Superman #240

Superman #240 (On Sale: May 13, 1971), has a beautiful cover by Neal Adams. 

We begin with Superman in  "To Save a Superman", the sixth part of the Sandman Saga storyline, by Denny O'Neil, Curt Swan, and Dick Giordano. Superman suffers a humiliating loss of face as he fails to stop a burning building from completely collapsing. Yet even as he contemplates letting humanity fend for itself as a way to placate his wounded pride, Superman decides to use what's left of his waning powers to stop a would-be bank robbery by the Anti-Superman Gang. 

Meanwhile, Diana Prince's mentor I-Ching comes on the scene to help Superman, as he suspects that Superman's loss of powers may be of a supernatural cause. Just as I-Ching is about to put Superman into a sleep, Anti-Superman Gang members break into I-Ching's basement residence and club Superman in the head. Though suffering a head injury and now down to merely regular human strength, Superman prevails in defeating the gangsters. Reprinted in Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore HC (2009).

Our back-up from the World of Krypton is "The Man Who Cheated Time" by Cary Bates and Michael William Kaluta. Under the Scarlet Jungle of Krypton lies a condemned device, with which scientist Mal-Va planned to send his assistant Zol-Mar into the past and then return him after 10 minutes. However, Zol-Mar had ambitions of his own and sabotaged the machine, intending to stay in the past and be acclaimed for his mastery of the technologically advanced devices he carried with him. But the experiment, and Zol-Mar's plans, went horribly wrong when the time travel machine sent Zol-Mar in the wrong direction. Reprinted in Best of DC #40 (1983), Superman: The World of Krypton TPB (2008), and Superman: The Many Worlds of Krypton TPB (2018),

Edited by Julius Schwartz.

House of Secrets #87 (On Sale: June 2, 1970) has a nice, creepy cover by Neal Adams.

We begin with "Death Has Marble Lips," an eight-page tale by Robert Kanigher, Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano.  A sculptor offers to barter his soul to Satan if his latest beautiful creation can take the form of a living woman, and it happens, but she doesn't know that her kiss is cursed and it turns the artist to stone.

Next is "The Man," a seven pager by Marv Wolfman, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito.  A woman falls in love with a man who turns out to be a robot.

We end with "The Coming of Ghaglan," a six-page story by Raymond Marais and Michael William Kaluta. A tomb explorer finds a missing chapter from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and when he reads part of the incantation, he finds his astral self sent to a dimension where the spirits of an undead army call out to their leader Ghaglan to finish the incantation so that they can return to their mummified bodies and commit acts of evil in his name.

The explorer feels himself drawn back to his body and his fellows tell him that a man named Ghaglan removed the scroll from his hands to revive him. He turns with apprehension to face Ghaglan, who tells him with a smile that he has been looking for this scroll for a very long time.

The entire issue was reprinted in Showcase Presents: The House of Secrets Vol. 1 TPB.

Edited by Dick Giordano.

House of Mystery #185

House of Mystery #185 (On Sale: January 8, 1970) has a cover by Neal Adams. For some reason this cover just doesn't work for me. I love the foreground figures, but something about the gaping-mouthed swamp in the background just doesn't register right with me.

Irregardless of my misgiving with this issue's cover, this is a wonderful issue of House of Mystery with good stories all around and more importantly, Joe Orlando brings a legend to DC for the first time and he performs like the legend he is. But that is later on.

We begin with "Boom!" written and drawn by Jerry Grandenetti. I liked this story and the way it utilized Cain. It begins with Cain running back to the House of Mystery being chased by something in the air following him. He makes it back inside when "Boom!," whatever it is lands on the roof of the house.

Deciding to meet his fate head on, Cain runs upstairs and sees something through the open window. It ends up being a man, wearing a parachute. He is an exhibition sky diver named Tony Saunders, who can't figure out how he landed at Cain's house in Kentucky when he jumped out a plane in California. Unable to catch a ride anywhere, Saunders settles down for the night in the house as Cain's guest, when a strange car pulls up to the house and two gentlemen in top hats and suits get out and ask for Tony Saunders.

