The Legion of Monsters (1975) #1

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Legion of Monsters opens with a defensive letter from editor Tony Isabella, responding to the Marvel faithful who were mad at the inglorious cancellation of the other black and white magazines. Isabella explains the books weren’t ever losing money; it’s just not in Marvel’s best interest not to make money. If readers really want black-and-white monster magazines, they better buy Legion.

They did not.

Although there’s a subscription form in the issue, Monsters only had this one issue.

And kind of for good reason.

There are four features. One Monster of Frankenstein, one continuation from Dracula Lives, and two original horror stories. All of them are uneven, starting with Doug Moench, Val Mayerik, Pablo Marcos, and Dan Adkins’s Frankenstein story. It’s after the Monster has woken up in the modern age, and he’s wandering around. He sees a princess, and even though he knows it always ends with villagers and pitchforks, he follows her.

Now, if it were just about the Monster following some girl, it’d be tired fast. But the Monster finds himself amid intrigue; it’s a costume party, and the jester tells him someone’s out to kill the princess, will the Monster help? Of course, he will. But will it be helpful help or disastrous?

The art’s sometimes excellent. Mayerik inking himself, Marcos inking Mayerik, it works out. The Adkins inks are wanting. And the story’s really dang long.

But at least it’s not the Secret Origin of Manphibian, the following story. Tony Isabella scripts from a Marv Wolfman plot. Dave Cockrum pencils, Sam Grainger inks. It’s about a Creature from the Black Lagoon type coming up through an oil well and getting in a fight with another monster from the same species, as well as some husband out to kill his wealthy wife. Or something.

It’s tedious. Maybe if the art were more distinct.

Ditto the next story, about kids picking on a former circus “freak” whose only friends are flies. It bleeds empathy, but the story’s way too long, and the art lacks Paul Kitchener pencils, Ralph Reese inks. They also share story credit with scripter Gerry Conway.

Maybe if Marvel wanted more people to be excited about Legion, they should’ve gotten together a better first issue.

The next chapter in Roy Thomas and Dick Giordano’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula wraps up the issue. After a lengthy (and welcome) recap of events to date, this installment covers Mina going off to marry Jonathan in Europe while Lucy’s condition worsens in England. There are multiple diary and journal keepers: Mina, Steward, and eventually Lucy.

It sure seems like Lucy has no idea she’s been Dracula’s steady blood bag for months, and, to this point, Mina hasn’t read Jonathan’s diary, even though he wants her to do so. But what Thomas doesn’t fix—and Giordano doesn’t help with—is Dr. Van Helsing, who arrives this issue to commit medical malpractice.

With the timeline visually broken out so nicely, it’s even more apparent than usual Van Helsing messes up with Lucy’s initial diagnosis and then waits too long to tell everyone what they’re dealing with.

Giordano draws Van Helsing like a combination of Santa Claus and a leprechaun.

Otherwise, lots of good art, but Lucy’s the only sympathetic character, with Seward whining almost nonstop about her marrying someone else and Van Helsing blandly kind and incompetent.

There’s one page of single-panel strips from Stuart Schwartzberg. They’re a highlight and shouldn’t be. There’s also another text article recapping monsters in other media, like it’s a real magazine again. Too little, too late.

Is it a bummer Legion didn’t continue? Sure?

But it makes sense why it didn’t.

Dracula Lives (1973) #13

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They do briefly mention Dracula Lives’s impending demise; very, very briefly. It’s an excellent finale, with a couple surprising successes, but—outside a three-page Russ Heath portfolio (two Draculas and a Lilith, with lots of nipple bumps the Code’d never allow)—it’s a very different kind of issue. Besides the letters column (which doesn’t seem to reference the imminent cancellation) and the “Marvel black-and-white magazines coming soon” (which includes all the canceled titles still), there aren’t any text pieces in the issue. Lives has had a bumpy ride, so at least they go out strong with the comics.

The first story is a Western set in Transylvania. An Old West sheriff has-been goes bounty hunting Dracula; some rich guy’s son fell for a vampire bride, and now there’s a bounty to collect. Tony Isabella writes, Tony DeZuniga on art. It’s gorgeous, slightly experimental art from DeZuniga, playing to the situation’s unreality. Isabella splits the story between the bounty hunter’s Old West forced retirement story and tracking Dracula through the castle. It’s absurd, but thanks to the art, it more than works.

