Monarch's Reptilicus!

Charlton also was associated with the paperback imprint Monarch and they too adapted Reptilicus using the writer David Owens. Pink took issue with some of the scenes created for the novel version which are reputed to have a somewhat lascivious quality. I've never read it, so I cannot speak first-hand about it. But apparently it upset Pink who pulled the license from Charlton.

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The Lonely One!

Konga is a name to conjure with. The movie, a bit of schlock from the 50's featuring a mad scientist (played to hilt by Michael Gough -- more on that tomorrow) who uses jungle potions to make things grow to vast proportions experiments on a monkey and gets Konga, a giant ape who prowls the streets of London before meeting his apparent doom. And that's the end. No sequels, no need. Konga the movie is a strange but oddly compelling flick

Konga the comic book series from Charlton is the same and different too. Konga survives the end of the first story and becomes something akin more to Godzilla than King Kong, his obvious inspiration. Konga of the comics can survive nuclear blasts and seems to wander the globe with great speed, impervious to the elements for the most part. He is at once part of the world and apart from it. Hence The Lonely One as the title of this Robin Snyder produced collection of some of Joe Gill's and Steve Ditko's most curious Konga stories. This was the very first Konga collection I ever purchased way back when. 

The first story in the collection is "The Monster Hunter" from Konga #11. It tells the tale of world-famous hunter E. Kellington Trent and his romantic partner Miss Lovejoy who want to trap the greatest game of all, and that happens to be Konga who is at once a real creature and almost a thing of myth. The pair stalk the great beast but become charmed by him, and the story ends much differently than expected.

"The Land of the Frozen Giants" from Konga #8 has Konga travel to the great white vastness of Antarctica where he gets frozen, becoming a living statue. He is discovered but before he can be captured and he falls into a sub-world filled with dinosaurs where he must fight ceaselessly for his life.

"The Peacemaker" from Konga #13 has Konga get a bad cold and then invade a southern clime where he finds healing mud in the steamy swamps. While taking the cure, he finds himself at odds with a tinpot dictator who is kept in power by nefarious foreign powers. Konga saves people from broken train tracks and battles the full force of the dictator's military.

Finally, there is "The Lonely One" from Konga #12 a story which reprises Konga's origin story from the movie adaptation, then has the great beast become stranded in the snow in the alps after a mighty avalanche. There mankind must decide whether to save or slay the beast and bring two of the humans who first cared for Konga back again to deal with his current situation.

Also on hand in this collection are two one-page gag comics from Henry Boltinoff and a Ditko short about the origins of mankind.

To say this is an idiosyncratic package is to understate it. But oddly the Konga stories themselves have a neat cohesion. The stories published in the order that they are, have something of an arc to them as Konga prowls the world looking for peace and companionship, and all too often finding only strife and combat. The stories stand on their own well enough, but when taken together to seem to work even better. The ending is a happy enough one.

Konga stories have a humor and a charm not found in just every comic, at least these by Gill and Ditko do. Konga is an absurd character who seems to absorb atomic blasts, yet at the same time remaining an identifiable personality. He's big but not beyond the scope of human character. These are wonderful little morality fables with more to say about the human condition than might at first be surmised.

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The Charlton Reptilicus!

Reptilicus was the least successful of Charlton's monster trio, likely because the monster is the least identifiable of the three monsters. It's just an animal, large and often ferocious, but still difficult to get any sense of what Reptilicus is thinking. Also, Reptilicus never was graced with the artistic power of Steve Ditko, instead had to deal with the competent but less exciting duo of Charles Nicholas and Nick Alascia. And besides that, there are only technically two issue of "Reptilicus", because Charlton lost the rights to the name. 

Sid Pink was not happy with the sexual elements added to the novelization of the movie story published under Charlton's Monarch brand. He pulled the rights I assume, and Charlton was left with only two comics titled Reptilicus. 

The first issue featured a great Rocke Mastroserio cover while the second featured the artwork of Dick Giordano with the Nicholas and Alascia combo still on board between the covers. Reptilicus revives and threatens areas of Africa in the sequel. As far as I can tell Joe Gill wrote all the issues of the run. 

With the third issue the title of the comic is changed to Reptisaurus and the artwork is by Bill Molno. Sal Gentile and Nick Alascia supply a less than satisfactory cover. Reptisaurus is red where Reptilicus was green and gets a mate and a family. But don't wait to see what happens as continuity on this comic is pretty much nonexistent with each issue seeming to start from scratch. 

The artwork is then taken over by the team of Joe Sinnott and Vince Colletta and their work here is even less impressive than it was on Gorgo. Part of that is that Reptisaurus is hard to draw in any way which allows the reader to get a sense of his feelings. The rendition by the team makes him quite comical in places. 

Eventually like all the other monster series, the art team of Bill Montes and Ernie Bache take on the book toward the end of its run and they redesign the monster quite a bit, making him much less like the original Reptilicus. This is not a bad idea and we get some decent storytelling in the final issues of the original run. 

Following the cancellation of the original run after a meager eight issues we are treated to a special edition which puts a wrap on the character sort of.

Reptilicus the movie is a guilty pleasure of mine and I watch it on the regular, and I was pleased to finally get to read all the Reptilicus/Reptisaurus comics despite the meager quality. I am always curious and like a bad movie, even bad comics can be entertaining in their own way if you adjust your expectations. 

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Ditko Classic Covers - Gorgo #11!

Gorgo #13 was published in 1963. You can read the issue at this link. This cover is derived from images from inside the comic book. 

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Ditko Classic Covers - Gorgo #4!

Gorgo #4 was published in 1961. You can read the issue at this link. 

This cover was derived from the splash page of the debut issue. The interior art on this issue was by Charles Nicholas and Nick Alascia. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #82!

 

Ditko Classic Covers - Gorgo #3!

Gorgo #3 was published in 1961. You can read the issue at this link. This is an original cover by Ditko showcasing Gorgo under the control of a Commie scientist. 

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