Marvel Masterwork Pin-Ups!

Marvel Masterworks Pin-Ups is one of my absolute favorite Yoe Books. It gathers between its pages most if not all of superhero pin-up pages which appeared in Marvel's comics over the course of about two decades or so beginning with the very first Fab 4 pin-ups from Fantastic Four #2 and ending with John Byrne's pin-ups for Fantastic Four Special Edition from 1984. In between there are scuds of images of both heroes and villains by the likes of Kirby,  John Buscema, Gene Colan, Dicky Ayers, Don Heck, Larry Lieber, John Romita, Bill Everett, and Barry (Not-Yet-Windsor) Smith. Most of them are by the "King", but coming in second is "Sturdy" Steve Ditko. Below I've gathered his Spidey images from the book. 

The oddball grace of Ditko's early version of Spidey is neatly showcases in this image  Amazing Spider-Man #3. 

It is a more muscular Spider we see here from the first Amazing Spider-Man Annual. 

This pin-up from Amazing Spider-Man #20  has always been a favorite of mine as it shows Peter Parker, a figure no less important to the success of the early Spidey stories.  

This a grand image from Amazing  Spider-Man #21, which of course served as the cover this Yoe collection. The way the light frames Spidey is outstanding. 

And this image from Amazing Spider-Man #23  might well be my favorite of the lot. There's not only the entirety of the Spider-verse cast represented with headshots, but we have a very mysterious and threatening image of Spider-Man himself. He's become so common that it's easy to forget that Spider-Man would be downright scary if you met him in one of those dim Ditko alleys. 

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Ditko's Monsters!

Konga and Gorgo is a pretty nifty trick for two monsters who each starred in one-off feature B-movies over fifty years ago. They survive because each of them luckily fell into the nimble hands of Steve Ditko and Joe Gill, two yeoman talents who worked for the little comic company that could, Charlton. The latest package is a flip-cover affair from Yoe Books.

The two monsters met (sort of) for the first time when in celebration of the great Ditko, Charlton promoted him atop the two monsters in a special issue dubbed Fantastic Giants, another incredible one-off. That comic was one of my earliest acquisitions and no doubt contributes to my abiding love of monsters to this very day. That  special issue brought together the debut appearances of Konga and Gorgo alongside some spectacular horror short-stories drawn by Ditko.

Sadly the new package does include Gorgo #1 but for some reason doesn't give us Konga #1. We get some darn fine Konga stories from issues six and thirteen but the lack of the debut for me makes this handsome two-cover flip book a tiny bit of a disappointment. But that's very very tiny. This one is pure old-fashioned monster-loving fun.

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Ditko's Monsters - Gorgo!

This YOe Books collection brings together all of the Joe Gill and Steve Ditko stories about the giant monster Gorgo. Gorgo stories were produced by other talents in the Charlton stable, but it's only the Ditko material which is on display here (for the most part).

Likewise, both monsters are getting the collected treatment from YOe Books and IDW Publishing. The Konga collection, which is even larger  that the pretty hefty Gorgo book, is due to arrive in a few months.  The stories by the ever-ready scripter Joe Gill are solid and as illustrated by Steve Ditko, give the reader a incredible but entertaining thrill ride as the monster Gorgo, almost presented as a stranger-in-a-strange-land, deals with the wide world.

It's a lot of Gorgo to read, and truth told not all of the stories are gems. But they are all a hoot, an echo from a time when comics were such plain unabashed fun, that stuff like this could be published without apology or qualm.

All of the Ditko Gorgo stories are here, as well as all the covers he produced for the series. Also showcased is some really great info on the classic movie and how the comics were an integral part of the marketing of the flick. Great Gorgo lore for any fan of the movie indeed.

Here's a cover gallery. Enjoy! The debut cover is by Dick Giordano if I'm any judge.

This final cover is by Bill Montes and Ernie Bache. These artists did a gaggle of Gorgo stories themselves and they did the cover here for an issue featuring Steve Ditko material inside. (It might be heresy in a post celebrating the great Ditko's art, but I actually prefer the Montes and Bache version to Ditko's.  Sadly, I doubt we ever see a collection of those stories, but there's always hope.)

