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SUPERHEROES vs. MONSTERS ISSUE! r 2019

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Batman and the Horror Genre • Marvel Scream-Up • Dracula and Godzilla vs. Marvel • DOUG MOENCH and KELLEY JONES’ Batman: Vampire • DC/Dark Horse Hero/ Monster crossovers • Baron Blood with CLAREMONT, CONWAY, DIXON, GIBBONS, GRELL, GULACY, JURGENS, THOMAS, WOLFMAN & more

MONSTERS IN METROPOLIS! SUPERMAN’S SCARIEST BATTLES!

Relive The Pop Culture You Grew Up With In RetroFan! If you love Pop Culture of the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, editor MICHAEL EURY’s latest magazine is just for you!

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Featuring a JACLYN SMITH interview, as we reopen the Charlie’s Angels Casebook, and visit the Guinness World Records’ largest Charlie’s Angels collection. Plus: an exclusive interview with funnyman LARRY STORCH, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Captain Action—the original super-hero action figure, a vintage interview with Jonny Quest creator DOUG WILDEY, a visit to the Land of Oz, the ultra-rare Marvel World superhero playset, & more! (84-page FULLCOLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 Ships Dec. 2019

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Interviews with MeTV’s crazy creepster SVENGOOLIE and Eddie Munster himself, BUTCH PATRICK! Call on the original Saturday Morning GHOST BUSTERS, with BOB BURNS! Uncover the nutty NAUGAS! Plus: “My Life in the Twilight Zone,” “I Was a Teenage James Bond,” “My Letters to Famous People,” the ARCHIE-DOBIE GILLIS connection, Pinball Hall of Fame, Alien action figures, Rubik’s Cube & more!

NOW BI-MONTHLY! Interviews with the ’60s grooviest family band THE COWSILLS, and TV’s coolest mom JUNE LOCKHART! Mars Attacks!, MAD Magazine in the ’70s, Flintstones turn 60, Electra Woman & Dyna Girl, Honey West, Max Headroom, Popeye Picnic, the Smiley Face fad, & more! With MICHAEL EURY, ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, and SCOTT SHAW!

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THE CRAZY, COOL CULTURE WE GREW UP WITH! LOU FERRIGNO interview, The Phantom in Hollywood, Filmation’s Star Trek cartoon, “How I Met Lon Chaney, Jr.”, goofy comic Zody the Mod Rob, Mego’s rare Elastic Hulk toy, RetroTravel to Mount Airy, NC (the real-life Mayberry), interview with BETTY LYNN (“Thelma Lou” of The Andy Griffith Show), TOM STEWART’s eclectic House of Collectibles, and Mr. Microphone!

HALLOWEEN! Horror-hosts ZACHERLEY, VAMPIRA, SEYMOUR, MARVIN, and an interview with our cover-featured ELVIRA! THE GROOVIE GOOLIES, BEWITCHED, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, and THE MUNSTERS! The long-buried Dinosaur Land amusement park! History of BEN COOPER HALLOWEEN COSTUMES, character lunchboxes, superhero VIEW-MASTERS, SINDY (the British Barbie), and more!

40th Anniversary interview with SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE director RICHARD DONNER, IRWIN ALLEN’s sci-fi universe, Saturday morning’s undersea adventures of Aquaman, horror and sci-fi zines of the Sixties and Seventies, Spider-Man and Hulk toilet paper, RetroTravel to METROPOLIS, IL (home of the Superman Celebration), SEA-MONKEYS®, FUNNY FACE beverages, Superman and Batman memorabilia, & more!

Interviews with the SHAZAM! TV show’s JOHN (Captain Marvel) DAVEY and MICHAEL (Billy Batson) Gray, the GREEN HORNET in Hollywood, remembering monster maker RAY HARRYHAUSEN, the way-out Santa Monica Pacific Ocean Amusement Park, a Star Trek Set Tour, SAM J. JONES on the Spirit movie pilot, British sci-fi TV classic THUNDERBIRDS, Casper & Richie Rich museum, the KING TUT fad, and more!

Interviews with MARK HAMILL & Greatest American Hero’s WILLIAM KATT! Blast off with JASON OF STAR COMMAND! Stop by the MUSEUM OF POPULAR CULTURE! Plus: “The First Time I Met Tarzan,” MAJOR MATT MASON, MOON LANDING MANIA, SNUFFY SMITH AT 100 with cartoonist JOHN ROSE, TV Dinners, Celebrity Crushes, and more fun, fab features!

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Volume 1, Number 116 October 2019 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Michael Golden (A commissioned illustration from the collection of Michael Eury.) COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Neal Adams Dennis O’Neil Cary Bates Martin Pasko Marc Buxton Benjamin Raab Chris Claremont Rose Rummel-Eury Gerry Conway Bill Sienkiewicz DC Comics Jerry Smith J. M. DeMatteis Roger Stern Chuck Dixon Roy Thomas Steve Englehart Steven Thompson Dave Gibbons Roger Stern Michael Golden Toho Co. Ltd. Grand Comics 20th Century Fox Database Film Corp. Glenn Greenberg Marv Wolfman Mike Grell Alan Zelenetz Paul Gulacy Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Heritage Comics Auctions Dan Johnson Dan Jurgens Michael Kronenberg Adam Kubert James Heath Lantz Doug Moench

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BACKSEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 FLASHBACK: Superman vs. Monsters in the Bronze Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 If aliens and mad scientists weren’t enough, Metropolis was also plagued by monsters FLASHBACK: Batman and the Horror Genre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The Batman of the early Bronze Age was a frightful creature of the night PRINCE STREET NEWS: Monster Mash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 A new cartoon by Karl Heitmueller, Jr. FLASHBACK: Marvel Scream-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Marvel’s monsters meet, greet, and beat (up) Spider-Man and the Thing BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: Baron Blood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 What villain could be worse than a sniveling Nazi vampire? BEYOND CAPES: Dracula vs. the Marvel Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 The Lord of Vampires stakes his claim in the House of Ideas FLASHBACK: Godzilla vs. the Marvel Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 The King of Monsters takes on Marvel’s mightiest PRO2PRO: Interviews with the Batman: Vampire Creators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Doug Moench and Kelley Jones’ Batman: Red Rain trilogy BACKSTAGE PASS: Batman vs. Predator and Superman vs. Aliens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 The earliest DC/Dark Horse superhero/movie monster crossovers BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 News you can use BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $82 Economy US, $128 International, $32 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Michael Golden. Superman, Titano the SuperApe, and the Daily Planet TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2019 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

Superheroes vs. Monsters Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1

If you were cornered by a thirsty bloodsucker, the clambering undead, or a snarling lycanthrope, you’d probably opt for the Man of Steel in your corner rather than a Van Helsing. Or maybe not, since the supernatural—technically, magic—is among the few weaknesses of the Bronze Age Superman. Yet beginning in 1970, when editor Julius “Julie” Schwartz slid into the Superman editorial chair vacated by the recently retired Mort Weisinger, the DC Comics editor who had shepherded the Metropolis Marvel throughout the Silver Age of Comics, Superman would occasionally encounter monsters, despite Schwartz’s clearly established preference for science fiction over matters macabre.

Michael Eury

Sticking His Neck Out Big Blue versus Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster! Detail from the cover of Superman #344 (Feb. 1980). Art by José Luis García-López. TM & © DC Comics.

