Weird War Tales was one of the Bronze Age's strangest titles. It blended the DC mystery mag with the DC war comic and gave us a stiff tea that sometimes was a bit too much to drink. Not so the story "Thou Shalt Not Kill" from the eighth issue which features the Jewish legend of the Golem. As you can see, the Golem is powerful and mighty, even more mighty than the logo it looms above. Great Neal Adams cover.
In the article which comes with this story his other cover, the one rejected ultimately for his X-Men run featuring the Living Monolith is mentioned and Adams even suggested if they'd let him do that it might've save the comic. Really? Still it's a doozy.
Now the story itself is drawn by Steve Harper one of the myriad students in the Neal Adams umbrella and his work has heavy doses of Adams inks pulling it together in places. The writer is not known and Adams takes no credit in his discussion of the story. We have German soldiers going about their work of killing Jews and they come afoul of the statue of the Golem which of course they consider a myth until it rises up and crushes them. One soldier is left alive to tell the tale. It's not the strongest story by any means in the collection, but it does have a whopper of a cover.
Note: This post originally appeared at Rip Jagger's Other Dojo.
I didn't realise Neal Adams didn't draw this story I had just assumed Harper was the writer and it was an early Adams drawn strip as it was only credited "Harper and Adams". But from memory and your scanned page ( my copy is stashed away) in hindsight it is very obviously not Adams pencils. As you say great Adams cover .
ReplyDeleteNot sure I agree with Adams that his original X-Men cover would have saved the title either but on reading these stories in UK Marvel after the title was cancelled I was surprised on the strength of that run alone the title was cancelled.
Those Thomas-Adams X-Men are among my favorite comics all time. It was because the book was failing that such experimentation as they did there was attempted, and they hit a homerun even if ultimately they didn't win the game. When the book returned to blockbuster success the time of its disappearance is forgotten or unknown to most.
DeleteI always thought the reasons for rejecting Adams' X-Men cover on the grounds that the masthead was obscured were overly-pedantic. After all, surely the readers would recognise the characters and see them and the name in the corner box?
ReplyDeleteI love the work of Neal Adams, but I have to agree with the editors on this one. That logo is obscured to a terrible degree. The thing is the substitute cover is even better I think.
DeleteNo argument that the masthead is obscured, but I'd say the comic is still recognizable as an X-Men issue (for the reasons stated). I can't recall offhand the replacement cover, but I'll take your word for it. I wonder if Adams was ever paid for the first one? After all, Marvel have since published it loads of times.
DeleteThat's a good point about the preliminary covers. There are scuds of those that get stuck into collections all the time. Here's a link to the finished cover for X-Men #56:
Deletehttps://pencilink.blogspot.com/2013/06/x-men-56-neal-adams-art-cover.html