The Cross-Over From Hell. Tomb of Dracula #18 & Werewolf by Night #15.

 Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.

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The first Marvel multi-title crossover story I can remember ever reading was the nightmarish horror that occurred when Tomb of Dracula first collided with Werewolf by Night.

How I remember reading both books at the same time, as I sat in the raised cafeteria of Sheffield's indoor Sheaf Market whose main claim to fame was being next to the indoor Castle Market where the video for Tony Christie's Walk Like a Panther was shot.

How glamorous, but neither of these characters walked like a panther. One walked like a dog and one walked like a bat.

Still, I didn't let that put me off.

So, with Halloween looming, it's time for me to revisit that two-part trauma-thon and see just what's going down in Fang Land.

Jack Russell and his lady friend Topaz are travelling to Transylvania, in search of answers about his family's history of lycanthropy.

At the same time, Frank Drake and his lady friend Rachel Van Helsing are also travelling to that very same part of Europe, in search of Dracula who's headed out there for whatever reason.

Neither couple is aware of the other's existence, nor of each other's mission.

But the two missions soon intersect because it turns out the very first lycanthrope in Jack's family was his great, great, great grandfather who, after staking Dracula, was turned into a beast by a female werewolf the Count had been keeping prisoner.

Dracula, meanwhile, has decided he fancies getting his teeth into Topaz, even though he discovers she has a strange power to mentally repel him, thanks to her magic abilities.

Needless to say, this leads vampire and werewolf into conflict, one in which the werewolf does surprisingly well, thanks to the influence Topaz is exerting on both his and Dracula's minds.

Anyway, just as the fight's reaching its apex, Frank and Rachel show up to distract Dracula and seize a book that could enable them to destroy him, before fleeing in their helicopter, forcing Vlad to take off in hot pursuit and leaving Topaz and Wolfie far behind.

For a story that's spread over two parts, it's a surprisingly simple tale. What's good about it is we get to learn a little more of Jack's backstory and he, for once, isn't totally useless in a fight. In fact, he actually manages to win one.

Granted, it's against a drunken sailor but it's one more fight than he normally manages to win.

He, of course, doesn't defeat Dracula but that part is one of the story's main weaknesses.

In order to make the scrap not as one-sided as all logic suggests it would be, Dracula has to be portrayed as remarkably ineffective in this tale. Not only does he not manage to summon the wherewithal to defeat his hairy foe, he twice has a perfect chance to kill Rachel and Frank and twice departs without doing so, letting them off the hook for no real reason. 

He also tries to sabotage their helicopter - laughing maniacally as he does so - and does such a terrible job of it that, when they climb into it, they have no difficulty flying off in it at full pelt, leaving the villain to have to turn into a bat and flap like crazy to chase after them.

I think we can assume he's having an off-day.

Speaking of off-days, I'm not sure that either Gene Colan or Mike Ploog produce their best work in this tale, while Marv Wolfman sort of does what he has to.

This tale's set in modern-day Europe, which means it's, inevitably, somehow, still the 19th Century, and Transylvania seems remarkably British. Even the local inn's sign is in, "Olde," English.

I'm also not sure about Dracula's ideas about time management. We're told he's travelled all the way back to Transylvania, from England, in order to concentrate on hatching his next scheme.

But the scheme he then hatches is to return to England and carry on doing what he was already doing.

I can't help feeling that was something of a wasted journey.

So, in the end, it's all non-decisive and I feel the tale has to be seen as just another episode in the turbulent lives of both sets of characters, rather than an awesome and historic epic that fans will never forget.

Werewolf by Night #11 - Comes the Hangman!

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the arcane sorcery of Patreon.

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As very long-term readers will know, I always view Werewolf by Night as being the most consistently forgettable book I've ever encountered. Many issues did I own. Zero stories do I recall.

And here's another issue, from my salad days, whose contents I've totally forgotten.

Granted, its battle against forgettability isn't helped by having, possibly, the most generic cover any werewolf comic could ever fear to have.

But that's just the outside. What happens when I plunge inside?

This is what happens.

Some people called The Committee are electrocuting Phillip Russell's nipples.

Phillip Russell is the father of our hero, and they want info out of him about his son.

Meanwhile, his son Jack's in the process of moving into a new home in an apartment block where every female inhabitant lusts after him, upon sight.

Unfortunately, Jack's clearly the absent-minded type because so wrapped up is he in making his flat a desirable place to live that he forgets he's going to turn into a werewolf the moment the sun sets and, with no plan in place as to what to do when that happens, he heads down to the beach to get away from people.

