Frankenstein Alive, Alive, Complete!

There's no denying that the late Bernie Wrightson was the horror comics storytelling master of  his generation. While is influences was clearly EC's Graham "Ghastly" Ingels, Wrightson went beyond his influence and managed to bring a weight and heft to the hyper-detailed renderings. Perhaps most famous for his co-creation The Swamp Thing for DC Comics, his great fascination was with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. He created masterful images to illustrate that immortal tale and in the pages of his benighted four-part series Frankenstein Alive, Alive!  sought to move beyond Shelley's yarn with the help of scribe Steve Niles. They didn't make it. Illness and eventually mortality intervened and Wrightson was unable to finish the series he started in 2012. Kelley Jones, an artist who evokes Wrightson was brough on board to finish it up. That story has now been collected at long last. It's time to sit down and savor this final yarn by one of comic's most distinctive storytellers.

(The first three issues reprinted in time for the finale.)

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The Tomb Of Dracula!

At the risk of repeating myself (I do that a lot these days) it seems little doubt to me that the most successful comic book series about a villain was Marvel's Tomb of Dracula which brought Bram Stoker's murderous Count into the modern day. The comic was the precursor to what was a horror boom at both Marvel and elsewhere and  generated plenty of spin-offs on its own.

Very quickly there was the black and white magazine Dracula Lives! which was full of yarns of the deadly vampire from across the centuries.

Dracula rated his own Giant-Size series, the debut issue of which was titled Giant-Size Chillers and brought into the Marvel Universe the deadly Lilith.

In the spirit of the classic Universal monster movie rallies Marvel also unleashed a comic book featuring the Frankenstein Monster as well as their own distinctive take on the Wolfman as well as the Creature from the Black Lagoon. These are followed by comics like Ghost Rider and Son of Satan, a regular cavalcade of horror and fright.

But all things come to an end, even the nigh-immortal reign of the Lord of Vampires and The Tomb of Dracula series final ended with its seventieth issue. But it was a series by Marv Wolfman and the great art team of  Gene Colan and Tom Palmer which was indeed greater than the sum of its parts. Weirdly it was more mature look at comic book storytelling and as it began the monster wave it was also the last survivor of the classic kind.

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The Hammer Of Hell!

The "Hammer of Hell" hits the comic book stands and the fictional airspace over Europe in the late 60's. In a time when war books were becoming more complex vehicles for storytelling, Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert combined to give us a look at the enemy.

Hans Von Hammer was the infamous Red Baron in fictional clothes and as such they creators were able to focus on his relative nobility in the raw and unforgiving face of war and death. The air battles of World War I are still seen by many as honorable bouts between knights, but of course the reality is much more brutal and real. In this comic we meet the enemy and he is us. But we knew that already.

(Enemy Ace's debut.)

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The Ghostly Trio!

In the world of Harvey's Casper the Friendly Ghost, even the "villains" are pretty on the square. The Ghostly Trio have vague origins but in the comics were Fatso, Fusso, and Lazo but those were subject to change. While Casper was unbelievably kind-hearted, it was left to the trio to do the scaring, or at least try to do so. Being a villain in the Harvey universe is a tough gig.

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The Living Bomb-Burst!

Far from a cowardly lion, Blastarr the Living Bomb-Burst, a denizen of the Negative Zone, is a murderous lion. I guess he's not a lion really, but just looks like a humanoid version of one. Created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, Blastarr first appers in Fantastic Four #62 to assault Reed Richards who is stranded in the Zone for a bit of time.

Blastarr escapes the Zone to come to Earth where he partners with of all villains, the Sandman. While this duo looks pretty impressive together, the logic of their partnership is strained.

The Sandman, who had recently chosen the FF as his heroes de jour saw a weapon in Blastarr while Blastarr hardly noticed the mutated human who fought with him. Needless to say they were defeated and Blastarr was returned to menace the Negative Zone.

He gets out again in the pages of X-Men #53, this time rendered by Barry (Not-Yet-Windsor) Smith who was still in the throes of his Jack Kirby worshiping phase of artistry. In fact I think this comic book is his first for Marvel, a book full of kinetic enthusiasm if encumbered with clunky storytelling.

Blastarr was of course defeated in due course, though he gives the mutants a hearty struggle. Blastarr kind of faded from the pages of comics for a bit, but returned now and again to remind one and all what pure power unattached to any pity looks like -- a living bomb-burst indeed.

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Master Of Moods!

Captain Atom was recharged in the mid-sixties during the superhero craze of the time. He was a vintage Charlton Cold War era hero created by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko. One thing he did not have back then was some super-villains to battle. So it was necessary to create some for the lighter groovy revival. They are pretty interesting lot overall with such as The Ghost and the Firey-Icer. But Doctor Spectro might well be my favorite. He was a scientist who is irradiated and gains the power to control emotions in others by use of different colors in the spectrum.

His powers always put me in mind of DC's vintage villain the Psycho-Pirate who used masks to achieve a similar effect.

Doctor Spectro battled Captain Atom twice during the Charlton era, the second time he was altered and had split into five deadly little  Spectros, each of whom could control some different feelings. Not all of them were in sync, but eventually they recombined and the bad Doctor was returned.

DC has apparently brought the bad doctor back in the Captain Atom series they did in the 80's. But I've read only a few of those. His look is certainly less compelling, at least to my nostalgic eye.

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Big Top Of Crime!

I recently watched an outstanding two-part American Experience documentary about the development and history of the circus and it was enlightening in a host of ways. A lot of the details I did not know, but what struck me most was the way in which the circus was once upon a time in an America where entertainment was a relative rarity one of the most important events in the life of a community and a youngster. We are awash in diversions in the modern day, but once that was not so. And so today I want to take a brief gander at the Circus of Crime.

The fascination with the "Big Top" goes a long to explaining why the circus was the center of so many characters and stories in the early days of comics. Not only is it a colorful place but it was a center for the imagination.

The first "Circus of Crime" appeared in the pages of Captain America Comics #10 by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon and the Ringmaster and his loathsome lot were Nazi spies.

Skip forward a few decades and Jack Kirby and his new partner Stan Lee brought the Circus of Crime back.

The Ringmaster, with his hypnotic top hat was the center of attention with the other circus members being rather non-distinct. That wouldn't last.

When the Circus reappeared in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man #16 to do combat with Spidey and the brand new hero Daredevil, they had a more refined identity.

So much so that when the Circus reappeared to battle Spidey again in issue #22, the Ringmaster had been ousted and the Clown was in charge of the nefarious bunch.

The Ringmaster for his lot boxed above his weight when he took on Thor in the pages of the Thunder God's comic book.  He is back in charge at t his point in time.

My first actual look at the Circus of Crime was in the pages of Marvel Tales, one of those important comics in a young fan's experience, one which was in my case read and read until it fell into fragments.

The Circus of Crime showed up again to crash the wedding of Yellowjacket and the Wasp in the pages of The Avengers #60.

Later Princess Python in a meager attempt to establish a solo crime career takes on the Avenger Iron Man in the fiftieth issue of his comic book.

The Circus of Crime fell to the wayside as more cosmic and world-beating villains appeared on the Marvel landscape. Also it seems the importance of the circus in the daily lives of us all was diminishing to the point to where a "Circus of Crime" was quaint.

Becoming part of the cavalcade of absurd villains in the pages of Howard the Duck pretty much says it all. It's hard to recover your rep as a serious contender when you've battled the infamous fowl.

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