There’s not good art on the next story—George Tuska pencils and Virgil Redondo inks combine into a bland Dracula outing, but the peculiar story more than makes up for it. Rich Margopoulus gets the writing credit, and it’s an ambitious tale. In the present, Dracula meets a hippie artist chick who reminds him of a vampire bride he had a lot of fun with a few hundred years ago. This hippie chick’s a New Yorker moved to Paris, where she finds dudes are really more interested in bedding her a few times than staying with her. On the further negative, they’re also shitty to her about her art.

Unfortunately, there’s never a scene where Dracula likes her paintings, but it’s a fine, bittersweet tale deserving much better art.

Then comes the surprise of the issue—Tom Sutton. He writes and arts the story of a swamp mutant and how the local normies abuse him. It’s a devastating seven pages, with shockingly good art and narrative sensibilities. It doesn’t feature any vampires, much less any Dracula; not sure if it’s coincidentally great filler, Sutton’s flexing (or just his personal work), but the story’s an incredible, devastating success. It doesn’t reinvent any wheels, instead perfects them.

The last story is a Gerry Conway “History of Marvel Dracula” tale, with art by Steve Gan, set relatively soon after Dracula’s conversion, which means anywhere from ten to 100 years. Dracula’s still playing local despot, defending his serfs against outside aggression. He saves a village girl—collaterally, he’s trying to kill the enemy soldier—and she becomes enamored with him. Dracula’s not interested in school girl crushes, however, he’s got the other local warlords to argue with. They don’t seem to realize the vampire bit is for real.

Conway’s always done a little better in Lives than Tomb (despite being the first Tomb writer, I think), and even though he lays it on a bit thick—the story’s about how Dracula decided to free his serfs—there’s solid character development and excellent Gan art. It took them a while, but Marvel eventually figured out these origin tales.

It’s an outstanding late period Dracula Lives; mostly strong art, all solid or much better stories. I’m going to miss this book.

Dracula Lives (1973) #9

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Until the last story, which might be the least impressive entry in an issue of unimpressive entries… I think the most successful art, overall, in the issue is Ernie Chan’s one-pager. It opens the issue, with a Tony Isabella script, all about the various ways of killing vampires. It’s amusing and practical; statements it’s difficult to make about the rest of the issue.

The first story’s the most disappointing, just because it continues Doug Moench’s okay “Dracula vs. the NYPD” story from the previous issue. This time Frank Robbins is penciling with Frank Springer inking. It’s a cartoony style, with disappointing character work. Not sure if it’s Robbins or Springer, but the people look lousy. Neither good nor bad is Dracula, who’s more inhuman. The story involves Dracula tracking down the guy who looted his castle and having to figure out how to get his wares back.

Meanwhile, the cop whose wife Dracula killed last issue is out to get him. His fellow cops believe his story of a vampire forcing the guy to kill his own wife, which tracks. Imagine what police accountability was like in the seventies.

Interestingly, Dracula’s still a somewhat mythic figure, with the lady who buys his stuff at auction (seriously, hasn’t another Tomb story used this bit) wishing he were real. Well, she finds out.

For a panel, it seems like the Franks are at least enthusiastic about good girl art but then not really.

The disappointing art sets the tone for the rest of the issue, with the most personally disappointing coming up next. It’s another Moench story (there are four features, one movie review, and a letters page, yet another change of regular content), with art by twenty-one-year-old Paul Gulacy and inks by Mike Esposito. It’s about Dracula versus some other vampire; this other vampire’s terrorizing a European village, which pisses Dracula off because it means no easy feeding there.

I’d love to say baby Paul Gulacy has the chops.

He does not. He’s got better panels and worse panels, and you can see proto-Gulacy at work (even the almond eyes), but you can’t really see how good he’ll get from this one.

The story’s got a strange finish, kind of jokey. What’s more bizarre is the other two stories have the same kind of finish.

They have a different writer, though—Gerry Conway.

