Ditko's Doctor Strange Pin-Ups!

Here's a fantastic Dr. Strange Marvel Masterwork Pin-Up by Steve Ditko. This first ran in an issue of Marvel Collectors' Item Classics. 

Above is Steve Ditko's earliest Dr. Strange Pin-Up from an early issue of Strange Tales. Along with the original there's a glimpse of a delightful Fred Hembeck homage. 

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The Good, The Bad, And The Brightly Clad!

This vintage Fred Hembeck cover from those long ago days of 1980 is a crack up of the highest order. Three brilliantly and blindingly hued heroes joined to create a crisis of color in the Hembeckian world at large. It's genius!

Jack Kirby and Mort Meskin

Captain 3-D, created for Harvey Comics during the Atomic Age by the Joe Simon and Jack Kirby duo is the oldest of this trio of colorful protagonists. Created to take advantage of a fad which seems to reappear every several years, Captain 3-D is a surprisingly serious character with echoes of Fawcett's Captain Marvel bonded with the more surreal elements of later comics. Here's a glimpse.

The Prankster is from the final throes of the Silver Age, a one-shot hero created by Denny O'Neil in his guise as "Sergius O'Shaugnessy" and top flight artist Jim Aparo.

Created for Charlton Comics, this futuristic gadfly battles an oppressive and humorless government in the distant future city of Ultropolis.

Pat Boyette

Never cover-featured, the Prankster made his one and only appearance in the tenth and final issue of Thunderbolt, the original Charlton run.

 And perhaps most obscure of all is Steve Ditko's Odd Man. The Odd Man was a truly bizarre creation.

Scheduled to debut in the pages of the ninth issue of Ditko's Shade the Changing Man, the exotically hued hero made his first actual appearance in the dubious offset rarity Cancelled Comics Cavalcade, a victim like so many of the infamous " DC Implosion" of the late Bronze Age.

Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

Thankfully though he did get a colorful presentation when that story was dusted off, revised and presented to a broader reading public in the pages of Detective Comics.

As you can see, Odd Man is perhaps the biggest eyesore among these disparate brothers-of-the-brightly-clad, his whole look seemingly designed to create a clash.

Only Fred Hembeck would think it a good enough joke to dig out these most obscure heroes (remember it was in those halcyon pre-internet days) for his devoted audience. Good show Fred on a true classic gag!

This Hembeck classic is reprinted in the awesome The Nearly Complete Essential Hembeck Archives Omnibus, though I fear the color might be missing. I hope not.

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The World According To Hembeck!

Fred Hembeck is an original. Hembeck has made no secret of his utter fanboy adoration of vintage comic books, in fact the absolute reverse is the case. Hembeck spreads his affection and his sometimes withering analysis widely for all to read and enjoy. He does it like no one else, from inside the medium as a comic book character himself. It's not a route he took directly as he describes in the mammoth The Nearly Complete Essential Hembeck Archives Omnibus, but rather a haphazard advance into the medium. It once upon a time felt like a Hollywood movie hadn't really impacted the culture until MAD Magazine put their distinctive satirical stamp on it, and later Saturday Night Live performed much the same function for a few blessed years. Hembeck is like that, in that until he sees fit to make a commentary in his own unique way upon a given comic book it really is just another pamphlet in the pile. His attention gives it cache, it rates a thumbs up or a thumbs down or most likely a thumbs sideways.  

Hembeck divides this mammoth nine hundred page tome into seven parts. Part One deals with his "Little Freddy" strips produced in 1999 and show Hembeck as a mature cartoonist in command of his material. These are charming little tales of the nostalgic time when comic books were just becoming part of Fred's life. 

The Second part of the book is the heart of the volume as far as I'm concerned. It contains black and white reprints of all seven of Hembeck's impressive collections for Fantaco (not Fantagraphics as he points out a few times), a small publisher who specialized in fan-friendly informative books. These are collections of Hembeck's "Dateline: @!?!#" pages from Alan Light's The Buyer's Guide. In addition there are new pieces included as well, though by this time all of it glows with a delightful glow of Bronze Age nostalgia. Truth told if you were not into comics in the late 70's and 80's not much of this is going to make much sense. But sense that was a heyday for yours truly, I lapped it up. At least all of it I could read. Hembeck's greatest failing is an inability to limit his verbage and while pages filled with fun images are a hoot often the words themselves are microscopic and well beyond my tired old eyes (even with assist) to make out. So some of it I jut wrote off and moved on. 

