I have to make an admission here, I never owned a copy of “Chamber of Darkness” issue 1 when I was a kid. However, when I came across a copy of this issue last week (on a holiday to Brighton) my memory was immediately sent hurtling back to 1970 when my pal (Alan) loaned me his copy to read. Although the cover (by John Buscema and John Verpoorten) certainly started to trigger my memory of this comic it wasn’t until I flipped through the pages and came across the 4 panels below that I fully recalled that day and the first time I had seen John Buscema’s amazing drawings of the Djinn and my many, many failed attempts to copy them.
Chamber of Darkness was Marvels attempt to compete with DC’s successful mystery line of comics including House of Mystery and House of Secrets. The comic featured the work of some of Marvels top talents including writers Stan Lee, Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, and Roy Thomas, and artists John & Sal Buscema, Jack Kirby, Tom Sutton, Don Heck, Barry (Windsor) Smith and Bernie Wrightson. Despite this “Chamber of Darkness” (and it companion title “Tower of Shadow ) had poor sales and soon moved from publishing all new material to featuring mostly reprints from the Atlas back catalogue from the 1950’s and 1960’s. This issue featured work by Kirby,Tom Sutton, Don Heck, Gary Friedrich and Denny O’Neil, but the strip below by Stan Lee and John Buscema was the stand out for me, so much so that it had stayed "hidden" in my memory banks for over 50 years – Enjoy.
Chamber of Darkness ran for 8 Issues from October 1969 to December 1970 (and one all reprint special in 1972).From issue issue 9 the title changed to “Monsters on the Prowl” which finally ended with issue 30 in 1974. A real shame as the new marterial that appeared in "Chamber of Darkness" issue 1-7 were more than a match for DCs mystery titles.
I was probably about seven years old when I walked into my local newsagents in Cambuslang (near Glasgow) with my pocket money firmly he...
Following on from my last post featuring some of my favourite Marvel comic book covers from 1973, I thought I would show some of DC's ...
Nearly a half-century on I still consider 1973 to be the year that cemented my destiny in becoming a lifetime comic book fan. It was a yea...
Getting the first issues of Tower of Shadows and Chamber of Darkness from Marvel was an early highlight in my comics reading career. But getting comics was a hit and miss thing back then and I only found a few issues of each in real time. I've filled in my set of course long, long ago. These need collecting!
ReplyDeleteAt the time I only had "Chamber of Darkness" (CoD) issue 6 which I purchased again about 5 years ago and that triggered my interest in acquiring these books, so you can imagine my excitement at finding issue 1 for a reasonabler price (£6). So far I have managed to track down 6 issues of CoD and 3 issues of "Tower of Shadows" and some other titles I had forgotten I had back in the day. It has slipped my mind that these book contained so many great strips. A collection of the new (at the time) strips would be most welcome.
ReplyDeleteHaven't read the strip yet (will do so later), but it looks like a series worth having. As far as I remember, I only have Tower Of Shadows #1 and Monsters On The Prowl #10, plus a collected edition featuring '70s reprints and some of their covers.
DeleteIt's certainly a comic worth picking up Kid. A few strips were reprinted in Giant size Chillers series in the mid 1970s.
ReplyDeleteYou sent me looking for my Chamber of Darkness books, McScotty. I remembered the reprinted story from the 25 cent Chamber of Darkness Special #1 from January 1972, which I have, but alas I don't have the original #1 nor #5. As you say, those early books stand up very well against the House of Mystery and House of Secrets titles from DC of that period.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a productive trip to Brighton to pick up #1 for £6. Did you get the opportunity to head over to Portsmouth?
I have never seen the Chamber of Darkness 1972 Special in years, from memory the cover is simply issue 1 reprinted with the word "Special" added. Great wee strips though.
ReplyDeleteNo, we didn't manage Portsmouth Ian as we were only there for 3 days and had a couple of events planned. If we go in the summer we will he there for a full week and plan to go then and Plymouth. I managed to pick up a few old 1970s comics in Brighton, one that I've been after for many years ( Conan issue 43)that holds a memory from the time i originally had that issue..