Superheroes From the Crypt - Marvel Comics Bronze Age Horror

7/28/2019 Superheroes From the Crypt - Marvel Comics Bronze Age Horror

1/31

SUPERHEROES FROM THE CRYPT

MARVEL'S BRONZE AGE WORLD OF HORROR

ADRIAN WYMANN (2010)

footnotes in square brackets indicate a quoted source (listed at bottom of this page)all dates given are cover dates unless specified

The following is an in-depth portrayal and analysis of Marvel's foray into the horror genre during the Bronze Age period of the 1970s. Althoughlimited to a few years of success only, Marvel's very own world of horror was quintessential in shaping and defining the more diverse structure

of the Marvel Universe which grew out of the superhero dominated Silver Age of the 1960s.

It should be pointed out that the timespan notion of "Bronze Age" applied here (i.e. equalling the decade from January 1970 to December1979) differs from the traditional point of view, which usually sets the end of the Bronze Age roughly around 1985.

The world of Marvel superheroes which Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others had created since its inception in 1961 had revolutionizedthe comic book medium and quickly became a great success both in artistic and financial terms for the industry. It had been a "clean" world inmany ways - Spider-Man / Peter Parker had his problems in life (that was part of the success formula), but it would always be clear what exactlythe problem was and how it might be solved. Most importantly, one could always tell the good guys from the bad guys and at the end of the day,good would prevail and crime would never pay. It was a world of primary colours and happy endings, and although the bad guys would end upbeing caught out after a physical clash, blood or even just bruises were never to be seen.

But the world was changing fast. By the mid-1960s a generation gap and a political divide marked most of American culture, and society waschanging alongside with it. Comic books were slower than other media in responding, but eventually social questions (many of which were alsohighly political issues) made their way into the storylines. The world of superheroes got far more complex than it had ever been, as theiradventures suddenly took place in front of the backdrop of the Vietnam war or drugs. It got harder and harder to figure out what the problemsreally were, and the line between good and bad seemed blurred at times. But despite all the adaptations made, the superhero concept sti llseemed too clean to a growing number of readers. It was time for something new. The continuing rise of inner-city poverty and crime rates, thepolitical and social aftermath of the Vietnam War, the hardships of economic recession, and the looming shadow of the oi l shock of 1973 werejust some of a number of problems that plagued the US in the very early 1970s. As the economy continued to slip, the decade looked set tobecome an era of disenchantment and mistrust. Much of the diversification of the comic book industry's output at the beginning of the 1970smirrored the problems of society.

In 1970, Marvel Comics - together with the rest of the industry - thus

found itself at a threshold. Comic books needed to find a way to adapt tothe real life changes and thus renew its appeal to existing as well as newreaders. One approach was to make the world of superheroes moregloomy, such as depicting drug issues (Amazing Spider-Man#96-98,May-July 1971) or the deaths of central members of the regular cast (suchas Gwen Stacy in Amazing Spider-Man#121 [June 1973] and the GreenGoblin in Amazing Spider-Man#122 [July 1973]). Another approach,which had previously stood the test of time in many economic and socialcrises, was to fall back on escapist themes. Among these, the horrorgenre has always been a popular metaphor - economic recession andvampires both left people at the mercy of something which was very muchout of control for most individuals, but at least someone could drive astake through the latter threat.

Accordingly, Marvel's range of horror characters and comic book titles played an important role in the diversification the House of Ideasunderwent as it progressed from the 1960's Silver Age to the 1970's Bronze Age period, and it happened straight away as January 1970 saw therelease of a new horror title called Where Monsters Dwell.

erheroes from the Crypt - Marvel Comics Bronze Age Horror http://www.panelology.info/SuperheroesFromTheCrypt.html

31 13/06/2013 18:00


2/31

During the "classic" 1960s decade of Marvel Comics the horror and science fiction genre had completely given way to Stan Lee's highlysuccessful theme of superheroes for almost the entire Silver Ageperiod until Marvel rediscovered the world of spooks and ghouls in late 1969and launched two anthology tit les (Tower of Shadowsand Chamber of Darkness) [1]. According to Roy Thomas, the general situation in late 1969/ early 1970 was characterized more than anything by first increasing Marvel's output (starting with a fistful of anthology titles) and then going fordiversity in the second step:

"A lot of them [sold] the ones that didn't sell didn't last very long, obviously. We did flood the market, but remember, this was thatperiod (...) where Marvel suddenly decided to put out a whole bunch of books, and DC would have to match it (...) it was justconstantly playing around with stuff, trying to get market share... it was really survival of the fittest. There were only these twocompanies, really, doing that kind of comic, competing with each other (...) lots of stuff came out in the '70s because of this

approach."[2]

Based on the past experience with Tower of Shadowsand Chamber of Darkness, Where Monsters Dwell(first published January 1970), WhereCreatures Roam(July 1970) and Fear(November 1970) featured no original material and simply reprinted monster stories from the late 1950sand very early 1960s.

Where Monsters Dwell #1 (January 1970)

Where Creatures Roam #1 (July 1970)

Fear #1 (November 1970)

The stories used primarily came from Journey into Mystery, Strange Tales, Tales to Astonishand Tales of Suspense, mostly written by Stan Leeand Larry Lieber and pencilled by Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Don Heck - all of which had since acquired cult status and made the stories"sellable" for a second round. Whilst virtually all covers of Where Monsters Dwelland Where Creatures Roamwere reprints, later issues of Fearfeatured new cover artwork by some of Marvel's finest staff, such as Gil Kane (pencils) and Frank Giacoia (inks) for issues #5, #6 and #9, MarieSeverin for issue #4 and John Severin for issue #8.

Where Monsters Dwellwould eventually become the longest running Marvel anthology reprint title, numbering 38 issues before being dropped inOctober 1975, whilst Where Creatures Roamran for only 8 issues until discontinued in September 1971. A completely different fate, however,was meted out to Fear -retitled Adventure into Fearas of issue #10 (October 1972), it would turn to featuring new original material as of thatpoint.

EXPERIMENTS FROM THE LAB - EARLY MARVEL BRONZE AGE HORROR

Even as Marvel was turning out these anthology titles, the House of Ideas was about to rethink its approach to the horror genre.

In August 1970, the first issue of a new Marvel comic book title was published which, at firstsight, had no relevance to the horror genre. Astonishing Tales#1 was a revival of the classic"double feasture" format of the 1960s, accentuated by a name which was very close to one ofthe best known such titles from the Silver Age, namely Tales to Astonish. However, AstonishingTalesalso had a brand new twist because it featured Ka Zar (who basically was a bit like theSub-Mariner, a good guy sometimes forced by circumstances to battle it out with one of Marvel'ssuperheroes) and Dr Doom - an archvillain by any standards.

Roy Thomas provided the first two plots before handing over the concept to Larry Lieber andthen Gerry Conway. The first four issues were pencilled by veteran artist Wally Wood, beforeGeorge Tuska and Gene Colan both did two issues.


31 13/06/2013 18:00


3/31

The cover of Astonishing Tales #1 (August 1970) [left], original artwork by George Tuska (pencils) and Mike Esposito (inks) for page 6 [center, scanned from the original artwork in myprivate collection], and the same page as it appeared in print [right].

Although Doctor Doom was dropped as feature character after Astonishing Tales#8 (October 1971), this was the first time that a major publisherstarred a villain in his own title (a few years later DC would follow by giving the Joker his own book), and this move was highly significant for thehorror genre as it paved the way for the concept of having a figure, which is perceived as being basically evil, as the starring character of acomic book. In this respect, Dr Doom paved the way for Marvel's classic horror titles such as Tomb of Dracula, Werewolf by Nightand GhostRider.

Savage Tales #1 (May 1971)

Many things were changing all around, and on the level of comic books, Marvel was try ing to come up withnew ideas and concepts. Thinking back on an experiment made in 1968 (Spectacular Spider-Man#1-2), onesuch attempt was to try and tap into a new generation of readers (like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had done in1961/62) by designing titles with a larger s ize format which were meant to look more like magazines thantraditional comic books and featured black and white content with more "adult" themes. Other publishers werealready using this formula with great success, such as Warren who published Vampirella, Eerieand Creepysince 1969.

Testing the waters, Marvel published Savage Tales#1 in May 1971. Their first large-size black & whiteanthology magazine also featured Marvel's first horror character of the Seventies in an 11-page story, acreature called Man-Thing. Dying in a swamp, scientist Ted Sallis - who tested his own formula for thecreation of "super soldiers" - rises again from the dead as a result of the mixture of swamp life and chemicalwaste. It was, however, a one-off appareance for the Man-Thing (which would resurface many moons later tobecome one of Marvel's household Bronze Age horror characters) as Marvel's distributor faced severedifficulties in handling and marketing the first issue, resulting in a long delay before the next issue of Savage

Talescould be published - in fact, it would be two more years before Marvel attempted another black & whitemagazine venture.