The Third section of the book contains 1980'd material that didn't make it into the collections and there's a definite randomness to it that makes reading and looking at it a real festival. 

The Fourth section of this massive book incorporates some really fascinating stuff from Hembeck's participation in CAPA-Alpha. This venerable association was a pre-computer version of the message board with some blog-like features save it was all on glorious paper, much of it mimeo. An "APA" was an "Amateur Press Alliance" and CAPA-Alpha was the grandad of all of them begun by Jerry Bails no less. Members produced material, sent it to a "Central Mailer" and that person assembled and printed the result to mail back to the members for the enjoyment of the greater whole. I was a member briefly of an APA in the late 70's and was even central mailer for a brief time and I can speak with authority that it's a massive undertaking and I respect anyone who every participated. 

Section Five gives us something different, some actual stories from Hembeck produced here and there over many years, some published before some not. We meet his superhero creations "The Dog" and "Mr. Mumbo-Jumbo" as well an intriguing interview with Batman about Frank Miller and a story about dating and time travel. One fun piece has Sgt. Fury taking on the "Hydra Ladies Auxillary" and this story was later redrawn by John Severin for inclusion in What Th?. 

The Sixth section gives us more Dateline pages, these from a much later time in the late 80's and right up to the 21st century no less. To be honest while these pages are crafted with some more skill overall, they have less fanboy appeal for me because of the subject matter which while it includes blasts from the Silver and Bronze Ages has a lot of stuff from the 90's for sure. 

The Seventh and final part of the book takes us into the 21st century and the shift to things produced for Hembeck.com and a comic strip called "Kidz". There are some of Hembeck's patented cover redos here too as there are throughout the book and if you know Hembeck you know those have a charm all their own. He has an uncanny knack for redrawing a cover in his own style and making that image fresh all over again. That's a gift indeed. 

This is a hefty mighty tome and it's not a book that will surrender its charms easily. But it's worth the work for fans of a certain vintage. 

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The Marvel Universe According To Hembeck!

I don't know exactly when I first became aware of the presence of Fred Hembeck, but almost was certainly this particular item from Iron Man #112. 

The reason I say that is I was a steady reader and collector of Iron Man during this time period and this was according to Fred himself his very first published piece. Of course it was far from this last. I'm taking a two-part look (really a three-part if you count the recent Spider-Ham post) look at the work of Fred Hembeck and I'm focusing first on book The Marvel Universe According to Hembeck which purports to contain much of his work done for the company, although he'd done so much I'm sure there's work out there yet to reprint. The tome is divided into seven chapters. 

 

The first chapter deals with the first signifcant piece in the collection -- the stunning Fantastic Four Roast which was published as part of the twentieth anniversary celebration of the Fab 4's first appearance and was written and designed by Hembeck, but which features the work of nearly every artist then working for Marvel over his layouts. John Buscema, John Byrne, Michael Golden, Sal Buscema, Mike Vosburg, Al Milgrom, Mike Zeck, Kerry Gammill, Bob Hall, Frank Miller, Don Perlin, Marshal Rogers, Denys Cowan, Alan Weiss, Keith Pollard, and like others I've forgotten take part in this rousing satire of both the roast format and the Marvel Universe. The jokes are lame but the art is exquisite. 

Next up is a chapter focusing on Spider-Man and it begins with a little contribution by Hembeck to the delightful "Assistant Editor's Month" event which saw a myriad of wacky alterations to ongoing titles when under the guise of the Assistant Editors taking command changes were wrought with abandon and downright glee. In this instance we get a fracas betwixt Spidey and The Fly as drawn by Hembeck, hardly cleaving to the house style at the time. 

This section also includes a large number of pages, two-page spreads for the most part from sundry issues of Marvel Age, the MU news and hype comic to which Hembeck regularly contributed. Of these my favorite is likely his tribute to Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 which he regards as the best of the Marvel Annuals ever and that's an opinion I share. 

