Atlas-Seaboard Comics - July 1975!

This is the mother-of-all-months for Atlas-Seaboard. Lots of titles, lots of changes of direction, and sadly lots and lots of cancellations. This month marks the great collapse of the edifice that Martin and Chip Goodman built to spit in the face of their former success story, Marvel. Let's begin.

IRONJAW #4 gives us the "origin" of the barbarian, and this tale by Gary Friedrich and Pablo Marcos is a somewhat overdone saga of a young minstrel who is tortured and maimed by some jealous thugs. A witch tries to save him at the cost of her own immortality, and she is the one who first gives the young man his new jaw and his new name. Ironjaw was the flagship of the Atlas line, the only character to appear in five stories, but this issue is the last. We will never know the second part of Ironjaw's origin. The Atlas-Seaboard tragedy begins to unfold.

GRIM GHOST #3 gives us a Tony Isabella script with more Ernie Colon artwork. This story introduces Brimstone, a demon from Hell who wants to take over the operation. He gives powers to two thugs the Ghost encounters, and the battle is on. Brimstone offers G.G. a role in his revolution, but Dunsinane sees the flaw in Brimstone's plan and rejects him. Satan gives the Ghost some help in the form of Lady Braddock, the same woman who betrayed him in issue #1. It's a clever twist, and it gives the story some real depth. The battle with Brimstone has some neat twists, and I wonder if a young Todd McFarlane ever read this issue. I heard whispers of Spawn throughout. Alas this was the last issue, as despite an excellent Russ Heath cover and a logo change, sales must have not been there. It won't be the last cancellation of the month.

WULF the BARBARIAN #3 offers a change of talent and direction. A Steve Skeates written story with superb Leo Summers artwork, gives us Wulf and his new partner Rymstrydle saving some nobleman and his beautiful daughter from Kangroo-riding Rat-Men (shades of Kamandi) only to find themselves drawn into a struggle between a Master of an Industrial-Wonderland city-state and Wulf's arch-enemy. There is some great derring-do, before the battle is won, and by tale's end Wulf is again alone looking for revenge. There is also a map of Wulf's world in this issue. There will be one more issue.

BRUTE #3 gives us a change of talent and direction as Alan Weiss under Jack Abel inks takes the art chores. The new story by Gary Friedrich (who seems to have taken over all of Mike Fleisher's assignments at this point) puts the Brute in conflict again with the police before he eventually meets up with an android super-agent named Doomstalker. The story ends in a cliff-hanger with the Brute (now possessed of the limited ability to speak) having taken a terrible and fall, and the Doomstalker threatening all of mankind. Alas this is the last issue, and as far as I know the Doomstalker is still standing there.

MORLOCK 2001 AND THE MIDNIGHT MEN #3 (formerly known as simply Morlock 2001) is the saga that gets one of the sharpest twists in direction. Steve Ditko with some Berni Wrightson inks gives the book a new look, and the story involves a scientist horribly burned who leads a revolution against the same oppressive government that gave birth to Morlock. Morlock is taken underground where the newly dubbed "Midnight Man" seeks to enlist him in the war. The Thought Police attack and the battle rages. Morlock seems to fall, even to be dead as the story closes with the Midnight Man vowing to fight on. Issue #4 might have been retitled I suspect, but this series ends with this issue.

PLANET OF VAMPRIES #3 features delicious Russ Heath artwork under a very bland cover. The story by John Albano broadens the saga beyond the limits of the city and gets our hero into the wilderness. The death count is brutal in this issue as of our five astronauts (one was killed in the first issue) only two survive by the last page of this story and they are not together. The wives of both Chris and Craig meet tragic deaths, and a two-page ad by Larry Lieber suggests they will be together again battling more vampires. But this is the last issue.

THE SCORPION #3 tells of the death of Moro Frost, the Scorpion of the previous two issues. The immortal hero has moved on into the then-modern world of 1975 and has become a superhero. This Jim Craig drawn issue is typical superhero stuff with the Scorpion doing a Daredevil thing across NYC battling neo-Nazis who want to revive assorted Nazi villains from the Big One. The battle takes place under the Twin Trade Towers, then new, but it does give the comic a poignancy that it otherwise lacks. This is the last issue of this totally transformed comic. The panic in the Atlas editorial offices is becoming apparent with this particular comic.

