Top Tens: Sal Buscema

One of my favourite artists in the 1970’s was Sal Buscema. His comics, particualty "Captain America", "The Sub-Mariner" and "The Defenders" were always exciting and fun to read. Sal’s first published work for Marvel was as an inker (his preferred profession) inking his brother John’s pencils on Silver Surfer issues 4-7 in 1969. Further work followed on Western strips like “Gunhawk” before he progressed to pencilling the “Avengers” shortly afterwards. By the mid 1970’s Sal became one of the most prolific artists at Marvel as he took on more and more art chores (the guy was fast!) drawing regular monthly titles like the Avengers, Spider-Man, the Hulk and Rom plus many fill in issues and one-off specials. My first memory of seeing Sal’s art was actually seeing his drawing of "himself" at his drawing board from the splash page of the story “A Change of Mind” from “Chamber of Darkness” issue 6 from 1970.

By the late 1970’s Sal’s style had become less appealing to myslef as he started to crank out the work, but it was still fun to read. But it was his early work from 1969 – 1975 that have remained among my very favourite comics of the entire genre. His style at this time is reflected in the wonderful covers he produced, many of which also contained his art on the stories themselves. Some of my favourites (and the cover above from “Avengers Annual" issue 4 from January 1971) are noted below:

Cover from the Grand Comic Database

Bring on the back-ups: Creepy 105 – Russ Heath magic

The first time I saw Russ Heath’s art was not on a comic strip, instead it was one of his many commercial advertising jobs where he drew those now famous Roman and Revolutionary War scenes advertising toy soldiers. These full page adverts appeared on the back page of many US comics in the 1960s and early 1970’s but at that time I had no idea who it was that drew these ads until many years later.

Among comic book fans Russ Heath (1926- 2018) was best known for his detailed art on western, adventure and war comics primarily for DC where he co-created with Robert Kanigher, the “Haunted Tank” strip (“GI Combat” issue 87) and drew the underwater adventure comic “Sea Devils” and various mystery comics. However, it was his work on DC's “Our Army at War” where he drew some Sgt Rock stories that I first became aware of his stunning artwork. As good as Heath’s art was on colour comics it was in the black and white field that he seemed to excel producing some of the his and comics best art. One of my favourites of his black and white strips was on the Nicola Cuti written tale “Dime Novel Hero” that appeared in the Warren black and white magazine “Creepy” issue 105 from December 1978. Enjoy the work of a genuine comic book master and one of comics best ever illustrators of werewolves (possibly only bettered by the late great Neal Adams) .

“Creepy” issue 105 from December 1978. – A fantastic issue that not only featured the above strip but also had a wonderfully illustrated John Severin tale “ Visit to a primitive planet” that I may show at some point.

Favourite Comics: Strange Tales issue 178 – Warlock

After his own self-titled comic “The Power of Warlock” ceased publication after only 8 issues in October 1973, Adam Warlock was brought back as the main feature in the (then) long running Strange Tales comic in February 1975. I can still vividly recall the day I first saw the above iconic Jim Stariln cover in one of the many newsagents (now a café) in my local town. My abiding memory of this comic wasn’t initially about the stunning art or storyline, but in my brothers reaction to seeing the comic. By this time he wasn’t really a big comic book fan being (to me as a 14 year old) way too old for comics at 20 years old (little did I know I would still be reading them decades later lol). But he was so taken with the book that he asked me to pick up the next issue which I did until the series finished in Strange tales issue 181 before being catapulted back into his own title “Warlock” in October 1975 (taking up its numbering from the first series with issue 9) which my brother (and myself of course) also read until that series finally ended in November 1976 with issue 15. Every time I see the above cover it not only reminds me of that great Starlin series but more importantly to myslef, it provides a memory of my late brother sitting in our living room chair in his office suit (grey flares and a thick 1970s tie) after he had finished work reading that issue.

The opening splash page of Jim Starlin’s Warlock.

Starlin provided the above wonderfully paced and designed 4 page recap of Warlocks origin before beginning his own tale where a woman attempts to warn Warlock of the Universal Church of Truth before being assassinated by the Grand Inquisitor. Later in this issue the Magus reveals himself to Warlock (see below), who it turns out is an alternate version of himself who has become corrupted with power and sets himself up as a God. As the series develops it becomes self-evident that Starlin has used Warlock/Magus as metaphor for those that follow faith blindly without questioning its leaders motives. Religious iconography aside the series was an exceptionally well written and illustrated comic book adventure.