THE 1971 REVISION OF THE COMICS CODE

At virtually the same time Stan Lee was approached as editor-in-chief by the US Department of Health, asking Marvel to do a comic book storywhich would depict drug abuse as negative and dangerous. Lee agreed and wrote up a story spanningThe Amazing Spider-Man#96-98 (May toJuly 1971 issues). However, the CCA refused to approve the story precisely because of the presence of narcotics. Insisiting on the relevance ofthe cause, Lee consequently published the books (backed by publisher Martin Goodman) without CCA approval and therefore without the CCAseal. The books were highly successful and well received by critics, subsequently forcing the CCA to revise the Code that same year, permittingthe depiction of "narcotics or drug addiction" if presented "as a vicious habit" - without any real intention to do so, Stan Lee had reformed thecomics code [3]. The horror genre was also granted more flexibility as vampires, ghouls and werewolves would now be allowed if "handled in theclassic tradition of Frankenstein, Dracula and other high caliber literary works by Edgar Allan Poe, Saki, Conan Doyle". Zombies (with no literarybackground to save them) and indeed the word horror itself however remained on the blacklist [4].

Amazing Spider-Man #101 (October1971)

The revision of the code opened up many new possibilities, but Stan Lee together with Roy Thomas and GilKane were already out of their starting boxes before most others could even start to ponder the new situation.Only five months after launching a non-CCA-approved issue of Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel's best-sellingcomic title would again make an important contribution to the horror genre, only this time in a more direct waywhen Amazing Spider-Man#101 (October 1971) featured the debut of Dr Michael Morbius aka Morbius theLiving Vampire.

A Nobel-prize winning biochemist, Dr Morbius (presumably a name thought up by Stan Lee and Roy Thomason the basis of Latin morbus, i.e. illness) had attempted to cure himself of a rare blood disease with anexperimental treatment involving vampire bats. However, he instead became afflicted with a far worsecondition that mimicked the powers and bloodthirst of legendary vampirism, meaning that he now had to digestblood in order to survive and felt a strong aversion to light. Morbius gained the ability to fly as well assuperhuman strength, and his appearance became hideous: his canine teeth extended into fangs, his noseflattened to appear more like a bat's, and his skin became chalk-white. Similar to vampires, Morbius wouldturn others into "living vampires" by biting them.

It is rumoured (but always without quoting a reliable source) that Lee and Thomas wanted to put pressure onthe comics code by creating a "living vampire" - a concept which would at least partially outsmart the CCA'staboo list where vampire's were defined as "walking dead". Whatever the background of his creation, it is theforeground of the first appearance of Morbius which is truly important for Marvel's way of re-defining thehorror genre for the Bronze Age.

APPLYING THE SUPERHERO CONCEPT


31 13/06/2013 18:00


4/31

The importance of Morbius the Living Vampire for Marvel's Bronze Age horror comic books lies with the circumstances of his first appearance.Even if Amazing Spider-Manhad already clocked up 101 issues, any character opposing Marvel's most successful superhero at that point intime would automatically be given super-villain status. Accordingly, Morbius was presented in a visual form which resembled the Green Goblin farmore than any of the average popular culture vampire imagery. At the same time, the title of Amazing Spider-Man#101 made reference to thehorror genre as it screamed out "A monster called... Morbius!"

According to Roy Thomas, he and artist Gil Kane actually wanted to introduce Dracula into Amazing Spider-Man#101 but were held back byStan Lee who wanted a "super v illain vampire" - and who possibly already had different plans in his mind for Dracula [5]. Thus Morbius became thefirst instance and example of what would become Marvel's principal Bronze Age approach to the horror genre: applying the superhero conceptand letting loose, so to say, superheroes from the crypt.

The guiding principles were fai rly simple and had mostly been tested previously. The real novelty was, as often, the approach of combining thesedifferent threads into one formula - something which Marvel was still virtually unbeatable at even ten years after the inception of the FantasticFour.

The central approach was to create a character which would feature as the central figure of a continuing saga of individual episodes. As a result,the focus would shift in comparison to most popular culture storytelling, making the source of horror (e.g. Dracula) the main character of the plotand the subject of the storyline, complete with a more or less regular cast of individuals involved with the main character (such as Harker or VanHelsing had already been in Stoker's Dracula). This was very different to what had been presented in colour comics before - which often ranalong the lines of "I dared to enter the haunted castle" and only provided a plot for a couple of pages. Marvel already knew from Dr Doom inAstonishing Talesthat turning the "bad guy" into the main character of a comic book - its "anti-hero" so to speak - worked and was accepted bythe readers.

A secondary aspect of this approach was to furnish such characters from the horror genre with their own comic book titles if they proved to beselling well enough, rather than having them appear in a more generic publication format. This, again, paralleled Marvel's approach to theirsuperheroes since the early Silver Age period, but unlike the circulation restraints experienced in those days, Marvel would now virtually make it

a policy of flooding the market, including horror titles. Some of them sold reasonably well, but if they didn't make it Marvel would just drop themand try something else in an attempt to get a bigger share of the market [6].

King-Size Special Tower of Shadows#1(December 1971)

However, immediately prior to the launch of Marvel's attempt to injectsomething akin to the superhero concept into the horror genre, the Houseof Ideas had to fall back on reprint material in order to establish apresence in this obviously promising segment of the comic book market.

The publication of King-Size Special Tower of Shadows#1 in December1971 and Chamber of Darkness Special#1 in January 1972 was anattempt to breathe a second life into the original material Marvel hadassigned for the first issues of these two titles when launched in late1969. King-Size Special Tower of Shadows#1 featured reprints fromTower of Shadows#1 and 2 (with a story from Atlas period Journey intoMystery#61 tossed in as filler for the final five pages) and Chamber of

Darkness Special#1 likewise featured material from the first two issuesof the title.

Although not a very imaginative move, Marvel had clearly sensed thatputting out Atlas period reprints in anthology format alone would not proveenough to grab a substantial slice of the market and that original materialwould be needed.

Chamber of Darkness Special#1(January 1972)

WEREWOLF BY NIGHT

Surprisingly, the first "superhero from the crypt" wasn't Dracula, but the classic Werewolf. A creature rooted in centuries of traditional folkore inEurope, it was often portrayed as being innocent at heart and suffering from an unhappy personal fate. One of the oldest literary sources is theshort poem Bisclavret, written in Anglo-Norman in the late 12th century and describing the fate of a garwolf[7]. In more recent times the novel TheWerewolf of Paris(1933) by Guy Endore has been accorded classic status [8].

Marvel Spotlight#2(February 1972)

The creative process behind Marvel's version of the werewolf theme was described by Roy Thomas in aninterview:

"I had this idea for something called "I, Werewolf." I wanted it narrated in first person (...) Mywife Jeanie and I plotted the first issue one day when we got bored with a car show atColumbus Center in New York City, but I didn't like to write that stuff, so I'd always giveassignments like that to Gerry [Conway] (...) Stan [Lee] liked everything but the title "I,Werewolf." He wanted to call it Werewolf by Night, and since all I cared about was the concept,not the name, that was fine by me. It was still narrated in the first person. I told Gerry to do it thatway, and it worked out very well. Almost everything else after the first issue (...) was prettymuch Gerry's, I think."[9]

One of Marvel's most successful horror characters, Werewolf by Night made his first appearance in MarvelSpotlight#2 (one of Marvel's tryout magazines) in February 1972, and the launch was considered importantenough to merit being mentioned in Marvel's regular monthly Bullpen Bulletin:

"We've got a hunch that its second issue [Marvel Spotlight] - now on sale - is gonna be adefinite smash! The new series heralded therein is called WEREWOLF BY NIGHT - and if thatdoesn't clue you in that Marvel's branching out into new and exciting areas, then we'd betterdrop our soft-sell approach. Fact is, this new series idea was so thrilling that half the Bullpen

has been dying to have a hand in it. ROY THOMAS conceived and plotted the first tale (with theadvice and consent of his better half, JEANIE), then turned it over to GERRY CONWAY, who'sturned in one of his greatest, wildest scripts to date. As for the art - well, say hello to Madcap


31 13/06/2013 18:00


5/31


6/31

time) - credited with writ ing the first issue on its splashpage - was brought in almost last minute to, basically, supply the dialogue [18].

Tomb of Dracula#1 (April 1972)

Tomb of Dracula#7 (March 1973), thefirst issue scripted by Marv Wolfman

More than just a vampire - Gene Colan'soriginal artwork exemplified by a framefrom page 18 of Tomb of Dracula#9

(June 1973)[scanned from the original art page in my

personal collection]

The pencilling art on Tomb of Dracula#1 was entrusted to Gene Colan (who would then go on and stay withthe book right throughout its entire run) after having literally fought for this assignment from Stan Lee.

"The only strip I really begged for was Dracula. He [Stan Lee] promised it to me, but then he

changed his mind, he was going to give it to Bill Everett (...) But I didn't take that for an answer.I worked up a page of Dracula, long before Bill did anything. I just sat there, and I inked it, awhole page of the character, just sample drawings of him. I fashioned him after Jack Palance,years before Palance played Dracula on TV, and I sent it in. I got an immediate call back. Stansaid, "The strip is yours"."[19]

Officially, the launch was further delayed because of restrictions on printing capabilities (which were due to anincrease of pages in most Marvel titles, turning them into "king size" books - a move Marvel had to undo againonly two months later) [20], but with a cover date of April 1972, Marvel finally launched the much announcedfirst issue of Tomb of Draculafeaturing a cover by Neal Adams:

"You've waited a long time for it - you've demanded it - and here it is! The most famous, mostfearful vampire of all! Yes - Count Dracula lives!"[21]

According to Roy Thomas, Marvel's editor-in-chief at the time, Tomb of Dracula(the extension to the vampirecount's name was necessary for Marvel to be able to copyright the title) had a good start, the book eventuallybecoming a good, solid seller for most of i ts run [22]. Despite an initial lack of constant authorship (GerryConway worked on issues #1-2, Archie Goodwin on issues #3-4, and Gardner Fox on issues #5-6), Marvel'snewest horror title found favour with its readership, and the title went from bi-monthly to monthly publication asof Tomb of Dracula#9 in June 1973.