His first story has Alfredo Alcala art. Alcala’s a better inker than penciller and inker. His faces are flat in the wrong places, and his figures are strange. His backgrounds are fantastic. The story’s about a young couple; the evil girl convinces the boy to rob a jewelry store for her.

Meanwhile, Dracula’s around. Their paths cross. Unlike the Moench story, this one begins and ends with light humor. It’s a weird tone, especially with the art. The whole issue just feels off.

The last story—the only one where the art’s more successful than that Chan one-pager—is about a mysterious figure in a top hat hunting Dracula. Sonny Trinidad does the art. The art’s good. The story’s terrible. Conway takes a big swing with it and completely misses. So again, the issue feels off, especially with usually sturdy (on Lives anyway) Conway fumbling both his stories. Moench’s got more art problems, so it’s hard to say. But Conway’s stories go wrong because of the writing.

The movie review—by Gerry Boudreau—covers the Hammer Dracula film, The Scars of Dracula. Boudreau hates it, though with less personality than Moench or Isabella had in their previous reviews.

No Bram Stoker’s Dracula adaptation here.

Unfortunately—and unexpectedly—I’m back to wondering if Lives is worth it again.

Dracula Lives (1973) #6

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I’m trying to decide if this issue is lackluster or if I’m just peeved I’ve managed to outpace Tomb of Dracula in my Dracula Lives read-through. The first story refers to future issues of Tomb, which would be spoilers if the comics weren’t fifty years old and I hadn’t read them already. Well, except this Lives.

The first story is from Steve Gerber, who does a better job than his last story in Lives, but it’s just a Tomb of Dracula story. Complete with Gene Colan pencils. Inked by none other than Ernie Chan, who does… dare I say it… a fine job. It’s easily the best art in the comic, though they’ve only got one serious contender, unfortunately.

Dracula’s off in Rome, hunting a priest who knows a dangerous spell—dangerous to Dracula, anyway—except there’s all sorts of Christian imagery around, which Drac doesn’t like. Crucifixes don’t cause physical damage; Dracula just really doesn’t like looking at them. It’s a far more amusing distinction than it should be, especially since it just means they haven’t thought through the 616 vampire lore.

But it’s Colan illustrating the Vatican, Dracula in disguise; it’s a good read even if it’s just a “too extreme for Comics Code” story. No way they’d let Dracula off a bunch of priests in the regular series. So it’s rote, I’m reading it out of order, but it’s also perfectly okay. And it’s gorgeous.

The text pieces might be some of the issue’s luster lacking. Doug Moench contributes a lengthy historical Dracula piece, which is fine, but it doesn’t allow him to show much personality. Later, when Tony Isabella takes over the Hammer film criticism (Dracula Has Risen from the Grave), the write-up severely lacks Moench’s personality from previous entries.

Then Thompson O’Rourke writes a prose story with Chan art. It fills pages, not much else.

The only Atlas reprint is a quick one illustrated by Mac Pakula; four pages. A man is convinced his newly arrived brother is a vampire terrorizing the town and has to deal with it before the villagers get wise. It’s middling; Pakula’s art always seems like it’s going to get better but never does, then ends up working against the story.

The second original story’s the weakest in the issue, though for complicated reasons. Isabella writes, with John Buscema and Pablo Marcos doing the art. I read the credits thinking I was in for a treat. Instead, I got a decent French Revolution history lesson from Isabella and a meandering Dracula tale. All Isabella’s energy goes into the lesson, not into integrating Dracula.

The story’s a direct continuation from last issue—a different team—and continues the Dracula vs. Cagliostro stories they’ve been doing since Lives started. Only Cagliostro has almost nothing to do with this story, certainly not the rivalry between him and Dracula, and instead focuses on the French Revolution aspect. Fine, but it’s a Dracula comic… right?

I don’t know if it’s Buscema’s pencils or Marcos’s inks, but the art never delivers either. While some of the faces are good—not Dracula’s, ever—the figures are usually off, like Buscema’s drawing them too big for Marcos’s inks.

It’s a rather disappointing story.

Luckily, the second chapter in the Bram Stoker’s Dracula adaptation is fine. And has Jonathan Harker realizing Dracula was his carriage driver last issue, though he makes the connection in narration, not thanks to the art.