This turns out to be a mistake because no sooner has he completed his transformation than a bunch of beach-partying body-builders decide he's trying to crash their fun and set out to beat him up.

At last, after eleven issues, the werewolf has finally encountered someone he can win a fight against - a group of people from a walk of life that's notoriously terrified of getting bruises - and only the arrival of the police saves the partyers from a fate no better or worse than death, which is death.

But, if things are bad for body-builders, things are even worse for the criminal under-dregs of Los Angeles, as there's a madman on the loose.

He's the Hangman - and he makes the Punisher look well-balanced.

His mind warped from watching too many movies, he's in the habit of rescuing females from street criminals and then locking those females in his dungeon, for their own good.

Inevitably, it's only a matter of pages before werewolf and psychopath bump into each other and, thus, begin a fight that's not exactly epic but does climax with the villain hanging the werewolf from a street lamp

To Be Continued!

If Werewolf by Night tales are always forgettable, I do tend to find them strangely enjoyable.

The protagonist's never impressive, being, as I've said before, the Hulk without the strength and vocabulary and this issue he's even less impressive than normal.

Thanks to a clear urge to portray him sympathetically, writer Marv Wolfman goes to great pains, via both thought balloons and captions, to point out the werewolf doesn't want to fight or hurt anyone and is only ever acting in self-defence, even though Gil Kane and Tom Sutton are drawing him to look the most savage and sinister I've ever seen him.

For instance, at the climax of his battle with body-builders, we're informed by Wolfman that the werewolf's only attacking a cop in order to snatch his gun from him, when the pictures show no sign of him snatching the gun and depict the policeman, at the end of it all, clearly dead, on the ground, with his gun still in his hand. I can't help feeling this is the equivalent of a parent telling their child that their suddenly disappeared pet has gone away to live on a farm.

But it could be argued that it's probably best to read this issue without reading the words and just concentrate on the pictures, which are great.

They're great because Gil Kane's always a reliable story-teller and Tom Sutton was born to do horror.

Thus, we get a visual depiction of the beast as a creature that could readily tear men's throats out.

The bad guy's also appealing. He may have those hints of the Punisher about him but even that character would view him as a lunatic cursed with a totally delusional take on the world. Why is his main method of killing people the use of a scythe, when he's called the Hangman? I've no idea but it does, at least, lend him an air of menace.

So, a werewolf vs a madman with a gardening implement, what more could you want of a comic?

Nothing. That's what.

It's just a shame that a werewolf is such a terrible protagonist for a comic because he can't actually do the things a werewolf is meant to do.

Like murdering people.

Werewolf by Night #20. Eye of the Wolf.

A recurring theme on this blog, over the years, has been me posting the covers of Werewolf by Night and declaring I can recall nothing of the contents, leading me to conclude it has to have been the most forgettable comic of my youth.

And yet, it has to have been, along with The Eternals, the US Marvel comic I had the most number of issues of. This tells me it must have been one of my favourite comics.

But now, at last, I can partially cure my amnesia because I have, in my hands, a copy of Werewolf by Night #20. How well I remember this from my childhood, with its cover image of an irate werewolf tearing the bars from its prison cell, as bystanders look on in horror.

Of course, when I say, "remember," what I mean is remember the cover, because the contents themselves are as mysterious as ever.

I do recall, however, that I did read it quite a few times in my younger days. Therefore, I, clearly, derived some pleasure from it.

And now I'm about to discover just why it caused that pleasure.

It's night time and Jack Russell's having a walk in the dark, pondering his problems, including the kidnapping of his sister Lissa, by a man called Baron Thunder, a name only someone in a comic could ever have.

As Jack walks, he's approached by his neighbour Raymond Coker and they have a chat about them both being werewolves.

But, unknown to the pair, they're being watched by another werewolf who's actually a cop called Lt. Hackett. Thanks to a magic ring, Hackett can transmogrify at will and still retain his normal personality, which is a shame, as his normal personality seems to be quite abysmal.

Later, for reasons I'm not totally clear about, Jack's given an identical ring and the address where Baron Thunder lives. Thus informed, he sets off to rescue Lissa.

Needless to say, it doesn't go well and he's about as much use with his normal personality as he always is without it but, thanks to dumb luck, the Baron's house burns down and Jack and Lissa escape, although Jack loses the ring as he leaps out of a window to flee the flames.

