Mort Todd's Monsters Attack!

Mort Todd was an editor for Cracked Magazine, MAD's longtime rival during the 80's. A fan of monsters, he incorporated them into Cracked with great success as born out by the Cracked companion magazine Cracked's Monster Party. Then Todd went one step further and created Monsters Attack. According to Todd, he did this without the okay of his publishers and pushed out a few issues before they even knew. They put a halt to the magazine until they saw the sales numbers and then gave it the thumbs up after a half year layoff. 

Todd wanted to create a magazine which was a synthesis of Famous Monsters of Filmland and Creepy. He succeeded, especially in the early issues. He tapped proven pros such as Steve Ditko, Gray Morrow, Pat Boyette, Gene Colan and even the reluctant Alex Toth. The latter didn't draw a new story for the magazine, but did offer up one he'd done for Charlton, but withheld due to the meager pay. (That story titled "Bookworm" was written by Nick Cuti and was given to Nicholas Alascia to draw. That story too is included in this collection for those who want to compare.) Todd took advantage of his position to ink a Ditko story, much to the story's detriment. Todd recognized his error thankfully and most of the Ditko stories are pure. 

But things grew difficult as the final issues began to be produced. Todd eventually left after purchasing stories for the fifth and final issue, but he had little control of the magazine after that. Given that these two collections are titled "Mort Todd's Monsters Attack!", he does not include any work he didn't commission or played a key role in obtaining. Strangely that seemed to also apply to a Poe adaptation by Walter Brogan from issue two. 

In addition to great horror tales by proven masters, we are treated to articles on movies, books, ranging from classic reviews of Universal's Frankenstein films to an exhaustive examination of the Godzilla movies. One of the stranger things in the collections is a detailed chart documenting Jason's kills over the course of several of the Friday the Thirteenth series. Even if like me you already own all five of the Monsters Attack! series, there is still some new-old goodness with "Transformation Flying", a Todd-John Severin effort which for some reason was never used and is delivered here for the first time. 

Here are the covers. 

(Debut cover inspired by the first issue of Creepy.)

(Severin cover meant to evoke that Famous Monsters of Filmland vibe.)

(Another solid John Severin offering of a splitting headache.)

(Severin again, this time it's Godzilla based on an Aurora model.)

(A George Bush --not that one--painting of Karloff's monster.)

These are fun comics produced by an editor who was rich with youth and energy, tapping veterans who were in need of a place to create. 

One great detail I never noticed is that the "Attack!" part of the title was copied from the vintage Charlton classic Fantastic Giants which celebrated the work of Steve Ditko. 

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Space Ghost Day!

Alex Toth was born on this date in 1922. Toth is one of the true masters of the comic form. He was a famously difficult personality, but he constantly worked to tell his stories with as effectively and efficiently as possible. Overshadowing his comics work though is his definitive work for Hanna-Barbera where he designed such heroes as Birdman, the Herculoids, Shazzan, and many, many more. Today's focus is his finest effort -- Space Ghost. 

(Steve Rude)

Space Ghost might well have started it all for me and my love of heroes and comics and such. I was ideally ripe for the picking when Space Ghost burst onto the TV screens in the 60's and heralded a surge of superheroes on television and a revival of the same in comics and elsewhere. The burst was relatively brief, but I was woke in its wake and never have gotten over the thrill of the adventures.

Space Ghost was designed by Alex Toth and in comics no one ever drew him better than the great Steve Rude, a talent who seemed to have imbibed the same elixers that I did back in the heyday. Space Ghost is enigmatic, assisted by two upbeat teenagers named Jan and Jace and an improbable monkey named Bleep. They sail across the deeps of darkest space in the Phantom Cruiser helping those they find and finding those they help all the while defeating weird menaces from across the void.

Here are a gaggle of sketches showing a somewhat different Space Ghost, a more wan figure with some distinctive styling differences.

Apparently, they were going to show his face too.

Here the design is in color.

But these designs didn't do the trick, and Toth went back to the drawing board. He came up with this look.

And the rest as they say is history.

      I'm not much collecting particular back issues anymore. I've gotten most of the comics that I've really hankered for over the decades. That doesn't mean there aren't others I'd get if I found them, especially nice-priced Charlton books from time to time. But I'm not really casting about for special books.

Save for one.

1967's Space Ghost #1 from Gold Key has been my grail comic for a few years now, the one I always look for. And yesterday I got hold of one. It's not an ideal issue, but then I rarely get those, preferring a solid reading sample of a classic bit of history.

As luck had it, I'm visiting my girls and took the opportunity to check out a local comic shop, The Great Escape which just happened to be having a 30% off sale. I was looking for a particular trade, which they didn't have, when I spotted the Space Ghost comic on the wall. I don't see them very often, if at all, and always at a price that brings tears to my eyes. This one was priced nicely and after confirming 30% was coming off I knew I had to act. I snapped it up and I'm eager to get it home where in a controlled environment I can break out the book and give it a good reading. The artwork by Dan Spiegle is lush as usual for the overlooked veteran. He did the artwork in the Big Little Book adaptation of Alex Toth's Space Ghost, a book I've cherished since my boyhood. (More on that tomorrow.) And it was very nice indeed to add his other great Space Ghost contribution at long last.