This entry covers Harker’s arrival at the castle—burning through at least a page on recap, which is interesting—and Dracula attending his guest. They get through the shaving scene, Dracula telling Harker to write home and say he won’t be back, and Harker getting lost throughout the castle. No vampire brides yet. The cliffhanger’s the wall walking.

I’ve read the adaptation before—they reprinted it in the early aughts—but reading it in the context of Dracula Lives is a little different. The details echo not just through the adaptation but into the new continuity; is this Dracula story the 616 Dracula story?

Harker’s not so obnoxious this issue either; he’s a victim-in-waiting, far outclassed by the count. The cliffhanger’s at a weird point; writer Roy Thomas is keeping straight to the novel’s narration now, so he’s too tied to Harker.

Dick Giordano’s art is good too, but I remember it being better in the previous issue. His Dracula looks a bit like an old guy playing dress-up. Hopefully, it’ll get better once they get to England.

So, it’s not a bad issue; it’s just not a particularly special one. Except for making me compliment Chan.

Dracula Lives (1973) #5

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This issue starts with the Roy Thomas and Dick Giordano adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which I read in reprint. I’m not going to check the original novel, but I’m not sure Stoker had Jonathan Harker be a shitty racist about China (complaining about how their trains ran in 1897). Harker writes in his diary about how after he and Mina get married, they can get screwing… well, maybe Stoker implied it. Never heard a lot of good about Stoker.

Anyway.

The adaptation covers Harker’s arrival in Transylvania up to Dracula opening the door. He goes from train to village to carriage to Dracula’s carriage; for those familiar with the novel (or faithful adaptations), there are good looks at the carriage driver, who’ll turn out to be Drac in disguise. I’m waiting to see if Giordano has visual consistency.

Harker’s far from a sympathetic protagonist as he Karens his way through Eastern Europe, but the goings-on are mysterious (Dracula’s marking the buried treasure blue flames, though Harker doesn’t know it yet), and the art is absolutely gorgeous. Giordano works his whole ass off on the art. It’s magnificent.

And the writing’s fine. Thomas does Harker’s narration well, does his snooty, British superiority well; so far, there’s nothing else.

Though it’s a relatively quick read, sort of half an act.

While that feature is pretty impressive, the rest of the issue is a less exciting Dracula Lives. And not just because of the text pieces. They apparently ran out of old Atlas strips to run and instead have more original text ones, including Gerry Conway doing a full story. Doug Moench’s Transylvania “travelogue” and Dracula: Prince of Darkness reviews are far more successful. Chris Claremont also contributes a book review (Raymond Rudorff’s The Dracula Archives) and there’s a new feature: “Coffin Chronicles,” upcoming Dracula in other media.

The second original story is also written by Conway, who again does much better in these Lives stories than he did in Tomb, though Frank Springer’s got some odd designs. He does full Bela Lugosi Count Dracula (albeit with an angular, gaunt face), but it’s set before the French Revolution. Dracula goes to France, where he tangles with magician Cagliostro for the first time.

The Cagliostro stories have been running in Lives for a while, only in the present. Dracula’s convinced his old foe’s still kicking and is trying to take him out. This story provides the backstory of their rivalry. Or at least the very beginnings of it.

After surviving an assassination attempt, Dracula bribes his way onto Louis XVI’s court. Cagliostro’s already there and already trying to do away with the Count.

It’s an okay but somewhat awkward story. It’s too short because it’s got a part two coming, and while Springer’s art is often good, his designs are not.

The one reprint is a reasonably solid effort with art by Sid Greene. A reporter goes to a village where they feed their local vampire farm animals, and the vampire’s nice to everyone. Unfortunately, some loudmouth in the village convinces everyone they need to get rid of the vampire, which has terrible repercussions. It’s five pages; maybe it could’ve been four, but okay.

The third original story is a disappointment. Not in terms of art. Gene Colan with Pablo Marcos inking. The art’s remarkable. The story not so much.

Tony Isabella writes based on a Marv Wolfman story. It’s Dracula on a plane. Some incel is going to blow the plane up to watch everyone die, only Dracula’s got to get back to the Big Apple and his waiting coffin. It’s a follow-up to his Hollywood adventure last issue.