By that time, Marv Wolfman had taken over the scripting and Tomb of Draculawould eventually become theflagship of Marvel's line of horror titles and the longest running comic book title with a villain as its namegivinghero - above all thanks to the artwork of Gene Colan (often superbly inked by Tom Palmer) which was, in aword, definitive. After a long period of work on Daredevil, Colan created an intensely atmospheric visualrendition of the horror saga that was to unfold. The fact that he remained on the series for the entire length ofits run was paramount to its success and is a prime reason for the status of cult classic which Tomb ofDraculahas achieved.

"I kind of improved as the series went on. The more you work on something, the better you getat it. I felt that the character became my own (...) It was a monthly book and it was the onlymonthly book that held up at the time. They had other books like that but they didnt last.Dracula did though."[23]

Colan established a distinctive look for Marvel's vampire count while maintaining many of the features readerswould probably come to expect (such as the cape), and embedded this in a general visual atmospheric settingwhich went far beyond the classic horror comic qualities. Issue after issue Colan's style provided a truly

captivating visual journey into the dark shadows, often incorporating well-known landmark buildings to set thescene.

The kick-off script used Bram Stoker's plot from the novel as part of its background storyline but opened withthe re-animation of the vampire in modern times, which involved the last living descendant of Dracula, anAmerican named Frank Drake. The great advantage of this approach was that the almost inevi tabletranslocation of events to current times took place straight away, avoiding tedious twists and turns thestoryline might otherwise have taken (as happened later on with the - greatly inferior - Monster ofFrankenstein). The frequent change of writers, however, posed a problem, as Marv Wolfman concludedimmediately when he was handed Tomb of Dracula#7 as author number four.

"A book that was six issues old - with three different writers and no direction. I realised prettyquickly that in order to do anything I had to decide on the handling of the characters and whatthe series was about (...) One of the things I did was write up pages upon pages of notes onwho the characters were and where I wanted them to go. I was less concerned about the

indivdiual plots at this point than I was about the direction of the characters. So I would write

almost up to two years ahead, all the different turns of the characters and where they weregonna be, and issue by issue what would happen with the character. Then I went back andworried about the stories to make it work."[24]

Because of Marvel's systematic approach of having only "real" characters in its universe, never mind howfantastic they may be, Bram Stoker's book - as a consequence - is not, as everybody thinks, a work of fiction,but rather an account of actual events. The logic of this approach then dictates that the other characters ofthe novel - most importantly, Dracula's adversary Van Helsing - were just as real as the newly revived Draculahimself, setting the scene for Rachel van Helsing, granddaughter of the famous vampirologist, and QuincyHarker, the son of Jonathan and Mina Harker (both pivotal characters in Stoker's novel).

Fighting the newly risen lord of vampires would be a team effort - as it was in Stoker's novel - but this time thegroup of individuals would not be formed by family ties but rather by a common cause. Harker, an elderly manbound to a wheelchair, is a man who uses scientific means and sophisticated machinery to hunt downvampires - something he has done, as he himself explains, for the past sixty years after having been trainedby Abraham van Helsing himself. He is the driving force behind the group of vampire hunters, carrying on a

lifelong crusade to fight and destroy vampires. Being old and paralyzed, he is seen as a kind of mastermindbehind the group effort. One of the best known characters amongst the group was an original Marvel creationwith no ties to Stoker's novel whatsoever: Blade the Vampire Slayer, introduced inTomb of Dracula#10,became the title-giving star of three movies and one of the most successful African-American characters incomic book history.


31 13/06/2013 18:00


7/31

The group of vampire hunters is uponDracula in Tomb of Dracula#13

(October 1973)

The first appearance of Blade in Tomb ofDracula#10 (July 1973)

This concept of having a group of "vampire killers" as opponents to Dracula's actions and scheme of worlddomination was presented and worked on so well that it became an important element of the ongoing sagaand contributed in a very important way to the success of Tomb of Dracula. Marv Wolfman, after taking overthe scripting as of Tomb of Dracula#7, stayed on the book together with Gene Colan until the title was finallycancelled after 70 issues in August 1979 - the longest run of any Bronze Age Marvel horror genre title and the"superhero from the crypt" par excellence.

"This was the first time anything like this had been done. I was fighting the Comics Code everysingle month. We were just stretching - for the first time - out of standard comics."[25]

Marvel's Tomb of Draculabroke new grounds. It was far more than just an average vampire tale, weaving anongoing saga which plotted the vampire count against the group of vampire hunters and others who sought to

put an end to his existence.

Gene Colan and Marv Wolfman achieved a quality of storytelling which was not only in the best vein of the classic gothic vampire stories but alsoadded its very own stamp of originality and thematic momentum - which remains fresh and vibrant even 30+ years after it was created.Tomb ofDraculais a comic book classic beyond its genre, and the jewel in the crown of Marvel's bronze age horror world.

GHOST RIDER

With sales figures indicating to Marvel that both their versions of the Werewolf and Dracula were successful, the House of Ideas was clearlygetting a grip on the genre and a larger slice of a market which showed all signs of growing - a fact which also demanded higher output in order toseize even more market share. However, rather than turning to another classic f igure of the genre, Marvel would next come up with an originalcreation: the eerie Ghost Rider - branded as the most supernatural superhero of all.

Marvel Spotlight#5 (August 1972)

Launched in issue #5 of Marvel's tryout book Marvel Spotlight(which had already proven a successfullaunchpad for the Werewolf by Nightseries), the story introduced Johnny Blaze, a motorcycle stunt performerin a travelling circus who sold his soul to what he believed to be the devil in order to save the life of hisstepfather. As a result, Johnny Blaze transformed into a leather-clad skeleton with a skull cloaked in a sheath

of flame, riding a fiery motorcycle and wielding blasts of hellfire from his skeletal hands.

Following the new line which would soon lead to the branding "Macabre Marvel", the Ghost Rider's first drivearound the block was supervised by editor Roy Thomas, writer Gary Friedrich and artist Mike Ploog - with theoriginal authorship of the character remaining a matter of dispute. Thomas links the creation to a character hemade up for Daredevil, the motorcyclist villain called Stunt-Master:

"When Gary Friedrich started writing Daredevil, he said, "Instead of Stunt-Master, I'd like tomake the villain a really weird motorcycle-riding character called Ghost Rider." He didn'tdescribe him. I said, "Yeah, Gary, there's only one thing wrong with it," (...) "That's too good anidea to be just a villain in Daredevil. He should start out right away in his own book." WhenGary wasn't there the day we were going to design it, Mike Ploog, who was going to be theartist, and I designed the character. I had this idea for the skull-head, something like Elvis'

1968 Special jumpsuit, and so forth, and Ploog put the fire on the head, just because hethought it looked nice. Gary liked it, so they went off and did it."[26]

Friedrich, however, disagrees (and has since taken Marvel to court in 2007, alleging that his copyrights to thecharacter have been exploited):

"It was my idea. It was always my idea from the first time we talked about it, it turned out to be aguy with a flaming skull and rode a motorcycle. Ploog seems to think the flaming skull was hisidea. But, to tell you the truth, it was my idea."[27]


31 13/06/2013 18:00


8/31

Ghost Rider#1 (September 1973)

Ghost Rider#10 (February 1975)

Marvel Team-Up#15 (November 1973)

The official Marvel version of the time would seem to support Friedrich's view:

"The current ish of MARVEL SPOTLIGHT debuts a far-out new feature which we think you'regonna dig. It's called GHOST RIDER - but, as anybody with 20-20 vision can plainly see, he'sno blood relation to the western hero we sprung on you some time back. Nope - this GR is amad, mod, mystic hero who straddles both the world of motorcycles - and the supernatural! (...)

It's by the titanic team of Groovy GARY FRIEDRICH, who dreamed the whole thing up, andMadcap MIKE PLOOG, whose own "Werewolf by Night" series is scheduled to gain its veryown mag in a month or two!"[28]

Ghost Rider starred in Marvel Spotlightfor 7 issues and proved a great success. The additional good newsfor Marvel was that the horror genre had caught on to such an extent that original material could gain areadership just as well as classic characters could. Ghost Rider would eventually be given his own title bookwhich hit the newsagent stands in September 1973.

For a surprisingly long period of time, the Ghost Rider remained something of an enigma. Half demon, halfsuperhero, his adventures did not fall into the horror genre as clearly or as strictly as other titles, such asTomb of Dracula. The Ghost Rider would get mixed up with the supernatural in one issue and with the Hulk inthe next, and he saw his first cross-over with Marvel's superhero icon Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up#15only two months after starting out in his own title book. This was a superhero who only called the crypt hispart-time home for the first two years of his publication run.