Chapter three focuses on  the Spider-Ham material I spoke about previously in a post dedicated to that wacky funny animal spin on the friendly neighborhood icon. 

The fourth chapter presents one of Hembeck's most high-profile projects -- the infamous Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe. It's a wacky project which saw print in 1989 but was created several years before in 1985 or thereabouts as is evidenced by the state of come of the heroes featured (such as Rhodey still in the Iron Man armor). It's inked by Vince Collect, a talent I like in certain places, but here he misused. Much better is the combo of Hembeck and Joe Staton who produce the art for the framing sequence. Hembeck's Crackers the Clown of Death is a delightful if sobering creation. 

The fifth chapter might be my favorite as it deals with Hembeck's inspired spoofs on a nigh forgotten Marvel character -- Brother Voodoo. Many of these Marvel Age gags were collected in previously in Fred Hembeck Sells The Marvel Universe. He's been brought back I here, but for the longest time Brother Voodoo was a remnant of Marvel's splash with horror in the early 70's. I liked him thanks to Gene Colan's fantastic artwork and apparently so did Hembeck because he delights in sending up the good Brother by giving him a sibling named "Sister Voodoo" and her kid "Voodoo Chile". (Chomp on that Jimi!)

Hembeck even drew a "serious" Brother Voodoo story for one of Marvel's "Super-Hero Specials" which focused on getting file work out to the masses. It's a rare instance in which Hembeck drew a comic in a more realistic style. 

Chapter six focuses on another of Hembeck's inspired creations named Petey, a pint-sized rendition of Peter Parker done in a style evoking the best of Li'l Archie, Little Lulu, Dennis the Menace and many others. In these charming little escapades Petey and his classmates Flash and Liz run across the likes of college age Victor Von Doom (twice0 and Reed Richards as well as Susan Storm and her little mischievous brother Johnny (twice). There is also a run in with a young Jericho Drumm, who along with is brother Daniel have not yet joined to become Brother Voodoo. He even ends up stalling the rise of Baron Strucker's Hydra for a bit. These are quite entertaining. 

The seventh and final chapter is a hodge-podge of stuff that didn't fit elsewhere and presents a number of funny bits such as some alternative covers Hembeck produced for the company. 

Believe it or not, there's still a greater heaping helping of Hembeck headed your way.  Brace  yourselves. 

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The Spectacular Spider-Ham!

One of the surprise hits (for this fanboy at least) of the 1980's was Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham. This funny animal spoof of the exceedingly famous Amazing Spider-Man really caught my fancy. Just seeing the all-too familiar story details unfold with other kinds of critters added a freshness even to the most redundant tale. In fact it proved a strength as it played against what in other context would be a deficiency, making light of a weakness. 

I'm not sure what prompted the 1980 publication of the delightfully titled Marvel Tales but it was a pleasant surprise. The upfront Spider-Ham story starring not just Peter Porker but Captain Amerikat as well battling Hulk Bunny was a hoot. And Steve Mellor's Goose Rider was, if anything, even zanier. The Mellor cover is a stunner. 

Part of me cannot help but think that Spider-Ham might've had some genesis sparked by the appearance of a certain famous Earth-Pig named Cerebus the Aardvark who began his independent existence as a parody of Conan the Barbarian and went on to tackle both Wolverine and Moon Knight as well. 

That one-off issue have been all there was if not for the sad fact that Harvey Comics went pretty much bust in the early 80's and a steady stream of kid-friendly comics featuring the likes of Casper the Friendly Ghost, Hot Stuff, and Richie Rich among others suddenly disappeared from the comic racks. Marvel moved swiftly and swept up some of the Harvey talent, most notably Warren Kremer, the architect of the Harvey look and before you knew there was a Star Comics line from Marvel featuring Planet Terry, Royal Roy, Wally the Wizard, Top Dog, and The Spectacular Spider-Ham. 

Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham began a reasonably healthy seventeen issue run with the titular hero up front taking on weirdo menaces in a world of funny animals and funnier physics. These kinds of adventures always make for a lightness of storytelling which refreshes from what can be some pretty heavy stuff in a lot of comics of the era. 

