Werewolf by Night (1972) #6

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Frank Bolle’s not the best inker for Mike Ploog’s pencils, but he’s far from the worst. This issue’s got some fantastic panels, even with Bolle muting the Ploog faces. Most of the art’s at least good, if not better, with only one wanting page when writer Len Wein introduces the cop who’s figured out there’s a werewolf on the loose. But the cop’s only a tease for later. Instead, the issue’s all about an evil circus swami kidnapping Jack so the show can have a real, live werewolf.

The issue starts with an unrelated action sequence; Wolfman Jack versus truckers (back when they were unionized). It’s a bit of a page killer, something to get the werewolf in Werewolf by Night as soon as possible. There’s no connection to last issue—other than when the cops talk about the events—but when Jack’s sister, Lissa, shows up, she’s apparently forgotten she found out her brother was a werewolf and she’d be turning someday too.

However, she at least isn’t paired off romantically with Jack’s roommate and bestie Buck Cowan, who’s in his forties at least. Lissa’s not yet eighteen. I’m just waiting for that icky to hit.

After the opening werewolf action, set on the last night of the full moon, Wein jumps ahead to the next one, though Jack isn’t preparing for it because, if he did, there couldn’t be a comic book. He’s always got to be taken vaguely by surprise the moon gets full every month.

He, Lissa, and Buck are on a day trip to San Diego, where they come across the circus. The swami immediately hypnotizes Jack to make him docile enough for kidnapping. Lissa and Buck disappear from the story at this point, with Buck telling Lissa her brother probably just hitched back to L.A. out of boredom. The cop scene’s next and seems like it’d be a missing persons report.

Nope.

There’s a little introduction to Jack and the circus; the second tier bad guy is the dwarf lion tamer who resents having a werewolf around; the good guy is a gentle giant who doesn’t let the lion tamer abuse hypnotized Jack. But once the full moon rises, there’s no way to keep the werewolf under control, and the whole circus has to get in on the fight.

The beginning’s a little rocky, with the art carrying the water, but the eventual roaming circus chase and fight is good. Wein doesn’t overwrite the narration as much previous writer Gerry Conway did.

It’s fine. For a seventies Marvel horror book, it’s totally fine.

Werewolf by Night (1972) #4

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It’s a better issue than last time but still far from the Werewolf heights. The issue’s enough to stop the free-falling, though; if only Marvel gets someone who can ink Mike Ploog’s pencils. Frank Bolle does the job here, and, while better than Frank Chiaramonte, he’s still not great. The werewolf at least looks scary, and the faces are better; they’re less Ploog-y, however. The cost of competent inking is apparently the personality.

But there’s also not much personality in the story either. It opens with the werewolf on an abandoned movie backlot, some great white hunter out to get him, then flashbacks back to last issue’s cliffhanger; Wolfman Jack has rescued sister Lissa, who’s unconscious, and is carrying her away to safety. When the werewolf puts her down, she wakes up and realizes it’s Jack. There’s also a bit about her fear she’ll become a werewolf, too; along with the silver bullet vulnerability (this issue might be the first to show it), the family genetics curse is a lot different in the new Werewolf ground situation. Jack’s not just a werewolf; he’s a Satanically cursed soul.

Oddly, the issue has none of that crap in it. Conway gave it up just a month and a half later.

After the werewolf runs off from Lissa, the great white hunter kidnaps her, then waits for the werewolf to change and kidnaps Jack too. He’s been following Jack, having searched him out when he realized there was a werewolf. The hunter’s name is Joshua Kane. Conway writes him like George Kennedy from Cool Hand Luke but rich and evil; it’s so fun to read characters written like actors but not in the desperate hope of casting them in the role. Ah, the seventies.

Anyway.

It’s an all-action issue for at least two-thirds, with Kane hunting Wolfman Jack through this abandoned movie backlot. Mostly they stick to the Old West street and the fantasy castle. The setting seems like a better idea than it plays out, partially because the hunt’s not particularly dramatic. Kane will release Lissa if he can hunt the werewolf; it’s left somewhat unresolved. At one point, there’s a massive exposition dump about Kane tracking Jack, which Conway left out of the villain reveal sequence. Again, though, it’s Marvel-style, so maybe Ploog didn’t pace it right. Or maybe Conway really wanted to do the big dump later on.

Whatever.

Werewolf started something special, quickly fell on its face, and is now picking itself up… maybe.

Adventure Into Fear 13 (April 1973)

Adventure Into Fear #13 Oh, very good news–Val Mayerik is on the pencils (with Frank Bolle in inks). From the first couple pages of Man-Thing, it's clear the art is going to be a lot better. It shouldn't be particularly obvious, as it's a Man-Thing story and Mayerik doesn't illustrate him until later in the story but the way Mayerik draws the supporting cast is enough to show things have turned around.

Gerber fleshes out that supporting cast more here, he shows how the local girl is somehow linked to Man-Thing, for instance. But he's also got a better grip on how to write Man-Thing himself. While Gerber does fall back on Man-Thing's human side getting dialogue, the sequence is effective and doesn't seem forced.

Maybe because it's in the second act, not the third. Anyway, good feature.

The sixties backup has indistinct Gene Colan art. The Lieber and Lee story's distinctively crappy though.

CREDITS

Man-Thing, Where Worlds Collide!; writer, Steve Gerber; penciller, Val Mayerik; inker, Frank Bolle; colorist, Ben Hunt; letterer, Artie Simek. Mister Black; writers, Stan Lee and Larry Lieber; artist, Gene Colan. Editors, Lee and Roy Thomas; publisher, Marvel Comics.