However, when author Michael Fleisher and artist Don Per lin took over, the Ghost Rider would eventually shiftcompletely to the horror genre. There were no more guest-appearances from other Marvel characters, andsatanic cults, demonic bounty hunters, and vampire bats took center stage.

The Ghost Rider proved a highly successful character, bridging both the Bronze Age era 1970s and the early1980s with a total of 81 issues. The saga finally came to an end in June 1983, making it one the longestrunning Marvel horror comic book series of all. In 2007, the Ghost Riderbecame the second Marvel horrorcharacter after Blade to feature as the title giving star in a big budget Hollywood movie.

DEJA VUFOR A LARGER SHARE OF THE MARKET

Following the mould of Tomb of Draculaand acting on the possibilities of the moment, Marvel promoted Werewolf by Nightto its own title book inSeptember 1972. Creating more new material, however, would take some time, so Marvel had to fall back on existing concepts to increase itshorror genre output straight away.


31 13/06/2013 18:00


9/31

Astonishing Tales #13(August 1972)

Reader reaction to the Man-Thing (introduced in Savage Tales#1 in May1971) had been very good, but the publication of a second story, originallyplanned for Savage Tales#2, had been postponed. Now, in need of morehorror material, Marvel published the existing material in June 1972 inAstonishing Tales#12 and #13 as a black & white feature with colourhighlighting in order to adapt this material to the book's colour format.Following this second appearance, Man-Thing received his own regularseries in Marvel's anthology title Adventure into Fearas 10-page leadcharacter from issue #10 (October 1972) to issue #19 (January 1974).

"In his own series at last! The macabre Man-Thing -perhaps the most monstrous "hero" ever!"[29]

Steve Gerber, who would become Man-Thing's most prominent writer,succeeded original author Gerry Conway as the feature continuallyexpanded in terms of page numbers until it reached the standard 19-pagelength of Marvel's superhero books with Adventure into Fear#15.

Adventure into Fear #10(October 1972)

The final quarter of Marvel's 1972 publication roster saw more deja vuas three new anthology titles reached the market. For the Octoberproduction run, Marvel re-introduced one of its best-known 1950s/1960s title: Journey into Mystery. Most would, of course, remember it forhaving been the launchpad of the Mighty Thor, who subsequently made the book his home from issue #83 (August 1962) until it changed its titleto Mighty Thorafter Journey into Mystery#125 (February 1966). Rather than continue the numbering where it had left off, Marvel - most certainlywanting to present something "new" - launched the revival with issue #1 (which accordingly became volume II) in October 1972.

Journey into Mystery #2(December1972)

Supernatural Thrillers #1 (December1972)

Marvel's newest voyage into the world of the weird! And withtitles like "Dig me no grave!" - "House!" - and "More thanBlood!" - how can any ghostly-tales aficionado go wrong?"[30]

Following the proven anthology format from the classic era of the genre,Marvel's intentions were to get the rights to stories by well-known literaryauthors (such as Robert Bloch, Robert E. Howard or Theodore Sturgeon)and then adapt these into comic book format.

"If you've latched onto the brand new premiere issue ofCHAMBER OF CHILLS, Marvel's newest and mostnightmarish weird-type entry - or if you dug last month's

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #1 - then doubtless you'venoticed that we've added something a wee bit new to thiskind of anthology title! For the foreseeable future (and we'vegot a zingy new crystal ball!), virtually each and every issueof these two mags, plus the fast-upcoming GOTHICTHRILLERS already in the works, will headline an eerie

adaptation of a masterpiece by a major fantasy author (...)They'll be backed up by plenty of original stoires as well,written by some of the finest scripters in the history of comix- and together, they're gonna knock you right out of yourhaunted house!"[31]

This concept worked very well before, but once again, as with Tower ofShadowsand Chamber of Darkness, a lack of editorial stability made thebook's more literary approach falter after a few issues. As of Journey intoMystery#7 (October 1973), reprints from the original Atlas/MarvelJourney into Mysteryfrom the mid-1950s started to appear and take overthe book completely, occasionally accompanied by reprints from earlystories which had appeared in Tales to Astonishand Strange Tales. Thesecond volume run of Journey into Mysterylasted for a total of 19 issuesbefore being cancelled in October 1975.

Chamber of Chills #1 (November 1972)

Chamber of Chills #25(July 1976) - thelast issue and a cover with "reprints"

written all over it

Only a month later, in November 1972, the relaunch of Journey into Mysterywas followed by another bi-monthly anthology title, Chamber ofChills, and Marvel would round off the 1972 horror genre production run with a third anthology title, Supernatural Thrillers(previously announcedby Marvel as Gothic Thrillers), in December. Both titles initially followed the concept format of Journey into Mystery: Chamber of Chills#1featured the comic book adaptation of an original short story by Harlan Ellison ("Delusion for a dragon slayer") and other original stories fromMarvel's writership, whilst Supernatural Thrillers#1 adapted Theodore Sturgeon's story "It" to comic book format. As with Journey into Mystery,Chamber of Chillshad impressive content quality for the first few issues, but once the ball was rolling, Marvel's problems with their pronounced

lack of editorial guidance struck - in spite of Marvel showing at least a basic awareness of the problem:

"The big news this month is a spanking-new title called GOTHIC THRILLERS! That's the mag wherein we plan to present some ofthe greatest weird tales ever told - by some of the world's finest authors - in full, novel-length glory! (...) And, lest you think that ournew JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY and CHAMBER OF CHILLS mags are going to turn into the usual ghost-and-goblins fare, weinvite you to feast your mind and eyes upon the now-on-sale ish of JOURNEY! It features a spine-tingler called "Yours truly, Jackthe Ripper", originally written by none other than ROBERT BLOCH - the far-famed author of Psycho and other wondrous works of


31 13/06/2013 18:00


10/31

mystery and menace!"[32]

The first reprint material appeared in Chamber of Chills#5, and only three issues later the title would feature nothing but Atlas/Marvel periodreprints until its final issue, Chamber of Chills#25, in July 1976.

Given its very basic editorial manpower - in comparison to rival DC [33] - there seemingly wasn't much Marvel could do to prevent these changesin their horror anthology titles (and there wasn't, as pointed out before, much interest either, as it tied up a lot of workforce). From time to time,however, one of them would get away, and Supernatural Thrillerswould be such a tit le. Following Sturgeon's "It" in its premier issue, the bookfeatured well-known horror genre c lassics in its following issues: H.G. Wells' "Invisible Man" in issue #2, R. E. Howard's "The Valley of the Worm"in issue #3, R.L. Stevenson's "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" in issue #4 and, eventually, "The Mummy" in issue #5 which, lacking a literary prototype,was based on an original script by Marvel's Steve Gerber. This character would catch on, making the title its own up until its final issue,Supernatural Thrillers#15, in October 1975.

THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN

Following the successful launch of the two classic horror characters Dracula and the Werewolf, it really was just a matter of time until Marvelwould introduce the Frankenstein Monster, and this time came in January 1973 (ac tually, this was a return - the Frankenstein Monster and itscreator had been the only classic horror characters to feature in Marvel comic books during the Silver Age period [34]).

Monster of Frankenstein#1(January1973)

The Monster as drawn by John Buscema- the Karloff mould is subtle, but visible

The Monster by Bob Brown, displaying avery strong Karloff resemblance

Acting upon a conceptual framework by Marvel's editor-in-chief Roy Thomas [35], writer Gary Friedrich andartist Mike Ploog started The Monster of Frankenstein(renamed The Frankenstein Monsterafter 5 issues inorder to emphasize the name Frankenstein [36]) with a four-issue adaptation of Mary Shelley's originalFrankenstein, first published in 1818:

"We've just got to clue you in to our own brand new creature-feature, the comic-mag we callTHE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN! With the unparalleled success of WEREWOLF BYNIGHT and THE TOMB OF DRACULA, it was impossible that we'd be able to resist the clarion

call to add the most famous gargoyle of all to the mighty Marvel roster. And we've done it with avengeance, people! First off, we got our Werewolf wonder-boy MIKE PLOOG to pencil - andmonster-fan first class GARY FRIEDRICH to script. Next, we decided to do things up brown bybeing more faithful to Mary Shelley's original masterpiece of suspense than virtually any of themedia have ever done before! Pick up a copy and see what we mean, okay? THE MONSTEROF FRANKENSTEIN - lumbering toward your friendly neighborhood newsstand right now!"[37]

Shelley ended her novel with the monster bidding farewell to the explorer Sir Robert Walton somewhere in thevast emptiness of the Arctic Sea, and this is where Friedrich set out from. The year is 1898 and readers areintroduced to the explorer's great-grandson, Robert Walton IV, who is about to reach the goal of his mission -finding the Monster. Once the block of ice encasing the creature is hauled onto the ship, Walton IV retells theclassic tale from Shelleys novel to a young midshipman.

A fairly ingenious framework to present the basic corpus of Shelley's novel, the adaptation was - as had beenannounced in Marvel's advertising - indeed faithful to the original literary work and, in actual fact, did betterthan most other adaptations (such as movies) by featuring almost all of the story's elements and characters -even including the narrative framework of the original novel which provides various different viewpoints of themonster's story.

