Top Tens: The Halloween & horror covers of Bernie Wrightson

I first became aware of Bernie Wrightson (1948 - 2017 ) in the early 1970's , when he and writer Len Wein created comics most famous muck monster, Swamp Thing. Although I came to the Swamp Thing late with my first issue being #8 (Bernie's last issue on the title being #10) I did manage to console myslef by picking up several of his amazing covers and strips in many of DC and Marvel's mystery / horror comics - some of my favourites are noted below.

Cover above taken from the Grand Comics Database (my issues cover is badly damaged)

Gone but not forgotten: Skywald: Naked ladies, Heaps and monsters

My first encounter with Skywalds’ “horror mood” line of magazines was in the playground of my secondary school in 1971 where I came across a group of older kids reading and waxing lyrical about one of their titles. It wouldn’t be until 1972 when I managed to purchase my first Skywald magazine, which were not that easy to pick up at 12 years old (and looking about 10) as they were considered to be “for mature audiences” . Luckily for myself, the staff in my local newsagents (Johnny’s) who knew me, were happy enough to let me have a copy of the 1972 Psycho annual. Although I never managed to pick up many Skywald magazines at the time the issue I did have contained some genuinely interesting horror tales, and more than a few illustrations of semi-naked ladies, what more would a 12 year old boy want!?.

Skywald made its comic magazine debut in December 1970 with the first issue of their black-and-white magazine-format comic book, “Nightmare” with their second title, Psycho, appearing just one month later followed by “Scream” in 1973 . All 3 titles included artwork by some of US comics most popular artists/writers including Gerry Conway, Mike Friedrich, Len Wein, Rich Buckler, Syd Shores, Pablo Marcos, Bill Everett, Tom Sutton and Ross Andru.

In amongst the standard standalone horror tales Skywald also produced strips featuring several return characters including their version of the 1950’s Hillman monster “The Heap” that first appeared in the second issue of Psycho (cover and splash page - by Ross Anru - above) . Although the origin of this version of the Heap was similar to the Hillman character, there were slight differences in that Jim Roberts (the Heap) was a crop duster pilot who crashed his plane into a secret government nerve gas storage facility. The resultant fire combined with the gas turned him into a shambling monster.

Other regualr strips included Frankenstein II. This strip first appeared in Nightmare #1 (splash page - by Tom Sutton - above) this strip was an interesting sequel to Mary Shelly’s original novel and took the monster on a quest find and resurrect his “father” Victor Frankenstein.

Lady Satan’s tales appeared in Scream magazine (October 1974 – cover below and splash page - by Pablo Marcos -above) and followed the tales of a witch called Black Anne who rejected the King of Hells offer of betrothal in order to father the antichrist.

In addition to their more mature black and white magazines Skywald also published a few colour comics including, Wild Western Action, Blazing Six-Guns, Jungle Adventures, and a single issue of the The Heap (see cover above and splash page below by Tom Sutton -images taken from eBay).

Allegedly it wasn’t poor sales that killed the company as they they sold very well with Nightmare lasting for 23 issues, with 3 annuals, Psycho clocking up a slightly more impressive 24 issues and 2 annuals and Scream lasting for 11 issues. Seemingly it was the introduction of Marvel’s black-and-white comic magazine line that signalled the end of the companies output. Marvel controlled the distributor Curtis Circulation, that Skywald had depended upon to distribute their magazines however, Curtis wasn’t about to handle their "owner’s" competition, so Skywald magazines were abruptly no longer available on newsstands, effectively killing the line.

Gone but not Forgotten: Hell-Rider - Skywald Publishing

As we enter the Halloween season, I thought it would be a good time to look at one of the 1970's most underrated (and almost forgotten) publishers of horror and violent comics, Skywald. The brainchild of Israel Waldman and Sol Brodsky, Skywald (the name being a blend of their surnames) was primarily known as the publisher of contemporary gothic black and white comics referred to as "Horror Mood" . The core of the companies’ output were the titles Psycho, Nightmare and Scream however, they also published the short lived costumed " Hell-Rider" magazine (above: cover to issue 1 -August 1971) - by Harry Rosenbaum).

Hell-Rider(created by Mile Friedrich) was Vietnam war veteran and lawyer Brick Reeves who rode a flame-thrower equipped bike and with his temporary super strength ( obtained through the experimental drug Q-47) he would violently dish out his own form of justice (as can be seen from the above splash-page and the page below by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito).

Hell-Rider also featured 2 other strips “Butterfly" (by Gary Friedrich and Rich Buckler) who was the first ever African American super-heroine in comics and the "Wild Bunch" (by Friedrich and Esposito) - splash pages to both stories below.

Sadly, Hell-Rider would only last for one more issue before ceasing publication. Not long afterwards Mike Friedrich would be working for Marvel where he would co-create a similar bike riding hero that used fire...Ghost Rider.

Above: The seconds and final issues of Hell- Rider (cover from "Cover Browser").

End of an era – After 40 Years - the final death of AKA /A1 Books and Comics, Glasgow

I was sad to see that A1 Books & Comics had ceased trading after some 26 years in their current location in Parnie Street. For those of you that do not know “A1” was of the successor to the legendary “AKA Books and Comics” shop which served in the 1980s as the meeting place where future comic book superstars Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Frank Quitely (Vincent Patrick Deighan) Jock, and many others would meet to plan their future domination of the world of comics.

Above: John McShane the co-founder (along with Bob Napier and the much-missed Pete Root) of the original AKA Books & Comics with a young Alan Moore at an AKA book signing. - Below the original location of AKA Books and Comics in Virginia Galleries.

In 1983 the original AKA store opened in the Virginia Galleries, a bohemian shopping arcade with around 40 traders in the city centre. The store was originally located in a single small unit on the ground floor of the Galleries before moving to larger premises in the same area. By the summer of 1984 the store was a resounding success and was firmly established as the main comic shop in the city, this led in 1986 to the failed experiment that was “AKA 2” a new more upmarket shop selling mostly SF/fantasy books in the trendy west end of the city - a few months later “AKA 2” had closed its doors.

Above "Avengers" issue 96 (cover by Neal Adams) and below "The Fly" issue 1 (Cover by Jim Steranko) two comic books I vividly recall purchasing in the original AKA shop from John and Pete.

In 1998 the Virginia Galleries were deemed to be unsafe and were closed after sinking 10 inches over a single weekend as excavation work was going on at the adjacent Marks & Spencer store in Argyle Street. At this point AKA moved to its final location in Parnie Street and was renamed “A1 Books and Comics”. Over the years that followed “A1” changed management and slowly focused more on toys, collectors’ models, and games, all of which were already being sold in the company’s partner store “Static” just a few doors along on the same street - it was obvious something had to give and that sadly was A1 comics.

Above: The Virginia Gallaries just before it was demolished.

On its last day (searching in vain for some bargains of interest to myself) the manager of the store informed me that the “Static” store would remain open and that “A1” would continue as a Facebook online store. As good as online stores may be they will never provide the great memories that stores like AKA and A1 books and comics provided to many comic fans.