Gone but not forgotten: House of Hammer / House of Horror

As part of the countdown to Halloween I thought I would take this opportunity to revisit some of my favourite horror and mystery comics from years gone by. The House of Hammer (HoH) was a British horror magazine that featured articles on Hammer films and reviews on then new horror genre releases. However, of more interest to myself were the comic strip adaptions of Hammer's back catalogue that featured in each issue including "The Curse of the Werewolf" from HoH issue 10 (cover above by Brain Lewis)

House of Hammer was initially published between 1976 and 1978 and was the brainchild of Dez Skinn (later of Marvel UK fame), who initially conceived the idea of publishing a horror film magazine titled “Chiller” but on walking past the Hammer offices he realised that a tie-in with the famous horror film production house could be beneficial. A meeting with Hammer was arranged and a deal was quickly made and a new magazine was born. House of Hammer issue 1 above - image from the Grand Comics Database.

Artists working for HoH included Paul Neary, David Lloyd and Brian Bolland who would all soon become superstar names in British and American comics. However, it was the work of John Bolton that really stood out in HoH where he created some incredible work on features like "Dracula Prince of Darkness" (issue 6), "One Million Years BC" (issue 14) and my favourite "The Curse of the Werewolf" (2 page of his stunning art is shown above).

Although I had seen the first few issue of HoH on sale it was of little interest to me as I wasn’t a big fan of horror movies. But it was on seeing issue 5 featuring an amazing space /SF cover by the talented Brian Lewis (above) that I decided to take the plunge and splurge 35p (the equivalent of about 4 US comics at the time) and bought the magazine. It was 35p well spent. Below are some of my favourite covers from my HoH collection:

Cover to issue 6 and a page of John Boltons amazing art to the adaption of "Dracula Prince of Darkness" (written by Donne Avenell)

Cover to issue 7 by Brian Lewis featuring the Hammer film "Twins of Evil"

Cover to issue 13 featuring "The Plague of Zombies" - the comic strip adaption featured pencil art by Trevor Goring and Brian Bolland inks.

Cover to issue 14 featuring "One Million Years B.C." and a page of John Boltons wonderful art to the adaption of the film (written by Steve Moore)

Cover to issue 18. This was a departure from previous issues as it featured a non film comic strip "The story of Dracula, The Wolfman and Frankenstein" by comic book greats Neal Adams and Dick Giordano from 1975. The comic strip was created as part of a series of Horror LPs and accompanying comics by Power Records. The strip was republished in colour in the Neal Adams collection "Monsters" in 2003.

The magazine also ran various back-up strips most under the title “Van Helsing’s Terror Tales” which were short ‘twist-in-the-tale’ type stories. Others stories featured Captain Kronos (from the Hammer film “Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter”) and my favourite the ongoing adventures of Father Shandor (page above by John Bolton) from the Hammer movie "Dracula Prince of Darkness" .

With issue 19, the magazine changed its title to “Hammer’s House of Horror” in order to take advantage of a US distribution deal. The title was allegedly changed as the US distributor thought that “House of Hammer” sounded like a DIY magazine. However, Jim Warren the publisher of “Famous Monsters of Filmland” heard about this and published a limited edition magazine called "House of Horror" to copyright the name which forced HoH into another title change to “Hammers Halls of Horror “ with issue 21. The magazine lasted until issue 23 (July 1978) when Warner Communications (the US publisher) sold its publishing division. The title returned again in 1982 published by Des Skinn Quality Communications with issue 24 and eventually ceased publication with issue 30 in 1984. A dead but not forgotten magazine.

Milestones: Can it really be 50 years ago? - Mighty World Of Marvel Issue 1

As those of us of a certain age know as we grow older it can feel like time goes by faster and faster with each passing year. But as fast as the years may pass how can it be possible that on the 30 September 2022 it will have been 50 years since the first issue of the “Mighty World of Marvel” (MWOM) comic appeared on the shelves of newsagents up and down the land? Unbeknown to myself the first issue of MWOM had been advertised on British TV on Saturday 30 September 1972 with Stan himself providing the voice over. However, I missed this advert and it was only due to an unscheduled visit to my local R S McColl’s newsagent after school on Wednesday 4 October that I spied that iconic ”Marvel” logo and the specially drawn John Buscema cover poking out between some newspapers. I immediately purchased it.

Unlike most UK home grown weekly comics that contained around 32 pages the MWOM had 40 pages which housed three strips featuring the earliest adventures of the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man . In addition MWOM printed their stories with green spot colour and pale green paper (for a short time) and featured 5 pages of full colour art which was a major attraction for a UK comic as most were only printed in black and white.

The centre pages were a fanboy delight as they featured a special mneesage from Stan Lee and a teaser for the 'The World's Greatest Free Gift Offer' which required the reader to clip out coupons over an 11 week period. Although I was never going to mutilate my comics the free gift in this case was the excellent John Buscema illustrated poster below (Image from Marvel Wiki).