WEIRD SUSPENSE #3 featuring THE TARANTULA offers another good dose of Boyette beauty, but the story is a rambling mess with a villain who ineptly used mind-over-matter to battle the star of the book. There are threats and danger, but the book lacks emotional direction. Rich Buckler offers both the cover and the splash page as there seemed to be some rewriting of the original story along the way. This is the last Tarantula story despite the fact #4 is advertised with cover art. Apparently, the next story would have explained the Tarantula was part of some alien invasion early in man's history. But we'll never know for sure.

TARGITT #3 gives us another episode of his war against crime, this time finding him against a ghastly character named Professor Death, neatly drawn by Howard Nostrand. There's nerve gas involved and Targitt's exposure seems to give him some powers of some sort, though this is vaguely explained. There is also something about his outfit giving him mechanical abilities of strength, but again it's vague. By the end of this story Targitt is renamed Man-Stalker and he's left his Magnums behind. Like the Scorpion another superhero is born. But like some many titles this is the last issue. Even the Buckler cover doesn't help things.

TALES OF EVIL #3 gives us the MAN-MONSTER, an Isabella-Buckler effort that has an abrasive Olympic swimmer overcome by weird sparkly stuff and change into a big old monster. Some reporters save him, take him to a hotel, where a costumed villain assaults him and sets fire to the hotel. The hero's father is an equally abrasive rich guy who happens to own the hotel and the Man-Monster is accused by story's end of torching it and his own dad is ordering the cops to shoot him. What happens next? We'll never know. BOG BEAST shows up for another (and final) turn with good art by Romero. Tales of Evil pulls the hat-trick and offers a werewolf for him to battle, making three werewolves in three issues of the abruptly cancelled series.

SAVAGE COMBAT TALES #3 gives us the last SGT.STRYKER'S DEATH SQUAD tale as Goodwin and McWilliams offer up another somewhat tepid story of the usual WWII mayhem. The team goes after Rommel, but miss, though through a complicated network of mistakes by all sides they think they've succeeded. I don't want to be there when they discover they screwed up. But we won't as this is the last issue. The second story is a pretty good tale of WWII with Jack Sparling artwork. It tells of a black vet and a white raw recruit who pull dangerous duty on a dangerous ridge and overcome both danger and racism, if only for the moment. It seems to be the start of a new series, but it's unclear. And sadly it's moot.

THE COUGAR #2 is another tale of Hollywood stuntmen battling supernatural menaces. With worthy Frank Springer artwork, this is a rather bland comic book. Our hero is Jeff Rand, is a Louisiana boy we discover and there's a werewolf in his past. That werewolf might just be his own brother and further seems to be on the loose killing folks all around our hero. We learn the Cougar identity is the result of a failed starring vehicle for our wannabe stuntman, but little is shown beyond that. This a wide-ranging story with little direction, but it does offer a climactic battle and the potential for a change of direction in issue #3 as by story's end the Cougar is paralyzed. We'll never find out, as this is the last issue. Sigh.

The lone debut of the month is...

BLAZING BATTLE TALES #1 starring SGT.HAWK. Hawk is the usual hard-nosed battle-weary hero and he goes after his mission in this effective one-shot story with the stereotypical Native American and Jewish soldiers at his side. I think their names are White Cloud and Goldberg, but any cliche names would have done. There's some decent Jack Sparling art over what claims to be Pat Broderick layouts, though I don't see it myself. Sparling certainly dominates. The second story features a fighter pilot with a six sense about attack targets and might be the beginning of a series, but its unimpressive despite typically good McWilliams artwork. John Severin puts in a two-page offering detailing the heroic efforts of a real soldier. This issue has it all it seems for the war comic fan. Atlas seemed to be clutching at straws by the time this one hit the stands, and even a rather nice Frank Thorne cover doesn't help much.

That's July from Atlas-Seaboard. With this wave of final issues, it's pretty much all over but the crying. Atlas will linger for a few more months, but there will be precious few more comic books from this company that promised so much, but sadly delivered so little in the final analysis. August awaits.

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Atlas-Seaboard Comics - June 1975!

June was a pivotal month for the fledgling comics company known as Atlas. The change made in the editorial direction of the company was seen in the color comics, as Larry Lieber stepped forward and took control of the whole line following the departure of Jeff Rovin. Before this, the two men had split the color books with Leiber focusing on the genre books. Now all the books got some new talent and new directions. The fragmentation of the line is becoming evident.