The visual rendition of this concept was a challenge, because the image of Frankenstein's Monster had beenso indelibly defined by Universal Pictures and Jack Pierce's make-up to the extent of making Boris Karloff'slooks as monster iconic. This meant that assigned artist Mike Ploog was faced with the question of eitherfollowing the established image (as closely as Universal's copyright on the make-up would allow [38]) or do

something completely different which might not match up with the reader's expectations.

Marvel, not surprisingly, took no chances and so Mike Ploog came up with a Monster which, in visual terms,didn't copy the Universal imagery too closely but remained within the range of the Kar loff mould. Later on inthe publication run, John Buscema and Bob Brown would come closer to the Universal look, with Val Mayerikeventually taking this as a basis for a Karloff-based but nevertheless distinctive Marvel monster look.

The way the adaptation of Shelley's novel was handled met with an enthusiastic reader reaction, and it allseemed to work out as Roy Thomas had planned:

"I wanted to adapt the novel in the first few issues, and then go on from there."[39]

But what seemed like a blessing at first quickly turned into a curse as Friedrich had to come up with anoriginal plot which would meet the high expectations set by the fi rst four issues. It proved extremely difficult to"go on from there", and the fact that Friedrich opened his first original plot - still set in the year 1898 - with aquote from the lyrics of CCR's 1969 song "Bad Moon Rising" would, with hindsight, be unintentionally fitting

for the anachronisms which would befall the title for most of the remaining saga: Marvel's tale of theFrankenstein Monster quickly became unbalanced and lumbered about, plagued with a sometimes glaringlyinconsistent plot and far too much lack of atmosphere. Only three issues after the Shelley adaptation Marvelalready felt the need to give the series a shot in the arm with a three-part appearance of Dracula, Marvel'smost successful horror character by far. Once the battle with the vampire count was over, Marvel decided toprepare the monster for a transfer to the present by, once again, deep-freezing him in ice. The switch tomodern times under writer Doug Moench and artist Val Meyerik as of The Frankenstein Monster#12 was a


de 31 13/06/2013 18:00


11/31

The Monster by Val Mayerik, whoeventually developed Marvel's own image

of the monster

Frankenstein Monster #8 (January1974)

controversial issue amongst readers but handled in a swift and convincing way by the creative team.

Nevertheless, the lack of a true genre atmosphere remained, despite Moench's successful attempts to reduceinconsistencies and add new interest in the form of a regular supporting cast.

The editorial board must have had an extremely hard time overseeing the letters page of The FrankensteinMonsteras more and more negative reader feedback came in, because after all this was a proven horrorformula which Marvel was seemingly unable to handle successfully. Many corrections were made along theway, but often this just added to the unstable course of the title, and important changes such as introducing aregular supporting cast (one of the prime ingredients for the success of Tomb of Dracula) and switching thelocation of events back to Europe (much more appropriate in terms of atmospheric backgrounds than theurban jungle of New York) were made all but too late.

Marvel had run the Frankenstein Monster more or less straight into the ground, and the end of the seriescame about - without announcement and therefore abruptly in the midst of the storyline - in September 1975with issue 18. Sales by that time must have been dismal, and the only conclusion to draw was that whilstMarvel was able to make the most out of Dracula as a classic horror figure, The Frankenstein Monstersimplyfailed to leave its mark.

1973 - THE YEAR OF THE ANTHOLOGY TITLE

Apart from everything else happening in its horror field, 1973 was mostly and truly the year of the anthology title for Marvel, who were thus able tobuild up an enormous market presence and corner as much as possible of the horror genre's popularity. The titles chosen for these all-reprint and

mostly bi-monthly anthology titles were in the best of their 1950s material tradition - Crypt of Shadows(launched in January 1973), Vault of Evil(February 1973), Beware(March 1973), Dead of Night, Uncanny Tales(Uncanny Tales from the Graveas of issue #3) and Weird WonderTales(all first published in December 1973) - and Marvel's advertising announcements in their monthly checklists were apt in tone:

Crypt of Shadows#1 (January 1973)

"CRYPT OF SHADOWS #1: Another pulse-poundingpremier issue! You'll shudder to spend - "Midnight on Black

Mountain!" Bonus: a tale of terror by Basil Wolverton, one ofthe most-copied comix artists of all time!"[40]

"VAULT OF EVIL #1: You've wandered into the Chamber of

Chills - and come shuddering out of the Crypt of Shadows!Now, it's time to enter - the Vault of Evil! Some of thescariest spook-taculars of all!"[41]

The Marvel Comics Group was growing and growing fast, not the least

due to the increasing range of horror titles, and by early 1973 theexpansion reached an overa ll total of well over three dozen titlespublished by Marvel every month [42]. Slightly more verbose, theannouncement of three new anthology titles in one single month alsodisplayed Marvel's intention to look beyond the horror genre as such andtest the waters for crossover sci-fi material as well:

"We've a couple of other new mags debuting this go-round,too, for those of you who simply can't get enough of ourmacabre mystery-type thrillers. Don't miss your

collector's-item editions of a trio of winners calledUNCANNY TALES, THE DEAD OF NIGHT, and WEIRDWONDER TALES! The latter, incidentally, features startlingsagas of a more science-fiction nature, drawn by some ofcomicdom's finest!"[43]

The wording "drawn by some of comicdom's finest"was, of course, aeuphemistic way of describing the fact that the book featured reprintmaterial from the Atlas period.

Dead of Night#2 (February 1974)


e 31 13/06/2013 18:00


12/31

Vault of Evil#1 (February 1973)

Beware#1 (March 1973)

Weird Wonder Tales#1 (December 1973) and the final issue of Crypt of Shadows(#21,

November 1975)

Uncanny Tales#1 (December 1973)

Uncanny Tales from the Grave#3 (April1974)

BLACK & WHITE BARRAGE

Marvel's original foray into the domain of the black & white magazine format (featuring more mature content) withSavage Tales#1 in May 1971had not been a very impressive market move, as the follow-up issue was more than two years in the making (and eventually only published aslate as October 1973). In early 1973, however, Marvel reconsidered the concept in the light of the developments and the surge in interest andtherefore market share which the horror as well as the fantasy genre had generated since mid-1971.

In-house ad for Dracula Lives!

The time seemed just right, and so Marvel did what it had done in the field of the horror genre over the pasttwo years: challenge the competitors. In this case, the result was nothing less than a full scale assault on theblack & white magazine market, essentially flooding the market with no less than four horror magazines, ahumour magazine, a revived Savage Talesand a movie gag photo magazine - all in 1973.

By this time, the situation was such that, from the perspective of Marvel's editor-in-chief at the time, RoyThomas, the House of Ideas had the horror market pretty much cornered:

"Nobody else really competed with Marvel except Warren with the black & whites."[44]

This confidence was further boosted with the set of black & white magazines Marvel was about to launch andtherefore lash out at the only remaining real competitor according to Thomas.

"Can there be any doubt that the Second Age of Marvel is upon us in full glorious bloom?"[45]

The first black and white horror magazine to be launched was Dracula Lives!in June 1973 (with the coveronly carrying the date "1973"). Advertised as a "giant sized 75c comic" [46]Dracula Lives!#1 only contained35 pages of new original material in its total pagination of 72. The remaining pages were filled with pre-codereprints from the early 1950s and text-only articles plus photos from old movies. In order to stay clear of theestablished Tomb of Draculaand avoid contradictions with the storyline of Marvel's most successful horrortitle, the material in Dracula Lives!generally stuck to a different set of time and location.

Next in line was Monsters Unleashed, first published in July 1973, which followed the formula set out byDracula Lives!the month before. Whilst the first issue seemed to indicate that this title would featureadaptations of literary horror stories in the vein of the colour titles Journey Into Mysteryand Chamber OfChills, Monsters Unleashedquickly became just as erratic as many of Marvel's previously released colour

anthology titles. Apart from sword and sorcery material creeping in - which didn't seem to fit the magazine'stitle at all - Marvel decided to feature black & white versions of some of their horror genre figures alreadyfeaturing in colour titles as of issue #2 - most noteably the Frankenstein Monster.

"Beginning this go-round, [Monsters Unleashed #2] spotlights a senses-staggering new serialstarring THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN, picking up where our ever-fabulous color comicleaves off!"[47]


de 31 13/06/2013 18:00


13/31

Dracula Lives!#12 (May 1975)

Monsters Unleashed!#2 (September1973)

Tales of the Zombie#7 (September1974)

Vampire Tales#1 (August 1973)

By that time, the colour comic Monster of Frankensteinhad completed its initial four-issue adaptation ofShelley's novel and was already in very deep water and, soon after, real trouble. It is therefore hardlysurprising that the black & white plot in Monsters Unleashed, which transferred the monster to modern times ayear before the colour title would follow, was unbalanced right from the start and suffered from the samedefects which would eventually bring down the colour book.

The third black & white tit le of this barrage was Tales of the Zombie. Written by Steve Gerber and veryatmospherically pencilled by John Buscema and inked by Tom Palmer, the story centering around SimonGarth, a successful coffee harvester in New Orleans who is turned into a Zombie by means of voodoo rituals,lived up to Marvel's definition of "mature" - it was violent and graphic, and topped with a fai r amount of nudity.

