Cryptology #3 by TwoMorrows Publishing

House on Haunted Hill TM & © William Castle Productions • The Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman TM & © Warner Bros. Mars Attacks! TM & © Topps • Grizzly TM & © Pyramid • Adventure into the Unknown TM & © American Comics Group

FROM THE DEPTHS OF RETRO CREEP CULTURE COMES…

CRYPTOLOGY

No.3 SPRING 2025 HORROR & SCI-FI POSTER ART

PUPPET TERROR! “HAMMER TIME!” “KILLER Bs!”

1970 s PAPERBACKS

HORROR COMICS EXCESS!

MARS ATTACKS!

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Behind a previously unpublished cover, CBC #40 celebrates the life and art of the great DAVE STEVENS in a special double-sized issue completely devoted to the late artist! For this deluxe issue, friends, fans, and family share testimonials, photos, and fascinating artifacts, plus a gallery of amazing artwork by the Rocketeer creator, some never before seen. There’s also three interviews with Dave conducted by CBC editor JON B. COOKE, two Q+A’s with Dave by guest associate editor STEVEN C. RINGGENBERG, and JEFF GELB’s conversation with the artist recorded during the making of The Rocketeer motion picture. Dave’s sister JENNIFER BAWCUM shares about her brother in an exclusive chat, and we also interview some of Dave’s closest friends, including MICHAEL W. KALUTA, about their memories of the man. Plus: a conversation with KELVIN MAO, the director of the 2022 film documentary, Dave Stevens: Drawn To Perfection, about making the movie and its recent success on streaming services, which has resulted in an entirely new generation of Dave Stevens fans. And, of course, no such tribute would be complete without a heartfelt salute to America’s sweetheart BETTIE PAGE!

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LEN WEIN’s life as writer/editor from creating Swamp Thing and Wolverine, to MOORE and GIBBONS’ Watchmen, and more! Plus the sad demise of WILL EISNER’s P*S Army Preventive Maintenance magazine, interview with romance and pin-up artist JAY SCOTT PIKE, more of STEVE WILLIS, and SHAUN CLANCY reveals the saga of ADRIAN LOPEZ’s Harpoon/Apple Pie humor mags! FRANK CHO cover!

PAT BRODERICK discusses his career, from the Crusty Bunkers to unforgettable work on Firestorm, Micronauts, Captain Marvel, and more! Plus JACK KIRBY’s humiliating return to Marvel in the ’70s, the 1940s KKK-crushing district attorney FIGHTING LAWYER, profile of PAUL BUHLE, SHARY FLENNIKEN interview, 1972 heroes by WRIGHTSON, REESE, WINDSOR-SMITH, and others for Esquire magazine, and more!

Informative conversation with “Big” JOHN BUSCEMA and a biographical essay about the Marvel legend by JON B. COOKE, including an awesome art gallery. Plus we share about the life and tragic fate of BILL MANTLO (co-creator of Rocket Raccoon and Cloak and Dagger), inside comics printer Eastern Color Printing by SHAUN CLANCY, more with SHARY FLENNIKEN, chat with RIC ESTRADA, and more!

CARMINE INFANTINO radio interview by KEN GALE and ED MENJE, JON B. COOKE on Carmine’s stint as DC editorial director/ publisher, ROBERT KANIGHER’s 1989 conversation with STEVE WHITAKER and TIM BATEMAN, World War 3 Illustrated with PETER KUPER and SETH TOBOCMAN, DAVE COCKRUM’s Aurora model kit pamphlets, GLEN CADIGAN’s interview with horror comics writer JOE HILL, and more!

GENE COLAN showcase with TOM FIELD, Gene’s 75th birthday celebration from Comic-Con 2001, MARK WHEATLEY spotlights former boss MYRON FASS’ Heavy Metal rip-off GASM, JON B. COOKE’s visit to defunct comics publisher CROSSGEN, CAROL LAY interview, more with JOE HILL, SHAUN CLANCY’s look at HILLMAN PERIODICALS (publisher of Crime Does Not Pay and Airboy), HEMBECK, and more!

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Volume 1, Number 3 June 2025 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Peter Normanton PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATION Pete von Sholly COVER ARTIST Reynold Brown (Art originally appeared on the poster to William Castle’s House on Haunted Hill, 1959) SPECIAL THANKS Roberto Barreiro Heritage Auctions • Phil Hore Steve Kronenberg • Tim Leese Justin Marriott • Will Murray Michael Price • Pete Von Sholly COPYRIGHTS: House on Haunted Hill TM & © William Castle Productions • The Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, Mars Attacks film 1996 TM & © Warner Bros. • Mars Attacks! TM & © Topps • Strange Tales, Marvel Tales, Adventures into Weird Worlds TM & © Marvel Comics • The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature, Tarantula!, The Land Unknown TM & © UniversalInternational • Tailspin Tommy TM & © Bell Syndicate • The World in his Arms TM & © Universal Pictures • The Raven, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, The Masque of the Red Death, It Conquered the World, Invasion of the Saucer Men TM & © American International Pictures • Army Times TM & © Sightline Media Group • Mars A Task TM & © Pete von Sholly • Martian Soldiers figures TM & © Super7 • 12” Supreme Martian Ambassador, Mars Attacks Brain Disintegrator, The Martian Flying Saucer TM & © Trendmasters • 50th anniversary Mars Attacks Model TM & © Moebius Models • Super7 4” Glows in the Dark Figures TM & © Super7 • No Place to Hide Model TM & © Screamin’ Products Inc. • Mars Attacks Wacky Wobbler Bobble Head TM & © Funko • Commies From Mars TM & © Last Gasp • Alien Worlds TM & © Eclipse Comics • Mr. Monster Attacks TM & © Michael T. Gilbert • Pocket Comics Mars Attacks TM & © Pocket Comics • Amazing Stories TM & © Ziff-Davis • The New York Daily News TM & © New York Daily News • Baltimore Evening Sun TM & © The Evening Sun • Orson Welles image page 45 TM & © Associated Press • War of the Worlds 1906 Edition Belgium TM & © L. Vandamme & Co. • The Manster TM & © United Artists • The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves, Ghostly Tales from the Haunted House, Ghost Manor, Ghostly Haunts, Monster Hunters, Tales of the Mysterious Traveler TM & © Charlton Comics • London After Midnight TM & © MetroGoldwyn-Mayer • London After Midnight graphic novel 2022 TM & © Quadriculando • Dawn of the Dead, The Ghoul, Legend of the Werewolf TM & © Sphere • Martin, Squirm TM & © Day Books • The Brood TM & © Virgo • Rabid TM & © Mayflower • Halloween, The Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt TM & © Bantam Books • The Eyes of Laura Mars, Asylum TM & © Bantam Books • Dr. Phibes, Dr. Phibes Rises Again! TM & © Award • The Incredible Melting Man, Piranha, The Drums of Dracula TM & © New English Library • Werewolf vs. Vampire Woman TM & © Guild Hartford • Queen Kong, Zoltan Hound of Dracula TM & © Everest Books Ltd • Day of the Animals TM & © Ballentine • Grizzly TM & © Pyramid • Captain Kronos TM & © Fontana • The Omen TM & © Futura • The Great Gabbo TM & © James Cruze Productions • Dead of Night TM & © Ealing Studios • The Twilight Zone TM & © CBS Network • Devil Doll TM & © Galaworldfilm Productions & Gordon Films • Asylum TM & © Amicus Productions • Trilogy of Terror TM & © ABC Circle Films & Dan Curtis Productions • Magic TM & © 20th Century Fox • Puppet Master TM & © Full Moon Entertainment & Empire Pictures • Child’s Play TM & © United Artists • The Gorgon TM & © Hammer Film Productions • Adventures into the Unknown TM & © American Comics Group • Fantastic Fears TM & © Farrell Publications • Strange Tales TM & © William Clayton • Black Magic TM & © Headline Publications Inc. • This Magazine is Haunted TM & © Fawcett Publications • Mysterious Adventures TM & © Story Comics • Horrific TM & © Comic Media • Tomb of Terror TM & © Harvey Comics