Saunders goes freely with the two men, saying he "knew you'd come for me." The next morning, listening to the news on his radio Cain hears of the the death of sky diver Tony Saunders when his chute failed to open somewhere in California. Cain rushes to his front door and sees that Tony left him a gift: his parachute.

Next is a Cain's Game Room by Sergio Aragones and a Page 13 written by Joe Orlando and drawn by Sergio Aragones.

These are followed by a short three-pager, "Voice of the Dead" drawn by Wayne Howard and reminiscent to the "true" short stories around this time that were written by Marv Wolfman. A North Carolina farmer dies in 1921 and when his will is read he leaves everything to his third son, Marshall. This leaves his widow and her other children penniless. Four years later his second son begins having a reoccurring dream where the ghost of his father tells him to look inside his old coat for a sewn-up pocket. A note of the art here is that some attribute the inking of this story to Wally Wood, though DC does not. Wayne Howard was such a Wood devotee that it would be hard to say for sure, but I would tend to agree with those who say this is Wood's inks. It really, really looks like Wally Wood.

After nights of having the same dream the son goes to his mother's house finds the coat and a note inside saying to look in the family bible. There they find a later dated will which split his estate evenly.

This is followed by another Cain's Game Room, this one written and drawn by Joe Orlando, but none of these are the reason you should own this book. No, that is the final story in the issue, "The Beautiful Beast" by Joe Gil and the legendary Al Williamson. This is the only story that Al will both pencil and ink for DC and folks, it is just out and out, drop dead gorgeous! This is Williamson in his Secret Agent Corrigan prime. This is the story of Joe Carver, escaped killer who hides out in the swamp and the inescapable justice that lurks there. But the story is superfluous, the artwork is the real story. Handsome men, a beautiful woman, hulking dinosaur-like creatures, a fetid swamp, serpents, lost cities, gnarled moss-laden trees, cavemen-like warriors, exotic birds and flying reptiles; this is a story custom-made for the talents of Al Williamson and he delivers completely.

But there is more to the art in this story than meets the eye. In an interview in Comic Book Artist Michael Kaluta said this:

I never even thought about being an illustrator or comic book artist. I’d just finished my second year of college...I didn’t know what I was going to do, stay in school or join the army. After the next SCARP convention, Phil Seuling contacted me and said that Al Williamson had seen stuff that I did and was interested in talking to me about maybe helping with a story. That flipped me out. At the next New York Convention I went up to Al and he gave me a script that he was having trouble getting in to. He asked me to stretch it out. “Give me plenty of boots, girls, dinosaurs and stuff” he said. I made 7 pages into 12. Al still has my fumbling pencil originals and unless he gets mad at me we won’t tell anyone. They’re really awful, awful stuff. I was so uptight about doing the job that I just rendered and detailed it to death. Later Al did a fine job with the story and let me doodle a bit on a page or two. DC Comics published it under the title The Beautiful Beast.

Regardless of the pedigree of the artwork, it is some stunning stuff and certainly makes you wish Al Williamson could have done more work for DC. Al Williamson was born in New York City but spent his childhood in Bogotá, Colombia. Upon his return to New York, he took art courses from Burne Hogarth, whom he assisted on some 'Tarzan' Sunday pages.

He made his professional debut at the age of 17 with western and adventure series like 'Buster Crabbe' for Eastern Color, 'Billy the Kid' and 'John Wayne' for Toby and 'Outlaw Kid' for Marvel. He was the youngest member of the "EC family," joining when he was only 21 years old in 1952, He was considered "the kid brother," for most of his colleagues were family men. Williamson contributed to EC's Weird Fantasy, Weird Science and Tales of Valor, often in collaboration with the so-called "Fleagle Gang": Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel and Angelo Torres. Al especially loved doing pencil work, but was "deathly afraid" of inking, so often Frazetta undertook that task for him.

Al also did comics work for ACG, Charlton, Prize and Dell. In the 1960s, he assisted John Prentice on 'Rip Kirby' and did a 'Flash Gordon' comic book, which was a natural for Al as his fluid style is highly influenced by Alex Raymond's original Flash Gordon work. For King Features Syndicate, he took over the 'Secret Agent X-9' daily, which was retitled to 'Secret Agent Corrigan' which was written by the wonderful Archie Goodwin.