Superheroes vs. Monsters Issue • BACK ISSUE • 3

SILVER AGE MONSTER MASH-UPS

Before we unleash the musty odors of those brittle, yellowed pages from the ’70s and ’80s and the fearsome fables they contain, let’s first pry open the Mylar tombs of the previous era of comic books, the Silver Age, for some important historical gravedigging. Blustery, iron-fisted DC editor Mort Weisinger famously kept his eye on trends and conducted focus groups of children (his readership) while fishing for subject matter for his Superman writers. During this time, a proliferation of classic horror films invaded late-night and weekend-matinee television schedules thanks to Shock Theater and its endless slew of clones, low-budget camp-fests hosted by TV weathermen and local goofballs masquerading as spooky, yet witty cryptkeepers. Youngsters were discovering the Hollywood monsters of yesteryear while also being regaled by the current crop of cinematic creepers blobbing and tingling their way into darkened movie theaters. Kids loved monsters, and Mort took notice. And so Superman, Monster Fighter became one of the hero’s tropes when Weisinger was commanding the franchise (at first abetted by World’s Finest Comics editor Jack Schiff, who, as legend has it, often bent to Mort’s formidable will). Amid Superman’s never-ending battle against supermen from other realms, robots, Luthor’s inventions, and a certain female reporter’s nutty marriage schemes, every few issues or so of Superman, Action Comics, World’s Finest, Superboy, and even Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen and Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane forced the Man (or Boy, or Baby) of Steel into conflict with a gruesome grotesquerie guaranteed to make the average kid peek nervously under his bed before turning out the light at night. The majority of those abominations challenging Superman (and at times, his World’s Finest BFFs Batman and Robin), however, were not the archetypal Famous Monsters of Filmland: the vampires, werewolves, and patchwork men of lore, Universal Studios shockers, and Forrest J Ackerman magazines. They were, instead, extraterrestrials. Witness the Frankenstein-ish Bizarro prototype, the “Invulnerable Enemy,” in Action Comics #226 (Mar. 1957), who was actually a “petrified spaceman,” tethering Superman to his sci-fi roots while only flirting with monsterdom. The same can be said of the myriad monsters ambling through World’s Finest in the early ’60s, from the tentacled, pear-shaped “Alien Who Doomed Robin” (issue #110) to the saw-nosed Bigfoot called “The Creature That Was Exchanged for Superman” (#118)—they were among many, many cover-featured interplanetary visitors passing for monsters on Superman-related comics of the day. Weisinger, like Superman himself, was a product of science fiction. As a young man Mort was active in the burgeoning realm of sci-fi fandom, networking and forming professional relationships with other similarly minded visionaries, including Julie Schwartz. Before taking his job at DC, Weisinger edited sci-fi and fantasy pulp magazines—and years later, some of the horrific creatures he encountered in the pulps made their unofficial reappearances in the pages of the Superman titles. A domed-topped, bug-eyed automaton from the cover of the March 1940 edition of the pulp Startling Stories became “Jimmy Olsen’s Private Monster” 20 years later in Jimmy Olsen #43. And a towering, scaly man-monster from a pulp that Weisinger edited, Thrilling Wonder Stories’ July 1940 edition, was appropriated (with a supplanted Jimmy Olsen head) and introduced to DC readers as “The Giant Turtle Man” in Jimmy Olsen #53 (June 1961). Not only did Weisinger’s Boogey-Man Bistro stuff Superman readers silly with generous helpings of sci-fi-inspired monsters, but the editor’s story cauldron also simmered with kid-friendly pastiches of filmland’s most famous monsters that were dipped into by his writers, time and time again. Spooked by Wolf Man movie reruns? Then you’ll howl over Jimmy Olsen’s

Teenage Mutant Cub-Reporter Turtle (top) The terrifying titan on the cover of the July 1940 edition of the pulp magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories imprinted DC Comics’ Superman editor Mort Weisinger so much that he “borrowed” the beast for (bottom) one of Superman’s pal’s wildest transformations. Cover to Jimmy Olsen #53 (June 1961) by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye. Thrilling Wonder Stories © 1940 Thriling Publications. Superman and Jimmy Olsen TM & © DC Comics.

4 • BACK ISSUE • Superheroes vs. Monsters Issue

Ant Farm (left) Warner Bros.’ Them! drove moviegoers buggy, and Weisinger took notice with

If Weisinger wasn’t in the audience for 1954’s Them!—the schlocky giant ant movie that epitomized (right) Jimmy Olsen #54 (July 1961) and other the atomic-bomb parables of postwar America—some of the children in his focus groups must have seen it comics with Superman fighting giant ants. and excitedly reported to him, as giant ants often Cover by Swan and John Forte. Them! poster bolted from the crevices of Uncle Mort’s House of Super-Scares. Actually, giant ants first infested Weisinger’s courtesy of Heritage (www.ha.com). mind in the pulp magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories’ Them! © Warner Bros. Superman and Jimmy Olsen TM & © DC Comics. December 1938 issue, whose cover depicted a man riding the back of a menacing, enormous ant; this image was cribbed for the Curt Swan-drawn cover of transformations into “The Wolf-Man of Metropolis.” Jimmy Olsen #54 (July 1961), where Superman’s “pal” Shrinking from fear from Dr. Cyclops and The Incredible lorded over kryptonite-wielding giant ants. Also, a giant Shrinking Man? Then Brainiac or an evil Olsen ant engineered “The Defeat of Superman” in Superman imposter is on hand—with pincers— #110 (Jan. 1957), and the Metropolis Marvel to chase after scampering miniaturized himself—with a mutated ant-head that Superman family members. Thrilled by would make The Fly’s David Hedison the mood swings of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. nervously blubber, “Help meeeeee!”— Hyde? Then don’t miss Lois Lane as led a skyscraper-scaling colony of giant the devilishly duplicitous “Madam ants in Action #296 (Jan. 1963). Jekyll of Metropolis.” Has The Mummy Dragons must have also polled high left you unraveled? Then be amazed among the focus-group kids, as Weisinger unleashed those scaly as Superman cowers from a mummy’s unveiling of his “Face of Fear.” Going fire-breathers with alarming frequency ape over King Kong? Then watch in numerous Superman comics, stretching Superman monkey around with Titano, back to 1952 and Superman #78’s the Super-Ape, the lethal leviathan “The Beast from Krypton” (many with kryptonite vision. Frankenstein monstrous Kryptonian creatures of mort weisinger fans muttered, “Mort, Good!” all types would follow). The Silver Age © DC Comics. during the Silver Age: not only was produced no shortage of Superman Superman’s topsy-turvy doppelganger Bizarro a vs. dragon tales, from a dragon from King Arthur’s Frankensteinish view of the Action Ace through a Court, to a space dragon, to return bouts with the cracked lens, but a not-so-scary version of the Flame-Dragon of Krypton. Even after the franchise Frankenstein Monster became a familiar cameo star changed editorial hands in the 1970s, dragons continued in Superman comics. Even Satan—or approximations to thunder into Superman tales, including the Superman/ thereof—raised a little hell in Silver Age Superman Teen Titans team-up in World’s Finest #205 and the tales, making Superman-marriage pacts with lovelorn Man of Steel’s apparent condoning of a dragon eating Lois and turning Supergirl into a demon! Metropolis citizens (!) in Superman #270.

TM & © DC Comics.

Superheroes vs. Monsters Issue • BACK ISSUE • 5

[Editor’s note: The following essay originally appeared in the book The Batcave Companion by Michael Eury and Michael Kronenberg (TwoMorrows, 2009). It has been edited for publication in BACK ISSUE.] It seems only fitting that Batman, the “creature of the night,” would be pitted against the forces of terror in the form of monsters, ghosts, and ghouls. In Batman’s first year of existence, no less than three issues featured him battling vampires and werewolves in Hungary, and hulking killer monsters created by Hugo Strange. In many ways, the Batman’s own costume and appearance indelibly links him to supernatural forces. In his groundbreaking book The Steranko History of Comics vol. 1 (1970), legendary comic-book artist and historian Jim Steranko wrote, “Heavily steeped in Teutonic atmosphere, Batman conjured up visions of vampires with his black cloak, grim visage and white slit eyes. He moved through cubistic backgrounds of

Michael Kronenberg

warped perspectives and paranoic tilt shots, of shadows and silhouettes that gave credence to the thought that he was indeed more bat than man. Dressed like a wealthy count by day, he would emerge Dracula-like at night for fantastic forays amidst moonlit settings.” Batman’s debut in 1939 closely coincided with Hollywood’s exploration of horror in the movies. With Batman’s Bronze Age conversion, it followed suit that creators would renew his clash with the “armies of the night.” Many of Batman’s brushes with horror in the 1970s mirrored pop culture’s love of “things that go bump in the night.”

THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH

Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ first collaboration finds Batman embroiled in a case involving a married couple who have been alive for over 120 years. “The Secret of the Waiting Graves” in Detective Comics #395 (Jan. 1970) finds Batman in Mexico investigating the strange occurrences

Creatures of the Night The Gotham Guardian versus Man-Bat! Detective Comics #400 (June 1970), featuring Man-Bat’s first appearance, and his prompt return in issue #402. Covers by Neal Adams. TM & © DC Comics.

Superheroes vs. Monsters Issue • BACK ISSUE • 15

Life or Death Choices (top) Adams’ cover for the gothic chiller “The Secret of the Waiting Graves” in Detective Comics #395 (Jan. 1970), at the dawn of the Bronze Age. (bottom) Courtesy of Heritage (www.ha.com), original Neal Adams cover art for Man-Bat’s third appearance, in ’Tec #407 (Jan. 1971). TM & © DC Comics.

at the estate of Juan and Dolores Muerto. On the opening splash page the Batman stands over two open graves with the Muertos’ names engraved on them. Bruce Wayne is a party guest of the Muertos. Thugs, wolves, and falcons guard the Muertos’ compound, protecting their dark secret. They have discovered eternal youth through the rare Sybil flower, but the side effect is “total and utter insanity,” as described by a Mexican government agent. The agent confronts the Muertos in the monastery where they hide their cache of flowers. The government agent is attacked by the Muertos and Batman follows closely behind, only to be overtaken by the strong hallucinogenic power of the Sybil flowers. Overcome by the flowers, the agent and Batman are bound and left for ravenous falcons by the Muertos. Through sheer force of will Batman resists the flowers’ effects and defeats the birds of prey. He sets fire to the flowers. When the Muertos discover the fire they panic and run back to the monastery only to see the effects of the flowers’ fumes negated by their excitement. Neal Adams portrays the couple running, and panel-by-panel they age 100 years, dying before our eyes. They drop into the open graves we see on the story’s splash page. The theme of attaining immortality and its final frightening cost has been explored many times in books, movies, and television. In 1935 RKO Pictures released She, produced by Merian C. Cooper, who created King Kong. She is the story of a 500-year old civilization that is discovered in the Russian arctic and whose queen has lived that long by bathing herself in a mystical eternal flame. One of the most famous stories of eternal youth gone wrong is The Picture of Dorian Gray. The Oscar Wilde novel was adapted into a classic movie by MGM in 1945, starring Hurd Hatfield and George Sanders. It tells the story of Dorian Gray, a handsome young man who has his portrait painted. Under certain influences he becomes morally corrupt and as he ages, the portrait reflects his debauchery and age, while he remains youthful. Over time, the painting depicts a hideous monster and those close to Gray become suspicious of his eternal youth. Possibly the most underrated movie about the pitfalls of eternal life was Hammer Films’ The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959), starring Anton Diffring and directed by Terence Fisher. It features a truly terrifying ending that’s very similar to the final fate of the Muertos in “The Secret of the Waiting Graves.” The story unfolds as Dr. Georges Bonnet (Diffring) discovers he can live forever through periodic gland transplants from young, healthy victims. One of the finest episodes of The Twilight Zone explored the immortality topic in “Long Live Walter Jameson” (Season One, Episode 24, original airdate 3–18–60). Penned by the brilliant writer Charles Beaumont, it starred Kevin McCarthy as Walter Jameson. In this story, a father forbids a history professor from marrying his daughter when he discovers that the captivating lecturer has actually lived for thousands of years. Ironically, not long after this episode was aired, Charles Beaumont began to suffer from a rare form of advanced aging. He died at the age of 38 from Alzheimer’s disease.

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. BAT

The first major addition to Batman’s Rogues’ Gallery in the Bronze Age was the monstrous Man-Bat. Created by Frank Robbins and Neal Adams, he made his first appearance in Detective Comics #400 (June 1970). Bat-researcher Kirk Langstrom desires to attain the powers of the bats he studies so he can “have a natural ability even the great Batman doesn’t possess!” By taking doses of gland-extract from the bats, Langstrom begins to develop super-sensitive hearing and possesses a bat’s natural sonar, which allows him to navigate in darkness. Side effects take place and Langstrom takes on the physical attributes of a giant bat—a Man-Bat. He desperately tries to discover an antidote. In his debut, Man-Bat fights alongside Batman, thwarting a gang of would be thieves at the museum where Langstrom works. Langstrom blames Batman for his condition, telling him, “It was your inspiration… your great fight against criminals of the night—that brought this on me!” In future issues, Man-Bat’s mutation would continue both physically and psychologically. In Detective Comics #402 (Aug. 1970), “Man or Bat?,” we find Langstrom working feverishly to put together 16 • BACK ISSUE • Superheroes vs. Monsters Issue

Terrifying Tribute (left) Neal Adams’ Batman #227 cover, an homage to 1939’s moody Bob Kane cover for ’Tec #31. TM & © DC Comics.

the ingredients for an antidote, but to no avail. He also develops giant RUNNIN’ WITH THE DEVIL bat-wings and can fly. He begins to lose his human traits, thinking and One of Neal Adams’ most celebrated covers is Batman #227 (Dec. 1970), becoming more like a bat. The story continues in Detective Comics #407 featuring an omnipresent Batman hovering over a fog-enshrouded (Jan. 1971), “Marriage: Impossible.” Man-Bat is now fully deranged and mansion, while a caped man lead by ravenous wolves chases a has kidnapped his fiancée Francine. She allows him to inject her with the fleeing woman. Adams’ cover is an homage to the cover for Detective bat-serum—changing her into She-Bat. Using the advanced lab equipment Comics #31 (Sept. 1939), which shows Batman in a similar pose with he possesses in the Batcave, Batman develops an antidote. After a a fog enveloped castle as the Monk (the Hungarian vampire) flees, protracted struggle with the bat-couple, Batman injects both Man-Bat carrying a woman. Batman #227 contains Denny O’Neil’s story “The Demon of and She-Bat with his antidote, returning them to their human forms. Neal Adams thought up and wrote a synopsis for a Man-Bat Gothos Mansion,” illustrated by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano. In this Lovecraftian horror tale, Batman agrees to look in on Alfred’s story and intended to present it to Julius Schwartz. “I had been niece Daphne (she had previously appeared in Batman #216, thinking about how I was going to approach Julie because Nov. 1969), who has taken on what has turned out to I didn’t want this Man-Bat story changed and ruined,” be a troubling and worrisome position as a teacher for Adams recollects. He found his opportune time when the family of Clifton Heathrow. Batman finds Daphne a story meeting between Schwartz and writer Frank Robbins turned up nothing fruitful. When Schwartz and quickly discovers she is being held captive by a asked Adams for ideas, he presented his Man-Bat coven of black-magic worshippers led by Heathrow. pitch. Adams was able to convince Schwartz to They are preparing to sacrifice her to the demon Ballk. use his idea, but the story had to be handed over After being captured himself and escaping from a to Robbins to write. deathtrap, Batman must overcome Heathrow’s followMan-Bat’s most recognizable influence is Robert ers and rescue Alfred’s niece. Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Like Jekyll, Some of writer H. P. Lovecraft’s most well-known stories dealt with strange cults that worshipped Langstrom develops an elixir that will transform him demons and attempted to bring them back to life. for the betterment of man, but the experiment goes neal adams Of particular note are The Dunwich Horror and The woefully wrong, transforming him into a hideous Call of Cthulhu. monstrosity. The two finest film adaptations of © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. Legendary film director Jacques Tourneur’s Night Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are the 1920 version starring John Barrymore and the 1931 version starring Frederic March. March won of the Demon (1957) tells the story of American psychologist John the Best Actor Academy Award for his portrayal. Holden (played by Dana Andrews) traveling to London, where he The rather obscure 1957 film The Vampire bears some similarities participates in a symposium aiming to expose witchcraft and devil to Man-Bat. It has an interesting twist: The movie’s star, John Beal, worship as fraudulent. Holden focuses his attention on a cult run by plays a mild-mannered, small-town doctor who turns into a vampire Julian Karswell (played by Niall MacGinnis). Holden soon discovers that after accidentally ingesting pills that a deceased scientist had created Karswell does possess the ability to summon demons. Their confrontation while experimenting with vampire bats. The experiment attempted becomes a titanic battle of wits between good and evil. to regress the mind to primitive instincts so that methods could be The movie The Wicker Man (1973) deals with some of the elements found to improve our brains (seems like convoluted logic). But instead of “Demon of Gothos Mansion.” A policeman (played by Edward of improving the doctor’s mind, he becomes ill and addicted. He must Woodward) investigates reports of a missing girl in a strange, isolated take one pill every day. But each time he takes a pill he turns into a town. He finds the missing girl and believes she is going to be sacrificed monstrous and insane killer. by the town’s leader, Lord Summerisle (played by Christopher Lee). Superheroes vs. Monsters Issue • BACK ISSUE • 17