As was the practice with all new UK comics at the time the first 3 or so issues always featured a free gift. MWOM was no exception and issue 1 featured an amazing “Green-Skinned Monster T-Shirt Transfer" - issue 2 had a Spider-Man transfer and issue 3 featured a set of “fun” Marvel character stickers.

British reprints of Marvel comics were not new as these had appeared in Alan Class comics, and of course in the legendary Odhams comics of the 1960s in titles like Fantastic, Terrific, Wham!, Smash! and Pow! But now Marvel had set up shop in the UK and more exciting titles were to appear over the years including Spider-Man Comics Weekly, The Avengers, Planet of the Apes, Dracula Lives, Savage Sword of Conan, the Superheroes , the Titans and many more. Over the years since 1972 many of the items of my youth have been given away, lost, or binned but the first 30 issue of MWOM have always remained with me as an instant reminder of an exciting time when I was a 12 year old comic book fan - where did the time go?

Norman the Barbarian - Barry Windsor Smith & Conan battle ego and politics

It’s been some time since I last visited “Nation Lampoon’s” satirical comic strip output, mostly due to the fact that I only had one of their strips (“Son of God”) to add here. However, that all changed last month when I was rummaging through some old newspapers and magazines in an antique / nostalgia type shop in Glasgow and came across these pages from National Lampoon from May 1972. Sadly, this was all that there was of that issue of National Lampoon (no cover etc) but the owner was happy to sell these to me for a few pounds along with a couple of UK late 1960’s annuals (mostly purchased in the hope to seal the deal).

"Norman" himself was not primarily a parody of Conan but was a satire on New York writer and activist Norman Mailer who in 1969 made a failed attempt to run for Mayor of New York City on a ticket of banning private cars from Manhattan on a Sunday ( well ahead of its time as it was meant to cut down on pollution) and making New York city the 51st state of the US. By all accounts Mailers run for mayor was highly entertaining and filled with many hard hitting and fun quips at his rivals but it was also peppered with drunken tirades with Mailer swearing at crowds and telling anyone that interrupted his speech to “shut up”. It was in May 1969 at an event in Greenwich that his campaign hit the “skids” when he called the audience “……nothing but a bunch of spoilt pigs”. Like all things political from another country my knowledge is very limited and I m sure Mailer had his good points, but one thing was for sure it provided an excellent comic strip parody.

Written by Sean Kelly with art by a young Barry Smith (at this time he hadn’t added “Windsor” to his name) this is one of the very best National Lampoon parodies. A well-researched script by Sean Kelly with Smith providing some excellent art based on his rapidly changing style at the time (possibly around the time of “Conan the Barbarian” issue 15). The character “Bress- Lin” was in reality a paraody of Mailers good friend, writer and running mate Jimmy Breslin. Breslin seemed the more level headed and wittier of the two men who when asked what he would do if they won reportedly replied “I’d demand a recount” (Mmmmm sounds familiar!) . In another quote Breslin upon hearing that New York bars would be closed on election day stated ” I am mortified to have taken part in a process that required bars to be closed” - I think I like this guy!

The human faces featured in the Hydra are seemingly US talk show hosts of the time including Dick Calvert (the only one I recognise). The reference to Norman “….stabbing his wife” is based on a true event that took place in 1960 when Mailer stabbed his then second wife with a pen knife nearly killing her seemingly for questioning his “manhood”.

As with all things National Lampoon from this period this strip is very much of its time and should be read with that in mind. In reality Mailers run for Mayor seemed to be based on his ego rather than any real attempt to win. Surely no one would be silly enough to elect an egotistical President in the US?!!

The real "Norman" Mr Mailer.

Favourite Comics: Kull the Conquerer issue 9

I picked up the above copy of "Kull the Conqueror" along with "Conan the Barbarian" issue 26 (both my first issues of these respective titles) on a long weekend holiday with my mum, dad and brother in Blackpool. I can still vividly recall passing a small market type stall full of comics while on a late evening family stroll on a hot August night in1973. The stall was literally creaking with comics but the cover to Kull issue 9 by Marie and John Severin stood out and as I picked it up I also noticed Conan issue 26 - my fascination with sword and sorcery comics and books started on that day. Although I lost my original copy of Conan issue 26 about 20 years ago (buying a replacement soon after) Kull issue 9 has remained in my collection for nearly 50 years and in that time it has remained a firm favourite of mine not only for the great art and story but also for the memory it instantly provides of a great holiday break with ny late family every time I see that cover.