In the 1980s Al drew the Marvel adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back and eventually the syndicated Star Wars newspaper strip. When this strip folded, Al went back to comic books, working for Pacific Comics in Alien Worlds and Summerset Holmes. For Marvel he did the Blade Runner and Return of the Jedi adaptations and a couple of stories for Epic Illustrated. He then transitioned to becoming a full-time inker, working first at DC on Superman and then for Marvel where he inked a ton of stuff off and on through 2003.

Al has worked for Dark Horse and has done occasional inking for DC. His last work for DC was on Green Lantern #146 in 2002. Living in Pennsylvania with his wife Corina, Williamson retired in his seventies and died on June 12, 2010, in Upstate New York.

This entire book was reprinted in Showcase Presents: The House of Mystery Vol. 1 TPB.
Edited by Joe Orlando.

Witching Hour #7

Witching Hour #7 (On Sale: December 16, 1969) has a cover by Neal Adams. It's not a bad cover, but it just does not grab me the way some of his horror work did.

We have the usual wonderful framing sequence drawn by Alex Toth. We begin with "The Big Break" by Steve Skeates and Bill Draut. It is our cover-story and a tale concerning an escaped convict and what may be a family curse or the fantastic imaginings of a dying man.

Next is "The Captive" by Steve Skeates and George Roussos in a tale of an unknown, but brilliant artist and a retired gangster who comes to him looking for a painting or a statue that will make him immortal. He just might get what he asked for.

That is followed by "Look Homeward, Angelo" by Mike Friedrich and Jack Abel. In this tale a young adopted boy asks his parents if he had a real mother and father. They say of course, but they don't know who they were and tell young Angelo to shut up. Strange things begin happening at the house: the wife is attacked by nightmarish creatures, the furniture floats in the air and crashes to the floor. The couple come unglued, blaming each other for bringing Angelo into the family and causing all these problems. They take Angelo back to the orphanage and tell them they must take him back. Just then they are joined by a hippie-looking couple who say that they are Angelo's parents and that they had put him in the orphanage to learn about human love. The couple turn into angels and fly away with Angelo, leaving the couple pointing accusing fingers at each other.

We end with "Trick or Treat" drawn by Michael Kaluta. This is a small page and a half story about con-artist who is dressed up as the devil in order to relieve some devil worshipers of their money. His only problem is the real devil has plans of his own. This little piece of fluff is Michael Kaluta's first credited work at DC. Kaluta would be associated with DC for decades to come, doing some of his finest comic work here. From Carson of Venus to Spawn of Frankenstein to his amazing Shadow work, Kaluta would make a name for himself at DC.

Edited by Dick Giordano.

Showcase #84

Showcase #84 (On Sale: June 12, 1969) has a Nightmaster cover by Joe Kubert.

"Come Darkness, Come Death" is by Denny O'Neil and Bernie Wrightson, with an artistic assist from Mike Kaluta and Jeff Jones. Nightmaster Jim Rook and his barbarian friend, Tark, and the mentally-challenged albino guide, Boz hold one-side of a chasm. The warlocks and their mystical flying ship and Nightmaster's captured fiance, Janet, are on the other. In frustration Jim picks a fight with Tark, but it is soon interrupted when smoke from the warlock's ship drifts across the chasm, materializing into ribbons of evil which then forms into two giant spiders. The magic of the spiders is no match for the magic of the Sword of Night, and Jim defeats the two spiders.

But the court wizard has other ideas and sends forth blizzard winds which carry thousands of spiders toward our heroes. Horribly outnumbered, they make there way towards a cave only to have their path cut off by the spiders. As Jim prepares for the onslaught, thousands of rays of light streak from the cave and blast the spiders, obliterating them. Tark knows that only one man could have the power to create such a spell and guesses that the cave they have found is the home of Mar-Grouch the Mystic.