PHOENIX #3 offers the latest episode in the life of astronaut-turned-messiah/superhero Ed Tyler as he attempts to solve the dilemma of a distant village overcome by Abominable Snowmen. He finds a destroyed village with a single survivor, an old man, and proceeds to find the rest of the missing folks. That brings him into conflict with the Snowmen and their creator and master Lucifer. Lucifer it turns out is something of a rogue Deiei, who resembles the classic image of Satan quite closely, and who is now free to pursue his inclinations since Phoenix has largely destroyed the Deiei bases on Earth. Needless to say, after much hoopla, and one sacrifice, the village is saved, and Lucifer is frustrated. The story is by Gabe Levy with more worthy artwork by Sal Amendola. Frank Thorne does the cover.

The second feature of the book is DARK AVENGER and it's a reasonably well-crafted tale of urban crimefighting and offers splendid Pat Broderick artwork. A young man finds a mysterious metal, is able to transform it into a suit and so finds himself with a wonderful superhero gimmick. That such a fellow with so vivid an imagination and so specific a set of skills is still living with his mother and brother is arguably the strangest thing about this little one-off story. It's a bit like Spider-Man meets The Katzenjammer Kids, but lots of folks really like this story.

DESTRUCTOR #3 gives us another installment in this ongoing Archie Goodwin - Steve Ditko epic saga. Gone this issue is Wally Wood, and the artwork seems to have been inked by Ditko. I don't know about that. The story continues with the Destructor still battling thugs from the Combine, but this time under the direction of Dr. Shroud. He sends the Huntress and her attentive sidekick Lobo to take on the Destructor, and they trap him in an elaborate casino/canyon (you've really got to see this one to understand that). Because the thugs fight among themselves, the Destructor lives to fight another day. One thing about our hero, he's certainly presented as a cool character who is willing to sacrifice others to achieve his goals. The anti-hero is popular with Atlas, but in many respects Jay Hunter is the purest example of the disaffected modern protagonist.

TIGER-MAN #2 is a real change of pace issue. Steve Ditko takes on the hero and gives him a really dynamic energy he was missing in the earlier chapters. Gerry Conway takes the writing helm, and Tiger-Man seems to become a more conflicted hero, more concerned with the lives of his enemies. He encounters the Blue Leopard, a man empowered with the same talents as himself yet set on a revenge mission against Dr.Hill, the Tiger-Man. There's more than a few clues to suggest the Blue Leopard is a Black Panther clone, with several origin details in common with Marvel's kingly hero. Lots of good fight scenes in this one, and a grand Frank Thorne cover.

TARGITT #2 gives us another story in John Targitt's ongoing war on crime. This issue gives more Howard Nostrand artwork, but the story told in flashback, relates how Targitt is transformed into an undercover FBI secret agent and gives him a uniform to perform his missions against the mob. There's lots of action and mayhem, and the story is reasonably diverting if not particular inspiring. Like the Dirty Harry movies that inspired this comic, there's an ongoing fascination with guns that seems to actually drag the storytelling down a bit.

POLICE ACTION #3 gives us two more crime dramas. LOMAX battles a hotdog vendor turned hitman, and eventually gets his man. Mike Sekowsky does another fine job with more McWilliams inks. LUKE MALONE finds himself drawn into a rock star's murder scam and eventually he uncovers the plot of this thinly veiled swipe of Alice Cooper. Despite an energetic Frank Thorne cover (Noticing a trend on cover art?), the comic seems to be losing its steam a bit, and just in time, because this is the last issue.

And now the new stuff...

THE BARBARIANS #1 gives us a new IRONJAW story, and its an okay effort with Pablo Marcos art and Gary Friedrich story. Under Mike Fleisher Ironjaw was a grim realist, but now there seems to be a desire to make him more heroic and sympathetic. It's poorly considered. In this story Ironjaw fights some barbaric mutants, and to my surprise befriends them. Sheesh! The second feature is a real strange one called ANDRAX. This story seems to be an import and offers the beginning of an epic saga of a young Olympic athelete captured by the obligatory mad scientist and sent (by unexplained means) into the future where the scientist is sure the man's will and stamina will make him a king among the weak future-men. All the newly dubbed "Andrax" finds is a wasteland and soon he's fighting for his life. It ends with him seeking other people. It's a well-drawn story, but has a distinct European feel to it.

FRIGHT #1 gives us the beginning of the SON OF DRACULA story by Frank Thorne on art. It's a rambling story, and involves mild incest and more than a bit of coincidence to concoct a complicated situation that finds a young college professor possessed of the curse and the power of Dracula himself. It's not a bad story, just a confusing one as origins can tend to be. The story sets up a man who seems to be both the hero and the villain of the story, despite his better intentions. This book is the only issue of Fright, and the only story about the Son of Dracula I'm familiar with.