SPILLING MY GUTS: Editorial by, and letters to, The Cryptologist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 THEY’RE ALIVE: REYNOLD BROWN’S POSTERS FROM PURGATORY. . . . . . . . . . 4 Classic B-Movie posters from one of the industry’s finest artists FORGOTTEN HORROR FILMS: The Scowling Goofiness of Paul Blaisdell’s Movie Monsters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Regular Cryptology department featuring selected obscure horror movies MARTIANS, MONSTERS, AND MAYHEM: The Strange Saga of Mars Attacks! . . . 16 A gum card-styled Martian invasion MARS A TASK UNCOVERED: Pete von Sholly Recalls Mars Attacks!. . . . . . . . . . . 24 Storyboards and original art from Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! MARTIAN MEMORABILIA: Mars Attacks Toys and Models. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Mars Attacks collectors’ items from 1996 to the present day MARS ATTACKS THE COMIC BOOKS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 A return to the hysteria generated by Mars Attacks in comic books LIVE TO AIR: The War of the Worlds Broadcasts! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Orson Welles’ infamous radio broadcast, and those that came before and followed in its wake A MARTIAN PORTFOLIO: The Otherworldly Art of Henrique Alvim Corrêa . . . . . 43 The influential artwork showcased in the 1906 Belgian edition of HG Wells’ War of the Worlds KILLER B’s: The Manster. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Regular Cryptolgy department featuring selected horror and sci-fi B-movies A REQUIEM FOR CHARLTON HORROR, PART 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 A brief history of Charlton’s horror comics from the 1960s and 1970s LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT: The Story Behind the Lost Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Tod Browning’s film that continues to elude the most ardent film collectors DAWN OF THE READ: Horror Movie Tie-in Paperbacks from the 1970s. . . . . . . . 61 The craze for paperbacks spawned by the horror films of the 1970s CINEMATIC PUPPET TERROR: The Dolls, Puppets and Dummies from Horror Cinema. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 From Hugo to Chucky, the dolls that came to life to terrorize film watchers HAMMER TIME: The Gorgon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Regular Cryptology department featuring selected Hammer Studios films HORROR COMICS EXCESS: Kill, Puppets, Kill!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 A catalog of atrocities from the crime and horror comics of the 1950s CRYPTOLOGY™ issue 3, Spring 2025 (ISSN 2997-416X) is published bi-monthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals Postage Paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Cryptology, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Peter Normanton, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: CRYPTOLOGY, c/o Peter Normanton, Editor-in-Chief, 619 Whitworth Road, Lower Healey, Rochdale, Lancashire, OL12 0TB, England. Email Peter Normanton: peter.normanton@btinternet.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $76 Economy US, $95.70 International, $29 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. All editorial matter © 2025 TwoMorrows Publishing and Peter Normanton. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

THEY’RE ALIVE! REYNOLD BROWN’s POSTERS from PURGATORY by Steve Kronenberg

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THEY’RE ALIVE!

t’s a stunning, stop-on-a-dime image. Sexy, scantily clad B-movie siren Allison Hayes is a giantess—fifty feet of female pulchritude, and she’s not in the mood to go clubbing. She’s very, very angry, straddling a highway overpass as she prepares to drop a car and its terrified occupants to the ground below. It’s not a photo and it’s not on film. It’s the poster created by Reynold Brown for Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (1958). Brown’s unforgettable, iconic painting doesn’t even depict an actual scene from the film, but that doesn’t matter. Movie posters were intended to lure patrons into theaters, and no artist could match the sheer immediacy of Brown’s work. His art transcended all genres, but monsters became his metier. Film historians and academicians link Brown’s posters to the angst and repression that pervaded America in the 1950s, but Brown dispelled that notion. He always viewed himself as a storyteller, and the posters he created for the horror genre wordlessly tell tales of terror that seduced and captivated monster mavens of all ages.

Reynold Brown’s alluring design for Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman certainly hit the mark when it first appeared in 1958, four years after his fearfilled presentation for Creature from the Black Lagoon. TM & © Warner Bros. TM & © Universal-International.