Now what do I look for?

Archie Comics had the Hanna-Barbera brand for a bit when the Cartoon Network was up and running. Space Ghost got in on the action. I am purposely ignoring Space Ghost to Coast. I am not a huge fan.  

DC Comics got the franchise and for the first time offered up a six-part origin story by Joe Kelly and Ariel Olivetti for Hanna-Barbera's classic animated superhero Space Ghost. Reading it for the first time in trade, I tried to let go of my preconceptions of this tale, and of my previous opinions and give the story a fresh tumble.

It proved worthwhile. Ariel Olivetti is still not my first choice to illustrate this tale. Both Alex Ross (who does provide covers) and Steve Rude are better suited, especially the latter. But I don't want a desire for the perfect to become an enemy of the good in this case. Olivetti is far from the worst choice, in fact given the seemingly endless drones who sketch comics in the modern day, his lush images at the very least have real character and a boldness.

His Space Ghost is overly muscled, a bit too thick for my tastes, but I suggest this is a work in progress. He will become sleeker over time, less a body builder and more a spaceman.

Space Ghost's face and name are revealed. He is a cop named Thadeus Bach, a married man who aspires to be the best cop he can and the best husband and father. His dreams are at once fulfilled and dashed when he gets invited to join "The Wrath", an elite special ops team for the interplanetary police force. He quickly discovers they are corrupt, especially their leader Temple, but before he can report what he's discovered they take action, killing his wife and their unborn child. They left Bach for dead on a distant planet ravaged by an ancient plague. Bach does survive, nurtured by the last living resident of the "Ghost Planet", an engineer who specializes in weapons, the plague which wiped out the planet was violence and war. Bach rejects a lifetime of penance and reflection, choosing instead revenge using the equipment the planet provides. Armed this new Bach seeks out and destroys the Wrath, but the leader escapes. Bach's vengeance is forestalled by the arrival of the Bugs on a slave world the Wrath operate.  The Bugs, led by the hive-mind named "Zorak" exterminate humans and anything else living they chance upon. Bach rescues two orphans named Jan and Jace who dub him "Space Ghost" after a faceless myth from their culture. He eventually realizes his quest for vengeance is inferior to his original search for justice and takes the orphans with him back to the Ghost Planet to begin his work.

It's not a bad tale at all. Full of classic tropes from scores, if not hundreds of similar tales from practically all adventures genres. A single man seeking vengeance is the classic tale, but often he is demolished by his quest. Space Ghost survives and is transformed into something greater and more hopeful. Straightforward and not what I've imagined all these years, but noteworthy.

They could've done much worse.

Below are Alex Ross's outstanding covers for this series.

Some years later DC again took a stab at adding Hanna-Barbera icons to their universe. 

Space Ghost for his part teamed up with Green Lantern. That made sense. We were treated to a lot of great Space Ghost action as part of Future Quest, a comic which teamed up many of the Saturday Day morning favorites. Out of that we got a short-lived Space Ghost comic, a very good one. 

The first three-issue story arc in the Future Quest Presents series is a nifty three-part tale starring Space Ghost, Jan and Jace and of course Blip. Along for the ride this time are the Herculoids, though only Igoo the Rock Ape gets a major role. The writer Rich Parker continues to develop the Hanna-Barbera continuity begun in the pages of the maxi-series Future Quest in which we have a universe of heroes who are forced to confront a genocidal menace called Omnikron. The "Ghost Planet" we learn is the remnants of a world Omnikron has descended upon and the Space Force of which Space Ghost was once a part was destroyed attempting to stop Omnikron's advance.

Now Space Ghost is working alone to police the spaceways and at the same time trying to rebuild that force by getting more ore from the neighboring planet Amzot (home of the Herculoids) which can be used to create more power bands. He hopes that Jan and Jace, two orphans he rescued from a black hole event will mature to become the nucleus for a new Space Force. To that end they go to Amzot and employ Igoo who is made of the ore they need and they enter a mine closed for many years since the arrival of Omnikron.

Inside they find a deadly menace and we learn the secret origin of longtime Space Ghost foe Metallus. I won't spoil it anymore, but this is a humdinger of an adventure by Parker and Ariel Olivetti, the artist who drew Space Ghost's origin many years ago for DC Comics. The comic looks outstanding and reads with the deftness of understanding that Parker brings without fail to his projects. Get this series.

Here are the alternate covers. The Steve Rude one is stellar! No artist gets Space Ghost better than Rude.

For me this has been the most properly developed and interpretation in comics, second only to the 1987 Evanier and Rude collaboration for Comico. 

Today the brand is being published by Dynamite Comics and it's not bad. Not as good as DC's Future Quest version, but still pretty decent. As with all things Dynamite you can have over one hundred and forty covers for a dozen issues if you wish. 

But nothing beats the original cartoons with those magical Alex Toth designs. 

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Holy Tuesday - The Saga Of The Silver Surfer!