It's a terrible admission to make but, given Werewolf by Night's less than stellar reputation, I actually enjoyed this.

Although there's nothing sensational about the plot, I like the fact that every single thing that happens in it relates to a whole group of ongoing storylines. Whether it be the kidnapping of Lissa, Raymond Coker's problems or Lt. Hackett giving Jack a hard time, we're given a set of characters who seem to have a life beyond the confines of the comic.

Of course, there's nothing unique about that. It was the standard way of handling most 1970s created Marvel titles but it works especially well here, probably because the werewolf's adventures in themselves are never going to be that interesting and that extra dimension is, therefore, seriously needed.

The chief disappointments are that, yet again, the werewolf fails to win a fight (was there ever a Marvel protagonist who was more useless in a punch-up than their werewolf was?) and that Jack loses the ring as he escapes the fire. A few more issues of the werewolf having normal intelligence would have been appreciated.

The artwork by Don Perlin and Vince Colletta is simple and does its job with minimum fuss. It's not the sort of art that wins awards, gets people talking or rushing out to buy the next issue but I do have a soft spot for artists like Perlin, Sal Buscema and Bob Brown who just concentrate on telling a story. As long as they have the right inker, they can be effective.

Doug Moench's script, meanwhile, could hardly be described as gleaming but also it does its job.

The one thing that does baffle me, though, is Gil Kane's rather magnificent cover. It relates in no way, shape or form to the comic's contents, creating the impression that it was drawn for a totally different story which never saw light of day.

The most forgettable comics I have ever owned - Part 21: Werewolf by Night #41.

Hooray! It's the return of the feature that's become a legend on the internet. Mostly because it seems to consist entirely of issues of Werewolf by Night.

I mean, seriously, how many issues of this comic did I have?

More to the point, how many issues did I have that I have no recollection of?

Well, I can tell you. I had eight  issues and I've managed to forget the contents of all of them.

But there are special issues of Werewolf by Night. Ones where not only can I not remember their contents but, up until blundering across their covers on the internet, I had no memory of ever having possessed.

The comic in this post is one of them.

And, Reader, I'm convinced that this is the most forgettable of them all.

Who on Earth was the villain? And was he really lumbered with the name, "Fire Eyes?"

Massive amounts of Googling tell me that he was indeed lumbered with the name Fire Eyes and he did indeed appear in this issue.

Unfortunately, massive amounts of Googling also tell me nothing else about him whatsoever. Was he human? Was he alien? Was he mutant? Was he robot? Was he demon? Was he god? I have no idea.

I was going to ask, given his notoriously poor fighting skills, how did the Werewolf beat him but I'm going to guess that he didn't because I can't remember the Werewolf ever beating anyone in a fight.

Therefore, I shall assume someone else beat him, possibly a group of good guys doing something with incantations and magic goblets. Possibly there was an altar. Possibly there was an ancient tome. Possibly there was smoke. This is a pure guess but I would not be surprised if this was the case and that, subjected to such activities, Fire Eyes simply melted like a candle or some such misfortune, never to bother any werewolves ever again.

The most forgettable comics I have ever owned - Part 19: Werewolf by Night #28.

As all regular readers know, the only reason for this blog to exist is so I can declare that I don't remember things.

And that can only mean that it's time to once more plunge into the Vale of Forgetfulness and revive the feature that tries to elevate ignorance into an art form.

It does strike me that, when I was young, I must have really really really loved Werewolf by Night, as I seem to have had zillions and zillions of issues of the thing.

This is odd, as my recollection of that time is that I didn't particularly like it. The werewolf seemed to be neither use nor ornament and seemed to have pitiful fighting skills for a lycanthrope.

Then again, I didn't particularly like Superman and I had great piles of comics featuring him as well. Undoubtedly the past is a strange and mysterious place.

Did I like the issue to the left of this very post?

I don't have a clue, as I don't recall anything about it. In fact, as with all the comics I've covered in this feature over the years, if I hadn't once accidentally blundered across the cover on the internet, I'd have been blissfully unaware that the issue had ever existed, let alone passed through my hands.

Who was Doctor Glitternight and what was he about? Beats me. I do know he sounds like someone who couldn't make up his mind if he wanted to be in a Pub Rock band or a Glam Rock outfit and, so, ended up sounding like someone unnecessarily fond of Prog. For that matter, was Doctor Glitternight his real name and, if so, just where did he get his doctorate?