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JACK KIRBY’S DINGBAT LOVE

In cooperation with DC COMICS, TwoMorrows compiles a tempestuous trio of never-seen 1970s Kirby projects! These are the final complete, unpublished Jack Kirby stories in existence, presented here for the first time! Included are: Two unused DINGBATS OF DANGER STREET tales (Kirby’s final Kid Gang group, inked by MIKE ROYER and D. BRUCE BERRY, and newly colored for this book)! TRUE-LIFE DIVORCE, the abandoned newsstand magazine that was too hot for its time (reproduced from Jack’s pencil art—and as a bonus, we’ve commissioned MIKE ROYER to ink one of the stories)! And SOUL LOVE, the unseen ’70s romance book so funky, even a jive turkey will dig the unretouched inks by VINCE COLLETTA and TONY DeZUNIGA. PLUS: There’s Kirby historian JOHN MORROW’s in-depth examination of why these projects got left back, concept art and uninked pencils from DINGBATS, and a Foreword by former 1970s Kirby assistant MARK EVANIER! SHIPS OCT. 2019! (160-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $14.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-091-5

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MAC RABOY Master of the Comics

Beginning with his WPA etchings during the 1930s, MAC RABOY struggled to survive the Great Depression and eventually found his way into the comic book sweatshops of America. In that world of four-color panels, he perfected his art style on such creations as DR. VOODOO, ZORO the MYSTERY MAN, BULLETMAN, SPY SMASHER, GREEN LAMA, and his crowning achievement, CAPTAIN MARVEL JR. Raboy went on to illustrate the FLASH GORDON Sunday newspaper strip, and left behind a legacy of meticulous perfection. Through extensive research and interviews with son DAVID RABOY, and assistants who worked with the artist during the Golden Age of Comics, author ROGER HILL brings Mac Raboy, the man and the artist, into focus for historians to savor and enjoy. This FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER includes never-before-seen photos, a wealth of rare and unpublished artwork, and the first definitive biography of a true Master of the Comics! Introduction by ROY THOMAS! ISBN: 978-1-60549-090-8 • NOW SHIPPING! (160-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $14.95 Roger Hill’s 2017 biography of REED CRANDALL sold out just months after its release—don’t let this one pass you by!Pre-order now!

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Haunted House of Ideas (left) Morbius invades Marvel Team-Up #3 (July 1972). Cover by Gil Kane and Vince Colletta. (right) A Thing or two, on the Kane/ John Romita, Sr. cover to Marvel Two-inOne #1 (Jan. 1974). TM & © Marvel.

Dan Johnson

The Marvel Universe has always been filled with wonders and thrills, featuring amazing beings from countless time periods and realms. Some were created to stir the soul and rouse the human spirit. But others are dark and terrifying, created to chill the blood and make the faint of heart quiver. While the Marvel Universe can be a bright and shining place, sometimes the brightest light casts the darkest shadows… and in those shadows lurk the monsters. Before Marvel Comics existed in the form that became popularized beginning in the early 1960s, the publisher was known as Atlas Comics. Atlas was like a lot of the other comics companies of the 1950s. They published war comics, Western comics, jungle comics, humor comics, and even dusted off their best superheroes from the 1940s like Captain America, the Human Torch, and Sub-Mariner, to see if there was a market for them. And then there were Atlas’ horror comics. In the early 1950s, Atlas published such spooky titles as Adventures into Weird Worlds, Menace, and Suspense. Then came Dr. Frederic Wertham’s juvenile-delinquency witch-hunt that

26 • BACK ISSUE • Superheroes vs. Monsters Issue

and

Michael Eury

nearly drove a stake through the heart of the comics business. In its wake arose the watchdog organization the Comics Code Authority, and as a result Atlas’ content steered away from horror toward science fiction and fantasy. Comicdom often regards the Atlas era of the 1950s and early 1960s as a monster-lovers paradise, and understandably so: The universe that would eventually spawn the Spider-Man and the X-Men was populated by brutish behemoths like the Glob, Zzutak, Bombu, Googam, Torr, and Fin Fang Foom! Initially, these Atlas monsters were birthed in science, or they came from other worlds, since science-gone-wrong creations and alien invaders were Comics Code-friendly. Plus, these sci-fi stories and the monsters presented therein appealed to kids who were watching chiller and flying-saucer films that ran at their local movie theaters or on television, usually presented by a horror host on their local stations. But Atlas’ publishing content would change with the uniting of superheroes dedicated to fighting for justice… heroes that belonged to the Distinguished Competition.

A Scientific Nightmare (top) Six-armed Spidey is slapped silly by the Living Vampire on the Kane/Romita cover to Amazing Spider-Man #101 (Oct. 1971). (bottom right) Peter Parker is haunted by his Morbius clash, in Marvel Team-Up #4 (Sept. 1972). (bottom left) Artist Gil Kane’s rough layouts for MTU #4’s opening page, courtesy of Heritage (www.ha.com). TM & © Marvel.

28 • BACK ISSUE • Superheroes vs. Monsters Issue

in 1962, the Mighty Thor battled Stone Men from Saturn, while the next year, Iron Man took on an alien invasion led by a creature called Gargantus. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko famously melded superhero and monster comics in The Amazing Spider-Man #6 (Nov. 1963), when the Web-Slinger came “Face-toFace… with the Lizard!” In this story, Spidey searches for a monster that is terrorizing the Florida Everglades and seeks help from Dr. Curt Connors, a renowned expert on lizards who happens to live in the area where the creature has been seen. Spidey soon discovers Connors’ dark secret: that Dr. Connors is actually the Lizard! Connors, an amputee, studied reptile regeneration in an obsession to regrow his missing arm and, in a tragic twist reminiscent of a Lon Chaney, Jr. Wolf Man flick, transformed into an uncontrollable beast. The Lizard might have felt at home in the pages of an Atlas Comics title just a few years prior, but he was also a forerunner of the Marvel creatures to come in the Bronze Age. As the 1960s marched on, the role of monsters in the Marvel Universe diminished and superheroes and supervillains began to dominate the comics pages. Later in the decade, however, cultural mores began shifting. In 1968, the movie industry established a rating system that clearly delineated between films intended for children or general audiences and films intended for adults. This allowed filmmakers more creative freedom. Soon, horror filmmakers used the new rating system to push boundaries. In the world of comics, a new brand of horror anthologies—in a genre safely branded as “mystery”—began to appear, mostly at DC. In 1971 the Comics Code Authority was revised to once again allow the depictions of vampires, werewolves, and ghouls, which had been banished in the mid-1950s. Now that the monsters were no longer forbidden, they were soon to make a comeback that would prove to be a scream!

