MY FIRST MONSTER COMICS (PART 2)

Last weekend I wrote about one of the first monster comics I ever bought, FRANKENSTEIN by Dell Comics. Today I'll write about the other one: THE TWILIGHT ZONE (#8, August 1964) with an evocative cover -- not confirmed, but likely -- by George Wilson.

The lead story, "Hamilton's Creature" is introduced by Rod Serling in the fashion of the typical comic book host and is about a scientist on the trail of a very different kind of Yeti. It is scripted by Dick Wood and illustrated by Fred Fredericks. Fredericks inked five years of Lee Falk's THE PHANTOM comic strip and also drew the MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN strip from 1965 until Falk's death in 1999, after which he both wrote and drew the strip until he retired in 2013. Dick Wood was a prolific script writer who began his career in 1939 at Funnies, Inc., a comic book packaging outfit similar to The Iger Shop (one of their titles was the legendary MARVEL COMICS #1). He then went on to Centaur in 1940, then a long stint between DC, Lev Gleason, Hillman and Quality before hiring on at Western/Gold Key, writing stories for DOCTOR SOLAR, MAN OF THE ATOM, BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY and THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., among numerous others.

The second story, "The Night Striker of Paris" was written by Dick Wood and drawn by veteran Gold Key and Dell artist Mel Crawford. Oddly, there was no intro by Serling, possibly because it was used as a non-TZ filler. In any event, the story was weak -- even to my young brain -- and involves a Paris police inspector on the trail of a nighttime thief that ends with a bit of a twist.

The issue closes out with "Iron Man No. 1", a kooky but fun story about a robot who is "brought to life" and, after the curiosity wears off with the people in the neighborhood, is forced to go elsewhere to find some peace and quiet. The story is written by Paul S. Newman (no relation to Paul the actor) who, during his long career, wrote everything from humor-to romance-to westerns and most everything in between, as well as newspaper comic strips, including decades-long runs on THE LONE RANGER and TUROK, SON OF STONE. Prolific is an understatement -- Paul is in THE GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS for having written the most-ever comic book stories -- 4,100 -- for a total of 36,000 pages! The artist on this story was Dick Rockwell. No slouch himself, he drew for Lev Gleason, Hillman, Fiction House, Quality and Marvel among many others over his career, not to mention ghosting for Milton Caniff's STEVE CANYON (you can see the Caniff influence in the panel below).

Well, there you have it, a walk with me down memory lane with my first two monster comics. And do you really have to ask me if I still have them? What do you think?

THOSE GREAT 60'S TV SHOWS

Even more exciting than running home from school to watch the daily dose of DARK SHADOWS was having to wait a whole week for the next episode of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. I was a bona fide spy-crazed teenager back then and you didn't have to look too hard for any number of secret agent TV shows on nearly every major TV network. The team of Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) were my favorites by a long shot. It's not a stretch to say that U.N.C.LE. was a smash hit. It's popularity reached "across the pond" as this TV magazine from the UK attests.

Included in this issue of WTVA PRESENTS PRIMETIME (Vol. 1, No. 8, Spring 1984) is a reminisce of a number of popular shows, including U.N.C.L.E., THE TWILIGHT ZONE,and THE PRISONER. Also included is an article by Kim Newman on the UK's creepy 1977 series SUPERNATURAL and features on THE INVADERS, gaslight (the old-fashioned streetlamp type) detective shows and a very interesting interview with Brian Clemens. Clemens was a Hammer Films director, screenwriter and TV producer who created and/or contributed to such cool British series like THE AVENGERS, DANGER MAN (which later became SECRET AGENT in the U.S.), THE PROTECTORS (starring Robert Vaughn!), the UK THRILLER series and THE PROFESSIONALS.

Time to open Channel-D and start reading!