Legions Of Monsters

Apparently, the late great Neal Adams hated the image above. This painting featuring Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster and the Manphibian was the cover for Legion of Monsters #1, a last gasp attempt by Mighty Marvel to mine the black and white magazine horror market. Adams says the perspective doesn't make sense, but despite his expert reservations I love it. Not only does it have the typical power of an Adams image but it's brimming with atmosphere. It is emblematic of that time in the early 70's when comics had slipped off some of the restrictions of the Comics Code (though that code never held sway over magazines) and let loose with a cavalcade of creatures to chill the comic reading soul. I want to take a gambol through some of those mighty monsters with special attention to vampires. 

The centerpiece of my reading this month is the Tomb of Dracula series which has been reprinted a few times over the decades. I'm using the four Essential volumes which gather both the color comic as well as the Drac features from sundry black and white mags. There is no doubt that Dracula is "Lord of the Vampires" at Marvel. 

First up will be a look at the unfinished Bronze Age adaptation of the original Bram Stoker novel Dracula by Roy Thomas and Dick Giordano. They were only to get about half the novel done back in the 70's but a few decades later they were at long last able to wrap up this intense look at the peculiar story that launched a thousand bats. 

One of Dracula's most implacable foes is Blade the Vampire Slayer. Blade has gone on to have a pretty successful film career with Wesley Snipes in the role, but before that he was fighting bloodsuckers in Vampire Tales and elsewhere. He's certainly worth a glimpse. 

It's almost impossible to deal with Dracula without giving a shoutout to that other vintage classic monster, the one assembled by the notorious Doctor Frankenstein. Frankenstein's Monster had a hectic and rather bizarre career in the 70's and I want to give a looksee as well. 

Deathlok is often categorized as a science fiction superhero series, but I think reading it with an eye towards horror will be instructive. Like the original Frankenstein, a novel which is considered by many the genesis of science fiction, Deathlok is a rather rugged modern reinvention of returning the dead to a form of life. 

Dracula wasn't Marvel's first vampire. That dishonor goes to Morbius, a science-based bloodsucker first forged in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man. He went on to have his own series in Adventures in Fear, in fact like Dracula he was active in both the color comics as well as the black and white in the pages of Vampire Tales and elsewhere. They made a movie about Morbius recently and that too will get some attention. 

Morbius had a furry companion, the bizarre Man-Wolf. The son of Spidey nemesis J. Jonah Jameson, the Man-Wolf too debuted in ASM and wen to have a most unpredictable career in the pages of Creatures on the Loose. A young George Perez cut his teeth on this title. 

Another hirsute hero from Marvel in the 70's The Beast. Hank McCoy late of the then defunct X-Men gets a job as a scientist and goes all Dr. Jekyll on himself causing his mutation to sprout a robust pelt of gray fur (later they changed it to blue/black). This is another of Marvel's series from Amazing Adventures that seemed to straddle the superhero and horror genres. 

Another was Tigra which had the delectable Greer Nelson who had a small superhero career as The Cat get caught up in the intrigues of a cat-worshipping cult and before you know it, she's furry and ferocious. She's gone on to be a very recognizable part of Marvel's universe. And that brings up another gorgeous but very scary dame. 

Vampirella was the absolute queen of 70's horror comics. She was the creation of Forry Ackerman and Tom Sutton as a marginally comedic hostess like Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie, but before long Archie Goodwin and Sutton and later definitive artist Jose Gonzalez made her into a ravishing vamp in all sense of that word. Along with Dracula, Vampi will be showing up on the weekends as I work through some of her early misadventures from Warren Magazines. 

The 70's produced some intriguing fictional works or adaptations of same. My absolute favorite is The Kolchak Papers which spawned The Night Stalker movies and series. There's a debate that an earlier novel Progeny of the Adder was a big influence on the Kolchak material. I've at long last gotten a copy of Progeny of the Adder and I will render my opinion. I am Legend has been adapted to the big screen many times (once in the 70's) but none are better than the original 50's novel. There's a comic book adaptation too and that will get a glance. And finally, I will finally climb the mighty Stephen King vampire epic from 1975 titled Salem's Lot. I've made earlier attempts to read this novel, the only King novel I've much interest in and now I will make that trip for certain. 

If there's room, I'd like to fit in some witchery as well. First with Archie's resident witch the fetching Sabrina, a character who has had a number of versions over the many decades since her creation. Some of those quite scary. 

And finally, in the "Showcase Corner" I'm taking on The Witching Hour, one of DC's early 70's horror anthologies. This one features some delicious art by Alex Toth who designed the trio of witches - Mildred, Modred and the curvaceous Cynthia. Classic stuff with an offbeat sexy twist. 

That's a lot to do and maybe I'll not make it, but I sure want to give a go. We're Counting Down to Halloween here at the Dojo and I'm eager to see how it all turns out. 

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