They enter the cave and beseech Mar-Grouch to return Janet from the clutches of the warlocks, something he agrees to do. However, the Court Wizard has cast a spell over Janet, turning her into a servant girl named Mizzi and commanding her to kill the Nightmaster if she can. Mar-Grouch's spell returns Mizzi and Jim is incensed that Mar-Grouch got the wrong girl. Still, Mar-Grouch offers one last bit of aid to the group, some wings they can wear to cross the chasm and attack the warlocks.

The wings are powered by crystals found on the ground and they are told to gather into pouches only the green crystals to make the wings fly, but to avoid the yellow crystals which attract the Arivegs, hideous flying plants. But Mizzi fills Jim's pouch and fills it full of yellow crystals, causing the Arivegs to attack Jim. Tark takes hold of Jim as he tosses his pouch away and they continue on their way to the ship.

Once inside they confront the warlocks but are subdued by mystic gases. When Nightmaster awakens he and Tark are tied up in the hold of the ship and are soon to be tortured and killed, but the warlock, Duke Spero wants to know why Jim Rook has been fighting, why he has not returned to Earth where he belongs and Jim says it is because of his love for Janet. Somehow his speech reaches through the spell fogging Mizzi's/Janet's mind and she decides to help. While Spero is boasting, Mizzi secretly cuts Jim's ropes and moments later when Spero reveals that Mizzi is really Jan, Jim leaps into action, forcing Spero and his wizard to flee through a dimensional vortex to Earth, with Jim and Janet in hot pursuit.

Jim forces the warlocks back through the portal to Myrra. Jim and Janet stumble out into the street, where they walk together in silence for hours. As the sun is rising they speak of what a dream, a fantasy they both shared and how it could not possibly have been real. Then Jim Rook feels the cold hard steel of the Sword of Night in his hands and knows that though he is Jim Rook, he is also Nightmaster.

This is the last of the Nightmaster series. Being Bernie Wrightson's first full book, his two Nightmaster stories are pretty uneven artistically and have ample assists from friends such as Mike Kaluta and Jeff Jones (such as in the half-page above, obviously penciled by Jeff Jones).

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Showcase #83

Showcase #83 (On Sale: April 24, 1969) has another killer Joe Kubert Nightmaster cover.

The full-length Nightmaster strip "Sing a Song of Sorcery" is by Denny O'Neil and Berni Wrightson. Lending Bernie a hand on his first full-length story is Michael Kaluta and Jeff Jones. This is the first work at DC for both Kaluta and Jones.

Rock star Jim Rook remembers how he and his fiancée, Janet, were separated after being snatched though a dimensional portal to the nightmare world of Myrra by old King Zolto, and how he learned that Warlocks had captured Janet. He also learned that he is the only person who can wield The Sword of Night. Like his ancestors before him, Rook must take up the mantle of the Nightmaster if he wishes to save Janet.

On the road to the Warlock Castle, Nightmaster and Boz encounter a barbarian. Rook bests the barbarian, Tark, and sparing his life, Tark joins the boys on their quest. Joining Tark are Doe and Rae, two sirens who have lost their voices to a warlock spell.

They reach the citadel of the Warlocks and learn that Duck Spearo has brought in a foreigner in to be his Duchess. Jim realizes that must be Janet. Attacked by Warlock Troopers, they learn that Spearo is leaving at moonrise with his new Duchess.

They head for the palace and after subduing a few guards reach a moonship docked on the roof. Inside the castle they find the crystal casket that contains the voices of Rae and Doe and take it with them to the roof, just as the ship sets sail.

They grab a mooring line and pull their way onboard. They learn that the Warlocks have captured Janet as they need an Earth-woman to open the portal for an invading army. They attempt to rescue Janet, but are attacked by metal warriors filled with the souls of dead warlocks.  Forced over the edge of the moonship they ware saved when the sirens begin to sing and their songs become pathways in the sky.

Nightmaster defeats the remaining metal warriors, but watched helplessly as the moonship, and Janet, sail off into the night without them.

The book ends with a two-page map of Myrra and a text piece called "The Men Who Make Nightmaster" giving an overview of Denny O'Neil and Berni Wrightson.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.