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FORGOTTEN HORROR FILMS by Michael Price

THE SCOWLING GOOFINESS of PAUL BLAISDELL’s MOVIE MONSTERS

he recent discovery of three obscure comic-strip episodes from The Army Times (vintage: early 1950s) in a private collection sheds an unaccustomed light upon the moviemonster career of Paul Blaisdell. Celebrated posthumously as a primitive but crucial talent in the low-budget horror/ SF canon, Blaisdell went largely unacknowledged during his youthful prime of ragged artistry. The unsteady plateau lasted just long enough to leave such memorable impressions as Roger Corman’s mid-century productions of The Beast with a Million Eyes, It Conquered the World, and The She-Creature. Those Army Times cartoons are reproduced herewith from the pen-and-ink originals, restored from well-preserved sheets

of Bristol board. Before his ill-managed breakthrough in 1955 into filmmaking, Blaisdell was among that exclusive tribe of talented soldiers who distinguished their uniformed service by creating comic-strip diversions for the enlisted rank-and-file. One such artist, Pvt. Dave Breger, amused the troops with his self-caricatured Pvt. Breger gags, then re-entered civilian life with a Mr. Breger newspaper-strip spinoff. The great editorialist Bill Mauldin chronicled life among his fellow foot-soldiers with the Willie & Joe drawings of World War II and then persisted as a Pulitzer-bait artist upon returning from uniformed duty. Reluctant civilian Milton Caniff, denied enlistment during WWII on account of chronic circulatory ailments, complicated his Terry & the Pirates workload by creating Male Call as a pro bono morale-booster comics feature for Uncle Sam’s strictly-for-soldiers publications. Paul Blaisdell found steady post-Army work, but only just, by turning his skills at drawing and carpentry into a sculptural talent. He achieved results that—when seen under the right unsubtle lighting—resemble nothing so much as a procession of Latinate-tradition party-piñatas. He welcomed such assignments whether they paid or not, riding that vehicle through a four-year dead-end stretch. When assigned to wear his She-Creature costume (modified against his preferences) for a gratuitous swan-song appearance in 1959’s Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow, Blaisdell doffed the mask on-camera to lament the demise of his uniquely absurd approach to creature design. American International Pictures had begun to outgrow the goofy-looking monster-faces as early as 1957’s Paul Blaisdell’s Army Times comic strips of the early 1950s prefigure his creature-design sensibilities and an interest in the outré. Not of This Earth, featured last

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FORGOTTEN HORROR FILMS issue, whose space-vampire story anticipated the more mature-minded Gothic attitude of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe cycle of 1960 and onward. (Blaisdell’s involvement notwithstanding, Not of This Earth required no such prominent monster-faces.) Blaisdell’s constancy of purpose is crystallized in the first of the three Army Times strips: The opening panel shows a prehistoric couple poised to repel a sabertoothed cat. The beast sports the same grimacing scowl and slightly gotch-eyed aspect that can be seen in the invader of It Conquered the World. This self-evident prototype reappears, by turns, in Blaisdell’s conceptions for From Hell It Came (1957; uncredited) and Monster from Green Hell (1958; uncredited), among others. Psychotronic Video publisher Michael J. Weldon has likened the tree-trunk menace of From Hell It Came to a vision from “a six-year-old’s nightmare”—a revealing insight, connoting the naïve but practical amateurism that accounts for the mingled charm and annoyance of Blaisdell’s work, not unlike some child’s attempt to relate a scary story with a surfeit of adjectives.

Beginnings...

Born in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1927, and raised in Quincy, Massachusetts, Blaisdell attended the New England School of Art & Design in Boston; married classmate Jacqueline Boyle; fulfilled military duties; and landed in California as a technical illustrator with Douglas Aircraft. A lifelong model-building enthusiast, Blaisdell also pitched artwork to various science-fiction fan publications and commercial magazines. A Los Angelesbased agent, Forrest J Ackerman, steered emerging filmmaker Roger Corman toward Blaisdell as an effects artist, however inexperienced. The result was an 18-inch puppet, representing Corman’s The Beast with a Million Eyes. (A figurative exaggeration, that title. The film is more an Existential meditation

Blaisdell’s risqué alien-intrusion scene is representative of his attempts to develop a pulp-magazine rèsumé.

than a thrilling adventure.) Blaisdell, working with wife Jackie, developed a reputation for fast-andcheap productivity. Ackerman, who never met a conflict of interest he did not like, meanwhile developed Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine as a payola-in-print device for promoting his clients and cronies. Famous Monsters devoted space accordingly to Blaisdell, who nonetheless found himself banished from the magazine after a falling-out with publisher James Warren. Ackerman came into eventual possession of the 18inch Million Eyes puppet—but in time the prop deteriorated while stored in the

Ackermansion. The Blaisdells’ commune-like home in Topanga Canyon provided the workshop space when Corman assigned them to handle Day the World Ended (1955). This one would be a three-eyed scowler, lacking a body mold but built upon a suit of long underwear with foam rubber, flexible glue, and paint to effect a crusty skin, with a pinhead profile built around a military-helmet liner. Like its monstrous counterpart in Million Eyes, this creature would be kept tantalizingly in shadow, emerging for the finale. Since Republic Pictures’ The Purple Monster Strikes (1945), the cinema-at-

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MARTIANS, MONSTERS and MAYHEM The Strange Saga of Mars Attacks! by Steve Kronenberg

he tag line on a movie poster? The hype for some eagerly awaited TV show? Not even close. That titillating text appeared on the packaging for a pop culture phenomenon. In 1962, Topps Chewing Gum, Inc. made a bold move. After years of dominating the baseball trading card trade, the company hitched its wagon to an interplanetary invasion by releasing its gloriously gory Mars Attacks! card series. What Topps created became a legend: droves of kids eagerly traded their nickels for packages of these superbly drawn, garishly colored cards depicting malevolent Martians descending on and destroying planet Earth. Topps knew its audience— preadolescents with an affinity for horror films and outsized monsters. The goal of every Monster Boomer was to collect a complete set of all 55 cards, a daunting but worthy task. The front of each card displayed an unearthly, painted

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scenario from the story, continuing sequentially with every consecutive card until the literally explosive conclusion. The back of each card revealed a textual description of the illustrated scene, gradually unfolding the narrative and urging fans to stick with the story and purchase the next card in the series. The painted cards were delightfully lurid: the Martians were hideous, bulbous-headed brainiacs; Earthlings were seen disintegrating from ray gun blasts; the invaders turned ordinary insects into gigantic carnivorous monsters with an appetite for humans. Blood and guts flowed freely from the start of the sanguinary saga to its furious and fearful finale on the planet Mars. Mars Attacks! was the brain(iac)child of Topps creative directors Woody Gelman and Len Brown. They modeled the concept after H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. What they came up with was more like The War of the Worlds on

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MARS ATTACKS!