According to the internet, he was some sort of ancient being from another dimension, who practised necromancy and turned Jack Russell's sister into a blue werewolf demon thing. I do vaguely recall the blue werewolf demon thing - and far preferred her to the werewolf who was supposed to be the star of the comic - but all memory of her mystical creator still eludes me.

Anyway, what really matters about him is that he enabled Gil Kane to produce a truly striking cover. Only a lunatic would be fail to be impressed by the work Kane put into drawing all those bat things and by the elegance of the picture's composition. It's also nice to see the blonde from the covers of all those Conan mags putting in a guest appearance. She really was the hardest working woman in comics.

As part of my in-depth research for this post, I've done a Google search for images from this issue - in the hope that they'd jog my memory - and haven't found a single panel from it, which suggests that I'm not the only one who's forgotten its existence.

I can only assume it must be down to whatever magical powers it is that Doctor Glitternight possesses that so little trace can be found off him in the murky realm that mortal men call the World Wide Web. Truly his abilities are awesome.

Werewolf by Night comics I have owned.

Has there ever been a worse name for a comic book protagonist than Jack Russell? It's like whoever came up with it was determined to hobble the comic's credibility from the moment you opened it.

But Werewolf by Night is a curious case. As with Superman, my memory has always been of not finding his adventures overly gripping but, as with Superman, that didn't stop me buying his comic whenever I stumbled across it.

So, let's see just what issues I had - and if I can recall anything whatsoever about what happened inside any of them...

All I remember of the contents of this one is that Jack Russell might have been in a dungeon, in chains and there may have been a man in a fez involved.

Sadly, that man was neither Tommy Cooper nor Matt Smith.

Either way, it doesn't matter. What matters is it had a great cover by the redoubtable Mike Ploog.

It's the clash we all wanted to see! Dracula vs the Werewolf!

What I know about it is the story concluded in Drac's own mag.

Or did it start in Drac's mag and end in this one? Either way, I had both issues, so it doesn't matter.

My main memory of this is sitting in the raised restaurant of Sheffield's indoor Sheaf Market, reading it while eating a sausage with the plastic knives and forks they used to give you.

Sheaf Market was a magical place. Not only did it have a comic stall, and a raised restaurant from which you could look down at all the shoppers below but it had birds living in the girders that held the ceiling up. Granted, the birds weren't supposed to be there but clearly no one had ever told them that.

I have absolutely no recollection at all of what happened inside this comic. But I do know I always loved that Gil Kane and John Romita cover. To be honest, every time I see it, I just want to start tearing iron bars from the wall.

If only I had any iron bars on the wall.

Dr Glitternight does sound like the name of a terrible late 1970s pub rock band but who cares? Just dig that cover and marvel at the work Kane had to put into drawing each of those flying beasties.

It's good to see Conan's Cowering Blonde was getting lots of work and found her way onto this cover too.

I don't want to give the impression that this post's been a total wash-out but I've no memory of what happens in this one either.

But I think we can conclude from all this that the main appeal of Werewolf by Night for me had more to do with the covers than with the actual contents.

The most forgettable comics I have ever owned, Part 8: Werewolf By Night #31 .

It's a strange thing that I've always thought I wasn't interested in Superman when I was a child but, in retrospect, I must've been because I had great piles of his comics.

In fact I probably had more Superman comics than those of any other hero.

Likewise I don't remember being any great fan of Werewolf by Night - seeing Jack Russell's furry alter-ego as little more than a watered-down Hulk. I was also unimpressed by his lack of actual powers. It seemed to me like he was no more use in a punch-up than anyone else was. My God, he didn't even have purple trousers to keep us entertained with.

But a quick look at the Grand Comics Database reminds me that I must have loved him because I had a whole bucketload of his issues.

This may make some sense. After all, who of us hasn't at some point wished we could transform into a wolf-monster and go on a nocturnal rampage? I know I have - and surely I can't be alone in that?

As for the comics, mostly my razor-sharp intellect recalls them. But, one I'd totally forgotten ever owning was issue #31. Bearing in mind its rather dramatic Gil Kane cover, this slippage of memory seems rather remiss of me.

Sadly, seeing the cover does nothing to stir memories of what happens within. I gather from the cover that it all gets dramatic and that children are involved. I assume there's snow. I assume the full moon rises. I assume Jack Russell turns into a werewolf. But beyond that? Who can know?

Well, probably someone who can remember it can know.

But that's not me and so I remain as blissfully ignorant as Jack Russell always did upon awakening after his latest escapade.