Countdown to Halloween 2010! Groove's Faves: "Morlock Must Be Destroyed!"

Hey, hey, hey, my Groovy Ghoulies! Ol' Groove just noticed that I've done two posts on Atlas/Seaboard's amazing, twisted, stupefying, and far-out Morlock 2001: one on the first ish here and another where I rap about the third and final issue here. I haven't, though, posted on the second, perhaps most controversial, ish (January 1975). "Morlock Must Be Destroyed!" by series creators Michael Fleisher and Al Milgrom (with Jack Abel providing inks) has to be one of the most chilling sci-fi/super-hero/horror tales ever. (Not that there were that many sci-fi/super-hero/horror mags floating around the Groovy Age, but ya dig where Ol' Groove's comin' from, right?) Morlock was such an offbeat and out-of-control anti-hero that even artist/co-creator Milgrom found our "hero" rather "unsavory". I mean, how can you (wait for it) root (yeah, that was bad) for a protagonist who kills little blind girls? Still, there is some fun to be had with this twisted tale. Added to the 1984/ Fahrenheit 451/etc. mix, dig the winks and nods to A Clockwork Orange and Boris Karoloff's Frankenstein. This terror-tale is not for the faint of heart, Groove-ophiles! Enter freely and of your own will!

Lo! There Shall Come...Endings! Morlock 2001 #3

One of the most popular posts on the ol' Diversions so far was way back in October, when Ol' Groove gave ya the lowdown on Morlock 2001 (any last-minute party crashers can read that pulse-pounding post right here). Well, since we're celebrating endings, I thought I'd share the fateful finale to that screwy series. As you'll see, this was a last-ditch effort by Atlas/Seaboard to save their sci-fi/horror mash from oblivion. New editor, Larry Lieber and new writer, Gary Friedrich teamed with the new (and far-freakin' out) art team of Steve Ditko and Bernie Wrightson to kill off Morlock and turn the mag over to a group of whackos called the Midnight Men. We'll never know if Morlock was truly dead or if the revamp would'a worked as there were no more issues of Morlock 2001 published after this one. Still, ish 3 (April, 1975) was a hoot-n-a-half. Well worth checking out, Groove-ophiles!