Soon after “The Invasion Begins”, the carnage gathered apace as these cards from the Mars Attacks series were eager to reveal. The sight of “Burning Flesh” would have raised concerns, as would the inference in “Beast and the Beauty.” TM & © Topps.

steroids. The series was test-marketed as Attack From Space and sold for a penny a pack, but when sales took off, Gelman and Brown substituted the more exclamatory Mars Attacks!, upped the ante to a nickel a pack, and watched the cards fly off store shelves. The Martians’ general appearance was adapted from legendary artist Wally Wood’s cover art for EC Comics’ Weird Science #16 (November 1952), depicting a group of intergalactic invaders emerging from a spaceship after landing on Earth. Gelman and Brown copped the Martians’ exposed and bulging brains from the Metaluna Mutant in Universal Pictures’ 1955 science fiction epic This Island Earth. “Those big-brained aliens were the perfect inspiration for the Martians in our trading card series,” wrote Brown in his intro to the celebratory book Mars Attacks! (Abrams: 2012), released to commemorate the cards’ 50th anniversary. Gelman and Brown initially approached Wood to illustrate the cards (some of Wally’s roughs are shown above), but his artwork proved too subdued. “We required more drama and excitement to be sure to catch our young audience’s attention,” Brown wrote. “Each Mars Attacks card needed to achieve the impact of a paperback cover with a dramatic story clearly detailed at first glance.” Bob Powell, who penciled Topps’ 1961 Civil War card series, was tapped to conceptualize each Mars Attacks! card with tight 5x7 pencil sketches on illustration board. Powell’s work was then forwarded to renowned pulp artist Norman Saunders to paint over his pencils with gouache. Saunders’ work was breathtaking. “We were very lucky to have Norm working with us on Mars Attacks!,” recalled Brown. “I loved watching him paint over the Powell pencils. He created beautiful, colorful masterpieces working with a fine paint brush under a magnifying glass, filling each card with more and more dramatic detail.” Saunders’ patience was unshakeable: the original paintings for each card were smaller than the cards themselves, requiring a painstakingly deft and delicate hand. “I was able to do one-and-a-half cards a day,” said Saunders. Topps president Joel Shorin objected to the violence and scantily clad women featured on

MARS A TASK UNCOVERED A chat with storyboard artist Pete von Sholly

hile amusing, Pete von Sholly’s enlightening “Mars a Task,” from his book If Not Now, When? [below], reveals just how complex pre-production can be in the making of a film±certainly before CGI took a hold of the special effects in the industry. To bring Mars Attacks to the big screen was a step into the unknown, as evidenced in his sketch for one of these Martian

invaders. The original concept looked nothing like the Martians from the Topps’ Mars Attacks cards, who unbeknownst to Pete were poised to make their return, going on to reap a similar trail of large-scale havoc and destruction in Tim Burton’s 1996 film. Pete admits he was only playing with the ideas at this time, describing his doodles as nothing more than “a joke.” Tim had been given a free rein with his proposals for what was going to be an amusing homage to the B-movies of yesteryear; so at that stage in 1995, there was already a plethora of ideas being thrown into the melting pot. If anyone understood the fundamentals of a B-movie, it was Burton, coming off the back of his tribute to the cult B-movie impresario Ed Wood in 1994—a fitting celebration of the man and his enthusiasm for these outrageous films, which in his hands became even more outrageous, as we shall see in a future issue of Cryptology.

“Mars A Task” reveals how Pete bagged himself a holiday over in England and got to see so many of the sites. Mars Attacks seemed to be on the back burner at this time, but it didn’t stop Pete from experimenting with his Martian designs. TM & © Pete von Sholly

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The excess in the original Mars Attacks card series was taken that one step further in Pete’s “Food for Thought” scenario. Below, a horrifying scene that never made it to Tim Burton’s film. TM & © Pete von Sholly

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MARS A TASK UNCOVERED

Tim’s passion for bringing these crazy cards to life was evident from the very outset of his film. While Pete shared this excitement for the project, he stands among those, who all of these years later, wishes it had been either funnier or more horrifying. This would have made it consistent with the excess that had erupted from these cards on their first showing. In Pete’s words, “We didn’t hit either one hard enough for my money. Also the absence of giant bugs was an egregious choice, sorry!” The bugs, particularly the monster wrapped around the Eiffel Tower, were indeed conspicuous by their absence; and let’s be honest—the funding was available, as this was a big budget picture. Pete further commented, “In the film, when the Martians burned people up, the skeletons were red or green... because Warner Brothers was timid about the horror element and wanted to play it safe.” As a result, long time Mars Attack fans lost that ingredient they so reveled in: the gory horror that had been intrinsic to the excitement in these cards and in turn led to their being banned. Surely no one was going to ban a big budget film in the 1990s? In our chit-chat, I asked Pete if, back in the day, he been one of those kids lucky enough to pick up any of these cards. After all, he was one of those at the heart of this

MARTIAN MEMORABILIA by Peter Normanton

aligned from the outset, Topps’ Mars Attacks cards didn’t last too long at the neighborhood store. The lucky ones were certainly picking them up as fast as they possibly could, but the controversy surrounding their graphic content resulted in this mind-blowing series being unceremoniously pulled from the shelves, so few kids away from the big cities ever got to see them. The upshot for those frothing at the mouth for more, was not a single toy manufacturer in their right mind was going to go anywhere near them. They were trouble, serious trouble. Much to their relief, the toy shop owners weren’t besieged by these Martian invaders and their deadly saucer machines. Nor was there to be any dodging of the ray guns and the giant insects they engineered, and as for the killer robots, there was no chance of them going on the rampage. The entire concept was dead in the water long before these searing works of art ever got the chance to ransack our towns and cities. For the few

who were lucky to lay their hands on these cards back in ’62, there was nothing, but nothing to follow by way of collectibles. Alas for the modern day vintage toy collector, Mars Attacks has drawn an absolute blank. Those self-righteous propagandists, whose outcry precipitated the purge of these gruesome cards, soon forgot about them, but Mars Attacks never quite went away. The cards were reprinted in Britain between 1964 and 1965, although they were slightly smaller. They then returned briefly States-side with a re-issue in 1984, a decade prior to a further release, that was to add 22, and then in a subsequent release that same year, 23 more cards to a series now entitled Mars Attacks Archives. Finally in 1996 came the release of Tim Burton’s cinematic tribute to the genius of Woody Gelman, Len Brown, Bob Powell, and Norman Saunders. While Burton’s film divided fans of these spectacular cards, it was to spawn a wave of must-have memorabilia for a new generation of enthusiasts.

