Bizarre characters: Skateman by Neal Adams - Was it really the worst comic book of all time?

Skateman (Pacific Comics) is generally regarded as one of the worst comic books ever published, personally I don’t agree with that ascertain and even although it certainly isn’t a good comic book I have read far worse in my time. What it is , is a comic featuring one of the most bizarrely ludicrous concepts for a comic book hero in many a year. Skateman is basically a guy whose super-power is that he knows a bit of kung-fu and is a pretty good roller-skater . The fact that its creator was Neal Adams, one of the genres most highly regarded and influential creators made it all the more ripe for ridicule amongst many fanboys of the early 1980’s . Upon opening the book you immediately sense that this may have been a rushed job by Pacific and Adams, instead of having a splash page the cover is simply reprinted with added word ballons.

To add to the theory that this comic was a rush job you need to remember that Adams was still a hot property at this time and the new Pacific comics were keen to add Neal Adams to their mounting list of creators. Adams had already delivered the first issue of his then new character Ms Mystic to Pacific however; it had been almost 2 years and issue 2 was still nowhere to be seen. Skateman it seems may have been meant for another purpose when Adams dusted it down and sent to it Pacific for publication to allow him time to get Ms Mystic back on schedule. Below are a few select pages from the offering that was Skateman a character as far as I am aware has never appeared since:

Since this is a super-hero book, the protagonist (Billy Moon) must protect his secret identity in this case by pretending not to be able to skate on a date (in a skating date!!!) in case she suspects him of being the dorkiest hero of the 1980s - was roller skating even a thing in 1983?

There were also two short back-up strips in this issue, The first of these was ”Korlack of Futureworld" by Andy Kubert and Jack Arata which provides a glimpse into a post-apocalyptic world. The second strip, “Rock Warrior” by Paul S. Power is all over the place and to be honest I had no idea what was going on in this one.

Allegedly Skateman was partially responsible for the eventual fall of Pacific Comics as they had published so many of these books based on Neal Adams name selling anything that was published. However many of these issues (1,000's) went unsold. What this comic proved to me was that Neal Adams was undoubtably one of the greatest comic book artists the genre has ever known but he was not a writer. A lesson that Neal (and other publishers) sadly never learned.

Bizarre Characters: Arm-Fall-Off Boy

There are weird comic book characters and then there are really stupid comic book characters and Arm-Fall-Off-Boy probably falls into the latter of these two descriptions. Arm-Fall-Off-Boy’s first appearance was in Secret Origins Vol. 2 #46, in December 1989 in a story based on a fan parody, this came as a bit of a surprise to me as in my mind the character was a throwback to the late 1960’s silliness of DC comics. The characters powers are pretty much as you would expect from his name, he can detach his own limbs and use them as weapons – well I did say he is a pretty stupid character.

Above the splash page from the"Sercret Origins" tale that introduced Arm-Fall-Off Boy to an unsuspecting world. The only thing more surprising than a comic character with these powers was the fact that DC hired Superman legend Curt Swan to illustrated this tale.

Despite the silliness of the character, DC did give Floyd Belkin aka Arm-Fall-Off-Boy a second outing in the pages of “The Legion of Superheroes in the 31st Century “(splash page above at header) which featured tales based on the Warner Bros animated cartoon series of the same name.This was actually a really fun comic expertly illustrated by Shawn McManus as can be seen from the opening page above.

Despite the abusurdity of the character Arm Fall-Off Boy has even been used in movies where his name was changed to TDK (The Detachable Kid) played by Nathan Fillion, a member of the Suicide Squad. And in comics in an attempt to make him more believable, the character was reintroduced as Splitter.

Above the cover to "Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century" Despite my misgivings of the character I actually enjoyed both this comic and Secret Origins # 46.

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!