HANDS OF THE DRAGON #1 might just be the strangest new addition to the Atlas-Seaboard lineup. This story with Jim Craig artwork gives us a no-holds origin story which has elements of vintage Silver Age Marvel, along with more recent Bronze Age Marvel and a whisper of old Charlton. The book appears to be (and is) a rip-off of Master of Kung-Fu. But the story is really more a clone of the Iron Fist saga with some exploding atomic bombs thrown in to give several folks some superpowers. Two twins survive the blast to be raised by their grandfather in a monastery where one brother grows to become evil (he also was scarred by the blast though he never really looks like it) and the other becomes our hero "Dragon". There's also a villain called Dr.Nhu who corrupts the brother who eventually gets the name Ling the Cobra. It's a complicated story with a few too many elements thrown in. One gets the feeling the script and the art aren't a perfect match, and that the book was drawn with a somewhat different plot. Another detail is that perhaps the Dragon's outfit was originally to have been green. Despite his very MOKF look, one caption describes him as a green figure. I figure that change was made both to take advantage of Shang-Chi's success and avoid too obvious a comparison to Iron Fist. The story ends with an assassination plot foiled and the Dragon vowing to stop his brother. We never find out what happens as this book too ends with its first issue.

And then there's always VICKI #3. 

The wheels are coming off the Atlas-Seaboard machine. The changes are clear attempts to gather market, and much of the line's early character is disappearing to be replaced by less compelling material.

July will see lots of final issues, and even a debut or two. More next month.

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Showcase Corner - Enemy Ace!

I think it can be safely said that no company produced better war comics than DC during the Silver and Bronze Ages of comics. Charlton certainly held their own in the genre, but most other publishers only dabbled, even Marvel with only a handful of titles such as Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. But for DC, the war comic was a main event and not a sideline and the kings of the form were writer Robert Kanigher and artist Joe Kubert. And while the pair worked on many successful titles such as Sgt. Rock and others, I will suggest that their most exquisite creation was Enemy Ace. Though Kanigher is most always listed alone as the creator I will maintain (and I'd reckon most would agree) that Kubert was essential to the character's initial success. 

That success first began in Our Army at War #51 which at the time featured Sgt.Rock as the lead. Enemy Ace began as a back-up with an enigmatic cover. He went on to appear in two more issues of Our Army at War before getting a chance to break out on his own. That chance came in Showcase. 

Showcase issues #57 and #58 give the "Hammer from Hell" his first real cover push and handsome ones they are indeed. Enemy Ace was Hans Von Hammer a man of noble birth and noble instincts who attempted with some limited success to bring chivalry to the warfare in what he consistently called the "Killer Skies". World War I is the war that forever ripped off the noble veneer of war and thanks to the advances in machinery and the limited advances of human behavior saw the massacre of hundreds of thousands of men and even women and children as the war groaned on year after year. One place in which the illusion of men of honor fighting with selected nobility could be maintained was in the sky where single warriors in new machines which flew high above the mud and blood below could engage in combat. The war in the sky was no less deadly but as presented in Kanigher's stories was possessed of a clarity which allowed men to make choices about how they went about waging it. 

The Showcase experiment worked and Enemy Ace was awarded his own ongoing series in the pages of Star-Spangled War Stories taking over from a multitude of dinosaurs in the ongoing War that Time Forgot series (more on that next month by the way). Joe Kubert's atmospheric cover for the first Enemy Ace issue gives a good insight into how Kanigher and Kubert approached the character. Enemy Ace was a very personal war story, told from the first-person perspective of Von Hammer himself. This was not an uncommon technique for DC war stories but it was used with unusual deftness and attention to character in this outing. 

The stories of Enemy Ace are surprisingly similar in construction, almost to the point of eliminating plot as a primary concern. The events that transpire in an Enemy Ace story are only important in how they impact Von Hammer and those around him. It is always character that matters, it is always the effect of various things that fuel the narrative. 

I was especially struck in this reading at the absolute mastery of Joe Kubert's storytelling. Drawing a comic filled with airplanes (even interesting looking World War II versions) can become quite static very quickly. The sky offers very little in the way of establishing perspective, and Kubert solves this with astonishing skill by using close-ups of Von Hammer himself to establish those distances and visual cues. This only reinforces the written words which are a running catalogue of Enemy Ace's thoughts and feelings and desires as the deadly struggle in the "Killer Skies" rumbles along with death a split second and a single mistake away. 