Monsters are at their most fantastic when they are giant. More Charlton giant monster goodness tomorrow. 

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Dikto's Monsters - Konga!

And then there's Konga, collected up by YOe Books in a quite large volume under the Ditko Monsters title. It has long been established that some of the most invigorating work of Steve Ditko's career was done for the sometimes, hapless Charlton Publications. Infamous for low-quality, the publisher allowed Ditko near complete creative freedom, since for the most part they regarded comics as so limited an endeavor that the powers couldn't be bothered to really care too much about the content. Much of it was rotten, but surprisingly often it was really, really good. Steve Ditko's runs on both Gorgo and Konga with scripts by the indefatigable Joe Gill are among the most entertaining. 

To remind everyone, Konga was an adaptation of an American-International Pictures schlock sci-fi flick which tried to re-fry the classic King Kong scenario by adding in bizarre plants with growth-inducing properties, mad lascivious scientists, and exceedingly perky teenagers. 

It's an entertaining brew, but hardly one would think the stuff for an ongoing comic series. Konga at Charlton was a peripatetic protagonist who finds humans often a bother, sometimes a threat, but always it seems fascinating. While the movie has some lurid scenes of lust, the comic is all about romance. The Monarch novel adaptation adds some raw sex to the scenario, so a Konga fan can have this giant ape story in various styles. In the comic Konga battles monsters, aliens, robots, and whatever could clank, carom, or slither his way. He was drawn by many in the Charlton talent pool, but it's always been Steve Ditko's rendition which captured the imagination best. 

Here's a cover gallery of Ditko's best.

Monsters are at their most fantastic when they are giant. More Charlton giant monster goodness tomorrow. 

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Ditko's Shorts!

Ditko's Shorts appealed to me from the moment I first saw this oddball collection of teensy tales from the pages of (mostly) vintage Charlton comics.

As the volume testifies, Ditko had a singular charm to compose an effective and memorable tale (often written by Joe Gill) in a few pages. These tiny stories were useful to editors when trying to fit out a full-sized comic for publication and were tucked in alongside longer yarns which often didn't resonate half so effectively.

The late 50's which produced truckloads of comics trying to evoke the feeling of science fiction mystery and horror proved an ideal time and subject for little shockers, vignettes which were crafted to leave a singular impression.

I have read most all of these before, but it was especially nice to see some of the later Ditko tales from issues of Ghostly Haunts, Scary Tales, and elsewhere being included. All too often Ditko's work from this period, which I regard as some of his most muscular and mature, gets ignored in favor of his early softer style.

I did think the asking price for this volume was a tad steep for the density of the package, and I'd have preferred to have gotten a discount on it (which I wasn't able to wrangle) but I'm not terribly disappointed. It's a typically fun tome from YOe Books, and forwards by both Craig Yoe and Charlton fan Fester Flaceplant.

Below are a few examples of the kind of tiny tales you'll find. These are two of my favorites. 

(from Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #12)

(from Konga #3)

I can't recommend this one for any save the Ditko devotee, but for them it's a must have.

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The Return Of Gorgo!

Gorgo remains one of my favorite movies. It's a hoot of an old-fashioned monster movie that oddly enough tugs at the heartstrings amidst all the incalculable death and mayhem. In fact, one of the very first VHS movies I ever bought was a cheap version of Gorgo and it's been that muddy dark version I've known the movie from ever since. Earlier this year I picked up a nifty volume by Bill Cooke which offers up a tasty essay on the background and production of the movie. We also get a copy of the shooting script as well as the press book for the film, though that requires a magnifying glass to enjoy. And then there's the novelization. 

I first chanced across the Gorgo tale in the reprint of the first issue in the awesome Fantastic Giants special which featured not only the adaptation of the Gorgo movie by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko, but it also included an adaptation of Konga by the same team as well as a few more recent Ditko tales. The Gorgo adaptation is a brisk retelling of the movie story with some additional scenes featuring an octopus and a killer whale, which while in the screenplay did not make the final cut of the film. 