Tales of the Zombiewas unique in that it featured a complete story arc across the entire ten issues Marvelwould eventually publish. The magazine is, however, even more noteworthy for the fact that it featuredzombies both as story characters as well as in its title - at a time when the Comics Code (not applicable tomagazines) still had an outright ban on the walking dead [48].

Finally, Vampire Tales#1 was published in August 1973, featuring an adaptation by Ron Goulart and RoyThomas (pencilled by Win Mortimer) of the short story The Vampyre, published in 1819by John Polidori(based on a fragment by Lord Byron) and the progenitor of the literary vampire of the romantic period. Issue#2, however, went a completely different way and featured a reprint of the Morbius origin sequence fromTheAmazing Spider-Man#102, after which he would be featured in his own ongoing series in Vampire TalesuntilJune 1975.

Marvel's entry into the black & white horror comic magazine scene was impressive, but at the end of the daythis all-out assault launched in order to cut into competitor Warren's niche market had very little effect, asJames Warren himself concluded:

"They didn't understand what was involved. They weren't set up at the time like we were; theydidn't look at their artists and writers like we did - they were production houses with deadlines tomeet (...) The mindset at National and Marvel sometimes regarded scheduling and deadlinesas being more important than the product (...) It was a half-hearted attempt to float something tosee if it'll sink. It was no way to launch a new line (...) You saw the content; it was mediocre. I

talked to Stan years later and said, "You have 'Stan Lee Presents' on these books! How canyou have your name on stuff like this?" I now realize I was saying the wrong thing because hewas part of a huge company that operated on a different mindset."[49]

Different mindset or not, the black & white market did not prove a successful venture for Marvel. The titleslaunched soldiered on for a couple of issues and were then quietly dropped from production, despite the fac tthat, unlike the many promising colour anthology titles, Marvel provided the black & white magazine line withstable editorship and that the man in charge, Marv Wolfman, had even worked for Warren prior to signing onat Marvel [50].

The problem was elsewhere. Warren was the established black & white comic magazine market leader, soMarvel had to compete with es tablished publications such as Vampirella. Luring readers away from thesewould be extremely difficult at the outset, so Marvel needed to build a market position through new readership.The House of Ideas, however, couldn't have picked a more adverse time for this, as the US economy and theUS dollar went into the worst s lump since the 1970 recession and consumers, stunned by higher prices, werespending less and less [51].

Unable to escape the general market situation, Marvel even had to increase the cover prices of theirestablished colour comic books in early 1974 [52]. This was the worst possible setting for the black & whitecomic magazines, as the established readership already needed to pay more just to continue buying theirregular comic books before even thinking about something new, and together with content which was hardlyever a "must buy", it eventually broke the neck of Marvel's venture into the black & white comic magazinemarket.

Marvel did make one final attempt in April 1974 with the launch of Haunt of Horrorunder the editorship of RoyThomas and Marv Wolfman. Starting with issue #2 the magazine became the home of "Gabriel Devil-Hunter",

Marvel's answer to the splash created by the movie The Exorcistin 1973. Written by Doug Moench andpencilled by a number of constantly changing artists, Gabriel seemed to derive much of his appearance fromNick Fury with his eyepatch and firm jaw. As for content, the quality was very poor - or, in the words of TonyIsabella (editor for issues #3 and #4):

"The lead feature - Gabriel Devil-Hunter - was this blatant attempt to cash in on the success ofThe Exorcist. It was awful stuff and a real pain in the butt to produce (...) Marv was milking The

Exorcist for all he could (...) Editing "Haunt Of Horror" was not my finest hour, but sometimesyou have to take one for the team." [53]

Haunt of Horrorlasted for five issues before cancellation in January 1975, and the helter skelter publicationdates (ranging from monthly to tri-monthly) really speak for themselves. Marvel finally quit trying for the black& white market with original material. Masters of Terror, launched in May 1975, was an all-reprint b&wmagazine featuring stories previously published in their colour anthology books such as Supernatural Thrillersor Tower of Shadows, but this only lasted for a mere two issues.

The headliners of the various cancelled b&w magazines were regrouped in September 1975 inLegion ofMonsters#1 - which would remain the only issue published. For the rest of the Bronze Age period, Marvel'sless than successful venture into the b&w magazine market finally came to a grinding halt until October 1979,when Tomb of Draculawould be transferred from the colour format to the b&w magazine of the same title -again, with little success.

Marvel's 1973 barrage of black and white magazines was an attempt to ride on a wave of "mature content"


de 31 13/06/2013 18:00


14/31

Haunt of Horror#2 (July 1974)

Legion of Monsters#1 (September1975)

which very quickly became based on nothing more than cliches which were amplified through covers whichtoo often were repetitive, unimaginative and - to a certain degree - even crude. The comics themselves veryoften were sub-standard compared to the colour books.

THE LIVING MUMMY

In August 1973, Supernatural Thrillers#5 - which, as described previously, had started out as one of Marvel's ambitious projects intended tofeature comic book adaptations of literary material - presented its first original feature. The main character of Steve Gerber's script, however,

was another well-known classic from the Universal range of horror movies: The Mummy. Universal portrayed its 1932 movie (again featuringKarloff) as not being based on any literary work, although similarities may well be found between the plot and Arthur Conan Doyle's short storyLot249, first published in 1892, in which a British student finds a magical papyrus scroll, uses this to bring back to life a mummy bought at an auction(which explains the title of the story) and then secretly sends it out to kill his enemies in the night.

Stan Lee wanted to complete Marvel's rendition of the classic Universal Horror Cabinet from the 1930s when he called for Marvel's own Mummycharacter [54]. Again, as with Dracula, a tag-on was needed in order to be able to copyright the character, so the House of Ideas came up withThe Living Mummyand a background plot which follows the underlying motives of most Mummy stories: an innocent and well meaning individualis punished unjustly by being mummified alive, comes back to life, and seeks out revenge.

Supernatural Thrillers #5(August 1973)

In Steve Gerber's storyline, this translated into a noble African tribal prince called N'Kantu who - together withthe members of his tribe - is defeated and enslaved by the Ancient Egyptians. Forced to work on monumentsfor the pharaoh, N'Kantu plans and leads a rebellion which ultimately fails and for which he is punished by thehigh-priest Nephrus. He paralyses N'Kantu whose body is then wrapped in papyrus, and his blood drained andreplaced with an unknown alchemical preservative. Finally, N'Kantu - conscious through the entire ordeal - is

placed inside a stone sarcophagus. 3,000 years later N'Kantu regaines control from his paralyzing fluid anddigs himself free to wreak havoc on those that had wronged him, going on a murderous rampage in Cairo untilhe locates Dr Alexi Skarab who is a descendant of Nephrus. Events go all wrong when the police forcearrives on the scene, and eventually N'Kantu is seemingly electrocuted.

When N'Kantu returned in Supernatural Thrillers#7 (after a six month hiatus following issue #6 and with thecover logo now reading Supernatural Thrillers featuring The Living Mummy), Gerber and Val Mayerik (whotook over from Rich Buckler) brought the character to New York City. From issue #7 the series rancontinuously up to the final issue of the book, Supernatural Thrillers#18, in October 1975. As of issue #8, thecreative team became writer Tony Isabella and artist Val Mayerik, who was occasionally credited asco-plotter. John Warner wrote or co-wrote the final two issues, with Tom Sutton drawing the finale. The storiesincreased to a length of 16 pages with issue #11 and became full-length standard 18-page features thefollowing issue. Before, the title had featured mostly Atlas period sci-fi and fantasy reprints as backup stories.

Following the initial introduction of N'Kantu, the seemingly lifeless body of the mummy is shipped to a New York museum. Not long, though, and

N'Kantu awakens. The rest of the The Living Mummystory arc centers on N'Kantu regaining his memory and his conflict with the Elementals -four extradimensional humanoids who use the mummy as a pawn against a foe called the Living Pharaoh to obtain the Ruby Scarab (which grantsspecial powers to its bearer). Eventually, N'Kantu is able to gain control of the scarab and blasts the Elementals into nothingness through itspowers. At that point, the Liv ing Mummy bowed out. The concept behind the character provided some entertainment but was seriously hamperedby the Kirbyesque and unconvincing "Elementals" which gave away much of the classic Mummy theme. As Tony Isabella, author of most of theLiving Mummy plots, puts it:


de 31 13/06/2013 18:00


15/31

"I wanted the Living Mummy series to be Marvel's "Swamp Thing" (...) Impetuous youngster that I was, and, in light of the amazingart Val Mayerik was doing on the series, I thought we could match that quality. Sadly, at the time, my intended goal wasconsiderably beyond my abilities. Still, I gave it my best (...) I think I did some decent work on the Living Mummy. I got a littlepretentious here and there (...) but, overall, there were a lot of good ideas and writing in those books. Would that I had been good

enough to carry off the story I wanted to tell."[55]

The editorial perspective regarding horror titles by that time was quantity over quality, as Roy Thomas freely admits with regard to the very littletime devoted to most individual titles:

"By that stage, we just had so many we weren't paying much attention, and were just sort of throwing them out." [56]

BROTHER VOODOO

Strange Taleswas one of Marvel's showcase comic books of the 1960's Silver Age. Originally an Atlas horror anthology first published in 1951, iteventually gave over to Marvel's move from horrors to heroes [57] in 1962 when the Human Torch featured in issue #101.