Bizarre characters: Morlock 2001

Morlock 2001 was to say the least an incredibly bizarre comic book published by the short lived Atlas Seaboard comics company in the mid 1970’s. The basis for the story takes place in a then future (now the past) dystopia of 2001 when a scientist grows a plant man to battle government tyranny, let just say things didn’t work out to well as he may have planned. The character itself “borrows” heavily from other influences including (but not restricted to) Swamp Thing, Man Thing, 1984, Fahrenheit 451 and the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Witten by Michael Fleisher, who wrote perhaps my favourite Spectre stories at DC (with the wonderful Jim Aparo) Morlock 2001 can only be described as simply weird and at times an unsavoury comic book character. The title character is a plant who in his human form turns people to vegetation by simply touching them and as a plant liquidises and then eats them something he/it is not averse in doing. For example in issue one Morlock kills and eats a young woman but worse is to come as in issue 2 he/it eats a young blind child who was trying to help him/it. Not exactly the actions of a hero (even an anti-hero).

The opening page from issue 2

Issue 2 featuring the death of the blind girl!

Issue 2 cover by Al Milgrom and Dick Giordano

As much as the first 2 issues of Morlock 2001 were freaky, issue 3 took it to another level of weirdness. Not only had they changed writer to Gary Friedrich, but this issue contained the strange art combo of Steve Ditko on pencils with Bernie Wrightson on inks (it didn’t really work) replacing Al Milgrom and Dan Atkins. As was the case with almost all of Atlas comics titles by the 3rd issue they decided to change the direction of the comic as can be seen by the above cover by Rich Buckler which now sports the moniker ”Morlock 2001 and the Midnight Men” no doubt in a plan to appeal to the superhero market. On the cover itself we see what seems to be a new version of Morlock bestridden by the Midnight Men who look to have killed him. This issue opens on Eugene Whitlock in his private library in a world where books are banned (Fahrenheit 451) - long story short the Thought Police arrest and execute him by flamethrower no lees, and he becomes the Midnight Man. In the last few pages the Midnight Man in an attempt to spare Morlock from turning into the plant creature for good, simply shoots him. Yes, the lead character in the comica giant evil plant was simply shot and killed. Of course soon after Atlas comics folded so there may have been some plan to bring him back in issue 4, but thankfully that didn’t happen.

The opening page from issue 3 - The only time the legendary Steve Ditko and Bernie Wrightson worked together.

Issue 3, The death of Morlock 2001 - never before has a plant deserved to have been shot!

Gone but not forgotten: Alan Class Comics

Alan Class was a British publishing company that produced several thick anthology comic books that are still fondly remembered by those of us of a certain age. Alan Class published around 25 comics titles during its time (1959 to 1989) many of these were one off titles but included six core titles; Astounding Stories, Creepy Worlds, Suspense, Sinister Tales, Uncanny Tales and Secrets of the Unknown which were regularly distributed throughout the UK each month. Each title was published with glossy colour covers with the internal pages printed (at times poorly) in black and white on rough pulp paper. The main selling points of Alan Class comics for myself was in the multitude of comic characters published from a diverse range of comic companies including Marvel, Charlton, Tower, Archie , Kings Features and the American Comics Group. It wasn’t unusual to pick up a title and find tales of Spider-Man, the Mighty Crusaders, Judomaster and a Wally Wood drawn Agents of T.H.U.N.D.E.R tale.

My first and most abiding memory of Alan Class comics was the above issue of "Creepy Worlds" issue 67 from around 1966/7. I remember it was a Saturday and my pals weren’t around and my mum sensing I was bored asked me what I would like as a “treat“ from the shops. As always I asked for a comic and was expecting to receive a copy of the latest issue of the Dandy or Buster and was pleasantly surprised to receive the above comic, possibly my first ever “Avengers” comic. I can still recall pouring over ever page of that Avenger story (originally printed In Avengers issue 6, 1964) in wonder at all the amazing characters that were new to me.

Alan Class would also often reprint the same issues only changing the number and cover price as can be seen above from my copy of "Creepy Worlds" issues 133 which is simply a reprint of issue 67. In some cases the same comic would be published 3 or 4 times with only the issue number and the price being changed. By the 1970’s Alan Class comics were a regular feature in many UK seaside holiday resorts where they could be found piled high in newsagents , on piers and other shops. I can remember picking up several of these on family holiday’s to Blackpool and other UK towns. Some of my favourites are shown below:

In 1976, Alan Class published a short run of an original title called Ally Sloper (the title taken from a popular character from the 1800's) The comic/mag was edited by Denis Gifford a famous comic historian of the time, and featured work by the likes of Frank Bellamy, Frank Hampson, Hunt Emerson and Kevin O’Neill. Despite the talent on show Ally Sloper only lasted 4 issues .

By the late 1980s, slow sales and distribution problems, combined with the rise of specialist comic book shop signalled the end of the line for the Alan Class Comics and the final set of comics were published in April 1989.

Creepy Worlds issue 249 - The last issue. A rather prophetic looking cover in some ways as it was the end of a UK comic publishing institution. .