While no one else on the plane can handle the terrorist (white guy), Dracula’s sure he can handle it. But apparently, Drac doesn’t understand explosives. He also doesn’t think to mist his way behind the guy. It’s not very well-thought-out by Dracula or Isabella.

But the art’s fabulous. The final gag is neat, though it breaks a bunch of vampire rules continuity, both within the story and elsewhere in the issue. But I was expecting a lot more from it. I wonder if Wolfman had the whole story idea or just the setup. Or maybe just the good punchline.

Then there’s a one-page “The Boyhood of Dracula” strip to close the issue; Isabella writing, Val Mayerik on art. It’s about when the Turks imprisoned young Vlad Tepes and tortured him. It’s a fairly tepid account and seems like filler. I was expecting more from it as well.

Still, the novel adaptation makes it more than worth the read, plus Conway’s writing is good on the too-short France story, and Marcos inking Colan is sublime.

Dracula Lives (1973) #2

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There’s a thirteen-page Neal Adams warlord Dracula comic this issue, and I don’t understand why it’s not a bigger deal. Like, it’s gorgeous. Of course, the other stories have good art, too… well, the Gene Colan and Dick Giordano one, but the Adams one is kind of an immediate classic.

I started reading Dracula Lives because the Tomb of Dracula editors’ notes promised it’d fill in the backstory. Given Tomb’s unsteady continuity, I got curious; I’d also heard Dracula Lives was pretty good, the PG-17 version of TOD. But it’s not addressing the main series’s continuity issues.

Adams’s art is on the Dracula origin story, written by Marv Wolfman. Set in the fifteenth century, it begins with Dracula falling in battle against the Turks. They find him almost dead and decide to puppet him around to get everyone else to surrender, bringing him to a gypsy who swears she’ll make him right. Well, maybe, baby, the gypsy lied. She’s a vampire, and she’s going to turn Dracula for being such a shit to her people.

So, a note. Punishing a megalomaniac by making them immortal seems like a strange choice.

But the story does give vampire Dracula a better origin than, say, Bram Stoker’s Dracula. He renounces his bad acts, which put his loving wife and little baby son in danger. He’s sympathetic, partially because the lead Turk is cartoonishly evil—though not cartoonish because Adams’s art is detailed and exuberantly so. It’s a good origin. Well-written by Wolfman, singular art by Adams.

Doesn’t answer any questions about Dracula knowing the vampire hunters from after the novel and before TOD #1.

Then there’s an old Atlas horror reprint; no credited writer, and Joe Sinnott art. It’s about a grave keeper swindling the local vampires. It’s a fairly by-the-numbers horror strip, and it’s pretty dang good. Sinnott’s got a good sense of humor, a lot of personality in his characters, and great use of shadows.

So there are two reprints, three original stories, and some of those one-page Dracula movie stills with new “dialogue,” but there’s also Chris Claremont doing a text piece. It’s a letter to the editor about how Bram Stoker got Dracula wrong. It’s not great, but it’s okay. What’s strange about it is the timing–Dracula Lives #2 came out in 1973, and two years later, Fred Saberhagen’s The Dracula Tape came out. Tape’s all from Dracula’s perspective; it’s different from Claremont’s piece, but there are resemblances. Enough to wonder.

The text piece delays the weak comic. Written by Tony Isabella, from a Steve Gerber plot, with art by Jim Starlin (layouts by Jim Starlin) and Syd Shores finishing. Shores draws everyone like a caricature, which is something. But the story’s about Castle Dracula during World War II when Nazis occupied it and terrorized the local gypsies. One night a vampire appears, but it can’t be Dracula because Van Helsing killed him.

It should be good.

It’s not. But it should be. The art’s not good enough, the writing’s not good enough, but the concept’s not terrible. Though it directly contradicts TOD continuity.

The second reprint is a Stan Lee-penned entry, also an Atlas, about a corrupt politician who hires guys to vote using dead people’s names. Men, specifically, though that detail’s not a plot point.

Fred Kida does the art.

Art’s fine. Story’s really long without much pay-off.

The art in the final story, another original, makes up for it. It’s the Colan and Giordano art. Dracula in New Orleans. Gene Colan drawing the French Quarter with Dick Giordano inking. It’s glorious.