If you had seen the film or collected the cards, then Mars Attacks toys were a must! To the left, the Super7 7" articulated Martian Soldiers from the “Smashing The Enemy” card #50. TM & © Super7. On the right, the 12" Supreme Martian Ambassador. TM & © Trendmasters.

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MARTIAN MEMORABILIA

4" Doom Robot with its rotating head, as seen on card #32; the 2" Doom Spider, also known as S.A.D.A.A.M.A.; scaled down versions of the Supreme Martian Ambassador and the Martian Leader; the alluring Martian Spy Girl coming in at 6"; a Blue Martian Trooper; a Martian Trooper with body armor; his sidekick with a Proton Blaster; a 7" Paeec Overlord; and as any fan of the series would have taken great delight in, the Supreme Commander. Each of them was displayed in typically outrageous packaging, the Doom Spider depicting a hapless fellow ensnared by this predatory beast—the For the 50th anniversary of Mars Attacks, Moebius Models released their model kit aimed at the experienced incentive for youngsters modeler, but the box on its own would have attracted many other enthusiasts. TM & © Moebius Models. from every corner of town to descend in their masses, With The Press of a Button just as their elders had done when the cards first appeared Following their success with the Godzilla franchise, all those years ago. These flexible glow-in-the-dark figures Trendmasters released a series of Mars Attacks models, also came with gaming software on a 3½" floppy disc, which countless youngsters would have hurriedly latched which was compatible with Windows 95 (those were the onto. However, their appeal really rested largely with days), although there are only known to be three different the older fans who had been so cruelly denied three decades before. I was one of those lucky enough to receive the 12" Supreme Martian Ambassador when it first appeared, the very name evoking memories of the defunct Supreme Soviet, the prime legislators of the former Soviet Union. This devious fellow came with a brain that with the press of a button lit up, as well as uttering the diatribe associated with this warmongering breed. For all of his bellicose ranting and raving, the Martian Ambassador was still hours of fun. Alongside this uncompromising denizen from the Red Planet came the similar-sized Supreme Martian Commander, also possessed of an illuminating brain and his own inimitable line of prattle; not that anyone was going to fall for the chicanery of this mindless pairing! Trendmasters also issued a In 1996, Trendmasters supplemented their arsenal with the Mars Attacks Brain Disintegrator. The Basic Series of figures, the dread racket emitted by these guns would have made them an essential purchase. TM & © Trendmasters.

MARS ATTACKS the COMICS BOOKS by Peter Normanton

he ultra-violent spectacle that exploded from the Mars Attacks series of cards, should have taken the comic books of the day by storm. Unfortunately, in the wake of the furor of ’62, such an eventuality, if you’ll pardon the pun, was never in the cards, especially when eight years before, the comic book industry had been forced to clean up its act under the scrutiny of the Comics Code. Those with a hankering for the atrocities committed in these scurrilous cards would have to wait another 20 years; only then were they given the slightest hint of anything broaching the warped phenomenon that had been Mars Attacks. It came in November of 1984, when Eclipse Comics released the eighth issue of Alien Worlds with a John Pound cover evocative of the

John Pound was so inspired by the insanity of Mars Attacks, he produced these covers for Commies From Mars #2 (TM & © Last Gasp) and Alien Worlds #8. TM & © Eclipse Comics.

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cards from two decades past and the inspiration behind them, Wally Wood’s covers for EC’s Weird Science. For John, this alien malfeasance was nothing new; he had attempted to resurrect the Martian threat on his celebrated cover for the second appearance of Tim Boxell’s Commies from Mars back in 1979. Five years later, he produced this stirring image for Alien Worlds #8, the first of the three editions published by Eclipse following the collapse of Pacific Comics. This scene was the prelude to the Bruce Jones scripted “Collector’s Item,” with Ken Steacy providing the artwork. Ken was an exceptional choice for this tale, his artistry imbued with the paranoiac air of the atom-age B-movies, his embellishment rekindling memories of Mars Attacks and the comics the authorities had once deemed to outlaw.

On this telling, the Martians were replaced by an invasion force from Venus, whose modus operandi was every bit as callous as their predecessors from the Red Planet. Although this account was squeezed into just five pages, there was an infectious tip of the hat to the excitement engendered by the Mars Attacks cards, in its presentation of four cards from the fictitious “Venus Invades” series. Regrettably, the rest of this set would elude each and every one of us—the Venusians were quick to see to that!

Overkill

series, which had only recently enjoyed a long awaited reissue. Pocket Books should have been duly applauded; these comics were lavish in their production, displayed in boxes redolent of the cards from a quarter of a century past, with stories written by Bruce Fuller and Mario Bruni, accompanied by a fine team of nifty artists, in the guise of Greg Capullo, John Hebert, Bruce Fuller, and John Green. The centerfold to each issue was a breathtaking reproduction of one of the original cards, beginning with the highly sought after “The Invasion Begins.” The stories within attempted to tell of a 1980s styled invasion from Mars, one every bit as shocking as the original. Unfortunately, for all the genius in their splendidly conceived design, these comics didn’t catch on anywhere near quickly enough, making it impossible to continue the saga beyond issue #4—the back cover to that issue teasing with an advert for issues #5 and 6. It was a frustrating stroke of bad luck; these miniature comics could have become every bit as collectible as the cards, but it was as if a curse hung over this inflammatory series, or worse still, it was now forgotten.

The Martians returned with malice aforethought in the contents of Mr. Monster #5, dated February 1986, again published by Eclipse. Michael T. Gilbert’s story owed more to the 1953 film Invaders from Mars, referenced on the cover for this issue, but it is one of those entries that is well worth a mention. Michael returned, with finishes from Dave Dorman, with another dose of Mars Attacks styled imagery for the cover to Tundra’s Mr. Monster Attacks in 1992. The provocative scene created by this partnership, captured so much of the overkill of the cards, daring to take it that little bit further for a voracious ’90s audience. This pairing went further still for Penthouse Max #3, in Spring 1997, when Mr. Monster took on the Nazis from Mars, a tale later reprinted by Atomeka as Mr. Monster versus The Nazis From Mars in 2004; the cover to this issue was handsomely painted by Alex Horley. As thrilling as “Venus Invades” and Mr. Monster’s escapades were, their endeavors failed to inspire a revival of Mars Attacks; but don’t vacate your seats just yet, for all was not lost. In 1988, Pocket Books announced their plans to publish 55 issues of a pocketsized 36-page comic, 3" by 4.5" in size. For the Mars Attacks devotee this was manna from heaven, a concept that Tundra’s Mr. Monster Attacks #1 from 1992. TM would fit hand-in-hand with the card & © Michael T. Gilbert.

