lunius!

I didn't know that I shared a birthday with the late great Neal Adams. He, like myself, was born on D-Day or as it was known before the end of WWII, June the Sixth. I've been celebrating the great artist all year and I'll be doing it again this month in spectacular fashion. I want to go back a decade in the Dojo's history and re-present one of my more enjoyable projects, a detailed reading of the classic Green Lantern and Green Arrow comics by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams. These "relevant" comics really did change the comic book world and are well worth remembering. I'm really looking forward to this read. 

I will return to my weekend readings of the OZ books by L. Frank Baum. I've been enjoying these by and large and look forward to a summer wrapping up the series, at least those written by Baum himself. Also look for a bevy of Baum's OZ-adjacent titles to get a nod. 

I will also try to get in a few more weekend readings of The Adventure of the Phantom novels from Avon Books, reprinted in recent years by Hermes Press. These have proven to be quite exciting. 

In addition, Dojo will feature some Superman, the Son of Krypton. Expect a look at classic Adams work on the Man of Steel as well as some later stuff he did for DC's most important hero. 

I will do the monthly look at Atlas-Seaboard of course, share a spirited collecting project I'm having fun with, bring a long-awaited manhunt to an end, and bring out a very special post for the birthday that I share with one of comic's greatest Neal Adams. (Actually, it has nothing to do with him, but I love saying that.) 

June is usually a delightful month. I hope it is here at the Dojo for one and all. 

Rip Off

Gill Men!

Here are some very different versions of Universal's number one aquatic creeper, the infamous Gill Man from his trio of 50's horror flicks.  Vincent Di Fate's rendition above is haunting, his Gill Man less human and more ferocious.

Bill Everett's lush lines make this my favorite of these five images. The water here has the viscous oily quality which makes almost a thing alive like the voluptuous dame and the growling monster.

Dave Cockrum's version is traditional and imbued with the dainty charm which Cockrum was able to invest all his drawing.

Art Adams offers up a somewhat different rendition here, a Gill Man of Might, with some mighty thick muscles. Not so much a swimmer as a lifter.

And here is the classic Basil Gogos portrait of Universal's last classic monster. The colors in a Gogos piece are beyond vivid, they are lurid and seem somehow unseemly. It's a perfect choice for this subject matter, giving the monster a noxious feeling of menace.

Rip Off

A Flash Of Gogos!

This dramatic but wacky cover for the fourth issue of Spacemen from Warren Magazines is clearly meant to evoke this clash between Flash and a Ming Soldier from Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars.


Actually that's Buster Crabbe of course as Flash facing off against another stalwart serial hero Kane Richmond.


But what happened that Basil Gogos, the artist of the Spacemen cover didn't gives us a magnificent illustration of Richmond as well as Crabbe. I learned the truth at BookSteve's Library.

This blurb from the Warren editors explains the downright weird situation.

"Actually the cover on our July issue was a collectors item--the first collaboration between Basil Gogos and...Jim Warren! Upon completion of the left hand portion of the painting, Gogos was suddenly stricken with Venusian Virus and ordered to bed by his physician with a 103 degree temperature. Originally Emperor Ming was to be fighting with Flash but suddenly the choice was either a half-blank cover or___? So borrowing a popping eye from Peter Lorre, a bolt from the Frankenstein monster, a swelled head from the Metaluna mutant, a horn from a triceratops and the robotic arms of a robot, your resourceful publisher himself rushed out and got a Draw It Yourself Kit and, with the printer panting down his neck, painted the "immortal kitchen sink creature" which so many of you hailed as a Monsterpuss!"

So it's the handiwork of Jim Warren himself we see and it never to be Kane Richmond on the other side. Hmm. It's a shame the great Gogos couldn't finish this image, but perhaps it wouldn't have been so memorable as what resulted. What a hodgepodge of sources. Here they are.

Peter Lorre
Frankenstein Monster
Metaluna Mutant
Triceratops of sorts & Obie
Rip Off

Tales From The Grave!

I found this gem yesterday at a store in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I'm visiting my girls, and one cool thing is to check out the local comic shops. One was having a major sale, and I'll have more to say on that later. At another I found this issue of a relatively new comic (came out last year). The Basic Gogos cover was irresistible. There's a very lovely hostess dubbed "Nosferina". Get a glimpse of her below.


I'm looking forward to giving this one a good reading later.

For more on this comic see this link.

And here's a "trailer" for the comic.



Rip Off

The Pop-Up Spirit!

I wish I'd have an extra $35 bucks to drop on this neat bit of Spirit ephemera when I chanced across it at my local Borders. It's a fun thing, but it's hard to justify on any terms other than novelty.




They at least selected a solid Spirit tale to adapt into this peculiar format. The Sand Saref story was the basis of the ill-fated movie. It was adapted from another bit of work Eisner did titled original "John Law".


For a quick comparison see this link.


The cover itself comes from this iconic Spirit section. This is part of the John Law adaptation which became the Sand Saref story.


And of course it inspired the first Warren Spirit cover by Basil Gogos.

Rip Off