As I arrive in the mountains of Romania, an ancient castle lies before me. I knew such castles from my childhood in England, that land of imbecilic knights and screaming maidens. It is a country I have come to loathe. Everyone said Stoker’s penny dreadful was fiction. They mocked me for believing. Yet here I stand. The castle doors will not budge, but I find the servant’s entrance and push it open inch by inch. I laugh. No barrier can long delay the true heir of Falsworth. I enter through a door meant for peasants, but I will leave here the master of this land, with my own undead slaves. My torch lit, I move through the dusty kitchen. I walk into the grand foyer, past an ancient piano and ruined chandelier. Vermin scurry from the flickering light. Finally, I find it. The stone staircase leading to the lower depths. I ignore the cobwebs that lick my face as I tread carefully through broken stones and burn-scarred walls. Fearful locals have destroyed most of this once mighty fortress, except for the hidden room I seek. Checking the small map which cost me dearly, I pull down the wall sconce and the hidden door swings back. I shove hard, forcing an opening wide enough to squeeze through. Ahh… there they are. Four jet-black coffins that still have a sheen of polish to their timeworn exteriors. I pry the largest one open with my hammer and chisel. After some effort, I thrust the lid of the coffin onto the stone floor. And there he is. Alabaster-skinned Dracula, Lord of the Undead. Fortune and glory await me now. I shall control this monster, and the world will be mine… including my despised homeland. Unexpectedly, the demon’s eyes open and he takes me in with a withering glance. “What have we here?” he states, as one would address a cockroach. Before I can reach my cross or stake, he engulfs my throat in a vise-like embrace. “I thirst,” he seethes, and his fangs flash like razors. My last thought of that life is, “How? How can my perfect plans have failed so utterly?” When I wake, I am… something else. I am no longer the master here, if I ever was. I am the slave. Over the decades, creators have done an amazing job bringing nuance to comic-book characters; heroes, villains, even supporting casts. Magneto was scarred by his childhood experiences in a concentration camp. Dr. Doom has an innate nobility and honor to complement his campaign for world domination. However, occasionally superhero fans welcome an antagonist of pure, undiluted malevolence. Fans, meet Baron Blood. John Falsworth, a.k.a. the bloody Baron, is not just a supervillain; he’s a vampire Nazi supervillain. They don’t come more evil than that.

FIRST BLOOD

The good Baron first bit into the Marvel Universe in Invaders #7 (July 1976). The Invaders, of course, were Marvel’s premier superhero team of World War II. Charter members included Captain America and Bucky; the original Human Torch, Jim Hammond; his kid sidekick Toro; and a prickly Namor, the Sub-Mariner. The Invaders spent the bulk of their time in Europe, fighting the Axis menace. Their war cry of “Axis, here we come!” sent many enemy soldiers scattering in fear for their lives [see BACK ISSUE #39 for more on this iconic Bronze Age series—ed.]. The comic was created and written by Roy Thomas, and mostly drawn by artist Frank Robbins. Robbins is often criticized by collectors for having an over-the-top, cartoony style, but his art worked perfectly for Thomas’ kinetic and action-filled Invaders tales.

Bad Blood The Star-Spangled Sentinel necks with Baron Blood in Captain America #254 (Feb. 1981). Cover by John Byrne and Joe Rubinstein. TM & © Marvel.

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Jerry Smith

Glenn Greenberg

When The Tomb of Dracula launched in 1972, readers could be forgiven for thinking that the series was set outside the Marvel Universe. Based on its unrelentingly dark mood and tone, its singular style, and especially its insular nature, it was anything but clear that the Lord of the Undead and his most relentless pursuers— Rachel Van Helsing, Frank Drake, and Quincy Harker— lived on the same Earth as the numerous costumed crimefighters, godlike beings, and cosmic crusaders appearing in Marvel’s other titles. That was very much intentional on the part of the Dracula creative team. But over time, as commercial considerations—namely sales figures—became more of a factor, the dividing line between Count Dracula’s world and the Marvel Universe blurred. What had once seemed highly unlikely— Dracula crossing paths with the likes of a certain Web-Slinger, a Master of the Mystic Arts, and a former herald of Galactus—became a reality. Such encounters were kept to a minimum, at first. But a growing number of Marvel’s writers seemed to find the Count as irresistible as his many victims did, and, for better or for worse, Dracula eventually became not just a vampire but a full-blown supervillain. To the writer most associated with Marvel’s version of Dracula, this was not an ideal development.

WORLDS APART

“To me, all of the horror books were outside the Marvel Universe,” says Marv Wolfman, who took over as the writer of Tomb of Dracula with #7 (Mar. 1973) and remained until the very end. (Wolfman’s arrival followed two-issue stints by, in order, Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, and Gardner Fox.) “It was a hard enough problem creating mood, tension, and suspense in a comic book, which is all still pictures. But to then have to worry about superheroes or supervillains at the same time—I didn’t feel that would work,” he tells BACK ISSUE. Wolfman was diligent about keeping Tomb of Dracula its own thing. “Every writer at Marvel at that time had one book that was unique,” he says. “For Roy [Thomas], it was Conan. Steve Gerber—Howard the Duck. Don McGregor— Black Panther. Doug Moench—Master of Kung Fu. Dracula was the special book for me, and I was not going to let that be screwed up, no matter what.” Wolfman was not totally averse to crossovers, as long as they felt natural. He expressed no objections to Dracula’s run-in with Robert E. Howard’s Puritan adventurer, Solomon Kane, who often fought supernatural threats. That encounter, set several centuries in the past, occurred in a story written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Alan Weiss and the inking team “The Crusty Bunkers,” and published in the black-and-white magazine Dracula Lives! #3 (Oct. 1973). (A sequel, by writer Donald F. Glut and artist David Wenzel, ran in The Savage Sword of Conan #26, Jan. 1978.) It also felt appropriate for Dracula to guest-star in The Frankenstein Monster #7–9 (Nov. 1973–

Blood Storm Ororo gets a taste of vampirism on the creepy, cool Bill Sienkiewicz cover of X-Men Annual #6 (1982). TM & © Marvel.

Superheroes vs. Monsters Issue • BACK ISSUE • 43

Mar. 1974), written by Gary Friedrich, penciled by John Buscema, and inked by John Verpoorten. Set in the late 1890s, the three-part storyline revealed that the Frankenstein Monster unwittingly helped to resurrect Dracula shortly after his death at the end of Bram Stoker’s novel. And The Tomb of Dracula #18 crossed over with Werewolf by Night #15 (both Mar. 1974), which made sense too—especially since Wolfman was writing both titles. (Yes, Marvel’s werewolf comic book was at one time being written by a guy named Wolfman.) Still, there came a point when the needs of the company overrode artistic integrity. In 1974, Marvel decided to launch “Giant-Size” 64-page comics starring its top-selling characters, one of which, of course, was Spider-Man. For the Giant-Size Spider-Man series, the idea was to emulate Marvel Team-Up, where each issue would pair the Web-Slinger with another Marvel character. It was decided that the first issue would feature Spider-Man co-starring with— you guessed it—Dracula, whose own title was already receiving widespread acclaim.

WORLDS COLLIDE

“For some months now, we’ve been on the receiving end of letters regarding the possibility of an issue of our everpopular Marvel Team-Up mag being devoted to a meeting of two of Marvel’s mightiest super-stars—none other than the Amazing Spider-Man and the diabolical Count Dracula,” then-Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas wrote in an article published in Giant-Size Spider-Man #1 (July 1974). “An equal number cried ‘Heaven forfend!’ to the whole thing, and decreed/demanded that Morbius and the Man-Wolf were fine, since they fit in the same science-fictional atmosphere as the Wall-Crawler himself—but that a non-negotiable curse would descend upon our heads if we dared cross the line… to feature Dracula and his Undead ilk.” But, as Thomas revealed, the story was inevitable, based on the popularity of both characters. He acknowledged the “vague, uneasy relationship” between Marvel’s superhero titles and what he termed the company’s “mystery mags.” A story starring Spider-Man and Dracula would, he explained, finally answer a question that readers had been asking for quite some time: “Where does Dracula fit in the Marvel Universe? Is he in the same space/time continuum as Spider-Man… Morbius… the Hulk… Conan, for that matter?” Thomas answered with an unequivocal “yes.” Explaining his reasoning, he wrote that, as opposed to DC Comics, “What Smilin’ Stan Lee had in mind there, a little over a decade ago now, was a consistent Universe—where Spidey and Dr. Strange and the Hulk could develop side by side with yet-undreamed-of Marvel co-stars like Dracula, Conan, and even Killraven, Warrior of the Worlds.” There was one problem, however. Wolfman was opposed to a Spider-Man/Dracula encounter—enough to decide to have nothing to do with it. “I turned it down,” he says. “They had someone else write it because I wouldn’t do it.”