If you don't know the general story of Gorgo either as a film or as the comics story adapted by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko for Charlton Comics way back in 1961, it's a classic tale of giant monster terror. Two likeable but tough-minded salvage divers find themselves stranded off Nara Island and after some bother about treasure and such find that a monster called "Ogra" by the little boy who attaches himself to them might make a pretty good penny for them back in civilization. They capture the critter, bigger than several elephants and haul him back to London where he's put on display for all to see. There's some angst about what's right and all that, but before anything really can happen, Gorgo's mother who is ten times his size shows up looking for her baby and crushes Nara Island before heading off the London to get back her boy. The British military has no chance, and she demolishes lots of landmarks like the Tower Bridge, Big Ben, and more. People die like crazy in this one as debris falls on crowd after crowd. Eventually she gets to her baby, frees him and they walk off into the sea and the movie is over just like that. It's a spectacle!

The Monarch Books (a Charlton brand) novelization of the Gorgo saga by Carson Bingham (the pen name of Bruce Cassiday) is much different from the movie. The story is told from the point of view of Sam Slade and his partnership with Joe Ryan is much more tempestuous than in the film. They first joined forces in the Korean War and later as gun runners for the Cuban revolution. Both are rough and tumble, but Joe is much more imposing and dangerous than in the film. The biggest change is the addition of Moira, the sister of Sean, the kid from the film. We get some exceedingly sexy scenes between her and Sam as he is smitten immediately. (She has a very difficult time keeping her clothes on.) She's presented early in the book almost as a mystical figure, mysterious and strangely aloof. But the description of their lovemaking is very salacious in the spirit of that era. I'd imagine more than a few kids had eye-popping moments as they awaited the monster to emerge. The attack on Nara Island by Gorgo's mother is much more impressive in the novel though there is a limitation to the descriptions of the destruction of London as we are hampered by seeing only through Sam's eyes. I'm very glad I finally got to read this little gem. 

Gorgo was promoted with great vigor by the King Brothers. After securing the services of Eugene Lourie who was working on his third giant monster movie in a row after The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and The Behemoth, the producers wrought more than a few changes to the story. But everyone knew a new monster was on the block with scuds of money going into the advertising, not the least of which was getting Gorgo a cover on Famous Monsters of Filmland, rendered by the great Basil Gogos. 

And then there's Waiting for Gorgo. This 2010 short film is a hoot. Imagine how the British military might have responded to the threat of giant monsters long ago. They might set up a Department of Monsters and Over-Sized Animals or DMOA for short. They might staff it well at first but over the decades, things might fall off. To learn more, check out the link below. 

Waiting for Gorgo | Award-Winning Monster Short Film

Ditko Monsters - Gorgo was released from Yoe Books in 2013. It's a handsome volume featuring the misadventures of the movie monster Gorgo and his mother as they attempt to live life and co-exist with modern man, who often seems to want to kill them both, though lacks any real means to do so. Of course, the comic series by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko is based on the movie Gorgo by director Eugene Lourie, a fabulous romp about giant monsters tramping through London. In the comic Gorgo goes to New York. The initial adventures of Gorgo find him in situations similar to what is found in London, but soon the stories get a broader feel and humor is injected into the series.

To read the stories contained within the Yoe Book collection follow the links below. Although other artists than Ditko drew Gorgo stories over time, only those stories are of interest here.

Go here to read this issue. 

Go here to read this issue. 

Go here to read this issue. 

Go here to read this issue. 

Go here to read this issue.

Go here to read this issue.

Go here to read this issue.

Go here to read this issue.

Go here to read this issue.

Go here to read this issue.

Go here to read this issue.

PS Artbooks has also reprinted the Charlton Gorgo series in four volumes which include all the stories in addition to the Ditko ones. I have most of these in some form or other, but I have to confess I crave these four volumes. I'm becoming something of a Gorgo completist I fear. But there are worse things to be. 

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