Topps Again

Fortunately, Mars Attacks wasn’t about to be erased from memory. After considerable planning, Topps entered the comic book arena in 1992. If anyone could bring Mars Attacks to the comic shops of North America, surely it was them. They had experimented with their Krazy Little Comics way back in 1967, a test series of pocket-size spoofs parodying the popular superheroes of the day, printing up test issues of The Amusing Spider-Guy, Badman, The Bantam, Blunder Woman, Captive American, Fantastic Fear, The Flush, The Incredible Hunk, Jesters League of America, The Lone Rancher, The Meekly Thaw, Stuporman, Sub-Marine Man and Tarsam. Alas, their life was short-lived. During the test stage they failed to attract enough attention, so the idea was promptly shelved. As has already been mentioned, Mars Attacks

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MARS ATTACKS the COMIC BOOKS

Ken Steacy’s “Venus Invades” cards from Bruce Jones’ “Collector’s Item,” for Alien Worlds # 8.TM & © Eclipse Comics.

LIVE TO AIR The War of the Worlds Broadcasts! by Phil Hore

it turns out memories are short and some of those countries laughing should’ve looked into their own broadcast histories. The first radio scare occurred on January 16, 1926. A BBC music broadcast from London’s Savoy Hotel was interrupted by a well-known public figure, Father Ronald Knox. In “Broadcasting From the Barricades,” Knox reported a crowd of unemployed men were rioting in London, having already destroyed Big Ben, stolen art from the National Gallery and captured the government minister for transport (the fictitious Mr. Wutherspoon), then hung him. There were realistic screams and gunfire in the background, making listeners grow so concerned they rang the police, offering help or demanding the Royal Navy send warships up the Thames to deal with this Bolshevik revolution. The broadcast only aired for ten minutes and was clearly satirical. Many of the names used were fake, for example: “Mr. Popplebury, secretary of the National Association for the Abolition of Theater Queues.” It looks like people just missed the joke, and to make matters worse, it snowed heavily the next day, making it impossible for some newspapers to get their daily editions out. For many this was evidence the paper had been one of the places destroyed in the riots. Just one year later, Australian audiences in Adelaide heard a disturbing report, and what happened next headlined the nation’s newspapers. “Serious alarm was created on Thursday evening by a playlet broadcast by 5CL. Hundreds of people believed that it described the progress of an actual air raid, and telephoned to the newspaper offices, the police, harbors, and telephone departments, and the fire brigades for confirmation of Frank R. Paul’s cover for the August 1927 edition of Amazing Stories epitomized the devastation of a full-scale Martian invasion. TM & © Ziff-Davis the statement… The alarm was

t’s arguably the most famous event in radio history. On October 30th, 1938, New York’s Mercury Theater broadcast live to air their interpretation of H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, and what happened next is the stuff of legend. There’s no doubt the broadcast caused concern and chaos among many listeners. Created to sound like a live documentation of a Martian invasion, with news flashes and updates, listeners who’d missed the beginning of the program had little to tell them this was a radio-play and not real events. Across the eastern seaboard some listeners panicked, with armed men heading out to hunt Martians, while families packed essentials so they could go into hiding. The smirking devil behind the broadcast was Orson Welles, who faced an angry press the following day, claiming to have been unaware of the panic he’d caused. We now know the Mercury Theater had deliberately constructed the show to hit important beats at specific intervals, for example having urgent bulletins appear at the very moment other radio stations went to an ad. They knew listeners would likely be channel surfing for something else during this interval and would catch their disturbing broadcast. We also know Mercury’s producers were aware beforehand the potential public reaction they’d invoke, as everything they tried had been done before.

“COULD ONLY HAPPEN IN AMERICA”

Newspapers across the world, such as the Melbourne Herald, reported on the event with a somewhat superior chuckle, claiming such a thing could only happen in the USA and never happen there. Well,

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so serious that many women fainted, and children became hysterical, until information was given out that it was all a hoax. The play caused the Port Adelaide police considerable trouble. It was taken as a news item by listeners-in, and they kept the officer in charge at the Port Adelaide police station busy answering inquiries as to what the sensation was” (The South Eastern Times, 5 July 1927). Just like the Mercury production, both earlier broadcasts began with live music from a local theater, that was suddenly interrupted by the urgent news of enemy forces invading the region. What’s rarely mentioned was 5CL tried the same thing a week later. This time they broadcast a science fiction story about a Professor Graviotti, an Italian scientist who’d created a special flying car, which he drove to Mars. “At an advertised time… Listeners were then told to watch the sky above the city of Adelaide for the departure of the machine. Many saw the large rocket sent up… to heighten the allusion” (Port Pirie Recorder, 8 July).

Never in New York

A decade before Orson Welles, and using many of the same techniques, an Australian radio station had panicked the local population with a tale of military invasion, then followed it up with a visit to Mars. Significantly, all of this was well documented in the New York Times (July 2, 1927). “AIR INVASION BY RADIO SCARES AUSTRALIANS”

“… so realistic was the play broadcast from 5-CL radio station here representing an imaginary aerial invasion that many women and children became hysterical and even men were alarmed… Numerous protests have since been made that the announcements regarding the stunt were not sufficiently definite, but those responsible for the broadcasting maintain that due warning was given of a dramatic surprise which would be introduced in consequence of complaints received from listeners against the sameness of the programs. This is the second time within eighteen months that British broadcasters have nearly caused a panic by the realism of mimic catastrophes broadcast to credulous listeners-in.” Embarrassingly, the paper earlier had boasted in “we are safe from such jesting” (Jan. 19, 1926) a similar scare could never happen there, as they had many more radio stations than these commonwealth nations. More evidence the Mercury knew what they were doing appeared on July 7, 1967, when the BBC reporter Leonard Miall interviewed the Mercury’s true creator. “…John Houseman, who is now the Director of the Juilliard Drama School at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts… In 1938 he was the partner of Orson Welles in the Mercury Theater. Houseman, as a boy, had been in school in England and had remembered a production he had heard on April 16, 1926… …Father Ronald Knox’s famous broadcast… was so vivid that it caused a major alarm all over the country. Houseman was therefore well aware of the kind of panic

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WAR OF THE WORLDS BROADCAST

The stage was set for Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast from New York’s Mercury Theater. Copyright of the respective owner.