Von Hammer is the muchly awarded ace of all of Germany and while he takes no pleasure in his accomplishments others do and he is regarded as great hero by many. But often as leader of his "Jagdstaffel" he is called upon to make hard choices which result in the deaths of many young men who are still often aglow with anticipated glory. Some are terrified, some are bloodthirsty, but all must fly and most often die. 

Another constant in these stories are the eccentric and distinctive enemy pilots that Von Hammer confronts in dogfights. He encounters men with names like "The Hunter" and his most capable foe "The Hangman". The latter is also a man of noble birth and he and Von Hammer has a several-issue combat which is filled with various acts of chivalry on the part of both men. When the Hangman is seemingly killed finally his sister takes to the skies as "The Harpy". Enemy Ace's relationships with women are touched upon in the stories but almost always they are nurse who want to share the glamor of Von Hammer but are chilled by his icy demeanor. 

The stories of Enemy Ace are quick to point out the bravery of the combatants and Von Hammer himself is often struck by the nobility and bravery of those Frenchmen and Englishmen he battles in the deadly skies. 

One singular issue of the run was actually penciled by Neal Adams with Kubert inks. It is only slightly less effective in its storytelling which features a whole squadron of mysterious skeletal pilots. 

One of the most bizarre aspects of the Enemy Ace stories is Von Hammer's surreal connection to a deadly wolf from the Black Forest. After his combat missions Von Hammer would take a rifle and go hunting which most often became merely an opportunity for him to meet with this lupine familiar and open up his heart to ears which seemed weirdly empathetic. 

Enemy Ace is a hard man who is thought an emotionless killing machine by those around him. This is a hurtful burden for our hero but he carries that weight and the responsibility for his squadron with a grim-faced determination. 

The weirdness of the enemies Von Hammer confronts in the sky can be quite compelling such as the obsessive Englishman who imagines himself St. George reincarnated. All of these bizarre villains make the stories feel almost mythic and not actually realistic in some ways. 

One story which felt out of place to me concerns Von Hammer taking a shine to a little puppy. Like most creatures who fly with the Enemy Ace, Schatzi's fate is not one to taken for granted. 

The reader can see the handwriting on the wall when Enemy Ace's page count gets diminished, and reprints are brought to hand to fill out the book. But it was good stuff being Kubert's awesome Viking Prince. 

Star-Spangled War Stories #150 is the last to feature Enemy Ace on the cover and the logo changed diminishing his name and doing more to promote the book itself. 

Star-Spangled War Stories #151 has the Enemy Ace reduced to a back-up with new war hero The Unknown Soldier taking the lead. He will keep that position until the book's cancellation many years later. 

Star-Spangled War Stories # 159 is the last to feature Enemy Ace for several years. When he did finally re-emerge several years later Kurbert was gone but his place was taken by Frank Thorne who did a creditable job capturing the flavor of the series as Enemy Ace battled DC's other WWI ace the Balloon Buster.  

Enemy Ace returned to the comic racks in the pages of Men of War with its second issue. He had to once again back-up another feature named Codename:Gravedigger, and in fact in most of the issues he was one of three different features in the book. 

Enemy Ace was drawn in his earliest Men of War stories by Ed Davis but quickly the artist on the series became Howard Chaykin and he was more than up to the task. His stylish noir artwork worked quite well on Enemy Ace and to my mind only Kubert did it better. 

In the early 80's Enemy Ace returns once again, this time Kanigher is joined by veteran war artist John Severin who does his typical amazing job at capturing the details of war. But something is missing from these stories from the back pages of Unknown Soldier (which had taken over the numbering of Star-Spangled War Stories), the weirdness which filled the atmosphere of early tales has disappeared for a more conventional feel for war tales. 

This collection wraps up with a story written not by Robert Kanigher as had been the case with all the rest but Denny O'Neil when he brings in Enemy Ace to Batman's world in Detective Comics #404 in a somewhat ghostly form. The artwork by Neal Adams is bang on though if you are looking for the real Von Hammer you might be disappointed. 

Enemy Ace as imagined by Kanigher and Kubert was a knight fighting for his countrymen and for his honor. He was a relentless killer but he was not a heartless one. We are able to see into his mind as he tells us his story and that makes all  the difference. The early issues of Enemy Ace feel almost poetic in their rejection of narrative disntction and focus on reflection and style. I daresay these are works of art, worthy of  being collected and read again and again down through the years. 

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