Strange Tales #169(Sept 1973)

Marvel Team-Up #24(Aug 1974)

Tomb of Dracula #35(Aug 1975)

This appearance was followed by Dr Strange in issue #110 who shared the t itle with Nick Fury, Agent ofS.H.I.E.L.D., as of Strange Tales#135 in August 1965.

The title ended with issue #168 in May 1968, when Doctor Strange and Nick Fury received their own titles thefollowing month (Doctor Strange#169 and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1).

However, four years later, Strange Talesreturned to Marvel's publication run once again, resuming its oldnumbering with issue #169 in September 1973 and introducing the horror feature "Brother Voodoo", written byLen Wein and pencilled by Gene Colan.

"We've just revived one of our most popular title of the sizzlin' 60s - a little thing calledSTRANGE TALES - and used it to usher in the eerie adventures of perhaps the most uniquesuperhero ever! We call him - BROTHER VOODOO! You'll call him - sensational! That'sSTRANGE TALES #169, now on sale - and well worth the five-year wait!"[58]

Similar to Blade from Tomb of Dracula, Brother Voodoo was a character who fought evil. When New Yorkpsychologist Jericho Drumm returns to his native Haiti after twelve years in the U.S. he finds his brotherDaniel on his deathbed.

Previously not believing in the superstitions of his ancestors, Drumm needs to adjust his views when herealizes that his brother is a voodoo priest (a "houngan") whose condition has been inflicted by Damballah, a

powerful serpent god, at the command of an evil voodoo sorcerer (a "bokor").

Daniel extracts a promise from Jericho to learn the ways of voodoo and avenge his death. Jericho Drumm isinstructed in this task by Papa Jambo, an aged master, who resurrects Daniel's spirit and merges it withJericho's own, making Brother Voodoo the most powerful voodoo master of all. After defeating Damballah,Brother Voodoo continues to fight for those who have no protector on the isle of Haiti.

The impetus to launch a voodoo themed series came from Roy Thomas:

"I said "Let's do a character who's into voodoo, and tied to Jamaica in some way" (...) I hadmade up a character years ago, who was more of the Phantom type, called Dr. Voodoo, and(...) Stan didn't like that, but he suggested, "It's Brother Voodoo!" I said, "Okay, it's Brother

Voodoo."[59]

Marvel navigated around the fact that zombies were still banned under the comics code by calling the undeadcreatures "zuvembies". However, this little masquerade did not have to be held up for long, as the format didn't

prove very successful and only lasted for a five issues run before being dropped after Strange Tales#173 inApril 1974.

Brother Voodoo continued briefly as a backup in the black & white Tales of the Zombieissues #6 (July 1974)and #10 (March 1975) before being relegated to Marvel's guest star circuit in which he managed to hang onover the years and achieve a certain degree of fame, albeit as a very minor and also somewhat contrivedMarvel character.

Apart from mostly one-off guest appearances (e.g. alongside Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up#24 in August1974 or face-to-face with the werewolf in Werewolf by Night#39 in July 1976) Brother Voodoo featured in amulti-issue story arc in Marvel's top-selling horror title Tomb of Dracula, which ran from issue #31 to #36between April and September 1975.

MAN-WOLF


de 31 13/06/2013 18:00


16/31

September 1973 also saw the second horror character - after the ground breaking appearance of Morbius in October 1971 - make his debut inthe pages of a Spider-Man comic book. John Jameson, astronaut and son of Daily Buglepublisher J. Jonah Jameson, had appeared in the veryfirst issue of Amazing Spider-Man, but his story in Amazing Spider-Man#124 took on a decidedly different twist. After he had discovered aruby-like stone on the moon's surface during a lunar space mission and turned this into a pendant to wear around his neck, John Jamesoneventually fell victim to a peculiar and very individual form of lycanthropy during the next full moon as he found himself transformed into a creaturewhich was half man and half wolf as the stone became fused to his body. Written by Gerry Conway, pencilled by Gil Kane and inked by JohnRomita Sr., the introduction of the Man-Wolf, which spanned two issues, is recalled and described by the editor in charge, Roy Thomas, more asa haphazard market move than a truly thought out storyline:

Amazing Spider-Man#124(September1973)

Creatures On The Loose#30(July1974)

"We were just trying to do a little bit of everything. So sincewe had a werewolf, we did Man-Wolf. Stan just wanted acharacter called Man-Wolf. It was that whole Marvel-flooding-the-market thing (...) We didn't have a concept forMan-Wolf, and Gerry and John Romita were trying to comeup with something. My only contribution was to say, "Hey,make it J. Jonah Jameson's son! He was an astronaut, andhe went up in space, and he found a moon rock, and it turnshim into a wolf!" Just like Morbius was a science-fictional

vampire, we could make Man-Wolf a science-fictionwerewolf."[60]

In context, it must be pointed out, however, that Amazing Spider-Manwas, at that time, running on an almost unparalleled level of intensity in itsstorytelling, virtually producing one classic issue after the other as the thedeaths of two central figures - Gwen Stacy and the Green Goblin -continued to reverberate through the book month after month. Gil Kane leftAmazing Spider-Manin between the two Man-Wolf issues #124 and #125and was followed by Ross Andru, who would leave his mark for the nextsixty issues.

Like Morbius, Man-Wolf fought Spider-Man a few more times beforereceiving his own series, beginning in Creatures on the Loose#30, in July1974. It lasted for the rest of the run of this book (which had been Towerof Shadowsbefore taking on its new title in March 1971), which ended inSeptember 1975. Jameson's lycanthropy, however, came back from timeto time, allowing Man-Wolf to make various guest appearances over theyears, and the dangling plot which had been left in suspension in

Creatures on the Loose#37 was even taken up again and brought to itsfinal conclusion more than three years later, in December 1978 andJanuary 1979, in Marvel Premiere#45 and #46.

Marvel Premiere#45(December 1978)

SON OF SATAN

After Marvel's tryout book Marvel Spotlighthad already proven a successful launchpad for both Werewolf by Nightand Ghost Rider, a thirdhorror genre character made his debut in this title when Marvel Spotlight#12 hit the newsagent stands in October 1973.

"This month (...) heralds the mind-bending beginning of a startling new series we call THE SON OF SATAN. This one not only

picks up where GHOST RIDER left off in the pages of MARVEL SPOTLIGHT, but guest-stars our supernatural cyclist just for good

measure. Sneek a peek at what Groovy GARY FRIEDRICH and Happy HERB TRIMPE are layin' down - and see if you don't findDaimon Hellstrom, THE SON OF SATAN, one of the most phantasmagorical new Marvel creations of all!"[61]

Marvel Spotlight#12(October 1973)

Although "phantasmagorical" sounds like one of Stan Lee's many zany word creations, it is in fact based onan originally French noun describing "a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, asin a dream or as created by the imagination" [62] - which fits the character of Daimon Hellstrom, aka the Son ofSatan, rather well.

Strictly speaking, Hellstrom made his very first appearance in Ghost Rider#1 in September 1973 (and wasjoined by his sister Satana - no surprises here - in Ghost Rider#2 in a story which sported the somewhatcheesy title "Shake hands with Satan"), but he wasn't given center stage until his appearance in MarvelSpotlight#12.

Following a row of horror characters which had, over a period of roughly two and a half years, become quitelong, Stan Lee was now aiming for the "ultimate horror", the maior domusof hell himself. Roy Thomas,

however, felt that this might be crossing a line better left untouched and managed to stop Lee who was just afoot or so short of creating what would have been the ultimate superhero from the crypt - the devil himself.

"Stan called me into the office one day, and said he wanted to do a book called Mark of Satan,but this time, the hero/villain was going to be Satan himself. (...) I'm not religious, but I thoughtthis was going to get us in trouble, and who needs it? I didn't even like the idea. So I went offand thought about it for a little bit, and I came back and said, "I think we're asking for trouble


de 31 13/06/2013 18:00


17/31

Marvel Team-Up#32(April 1975)

Marvel Two-In-One#14(March 1976)

with Mark of Satan, but what if you made it Son of Satan? You could still have Satan as acharacter, but he's not the hero." It's a little different from Dracula, where the heroes were thehuman beings fighting the vampire. Stan loved it."[63]

Gary Friedrich set the general plot in a way which had "Rosemary's Babymeets the Exorcist" written all overit: Satan, taking the name Hellstrom, marries a woman named Victoria Wingate and together they have twochildren. Even though the boy - Daimon - is born with a huge pentagram on his chest as a birthmark and the

girl is named Satana by the father the mother never suspects a thing. When she finally does find out, shespends years in a mental institution (during which the children are raised separately). After her death, Daimonfinds her diary and learns of his family background.

Marvel's original concept was aimed at making the Son of Satan a dual-natured character in the Dr Jekyll andMr Hyde tradition. By day he was supposed to be Daimon Hellstrom, a priest - by night, though, his darkheritage would take over, endowing him with destructive powers, a red cape and a trident fork. Daimonroutinely visited Hell during his adventures (usually gaining access through some underground passage), withtouches of the greek Hades and Dante's Inferno here and there. Daimon's actions, despite his darksidepersona in control at night, were always aimed at bringing his father's empire down.