Team-Ups of Terror (top left) Drac and the Monster, in Marvel’s Frankenstein #8 (Jan. 1974). Cover by John Buscema. (top right) A Count/Wall-Crawler team-up (sort of) in Giant-Size Spider-Man #1 (July 1974). Cover by John Romita, Sr. (bottom) Tomb of Dracula scribe Marv Wolfman’s first Dracula/Marvel crossover, with Brother Voodoo, in #35 (Aug. 1975). Cover by Gil Kane and Tom Palmer. TM & © Marvel.

44 • BACK ISSUE • Superheroes vs. Monsters Issue

On the current cinema scene, Marvel and Godzilla are two of the biggest box-office attractions in the world. Fans love both the superhero smash-ups of Marvel and the Kaiju [Japanese giant-monsters—ed.] smackdowns of the world of Godzilla, and it seems that every subsequent film focusing on both hero and on monster will make box-office bank. Imagine if the two words collided—if the world of Godzilla and the world of Marvel crashed together in a seismic, Kaiju-versus-hero rumble with Iron Man, Thor, Dr. Strange, or the Hulk, testing their heroic mettle against the biggest, baddest monster of them all. Verily, the heavens would shake. In the Bronze Age, fans did not have to imagine this improbable monster-versus-hero mayhem because in the late ’70s, Marvel versus Godzilla was a reality. In 1977 writer Doug Moench and the late, great artist Herb Trimpe delivered the blazing-hot Godzilla #1 (Aug. 1977) to ravenous Marvel fans. At that time, Godzilla was a TV staple, with the King of the Monster’s films appearing all over syndicated and local television in various “Monster Week” incarnations. Yes, Godzilla was huge in 1977, and so was Marvel, as the House of Ideas became home to many outside licenses. Marvel welcomed with open arms Toho Co. Ltd.’s Godzilla into the house that Stan and Jack built. Herb Trimpe was no stranger to big, green, angry protagonists, as he had already become one of the DOUG MOENCH most legendary Incredible Hulk artists in Marveldom assembled. Trimpe taking the artistic chores of a bigger and greener monster just seemed perfect, and with the new Godzilla title basically being a Kaiju tour of the Marvel Universe, it made sense to have a yeoman Marvel artist like Trimpe leading the charge. Many Marvel heroes would appear in the pages of Godzilla, but it was a Marvel legend of a different kind that recruited writer Doug Moench to the project. “As I recall,” Moench tells BACK ISSUE, “I believe this was the one time Stan Lee himself asked me to do something specific. I don’t know why [he thought] I would be good for the project, but I remember going to a screening of a new Godzilla movie with Stan. He had a great time; he just laughed and clapped the whole time, but I thought it was really goofy. But I thought it was a good opportunity to do something different, to write a book aimed at younger readers.” In many of the Toho films, kids were Godzilla’s greatest allies, and it was this youthful appeal that drew Moench to the project. “I kept telling Stan, ‘Our readership is aging with us. At this point, most of them are adults.’ I thought we should be targeting kids more. If we couldn’t do it with the price, we’d do it with the kind of stories… I would do Godzilla deliberately aimed at kids. It wouldn’t be juvenile, it wouldn’t be talking down to kids. I would try to do it in a way adults could also enjoy. It would be designed to hit those things kids responded to in Godzilla. And kids were obsessed with Godzilla. Stan took three seconds and said, ‘You got it, Doug.’” So a title was born, a Godzilla book that would merge the world of Godzilla with the Marvel Universe, with the mission statement of attracting young readers. Unfortunately, Marvel’s deal with Toho did not allow for Godzilla’s more famed friends like Rodan or Mothra or foes like Gidorah to accompany Godzilla to the House of Ideas. But fans did get to see Trimpe’s Godzilla go against some of Marvel’s most legendary heroes. Plus, fans even got to witness some of Moench and Trimpe’s original creations survive and become part of the Marvel Universe after the Big G’s book was cancelled. So let us observe Kaiju history from a safe distance and witness the greatest geekdom battle royal of all, Godzilla versus the Marvel Universe, brought to us by two true legends, Moench and Trimpe!

Earth’s Mightiest Heroes vs. the King of Monsters Marvel’s Big Guns take on Toho’s Big G on the Herb Trimpe/ Dan Green cover to Marvel’s Godzilla #23 (June 1979). Godzilla © Toho Company Ltd. Marvel characters TM & © Marvel.

56 • BACK ISSUE • Superheroes vs. Monsters Issue

Marc Buxton

A 25 Year Celebration! th

THE WORLD OF TWOMORROWS

In 1994, amidst the boom-&-bust of comic book speculators, THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #1 was published for true fans of the medium. That modest labor of love spawned TwoMorrows Publishing, today’s premier purveyor of publications about comics and pop culture. Celebrate our 25th anniversary with this special retrospective look at the company that changed fandom forever! Co-edited by and featuring publisher JOHN MORROW and COMIC BOOK ARTIST/COMIC BOOK CREATOR magazine’s JON B. COOKE, it gives the inside story and behind-the-scenes details of a quartercentury of looking at the past in a whole new way. Also included are BACK ISSUE magazine’s MICHAEL EURY, ALTER EGO’s ROY THOMAS, GEORGE KHOURY (author of KIMOTA!, EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF ALAN MOORE, and other books), MIKE MANLEY (DRAW! magazine), ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON (MODERN MASTERS), and a host of other comics luminaries who’ve contributed to TwoMorrows’ output over the years. From their first Eisner Award-winning book STREETWISE, through their BRICKJOURNAL LEGO® magazine, up to today’s RETROFAN magazine, every major TwoMorrows publication and contributor is covered with the same detail and affection the company gives to its books and magazines. With an Introduction by MARK EVANIER, Foreword by ALEX ROSS, Afterword by PAUL LEVITZ, and a new cover by TOM McWEENEY! SHIPS NOVEMBER 2019! (224-page FULL-COLOR Trade Paperback) $34.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-092-2 (240-page ULTRA-LIMITED HARDCOVER) $75 Only 125 copies available for sale, with a 16-page bonus Memory Album! HARDCOVER NOT AVAILABLE THROUGH DIAMOND—DIRECT FROM TWOMORROWS ONLY! RESERVE YOURS NOW!

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #78

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Published 25 years after the launch of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #1, this special SILVER ANNIVERSARY ISSUE shows how Kirby kickstarted the Silver Age of Comics with Challengers of the Unknown, examines how Jack revamped Golden Age legacy characters for the 1960s and beyond, outlines the lasting influence of his signature creation The Silver Surfer, and more! It includes special shout-outs to the fan and pro contributors who’ve helped publisher/editor JOHN MORROW celebrate the life and career of the King of Comics for a quarter century. And echoing John’s fateful choice to start this magazine in 1994, we’ll spotlight PIVOTAL DECISIONS (good and bad) Jack made throughout his comics career. Plus: A Kirby pencil art gallery, regular columnists, a classic 1950s story, and more! The STANDARD EDITION sports an unused Kirby THOR cover with STEVE RUDE’s interpretation of how it looked before alterations, while the DELUXE EDITION adds a silver cardstock outer sleeve featuring the Surfer with RUDE inks. SHIPS WINTER 2020!

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SUPERHERO STAND-INS! John Stewart as Green Lantern, James Rhodes as Iron Man, Beta Ray Bill as Thor, Captain America substitute U.S. Agent, new Batman Azrael, and Superman’s Hollywood proxy Gregory Reed! Featuring NEAL ADAMS, CARY BATES, DAVE GIBBONS, RON MARZ, DAVID MICHELINIE, DENNIS O’NEIL, WALTER SIMONSON, ROY THOMAS, and more, under a cover by SIMONSON.

GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD! ALEX ROSS’ unrealized Fantastic Four reboot, DC: The Lost 1970s, FRANK THORNE’s unpublished Red Sonja, Fury Force, VON EEDEN’s Batman, GRELL’s Batman/Jon Sable, CLAREMONT and SIM’s X-Men/Cerebus, SWAN and HANNIGAN’s Skull and Bones, AUGUSTYN and PAROBECK’s Target, PAUL KUPPERBERG’s Impact reboot, abandoned Swamp Thing storylines, & more! ROSS cover.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY ISSUE! A galaxy of comics stars discuss Marvel’s whitehot space team in the Guardians Interviews, including TOM DeFALCO, KEITH GIFFEN, ROB LIEFELD, AL MILGROM, MARY SKRENES, ROGER STERN, JIM VALENTINO, and more. Plus: Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon before the Guardians, with CHRIS CLAREMONT and MIKE MIGNOLA. Cover by JIM VALENTINO with inks by CHRIS IVY.

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MIKE GRELL

LIFE IS DRAWING WITHOUT AN ERASER

Career-spanning tribute covering Legion of Super-Heroes, Warlord, & Green Arrow at DC Comics, and Grell’s own properties Jon Sable, Starslayer, and Shaman’s Tears. Told in Grell’s own words, with PAUL LEVITZ, DAN JURGENS, DENNY O’NEIL, MARK RYAN, & MIKE GOLD. Heavily illustrated! (160-page FULL-COLOR TPB) $27.95 (176-page LTD. ED. HARDCOVER) $37.95 (Digital Edition) $12.95 • Now shipping!

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STAR WARSTM THEMED BUILDERS! Travel to a galaxy far, far away with JACOB NEIL CARPENTER’S DEATH STAR, the work of MIRI DUDAS, and the LEGO® photography of JAMES PHILIPPART! Plus “AFOLs” by GREG HYLAND, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art with TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Now shipping!

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: The 1990s

REMEMBERING STEVE DITKO! Sturdy Steve at Marvel, DC, Warren, Charlton, and elsewhere! A rare late-1960s Ditko interview by RICHARD HOWELL— biographical notes by NICK CAPUTO— tributes by MICHAEL T. GILBERT, PAUL LEVITZ, BERNIE BUBNIS, BARRY PEARL, ROY THOMAS, et al. Plus FCA, JOHN BROOME, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Spider-Man cover by DITKO!

Full-issue STAN LEE TRIBUTE! ROY THOMAS writes on his more than 50-year relationship with Stan—and shares 21stcentury e-mails from Stan (with his permission, of course)! Art by KIRBY, DITKO, MANEELY, EVERETT, SEVERIN, ROMITA, plus tributes from pros and fans alike, and special sections on Stan by MICHAEL T. GILBERT, BILL SCHELLY, and even the FCA! Vintage cover by KIRBY and COLLETTA!

WILL MURRAY presents an amazing array of possible prototypes of Batman (by artist FRANK FOSTER—in 1932!)—Wonder Woman (by Star-Spangled Kid artist HAL SHERMAN)—Tarantula (by Air Wave artist LEE HARRIS), and others! Plus a rare Hal Sherman interview—MICHAEL T. GILBERT with more on artist PETE MORISI—FCA— BILL SCHELLY—JOHN BROOME—and more! Cover homage by SHANE FOLEY!

The early days of DAVE COCKRUM— Legion of Super-Heroes artist and co-developer of the revived mid-1970s X-Men—as revealed in art-filled letters to PAUL ALLEN and rare, previously unseen illustrations provided by wife PATY COCKRUM (including 1960s-70s drawings of Edgar Rice Burroughs heroes)! Plus FCA—MICHAEL T. GILBERT on PETE MORISI—JOHN BROOME—BILL SCHELLY, and more!

Year-by-year account of the decade when X-MEN #1 sold 8.1 million copies, IMAGE COMICS was formed, Superman died, Batman had his back broken, and Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN led to the VERTIGO line of adult comic books. Go behind-thescenes in that era of gimmicky covers, skimpy costumes, and mega-crossovers. By KEITH DALLAS and JASON SACKS.

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #77 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #20 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #21 COMIC BOOK IMPLOSION

MONSTERS & BUGS! Jack’s monster-movie influences in The Demon, Forever People, Black Magic, Fantastic Four, Jimmy Olsen, and Atlas monster stories; Kirby’s work with “B” horror film producer CHARLES BAND; interview with “The Goon” creator ERIC POWELL; Kirby’s use of insect characters (especially as villains); MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, Golden Age Kirby story, and a Kirby pencil art gallery!

NOT YOUR AVERAGE JOES! Interview with JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNER (CRY FOR DAWN, VAMPIRELLA), a chat with JOE SINNOTT about his Marvel years inking Jack Kirby and work at TREASURE CHEST, JOE JUSKO discusses the Marvel Age of Comics and his fabulous “Corner Box Collection,” plus the artists behind the Topps bubble gum BAZOOKA JOE comic strips, CRAIG YOE, and more!

ERIC POWELL celebrates 20 years of THE GOON! with a career-spanning interview and a gallery of rare artwork. Plus CBC editor and author JON B. COOKE on his new retrospective THE BOOK OF WEIRDO, a new interview with R. CRUMB about his work on that legendary humor comics anthology, a look at DAVE COCKRUM’s design work for Aurora Models, JOHN ROMITA SR. on his admiration for the work of MILTON CANIFF, and more!

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Batman vs. Dracula Kelley Jones’ Batman & Dracula: Red Rain promotional art from 1991. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © DC Comics.

conducted by

Christopher Larochelle

transcribed by Rose Rummel-Eury

Superheroes vs. Monsters Issue • BACK ISSUE • 63

As explored recently in BACK ISSUE #111, DC Comics has a rich history of “imaginary stories,” or tales in which comic-book creators cast a different light on the familiar situations faced by the company’s characters. 1989 saw the publication of Gotham by Gaslight, which thrust Batman into Victorian England in a story written by Brian Augustyn and drawn by Mike Mignola. Gaslight led to DC editorial crafting a new imprint called Elseworlds that would become a revitalization of the “imaginary story” concept forged in previous decades. While many Elseworlds stories came about before the imprint quietly folded in 2003, it wasn’t every story and creative team that really tapped fully into the potential the imprint offered. Some of

the finest examples of the Elseworlds comics were the “Batman: Vampire” comics that ran sporadically throughout the 1990s, courtesy of the collaborative vision of writer Doug Moench and artist Kelley Jones. A trilogy of graphic novels (1991’s Red Rain, 1994’s Bloodstorm, and late 1998’s Crimson Mist) chronicles the Dark Knight’s darkest journey ever. While horror elements have been a part of the Batman mythos since some of the character’s earliest stories, no creative team ever had the opportunity to take that part and run wild with it quite like Moench and Jones did. – Christopher Larochelle

Interview with Batman: Vampire Artist Kelley Jones Kelley Jones is renowned for being a master of horror-filled comic-book art. Some key projects at DC directly led to his involvement with the Batman: Vampire graphic novels. 1989 saw the publication of Deadman: Love After Death, a Prestige Format story written by Mike Baron that really let Jones cut loose on a style that emphasized the darkness that was completely befitting the character. Not long after, Jones collaborated with Neil Gaiman on some key stories for Sandman (most notably, the Season of Mists arc, which featured a journey straight into the depths of Hell). The work on Sandman directly led to a phone call from Doug Moench, and for years afterward, the names of Moench and Jones would become synonymous with great Batman stories.

Batman Has Risen from the Grave (obviously) Covers to the Batman: Red Rain trilogy, plus Batman: Dark Joker: The Wild. TM & © DC Comics.