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THE OTHERWORLDLY ART OF HENRIQUE ALVIM CORRÊA

by Peter Normanton

t is impossible to underestimate the role played by H. G. Wells’ earth-shattering The War of the Worlds in the shaping of Mars Attacks. During the course of his narrative, Wells made clever use of the contemporary fascination with science and technology, the curiosity for which had slowly evolved over the best part of half a century. In the same way, Mars Attacks picked up on the technology of its day, astounding those who saw these cards with rocket ships lifting men into space, while horrifying with deathly weapons of mass destruction. These advancements were paramount to the design of this series. In their clearly impossible conflict with the highly developed Martians, Mars Attacks drew much influence from Wells’ novel, which if it wasn’t the first, was certainly one of the earliest encounters with the war-like denizens of Mars. War of the Worlds, however, was the first of its kind to make the terrifying events it detailed appear as if they were actually happening, a ruse that would pave the way for others, as we have just seen. It would also stir

considerable thought and creativity in others of a similarly imaginative persuasion. Following its serialization in Pearson’s Magazine and Cosmopolitan in the United States in 1897, an expanded and revised edition of The War of the Worlds was published in 1898 by William Heinemann, bringing its content to a far larger readership. Just a couple of years later, it was translated for an expectant French audience by the respected Henri-Durante Davray. Among those who succumbed to the resonance in Wells’ words was a young artist by the name of Henrique Alvim Corrêa, an aspirant whose legacy would excite writers, artists, and filmmakers alike for generations to come. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Henrique had moved to Paris with his family after spending a short period in Lisbon. While in Paris, he studied art, his military-styled paintings gaining recognition in the gatherings of the Paris Salons between 1896 and 1897. Those around him anticipated a distinguished career ahead, but none of

Henrique Alvim Corrêa announced “The Arrival of the Martians” in the frontispiece to the Belgian edition of HG Wells’ War of the Worlds in 1906. Above: to the left, horror as the “Martian Emerges” and to the right, “Martians Blast House.” TM & © L. Vandamme & Co.

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A MARTIAN PORTFOLIO

A Martian Portfolio

KILLER B’s by Steve Kronenberg

THE MANSTER F

lash back to the early 1950s, when horror comics permeated newsstands and eager kids were willing to give up a dime for cheap chills. No one delivered the goods better than Bill Gaines, whose EC Comics bundled a triptych of terror: Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and The Haunt of Fear. What kept EC at the head of the pack was its imaginative stories and its bullpen of brilliant artists. Case in point: “The Basket,” an especially grisly entry in Haunt of Fear #7 (May–June 1951), written by Gaines’ collaborator Al Feldstein and illustrated by the multi-talented Jack Davis. It’s a gloomy tale focusing on a character named Vincent Cabez. He resides in a small village, and he’s the talk of the town because he’s never seen without a basket perched over his right shoulder. Locals wonder what’s inside of it, especially when Cabez’s physical appearance begins to deteriorate, and

his usually sunny demeanor becomes hateful and violent. The blame lies within the basket: what it’s hiding is a second, malevolent head that grows out of Cabez’s shoulder and is slowly taking over his body and persona. The story ends with the tortured freak committing suicide with a shotgun blast. Comic book buyers loved “The Basket;” bluenosed parents and politicians were shocked by its downbeat plot and violent graphics. What’s even more shocking is why it took so long to adapt Feldstein’s idea into a horror film. That finally happened with The Manster (1959, released in the US in 1962), a JapaneseAmerican production co-directed by George Breakston and Kenneth G. Crane. The psychotronics are set from the get-go with a pre-credit sequence depicting a shaggy, ape-like creature attacking a group of geishas and leaving a bloody streak across the screen. Veteran British actor Peter Dyneley plays Larry

Now transformed into a monster, Larry Stanford (Peter Dyneley) takes out his rage on the madman who injected him with an experimental serum, Dr. Robert Suzuki (Tetsu Nakamura), a man deluded in his desire to “help humanity.” TM & © United Artists.

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KILLER B’s Stanford, a reporter who travels to Japan to interview noted biologist Dr. Robert Suzuki (Tetsu Nakamura). Assisted by his beautiful companion Tara (Terri Zimmern), Suzuki is obsessed with experimentation in evolution. He plies Stanford with drugged whiskey before injecting his right shoulder with a new concoction. We soon learn that Stanford isn’t Suzuki’s first guinea pig: the hairy monster in the pre-credit scene was once Suzuki’s brother, and the mad doctor’s wife has become a mutated horror confined to a cage in his laboratory. The inoculation has an insidious effect on Stanford. He angrily abandons his faithful wife (Jane Hylton, Dyneley’s reallife wife) and falls into Tara’s seductive arms. As he begins to savor Tokyo’s night life, he becomes increasingly surly and vicious. His splenetic scowl is gradually accompanied by some startling physical changes: his hand becomes a hairy claw, and he’s horrified to discover a huge eye growing out of his right shoulder. The eye soon morphs into a second monstrous head that sprouts alongside his own. Stanford’s face becomes disfigured, and the poor dupe turns into a psychopathic killer, senselessly murdering several young women, a policeman, and even a Shinto priest in his own temple. The movie wraps with the two-headed creature killing Suzuki and abducting Tara to a nearby volcano, just before Stanford’s second head splits from his body fully formed as a separate monstrosity (actor George Wyman in a monster suit). The hideous twin throws Tara into the volcano and is then dispatched by Stanford, who reverts to his normal self. The film ends there, merely hinting that Stanford may either be prosecuted or institutionalized. Dyneley draws little sympathy from us, but he effectively depicts Stanford’s transition from nondescript newspaperman, to sullen and sour layabout, to maniacal monster. His look of horror as he stares back at the huge eye on his shoulder is alone worth the price of admission. Before his death in 1977 at age 56, Dyneley developed an extensive resume of British stage and film appearances (fans might recall his voice work as Jeff Tracy during the 1965 season of the popular Thunderbirds

The transformation begins to take hold, as Stanford struggles with the monster within while in the company of the alluring Tara (Terri Zimmern).TM & © United Artists.

