Back in 1973, the Zombie was not the pop culture icon it is today, they did not run in packs of maniacal flesh-eating cadavers rampaging through the streets munching on the brains of innocent bystanders. In 1973 the Zombie was portrayed as a solo drone under the control of a voodoo priest or priestess as was the case with Simon Garth, the Zombie in question who appeared in Marvel's “Tales of the Zombie” magazine which ran for 10 issues and one annual from March 1973 to October 1975. In this series Simon Garth is cursed to rise from the dead controlled by a mystic amulet that leads him on a quest to find the amulet of Damballah which when combined with his own amulet would free him from the curse. I only managed to purchase this copy of “Tales of the Zombie” (from September 1974 - cover above by Earl Norem) around 1979 and even as a 19-year-old the stunningly spooky art by Alfredo Alcala freaked me out. Below are a few of the excellent pages by one of comics true masters - enjoy, but don’t have nightmares:
In this issue Simon Garth wanders through the bayou but takes a detour after fighting an alligator as you do, to a house in the swamps where a murder mystery is taking place during the reading of a will. Deciding to help protect a young girl at risk from the murderer the Zombie shuffles into action. When the will reader, a man named Ralston is called to read the will, it states that the entire estate is to be divided among the surviving family members. However, one-by-one the surviving family members are murdered, until it becomes clear that Ralston is the man responsible. The Zombie, watching the entire event unfold, decides to get involved, killing Ralston before vanishing into the night. After a police investigation of all the murders, they find fingerprints belonging to Simon Garth, which puzzles them because their records show that Garth has been dead for two years. This is a pretty strong horror story by Doug Moench expertly illustrated by Alfredo Alcala.
Above, some of the excellent house ads for "Tales of the Zombie" that appeared in various Marvel colour monthlies at the time - Have a happy Halloween!
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I'm pretty sure I had at least a couple of issues of this mag, though I don't know whether #7 was one of them or not. The art is excellent and suits the theme of the strips perfectly. Alfredo Alcala was an excellent inker on Don Newton's Batman strips as well as being a great artist in his own right.
ReplyDeleteI missed those Newton and Alcala Batman books at the time but picked a couple of them up recently, they are pretty amazing.
ReplyDeleteAlfredo Alcala was also the artist on Marvel's adaptations of Beneath The Planet Of The Apes and Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes (I remember both from Marvel UK's POTA weekly of course).
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing some of those strips Colin and the art was excellent.
ReplyDeleteI think Tales of the Zombie might well have been Marvel's scariest book. The artwork is tremendous, and the story was not dissimilar to that of the Man-Thing in many ways save that it was even more depressing. I didn't get many of these as they came out, but fixed that soon enough in the 80's. It's one of Marvel's best Essential volumes as well.
ReplyDeleteI only have this issues 7 of “Tales of the Zombie” but I read a few of these stories when they were reprinted in the UK in Portman's "Tales of Terror" magazine which I thought were US Marvels at the time (I blogged about them if interested in link below) as you say they were pretty scary comics with some creepy art by the likes of Pablo Marcos, Alcala etc.
ReplyDeletehttps://twthen.blogspot.com/2023/06/gone-but-not-forgotten-portman.html