The grand finale of the Galactus Trilogy coincides with the fabulous fiftieth issue of the Fantastic Four. It is an issue filled with spectacle, drama, and terror, but also with the shining embers of stories yet to be told. It is in many ways like life itself, not conveniently an ending nor a beginning, but merely another part of a great and vast saga.

"The Startling Saga of the Silver Surfer"  by Lee, Kirby, Sinnott and Rosen begins with the Surfer himself confronting his master, the great and powerful Galactus who prepares to drain the energy of the entire planet Earth so that he might continue to live.

The confrontation comes swiftly as the Silver Surfer presses his attack on his former Master, using the power bestowed upon him to imprison Galactus himself inside a cocoon of hardened energy. Ben Grimm and Reed Richards are fascinated by this power and the Thing unwisely touches the paradoxical cocoon just before it begins to splinter and shatter, the energy erupting outward in all directions. Galactus emerges unscathed and the Surfer's further attacks bounce harmlessly against his defensive "Absorba shields".

Then Galactus counter-attacks, but the Surfer is able to dodge the bolts with relative ease. The two battle while the Watcher and the Fab 4 watch. The Watcher though at the same time is guiding the Human Torch home as he must return from beyond the limits of time and space, past deadly bands of "Un-Life". Johnny Storm returns from his mission to the home of Galactus with a weapon capable of defeating the awesome figure from outer space. But his trip has been too much and he collapses, the memories fading even as tries to fathom what he has seen. The Watcher puts the new weapon in Reed's hands and instructs him how to use it.

Meanwhile the Silver Surfer and Galactus continue to battle, as Galactus turns his efforts against the city itself in an attempt to draw off the Surfer's attack. Suddenly though Mr. Fantastic appears and confronts Galactus with the "Ultimate Nullifier" and immediately Galactus concedes knowing that the Watcher has helped the humans of Earth turn back his threat.

Bearing no grudge, but giving into the new reality he promises to not drain Earth of its energy and having given his word the Watcher announces that the threat is over because the word of Galactus is truth itself. But Galactus does take hold of the Nullifier and also removes from his former herald, the Silver Surfer, the ability to soar through space.

Then in a magnifcent show of ultimate power Galactus teleports away taking with him all his instrumentality and leaving only the Silver Surfer behind as evidence that he had ever been on Earth at all.

The Silver Surfer seeks to bond with the Thing but the sudden appearance of Alicia Masters and her interest in the Surfer causes Ben Grimm to grow jealous and he leaves quietly misunderstanding the connection between his girl and the Surfer. The Silver Surfer then leaves the Baxter Building, flying into the sky to explore the world he has risked all to save.

The world at large debates the threat of Galactus, many dismissing it as a hoax. Also reading of the victory of the Fantastic Four is a mysterious bald man who threatens to destroy the team in the future. The scene shifts to Metro College where Coach Sam Thorne has trouble with his ace player Whitey Mullins. At the Baxter Building Reed Richards has already begun his next project much to the chagrin of his wife Sue who feels ignored. On the streets of NYC the Thing roams despondent, still sulking about the imagined loss of Alicia.

Again at Metro College Johnny Storm drives onto campus for his first days of college and meets Wyatt Wingfoot. The two are seen by the Dean and given advice about how to approach their studies, but Johnny's mind wanders to his great journey into the space and time and he misses the words of wisdom. He and his new friend Wyatt head off their new room and a new life as the story closes.

And so ends arguably the finest story in the whole wide history of the Marvel Universe. It seems somehow so small nowadays, a mere three issues (and not all of two of those) but this story was the apex of the storytelling done by the dynamic team of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, the high point of a run of comics stories which have never been equaled in the long history of the medium. With the coming of Galactus the Fab 4 confronted the end times and in classic superhero fashion overcame by dint of their unflagging courage and sheer will.

(Galactus returned in the 1967 FF Annual, if only in this mega-group pose.)

Of course it required  the cosmic intervention of the godlike Watcher to guide them to the "Deus Ex Machina" solution but it was the exceedingly "Human" Torch who made the epic journey beyond the stars and the imagination, to find it and bring the celestial gift home to be used by the wisest man on the planet. It was the gentle and kind heart of Alicia Masters, a woman who sees beyond the skin to the inner recesses of the heart of others who kindled in the Surfer a kinship with humanity and made of him the Savior for the entire planet. He came to Earth a god, but became a man and through that transformation changed how his Creator interacted with the planet and its people. By his sacrifice, he exacted from his Creator a new covenant with mankind for peace in our times.

This epic story has been reprinted many many times. I've been featuring the Marvel's Greatest Comics covers which were the source of the first time I ran across this epic in comic book form. Here are a couple more great covers of collections which featured the story.

The first time though that I ran across this truly fantastic tale was not in comic book form. It was an episode of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series starring the Fantastic Four. Take a gander at Alex Toth's design of Galactus for that episode. 

The story has been adapted in later cartoons and even was the source for the second Fantastic Four movie. But as much as Marvel would love for it to be so, there will never be a story which packs the punch and pure majesty of this classic epic, the greatest story ever told in the comic book which dubbed itself (and for a time correctly) "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine".

I read the saga in the first Silver Surfer Epic Collection this time. A different Silver Surfer by Stan and Jack tomorrow.

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