64 • BACK ISSUE • Superheroes vs. Monsters Issue

CHRISTOPHER LAROCHELLE: How was it that you became attached to the Red Rain project? You were pretty busy with DC work at the time. KELLEY JONES: Malcolm Jones III called me and said he was working with Doug Moench, which made me freeze up. Doug was a hero of mine. I was working with contemporaries at the time: Mike Baron, John Ostrander, Neil Gaiman. I hadn’t really worked with legendary people—no one I had grown up reading. At that point, Malcolm said, “If you want, I’ll pass on your number. He has an idea that he wants to ask you about.” I said, “Of course, I’d love that.” I was all nervous. I thought he’d call in a couple of days and he called 20 minutes later! He said, “I’d love to pitch you an idea. It’s something different.” He said it would star Batman and he would fight… Dracula. My heart just sank! I was thinking I would get the Joker, the Penguin, one of the cool rogues… a big special project! It’s going to be like The Killing Joke or something! But it sounded silly to me… Dracula? Doug said, “Look, I’ve typed this up and I’m going to FedEx it to you. Before you say anything, I want you to read it over. Then we’ll talk about it and you can decide whether you want to do it.” I’m thinking about how I can get out of this and not offend him. If I’m going to do Batman, I’m going to do Batman. I’m thinking that this project is Classics Illustrated or something. Anyway, the mail arrives and I’m thinking, “I’m going to read it over, at least. I can point out certain things I’m not crazy about or certain things that are silly.” I was ready to defend my position of not taking it. I was used to proposals like Neil Gaiman’s Season of Mists, which was on one page. This was easily 20 pages. It’s pretty detailed. I read three pages of it and it was so good, I put it down and called him up and said, “I’m in.” He said, “How did you like it?” I said, “I don’t know; I only read three pages.” Things moved quickly from there. I had been offered Sandman monthly, but I couldn’t turn this down. LAROCHELLE: So you were convinced. JONES: Yes. But as much as I loved this new project, I still didn’t see it as being a big hit. I saw it as a very

James Heath Lantz

DC Superheroes vs. Dark Horse Movie Monsters (left) Chris Warner’s rock ’em-sock ’em cover to Batman versus Predator #3 (1991). (right) Dan Jurgens and Kevin Nowlan’s Superman/Aliens #3 (1995) cover. Batman and Superman TM & © DC Comics. Predator and Aliens TM & © 20th Century Fox.

“Soon the hunt will begin.” (Tagline for Predator.) Who is the hunter? Who is the hunted?

“In space no one can hear you scream.” (Tagline for Alien.) What if the scream comes from a Kryptonian?

Those questions probably came to mind when DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics creators got together for the Batman versus Predator and Superman/Aliens projects. Combining the cinematic creatures that took on Sigourney Weaver and Arnold Schwarzenegger on the big screen with DC Comics’ World’s Finest heroes was nothing more than fanboy questions of “What if Batman Fought the Predator?” and “Could Superman beat a Xenomorph?” before 1991’s Batman versus Predator and 1995’s Superman/Aliens were released. BACK ISSUE has a ringside seat to fandom’s battles of the century as the Dark Knight takes on the extraterrestrial hunter and the Man of Steel fights Xenomorphs and Facehuggers. Watch out for the acid blood, dear readers.

BUT FIRST…

In 1979, director Ridley Scott, writers Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett, and artist H. R. Giger gave horror a new face from space to scare-film audiences in Alien. Seven years after Alien’s crew of the USSS Nostromo was slaughtered by what was later called a Xenomorph, the ship’s sole survivor, Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, is awakened after being in suspended animation for 15 years to battle a colony of the creatures in James Cameron’s sequel Aliens. In 1987, one year after Aliens, cinema audiences went to the jungles of Central America with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, and their group of special-forces commandos as they go from hunter to prey. They are pursued by a menace from the stars, a tech-cloaked “invisible” slayer—often called Yautja or Hish-qu-Ten in expanded media—

Superheroes vs. Monsters Issue • BACK ISSUE • 71

RoboBat An armored Batman battles the extraterrestrial hunter on this dynamite Kubert/Kubert original art page from Batman versus Predator #3. Art scan courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). Batman TM & © DC Comics. Predator TM & © 20th Century Fox.

created by effects wizard Stan Winston in writers Jim and THE HUNT BEGINS John Thomas’ and director John McTiernan’s Predator. The success of AvP led Dark Horse Comics to plan their The Aliens and Predator film franchises, 20th Century next steps for the franchise. That ended up being an Fox properties, expanded when Dark Horse Comics intercompany crossover. Dark Horse and DC Comics got published comic books based upon them beginning in together to bring the Predator to what writer Dave the late 1980s. Their universes merged into Aliens versus Gibbons describes as the perfect hunting ground, a Predator (AvP) comic books in 1990. They would go surreal and gloomy place called Gotham City. Batman on to inspire video games and films where both versus Predator #1 combined the worlds of the Caped Crusader and the “one ugly mother killer space creatures would duke it out. Batman and Superman both have a long, [BLEEP]” that pursued Arnold together with rich history that spans many decades in that December 1991 cover-dated book, launching a three-issue miniseries. comics, film, and television. Both DC A heat wave has come to Gotham Comics superheroes have been the subject of great stories in every medium City. A Predator arrives, believing a and have been seen on many big heavyweight-boxing match between and small screens all over the world. Marcus King and Bull Bersaglio to be a Four Superman films starring Christopher contest of who is the greatest warrior on Reeve and two Batman movies helmed Earth. No one is safe when the creature’s grisly hunt paints the streets red with by Tim Burton starring Michael Keaton were perhaps the most prominent for blood, not even the fighters’ gangster BACK ISSUE readers. bosses Alex Yeager and Leo Brodin. dave gibbons As 1991 drew to a close, Superman When Batman arrives to investigate Gage Skidmore. their murders, the hunter from the suffered a “Blackout,” and Batman fell victim to “The Idiot Root” in their main comics, stars becomes curious. Perhaps the human dressed as a while the first Aliens versus Predator series was collected nocturnal flying creature will be a better trophy for him. in a trade paperback. Our story begins here…. The first bout between Batman and the Predator leaves the Dark Knight battered, beaten, and nearly blind. However, in spite of Alfred Pennyworth’s protests, he must battle the Predator once again. This time, the Caped Crusader dons a sonar armor that allows him to see his foe when it is invisible. Their final round takes them from Gotham City’s rooftops to the Batcave with Alfred firing the family heirloom blunderbuss at the Predator. One of Batman’s weapons of choice is, appropriately, a baseball bat that knocks the extraterrestrial beast for a loop. Their conflict eventually concludes at the outskirts of Wayne Manor, as a ship full of other Predators lands. The one who stalked Batman commits honor suicide, and his kinsmen give the Masked Manhunter its sword as a trophy. After the spacecraft leaves, Alfred worries about the monsters returning. “They won’t,” Batman reassures his closest confidant, “Not now that they’ve met what lives in Gotham.” A hunter’s moon greets Batman and Alfred leaving the latter and readers to wonder how correct the Dark Knight is about the Predators. IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, Batman versus Predator, due to two publishers CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS working in tandem, had a pair of editors overseeing the ISSUE PRINT OR DIGITAL project: Dennis O’Neil forIN DC and Diana Schutz forFORMAT! Dark Horse. According to O’Neil’s account of events in his introduction for the Batman versus Predator collected edition, he had to do very little work as he had faith in Schutz and the creative team of writer Dave Gibbons and artists Andy and Adam Kubert. Gibbons and Adam Kubert took time out of their busy schedules to tell BACK ISSUE how Batman versus Predator came to be. Kubert begins by talking about his winning the 1992 Eisner Award for Best Inker for the project. “Andy and I have a running joke,” Kubert says. “He calls the award ‘Best Tracer,’ and I say I made him look good. Seriously, though, it was an honor to win the award. I wasn’t there to receive it, but my good friend Diana Schutz was kind enough to accept it for me.” Kubert tells BACK ISSUE ofBACK when ISSUE he and#116 his brother SUPERHEROES VS. MONSTERS! Monsters in Metropolis, Batman Andy were assigned toHorror Batman versus Predator, “I JONES’ can Batand the Genre, DOUG MOENCH and KELLEY man: Vampire, Marvel Scream-Up, Draculacalled and Godzilla vs. Marvel, tell you it was a dream project. Diana Schutz Andy DC/Dark Horse Hero/Monster crossovers, and a Baron Blood and me up and asked us if we’d be interested in drawing villain history. With CLAREMONT, CONWAY, DIXON, GIBBONS, Batman versus Predator, which a WOLFMAN, no-brainer GRELL, GULACY, JURGENS, was THOMAS, and a cover by MICHAEL GOLDEN. [successful project] to begin with. Then we found out Dave (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 Gibbons was writing it, which was the icing on the cake. (Digital Edition) $4.95

72 • BACK ISSUE • Superheroes vs. Monsters Issue

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