Satan made a few appearances as a character in Marvel comic books (e.g. in early issues of Ghost Riderand late issues of Tomb of Dracula), but it never really worked, and the House of Ideas knew it. In morerecent times, Marvel has tried to remove him entirely from its universe and replace him with Mephisto or othercharacters.

However, Daimon Hellstrom was received well enough by the readers for Marvel to have him continue untilMarvel Spotlight#24 (October 1975) before moving him to his own book, Son of Satan#1, in December1975. The title lasted for eight issues before being cancelled in February 1977. He had his first cross-over inGiant-Size Defenders#2 in October 1974 and would later on even become a member of this "non-team",whilst the classic encounter with Spidey - which in this case would perhaps have seemed less inevitable thanothers - took place in April 1975 in Marvel Team-Up#32.

But perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this character and his title - all in all one of Marvel's lesserconcepts for their Bronze Age horror genre run - is that it sparked no controversy or protest to speak of whenpublished in the mid-1970s.

MAN-THING

Marvel's very first Si lver Age original horror character, the Man-Thing, was also one of those who got pushed around most. Originally part of theMay 1971 black & white test-tube Savage Tales#1, he resurfaced in mid-1972 for two issues of Astonishing Talesbefore appearing regularly inAdventure into Fearas of October 1972 - first as a 10-page lead character, later on in standard 19-page format until issue #19 in December1973.

Kicking off Marvel's new horror offerings for 1974, Man-Thing received his own solo title in January 1974. Written by Steve Gerber, the art wasentrusted, success ively, to Val Mayerik, Mike Ploog, and Jim Mooney. Like many other major Marvel horror charac ters, Man-Thing had hisadditional quarterly Giant-Size Man-Thingwhich totalled five issues between August 1974 and August 1975. Apart from featuring Atlas periodhorror and sci-fi reprints as back-ups, Giant-Size Man-Thing issues#4 and #5 have become classics due to the fact that they ran a Howard theDuck feature, Steve Gerber's whacky Donald-Duck-meets-Fritz-the-Catspoof.

Man-Thing#1(January 1974)

Ironically, Marvel's first original horror creation of the Bronze Age is sometimes accused of being a rip-offcopy of DC's "Swamp-Thing". The two are indeed very similar in appearance and both call the swamps theirhome. However, in terms of publication history, Man-Thing appeared one month ahead of DC's Swamp-Thing(Savage Tales#1 in May 1971 vs. House of Secrets#92 in June/July 1971). No copying was involvedaccording to the credited authors, although some amount of interference may well have taken place as LenWein (writer for DC's Swamp-Thing) points out:

"There are a couple of elements to that particular question. One of which is that I was roomingwith Gerry Conway who wrote the first Man-Thing story. It was just independent creation. Wewere doing Swamp Thing and Gerry and I think Gray Morrow was doing Man-Thing. Neither ofus knew the other was doing the same thing. The weirdest aspect is that I actually wrote thesecond Man-Thing story; the whole "Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch". InGerry's first story anything the Man-Thing touched burned. It was a protagonist who could

never interact with anybody so I came up with the idea of fear."[64]

After a total run of 22 monthly issues, Man-Thingwas cancelled in October 1975. In the final issue, writer Gerber himself appeared as acharacter in the story, claiming that he had not been inventing the Man-Thing's adventures but simply reporting on them (Marvel's standardapproach to works of fiction such as the novels Draculaand Frankenstein) and that he had now decided to move on. The Man-Thing would, trueto the mobility it had always displayed since its inception, be around for many guest appearances in an exceptionally wide variety of titles,starting in-sync with Man-Thing#1 in January 1974 with Marvel Two-In-One#1 and later including Master of Kung-Fu#19 (August 1974),


de 31 13/06/2013 18:00


18/31

Daredevil#114 (October 1974), Incredible Hulk#197 (March 1976), Iron Man Annual#3 (1976), Howard the Duck#22 (March 1978) andMarvel Team-Up#68 (April 1978) to name just a few.

Marvel Two-In-One#1(January 1974)

Master of Kung Fu#19(August 1974)

Daredevil#114(October 1974)

Incredible Hulk#197(March 1976)

Iron Man Annual#3(1976)

Howard the Duck#22(March 1978)

Marvel Team-Up#68(April 1978)

MORBIUS THE LIVING VAMPIRE

After his debut in Amazing Spider-Man#101 (October 1971) and a second match against Spider-Man (and the original X-Men) inMarvelTeam-Up#3 and #4 (July and September 1972) Morbius the living vampire - the first incarnation of Marvel's application of the superhero conceptto the horror genre - was eventually given his own full colour series in February 1974, starting with Adventure into Fear#20.

Marvel Team-Up#3(July 1972)

His firm rooting in the superhero tradition was a deliberate choice, as RoyThomas has pointed oput on several occasions:

"The Morbius story was done in the vein of just like anyother super-villain - we even gave him primary costumecolors of red and blue, just like Spider-Man."[65]

Gil Kane, who was the first to draw Morbius and also pencilled his ear lyappearances, had a large influence in the overall creative process andalso a clear affinity to the character:

"When Roy Thomas became the editor-in-chief you alwayssort of plotted the stuff you drew... but with Roy there wasgreater freedom for me, so (...) for Spider-Man I made upthe vampire (...) That was my character. I based him onJack Palance."[66]

It must rank as one of the curiosities of Marvel Comics that both Gil Kaneand Gene Colan had actor Jack Palance in their minds when they drewthe facial features of their vampire characters, Morbius and Dracula -even though the final visual appearances did differ quite considerably.

Marvel itself, however, tried to liken the solo appearances of Morbius to

Dracula as often as possible, even adding blurs to some covers which toldthe potential buyer that this comic book was "in the fearful tradition ofDracula!". Allusions to the best-selling Tomb of Draculawere furtherincreased by having Morbius encounter Blade in Adventures into Fear#24 and subsequent issues.

Morbius continued as the star of the bi-monthly Adventures into Fear(with

Adventure Into Fear#24(October 1974)


de 31 13/06/2013 18:00


19/31

Adventure Into Fear#20(February1974)

"The Living Vampire" set in far larger letters on the covers than the book'sactual title) until cancellation which came about in December 1975 withissue #31 - which a cover blurb announced as the "thrill-fraught finalissue".

Adventure Into Fear#31(December1975)

Giant-Size Super-Heroes#1(June1974)

Kane had left the book as of issue #22 and was followed by an everchanging cast of pencillers, whilst DougMoench took over the script from Steve Gerber as of issue #26, followed by Bill Mantlo as of issue #29.In-between, Morbius had appeared in Giant-Size Superheroes#1 in June 1974, the first of Marvel'soversized 64 pages comics, in which Spider-Man fought Morbius and Man-Wolf in a story drawn by Kane andwritten by Gerry Conway.

Partly in parallel to his appearances in Marvel's colour comic books, Morbius also featured in the elevenissues of the black & white magazine Vampire Talesfrom August 1973 to June 1975. Other appearances incolour titles included Giant-Size Werewolf by Night#4 (April 1975), Marvel Two-In-One#15 (May 1976) andSpectacular Spider-Man#6 (May 1977). In Marvel Premiere#28 (February 1976) Morbius featured as partof the one-off "Legion of Monsters".

Based on his attire and the very circumstances of his creation by Lee, Thomas and Kane, Morbius is thevisually most obvious "superhero from the crypt". No other such Marvel creation featured a tight bodydresstogether with an overtly muscular body - archetypal features of the superhero genre - because, as has beendiscussed earlier, the element of the crypt is necessarily required to be the prime element for a horror genrecharacter. No other Marvel superhero from the crypt therefore spelled out the visual elements of a superherothe way Morbius did because the outward appearance was not the defining trait. Marvel had most of its horrorcharacters conform to established visual appearances in popular culture (as defined, in most cases, by theUniversal movies), resulting in darker colours and an emphasis on the entire physical appearance rather than

the actual body. Morbius, however, was the proverbial exception to the rule.

Giant-Size Werewolf#4(April 1975)

Marvel Two-In-One#15(May 1976)

Spectacular Spider-Man#6(May 1977)

THE GOLEM

Following the demise of Brother Voodoo in issue #173 of the newly revived Strange Tales, Marvel launched another new horror & mysterycharacter with a minority background in June 1974 when Strange Tales#174 introduced the Golem.

The Golem - an animated being created from clay - has a long standing in Jewish folklore but is best known through the tale about Rabbi JudahLoew who defends the Prague ghetto by creating a golem. In the late 19th century the golem was adopted by mainstream European society, andGustav Meyrink's 1915 novel Der Golem(1915) served as inspiration for the classic expressionist silent movie Der Golem - Wie er in die Welt

kam(1920) by German actor and director Paul Wegener. Also released in the USA in 1921, it featured Karl Freund as director of photography,who would later shoot The Mummywith Boris Karloff.


de 31 13/06/2013 18:00


20/31

Strange Tales#174 (June 1974)

Marvel Two-In-One#11 (September197

Documents

Superheroes From the Crypt - Marvel Comics Bronze Age Horror