The early issues were written by Steve Skeates and drawn by Mike Artmstrong and inked by Joe Abelo, and this trio offered up a singularly angular view of the Spider-Ham universe. While they battled some almost-recognizable menaces. J. Jonah Jackal was a mainstay of the series and appeared in nearly every issue, often in a near lead role. The stories were often surprisingly straightforward aside from some humor from the trio of kid reporters who dominated many a tale. These three little critters -- a nerdy smart bunny named Bunsen, a hip black cat named Upton Adam Stray, and even one of JJJ's nephews named J. Jeremiah Jackal Jr. 

No doubt some of the humor would raise hackles today with some ethnic stereotypes finding their way into what was once just regular storytelling. I doubt the broadness of the humor would've spared the series from critique as it seems the United States has forgotten how to take a joke. 

Fred Hembeck stepped in to draw issue number four and gave us a somewhat more adult looking Spider-Ham. Hembeck would return to the character. 

But the regular team of Skeates and Armstrong never stayed away for long. Some of these stories read so straight that you could sub in the regular Spider-Man with few adjustments. 

Joe Abelo took over all the art chores from time to time. And the humor felt a bit broader and looser when he did so. 

Thought the Armstrong and Abelo duo continued as the regular team on the book. This cover in particular is a fanciful and only mildly connects to the time-travel story inside. 

Tony Salmons stepped in, again aided by inker Abelo for an issue set in Japan and featuring a rampaging "Hogzila". The writer this issue was Steve Mellor. 

Mellor and Abelo produced one of my favorite issues about an alien come to Earth dubbed "B.O.". Whereas the film alien on which he was based seemed genuine and sweet this alien is a little greedy bastard who just wants candy. 

Joe Abelo becomes the regular penciller for the series with the writing passing back and forth between Mellor and Mike Carlin. The Terrible Terriers were I think supposed to become repeat villains but it never occurred to my knowledge. 

Art Nichols steps in for one issue which spoofed the old soap opera "Dynasty" and its star Joan Collins. 

Under the hand of Mellor and Carlin, but mostly the former the humor in the comic seemed to be more and more loose and less about adventure and more about yucks. That suits me fine as the stories felt less formulaic in some way. 

We get monsters and spooks along with parodies of modern celebrities. This one promises some nifty monstes, but alas we get a very strange plant-like Frankenstein Creature wannabe. The series for some reason liked rural settings too as often as not. 

This issue dealt with mind control and heavy metal music. One of the things about reading this series today is how much of the 80's concerns are reflected (as they should be) and how distant they all seem now. 

With issue fifteen the series really seemed to undergo a significant change in focus. To this point the Spider-Ham stories had been oddly separate from the tasty back stories, mostly Steve and Mike Mellor which were wonderful and often outrageous parodies of random Marvel characters. Just as in the original Marvel Tales which featured Goose Rider, we are treated in these warm and kinetic back-up tales to the likes of the X-Bugs, the Scavengers, Nick Furry and the Agents of SHEEP, the Fantastic Fur, the Asinine Torch, the Sub-Marsupial, Silver Squirrel, the Watchdog, Awful Flight, Thrr Dog of Thunder, Crocter Strange, and my favorite Ant Ant. Along with Hulk Bunny and Captain Americat the blended Spider-Ham funny animal universe began to become one in this issue to great effect. 

We get a world-wide spree of action and characters in the sixteenth issue as can be seen on the cover. It almost felt like an old-fashioned Marvel annual tale. More of this kind of storytelling would've been dandy. 

But then just as quickly as that Mike Carlin steps in with artist  Joe Abelo to give us a story from the old-fashioned Spider-Ham and then the series stops. But not the adventures. 

Spider-Ham had taken up residence in the real Marvel Tales as a back up. These stories are not included in this collection, but those stories written and drawn by Fred Hembeck are included in this collection. 

It includes his single issue of the original run and a two-part tale starring Ducktor Doom who wants parenting advice and a three-part tale about how poor Peter Porker was swindled as a young student by Syliva Sowmester, known professionally as the Silver Sow. Peter's girlfriend Mary Jane Waterbuffalo is along for the ride in the latter. 

More Hembeck to come when I take a closer look at The Marvel Universe According to Hembeck. 

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