television series). Tetsu Nakamura (who also served as the film’s dialogue coach) walks through The Manster with a sly and sinister smirk, doggedly and arrogantly determined to “help humanity” if he can just correct the mistakes he made with his wife and brother. Nakamura’s charm belies his psychosis, and his desire to experiment on an innocent victim is reminiscent of Charles Laughton’s Dr. Moreau in Island of Lost Souls (1932). Nakamura was no stranger to genre films, having appeared in several of Toho Studios’ kaiju productions, including The Mysterians (1957), The H-Man (1958), The Human Vapor (1960), and Mothra (1961). Unfortunately, Jane Hylton comes off a bit too breathy and melodramatic as Stanford’s loyal and lovelorn wife. She generates sympathy but persists in overacting when she learns of Stanford’s betrayal. It’s the movie’s weakest and least convincing performance. Terri Zimmern, the most inexperienced member of the cast, is most memorable as Tara, conflicted between her loyalty to Suzuki and her growing affection for Stanford. Briefly married to Manster co-director Kenneth G. Crane, the multi-lingual Zimmern was of Eurasian descent, born in Macau, and raised in Hong Kong. She was

recommended for her role in The Manster by a family friend and quickly accepted the offer, knowing “what fun it could be.” During filming, she bonded with Tetsu Nakamura, who acted as her coach and mentor. As Tara, Zimmern is stunning yet subtle, never flaunting her natural beauty. She died on April 13, 2020 at age 89. It’s hard to believe Manster screenwriter Walt Sheldon didn’t read “The Basket” in EC’s Haunt of Fear. His screenplay replicates both the story’s “second head” concept, and the lead character’s psychic transformation from mild-mannered to maniacal. But Sheldon does push the envelope by exploring Larry Stanford’s crisis in identity and his break with humanity. Sheldon effectively uses a slow burn to depict Stanford’s gradual metamorphosis, building suspense until the manic and monstrous payoff. Unfortunately, the script is saddled with some inane dialogue. While basking in the attention of some nubile geishas, Stanford tells Suzuki: “They smooch good… Ya know, Doc, I don’t know which I like better, Japanese saki or Japanese geishas.” Still, Sheldon’s scenario delivers everything a low-budget horror fan could ask for: a sinister mad doctor, an impossibly gorgeous lab assistant, two deformed mutants, and a dual-headed homicidal freak.

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a REQUIEM for

CHARLTON HORROR Part 1

By Will Murray

harlton Comics was the last survivor of the off-brand newsstand comic book companies that had managed to keep on going until the 1960s, with some lasting into the ’70s, after the industry-wide shakeout of the 1950s had left less than a dozen publishers still actively producing. A bottom-of-thebarrel publisher, the outfit specialized in generic-specific anthology titles, with one of their mainstays being horror comics. Their strengths were their weaknesses and their weaknesses proved to be strengths. They were survivors for all the wrong reasons, until finally their business practices caught up with them.

Charlton horror returned with The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves #1 (May 1967) and Ghostly Tales from the Haunted House #55 (April-May 1966). TM & © Charlton Comics.

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This was the state of creativity at Charlton during most of its tenuous existence. For many years, one inhouse scripter penned over 90% of their comics, his tales crossing a variety of genres: veteran Joe Gill. “At Charlton,” said Gill, “[publisher] John Santangelo was underpaying artists and writers, and practically anything that artists and writers did was acceptable. There was very little criticism. The idea was to get the books out, and nobody at Charlton seemed to give a damn how good they were!”

Ghosts, Demons and Apparitions

These three titles continued steadily as the 1960s shaded into the 1970s. Readers were fed a diet of ghosts, demons, and similar apparitions, invariably colored green when they were presented on the covers, a comic convention going back to the defunct American Comics Group, if not before. Most of it was competent, but little was memorable. Occasional scripter Paul Kupperberg lamented of his own Charlton work. “There’s not a single thing in any of the stories you haven’t read before,” he confessed. “They’re all straight O. Henry twist endings that anyone paying half a mind could see coming from a mile away. A lot like many of the other tales in the Charlton books, but it’s the type of stuff you write when you’re either young and inexperienced or they’re not paying you enough to think beyond cliches and retreads.”

Ghost Manor #1 (July 1968) became the third title in the Charlton horror line, becoming Ghostly Haunts with issue #20 (September 1971). TM & © Charlton Comics.

Shoddiest Comics

During this period, Charlton and Martin Goodman’s nameless pre-Marvel company vied for the dubious distinction of producing the shoddiest-looking comic books in a faltering industry, drawn by artists the more mainstream companies would not hire. “They bought the cheapest ink, they had used presses that printed badly,” insisted Joe Gill. “They had the worst distributors. Charlton had Capital Distribution, and they didn’t have any roadmen at all. So we could be publishing the best comic books in the field, and we still wouldn’t be selling because they offered no inducements.” A huge change took place at the top of 1971. The Comics Code was revised to permit previously taboo creatures, such as vampires, werewolves and sundry others—although zombies were still explicitly prohibited. Suddenly, Satan under his many aliases popped up in horror titles as a character or plot device, rapidly becoming a cliched crutch for lazy writers. This opening triggered a resurgence in classic horror comics. Charlton jumped in with both feet. With issue #20, September 1971, the limping Ghost Manor was retitled Ghostly Haunts. Simultaneously, Charlton launched Haunted and a month later a new incarnation of Ghost Manor was released, starting all over with #1. Midnight Tales appeared at the end of 1972. A gothic hybrid called Haunted Love followed

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A REQUIEM FOR CHARLTON HORROR

Charlton entered the new decade of the 1970s in an expansive mode after the 1966-68 “Action Heroes” debacle, which saw the collapse of the fan-favorite line and the loss of new editor-in-chief Dick Giordano to DC Comics early in 1968. During the “Action Heroes” period, Giordano seemed content with Charlton’s two fantasy-supernatural titles, Ghostly Tales from the Haunted House and The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves. Both titles focused exclusively on manifestations of the supernatural. Other than the differences observed in the personalities of each title’s hostnarrators, Mr. L. Dedd and Dr. M. T. Graves, the stories were largely indistinguishable. Coincident with Giordano’s departure, Ghostly Tales went monthly, and Charlton added their third title, Ghost Manor, which debuted with a July 1968 cover date and a cover by veteran Charlton artist Rocco Mastroserio. Compared to the other supernatural titles, Ghost Manor was a lackluster package. While it was probably conceptualized by Giordano, his replacement, Sal Gentile, edited it from its debut.