GUEST STARRING . . . FRANKENSTEIN?

Comic artist Howard Nostrand was well-known -- and sometimes notorious -- for mimicking other artists' styles. In this strip from CRACKED #151 (July 1978) he draws a dead-ringer for Jack Davis' famous 6-foot tall Frankenstein poster that was sold in the back pages of an untold number issues of Warren's magazines back in 1972. This time, Nostrand does give a nod with his "Thank you, Jack Davis" note under his signature. The story tells the "what if" the Frankenstein Monster appeared as a guest star in popular TV shows of the day. The scriptwriter is unknown.

One of Davis' Frankenstein posters was sold at auction in 2018 for $639.33.

COMICS FROM OUTER SPACE! (PART 2)

This one-off from Harvey's "Thriller" series was originally intended to be the fourth issue of RACE FOR THE MOON, but it looked like editor Leon Harvey wanted to inject a little more excitement by spotlighting Kirby's The Three Rocketeers (Sgt. Beefy Brown; Captain Kip McCoy; Figures Faraday). The cover was designed from a stat paste-up with additional art and a logo by Joe Simon.

EC alumni Al Williams, Angelo Torres and Roy Krenkel are brought together to provide some nice-looking artwork. Fan-turned-pro Larry Ivie scripts two of the stories and the others are thought to be written by Jack Kirby. The Three Rocketeers have been cited as precursors to CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN and FANTASTIC FOUR.

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Another nice try by Harvey that didn't quite pan out.

BLAST OFF

Vol. 1 No. 1 (One-shot)

October 1965

On-sale date: July 15, 1965

Fun Day Funnies Inc. (Harvey Comics; Harvey Thriller)

Editor: Leon Harvey

Cover: Jack Kirby; Al Williamson; Joe Simon?

Pages: 36

Cover price: 12 cents

CONTENTS

Blast-Off Presents...The Three Rocketeers (Prologue)

Script: ?

Pencils: Jack Kirby

Inks: Al Williamson

"Lunar Goliaths"

Script: Jack Kirby?

Art: Jack Kirby; Al Williamson

"Danger! Atoms!"

Script: Howard Nostrand

Art: Howard Nostrand

"The Great Moon Mystery"

Script: Jack Kirby?

Art: Jack Kirby; Al Williamson

"The Space Court"

Script: Larry Ivie

Art: Al Williamson; Angelo Torres; Roy Krenkel

"The Little Earth"

Script: Larry Ivie

Art: Reed Crandall; Al Williamson

YOU'LL FLIP OVER THIS

After MAD magazine's success, humor comics have dotted the landscape of newsstands ever since. A number of them appeared in the 1950's and Harvey's FLIP is just one of many. It wasn't unusual to see a humorous monster strip in any of them, mainly because monsters are so easy to parody.

The story seen here, "V...-for Wampire", is from FLIP #1 (April 1954). The script is by Nat Barnett, who wrote funny animal, horror and fantasy stories for Harvey and a few war stories for DC, all in the mid-50's.

Along with the cover, Howard Nostrand illustrated the story of Vanessa the Vampire, who needed to successfully claim a victim before she could graduate from Vampire U, "Summa Cum Bloody"! Nostrand didn't normally sign his work and readers identified him as “The Mystery Artist” or “The Jack Davis-type Artist.”

Nostrand began his comics career at the tender age of 19 as Bob Powell's assistant (Powell has four stories in this issue) and quickly found he could imitate not only Powell's work, but Powell's mentor, Will Eisner as well. Indeed, it's not hard to spot Eisner, Jack Davis or Wallace Wood in his layouts and line work (and a touch of Will Elder, I might add). Wood is even known to have had a file of Nostrand's strips that used his layouts and to avoid an out-and-out swipe changed the positions of characters in the panel.

FLIP disappeared after just two issues, and along with Harvey's horror titles, was a casualty of the fallout following the Comics Code Authority.

After the story as seen in the first issue of FLIP is Nostrand's original art that sold at auction in 2009 for $3,107.00.

CRACKED MONSTER PARTY NO. 2 (PART 2)