Roy Thomas writes. It’s an okay story about Dracula mysteriously waking up in New Orleans—directly following last issue’s New York adventure—and it’s got something to do with voodoo queen Marie Laveau. The story opens with a cemetery tour where the guide is talking about Laveau (then saying people who go into debt deserve to die, don’t you agree, which is a bizarre bit of dialogue), and it just happens to figure into the Dracula plot.

Story doesn’t matter; it’s all about the art. Art’s absolutely fantastic and not even as good as the Adams art on the first story.

The story also has a panel with The Zombie (Simon Garth), telling everyone to check out his new comic, which is an interesting bit of Marvel shared universe cross-promotion. It’s like reading a Spider-Man comic or something.

So, overall, three of the five stories are good, two are middling, the text piece isn’t terrible, and the photo dialogue things are bad but brief. Dracula Lives is a heck of a comic. Especially when it’s got such exceptional art.

Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands (2018) #1

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Black Lightning is back. Both in the series and as a hero. He’s returned to Cleveland to bury his father. He still narrates the book talking to his father, but whatever. Writer (and Black Lightning creator) Tony Isabella has a lot of exposition to get out. Including one-liners name-dropping other heroes. Though only two of them are big time. The others… well, whatever.

Isabella doesn’t lay out the ground situation straightforward, he tries to bake information into the scene, which sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t. Artist Clayton Henry doesn’t have the right visual pacing for the script. He doesn’t do well with a lot of dialogue (and there’s often a lot of it).

Some of the series is ostensibly going to have to do with cops not liking vigilantes and especially black ones (or women, the white male cops don’t like women either). It’s nearly ambitious. Then the issue ends with Black Lightning framed for murder and on the run. Giving the cops an excuse.

There’s no character stuff for Black Lightning past the talking to dead dad.

There doesn’t seem to be much point to Cold Dead Hands, except maybe to have a Black Lightning comic out when the TV show premieres.

Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands 1 (January 2018)

Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands #1 Black Lightning is back. Both in the series and as a hero. He’s returned to Cleveland to bury his father. He still narrates the book talking to his father, but whatever. Writer (and Black Lightning creator) Tony Isabella has a lot of exposition to get out. Including one-liners name-dropping other heroes. Though only two of them are big time. The others… well, whatever.

There’s no character stuff for Black Lightning past the talking to dead dad.

There doesn’t seem to be much point to Cold Dead Hands, except maybe to have a Black Lightning comic out when the TV show premieres.

CREDITS

Ready To Do It All Over; writer, Tony Isabella; artist, Clayton Henry; colorist, Pete Pantazis; letterer, Josh Reed; editors, Rob Levin, Harvey Richards, and Jim Chadwick; publisher, DC Comics.

Marvel Team-Up (1972) #145

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I guess the Bob Layton inks–on the cover–make all the difference. If only Esposito made LaRocque look a tenth as good as those Layton inks do on the cover….

Anyway, that opening is misleading. This response is a positive one. The issue is a great day in the life story. Peter Parker is in Cleveland on a crap assignment after pissing off Jonah, Iron Man (Jim Rhodes) is there trying to sell some technology company and retired supervillain Blacklash (or Whiplash–I wasn’t aware there was a name change until I read this issue).

It’s a funny, sad issue. Blacklash’s back in his home town after a public defeat, in miserable psychological shape, unable to rehabilitate and ends up battling the two superheroes.

Isabella does some fantastic scripting here–if only the art were better, it’d be something special. But still, it’s great writing.

I love this issue.

Marvel Team-Up 145 (September 1984)

I guess the Bob Layton inks–on the cover–make all the difference. If only Esposito made LaRocque look a tenth as good as those Layton inks do on the cover….

It’s a funny, sad issue. Blacklash’s back in his home town after a public defeat, in miserable psychological shape, unable to rehabilitate and ends up battling the two superheroes.

Isabella does some fantastic scripting here–if only the art were better, it’d be something special. But still, it’s great writing.

I love this issue.

CREDITS

Hometown Boy; writer, Tony Isabella; penciller, Greg LaRocque; inker, Mike Esposito; colorist, Bob Sharen; letterer, Diana Albers; editors, Bob DeNatale and Danny Fingeroth; publisher, Marvel Comics.