I don’t know if they pulled it and then they’re going to re-list it or what. So I don’t know what the status is of that right now, but I’d be very, very disappointed if they finally didn’t finally get to it. [Interviewer’s note: The miniseries was initially to be collected in 2008 under the title The Phantom Stranger: Heart of a Stranger. Then, The Phantom Stranger was solicited in Fall 2015 for a mid-2016 release, containing the miniseries, Action Comics Weekly #610, 613– 614, 617, 623, 631–634, Secret Origins #10, and DC Comics Presents #72, but was removed from the release schedule. At press time, no new release date had been announced.] Follow writer/editor/educator ROBERT GREENBERGER at bobgreenberger.com.

by M a r c

Buxton

Hello, boys and ghouls, and a very Happy Halloween to you. Care to join me on a journey? It might be a dangerous trip, fraught with tales of nostalgia—of candy stores and newsstands, of the smell of old newsprint in an Age of Bronze. You see, my dear, weary travelers, in this age—this Bronze Age— things had a tendency to get a bit scary, especially in the pages of Marvel Comics. Colorful superheroes were always the order of day at the house that Stan and Jack built, but during the early ’70s, these primaryhued champions of justice had to share the spotlight with some of the greatest monsters to creep, plod, and flap onto a comics page. For the Bronze Age was not just an age of heroes—no, my dearest children of the night, it was an age of monsters. But not every monster is created equal, and while some creatures of the night thrilled at cringing readers, others faded into the darkness to become almost forgotten. Almost forgotten, my dear, brave children, for the tombs of history remain open and it is up to us, the intrepid explorers of comic-book lore, to find the truth about these obscure creeps. All this brings us to the focus of this expedition—the Living Mummy, Marvel’s monster that didn’t make the big time. Yes, sadly, the Living Mummy did not achieve the heights of financial or critical success that some of Marvel’s other monsters did, but it wasn’t for lack of trying, as some of the most innovative and famed creators of the Bronze Age took a shot at Marvel’s mummy. But like all great mummies, there seemed to be a curse surrounding this monster character. So join me on an archeological expedition into yesteryear as we attempt to discover the cause of the curse of the Living Mummy and try to figure out why this creature was the monster that didn’t make it.

THE MYSTERIES OF MARVEL’S MUMMY

N’Kantu Can, Too! Marvel’s shambling monster-hero’s first appearance, in Supernatural Thrillers #5 (Aug. 1973). Cover by Rich Buckler, Frank Giacoia, and John Romita, Sr. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

In that bygone era of bell-bottoms and disco, Marvel had already achieved major success by mining its own versions of the characters of the Universal Films pantheon of classic monsters. Dracula had become a Marvel mainstay in Tomb of Dracula, the House of Ideas found its own tragic Lawrence Talbot-like lycanthrope in Werewolf by Night, and the Frankenstein Monster was thrilling readers in his own eponymous title. Since Marvel found such great degrees of fan love with its own versions of Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolf Man, it made sense that the powers-that-be at Marvel decided to dive deeper into the Universal archive of terror. With all due respect to Frankenstein’s blushing bride, the Mummy was the most iconic Universal Monster that Marvel had yet to exploit. This bandage-wrapped terror of the sands starred in five films for Universal (six if you count the rather toothless 1955 horror comedy Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy) and was a late-night TV monster-mash staple. Hammer Film Productions followed Universal with four garish Mummy flicks of its own, solidifying the Mummy as a true horror icon. And as with most pop-culture trends of the era, Marvel wanted in on the act. But now, as we turn the pages of the Book of Anubis to try and find the secrets of the Living Mummy and answer the question of why this horror staple © Luigi Novi / failed to gain a comic-book audience, we turn our Wikimedia Commons. attentions to the genesis of the character. Like most characters at Marvel, the Living Mummy began with the Man himself. “Stan wanted a mummy character,” the legendary Roy Thomas informed horror aficionados in a 2001 interview with Comic Book Artist entitled “Son of Stan: Roy’s Years of Horror.” “And we couldn’t just call him ‘The Mummy,’ so we came up with The Living Mummy.” So it was Stan Lee that brought the Living Mummy to life, but it was other big Marvel Bullpen names that animated this monster. BACK ISSUE asked Rascally Roy what he remembered about the creation of the Living Mummy, but the creator’s memories were fuzzy in regard to the bandaged monster. When asked exactly what jumped out to him about Marvel’s mummy creation, Thomas replied, “Unfortunately, Halloween Issue • BACK ISSUE • 51

Back Issue #92