The story by Gerry Conway, “The Scorpion God” is based on the Robert E Howard short story “Swords of the Purple Kingdom” an adventure tale where a maiden (Nalissa) asks Kull for permission to marry a young warrior (Dalgar of Farsun). Both are from different nation tribes but despite this Kull and the local tribal leaders agree to the marriage.... but some are unhappy. As a result Kull is then kidnapped in a coup attempt but is later released by Dalgar and a battle rages between the masked leader of the coup known a the “Scorpion” (who in reality is Donal who prepared the marriage agreement). As the battle ensues Kull chases the Scorpion to the old abandoned temple of the Scorpion God where he confronts the Scorpion (now unmasked as Donal) . Just as Donal is about to crush an unconscious Kull with a large piece of temple rock a large scorpion appears and kills Donal who with his dying words proclaims “By the Gods no scorpion has walked Valusia …in a thousand…yeaaaarssss” . 100% teenage action drama that no 13 year old boy (as I was in 1973) could fail to be impressed by!

The above is one of my all time favourite comic book pages which I used to spend hours (days!) trying to copy. Stunning action art by the Severins.

The entire first volume of Kull the Conqueror (issues 1- 10) is excellent and some of these back issues can still be picked up for relatively little money. Incidentally, I revisited that Blackpool stall several times and picked up a whole batch of other comics including Amazing Adventures (Ka-Zar) #18 , Sub-Mariner #63, and Avengers #112.

Favourite covers: The Hulk - King Size Special issue 1 - by Jim Steranko

The above cover to the “Hulk King-sized Special” issue 1 is one of the most distinctive and iconic covers in the history of comic books showing a custom designed Hulk logo crumbling under its own immense weight as the Hulk strains with every sinew to keep it in place. The cover drawn by the legendary Jim Steranko in 1968 is a brilliantly designed, coloured and immensely powerful illustration of the Hulk, yet despite this Steranko’s original version wasn’t used due to concerns that the Hulks face looked too “brutal”. As a result an editorial decision was made that Marie Severin would redraw the Hulks face so it would appear less “monstrous” the result is still a great piece of work but perhaps not as striking as Steranko’s original vision.

The comic itself contain the story “The Hulk Battles the Inhumans” written by Gary Friedrich and illustrated by Marie Severin and Syd Shores and present the Hulks first encounter with the Inhumans. As the Hulk wanders the Alpes he is attacked by Lockjaw who teleports him to the dimension where the evil Inhumans ( Maximus, Aireo, Falcona, Nebul, Leonus, Stallior and Timberious) have been banished (page below taken from Marvel Wiki).

The first version of Steranko's Hulk cover that I actually bought was when it was reprinted as the cover to “Mighty World Of Marvel” issue 129 (March 1975) however, as was the case with the US edition the cover was still not printed exactly as Jim Steranko had originally drawn it. This version certainly featured Steranko’s original Hulk head, but the Hulk was no longer standing on the crumbling words “Battles the Inhumans” instead this was replaced by the wording “Battles the Inheritor” an albeit minor but necessary change as the UK cover was used for the story that appeared in the “Incredible Hulk” issue 149 (the story with the Inhumans having appeared in the Mighty World of Marvel issue 60-61).

Steranko’s original cover art eventually appeared in the second issue of FOOM magazine in 1973 (which he was editing at this time) along with other version of the Hulk by other artists. The cover to FOOM 2 also included a new Steranko "less brutal" Hulk cover.

And of course Steranko drew a more "monsterous" looking Hulk in his excellent run on Captain America, most notably in issue 110.

Until very recently this has been a comic I have coveted since I first saw it advertised in a US Marvel comic when I was about 13 years old (this was after 1968 - I’m not that old). Last week I found a poor quality copy that had a nice clean cover for only £3. Although the actual comic pages were in poor condition (and 2 pages are missing) I was pretty chuffed to eventually get this issue for the classic cover alone.

Top Tens: Mike Kaluta

Mike Kaluta began his comic book career working in fanzines before moving onto Charlton in 1969 where he worked on teen romance, western and the “Great Battles of History” comics series. His obvious artistic talent meant that only a few years later he moved to DC where he created numerous covers for DC’s Batman, mystery, war and fantasy titles as well as working on the “Carson of Venus” feature in Korak, Son of Tarzan. However, it was in 1973 that he reached comic book superstar status when he began work on DCs Shadow title, a comic that he left after only 4 issues and for which he is still suprisingly best known for. Although considered one of comics best artists he created surprisingly few actual comic strips in his long career and focused his output on numerous covers for companies including DC, Vertigo, America’s Best Comics, Marvel and Harris comics. Below are some on my favourite of Mike Kaluta’s many comic book covers to go with the above issue of Batman issue 253 (November 1973):

The Shadow 1 – November 1973

Batman 428 - April 1973 - The first comic I bought with a Mike Kaluta cover.

Detective Comics 431 – January 1973

Batman Family 19 – September 1978

House of Mystery 261 October 1978

Conan the King – November 1984

Conan the Barbarian 167 – February 1985

Vampirella 2 – 1992 (cover from Comic book auctions)

Detective Comics 428 - October 1972