Short Lived Comics: Man-Bat #1 & 2 - Steve Ditko, Pablo Marcos

In 1975 Batman’s anti-hero Man-Bat was given his own short-lived comic.This was a strange book as it only lasted for 2 issue and in that time it had 2 separate artistic teams, with issue 1 being written by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Steve Ditko and Al Milgrom, while issue 2 was written by Martin Pasko and illustrated by Pablo Marcos and Ricardo Villamonte. This is a comic that recently came to my attention again when I was strolling in a part of my local town that I hadn’t been in for a several years. As it was a particularly hot day, I decided to purchase a bottle of water and upon spying a newsagent I entered the premises to find what looked like an old-style shop that hadn’t been updated in decades. As I walked out of the shop a vivid memory suddenly flashed into my head of when I had been in this shop as a 15-year-old and picked up the first issue of Man-Bat from the now long gone spinner rack. Not a riviting tale, but one that tickled me.

To add to the strangeness of this comic the letters page of issue 2 (below) featured an editorial stating that this was the last issue of Man-Bat. At the time, this confused me as surely there were no sales figures available to determine if the comic had been a success or not. Of course, the reality was probably more commercial and either it was a ploy to get more readers to pick up Detective Comics where Man-Bats adventures were to continue, or the DC knew the comic wasn’t going to sell and cut their losses.

Classic comic book pages: The Final Chapter! - Steve Ditko

The opening pages of Amazing Spider-Man #33 are among the very best in comic book history. Steve Ditko’s image of Spider-Man trapped beneath a heavy piece of machinery in Doctor Octopus’s underwater lab, as the lab slowly fills with water and Spider-Man struggles to break free, are the stuff of comic book legend. The pages below are testament to Ditko’s skill as a vital visual storyteller as each panel moves the eye across the page and raises the tension as to whether or not Spidey will survive - of course he does but even now some 50 years after I first read this story as a 13-year-old , I still remember the excitement that these pages generated.

“The Final Chapter!” is Steve Ditko’s crowning glory on Spider-Man in a series where he regularly pushed the boundaries of what comic book art and storytelling could be, five issues later and Ditko would leave the character to be replaced by the equally talented John Romita Sr. who would take Peter Parker and Spider-Man to even greater hights of popularity.

"The Final Chapter!" story has been reprinted many times in various collections and reprint comics including "Marvel Tales" issue 26 from May 1970 (where the above pages are taken from) and later in issue 172 of the same title in 1985. The cover of Amazing Spider-man issue 33 (at the heading) is taken from Marvel Wiki.

I first read this story in "Spider-Man Comics Weekly" issue 27 (August 1973) and have held on to my original copy since that day. Not even the over use of "grey tone" in the art diminishes Ditko's amazing art on this story.

Above the opening pages of "The Final Chapter!" as they appeared in "Spider-Man Comics Weekly " issue 27.

Page Turners: The early monstrous art of Steve Ditko

Before Steve Ditko co-created Spider-Man, Dr Strange etc he worked primarily as a horror, fantasy and monster artist for numerous comic book publishers. But it was his work for Marvel (or Atlas as they were then known) in the 1950's where he really came to the attention of fans and publsihers as a major talent. At Atlas/Marvel he created (mostly with Stan Lee) 100's of fun short "twist in the tail" type stories about Martians,robots, time travellers, monsters and ghosts. By 1959/60 Marvel were producing lots of great monster comics which followed a standard format of a lead tale by Jack Kirby, and couple of tales by artists like Don Heck or Jack Abel and finishing with a Ditko story. It wouldn't be until around 1969 -1971 before I would read these tales via UK reprints (Alan Class comics etc) or in Marvel's US reprint titles("Where Monsters Dwell", "Where Creatures Roam" and many others) and it was always the stories illustrated by Steve Ditko (most written by Stan Lee) that always fascinated me the most. Some of my very favourite Steve Ditko "monster" splash pages are noted below (and above from "Where Creatures Roam" issue 1) - Don't these pages just make you want to read the story?

Fantasy Masterpieces issue 9

Monsters on the Prowl issue 20 - One of my very favourite Ditko pages from this time.I remember being fascinated by the way Ditko drew the the water splashing off the robot.

Fantasy Masterpieces issue 7

Monsters on the Prowl issue 24

Weird Wonder Tales issue 5

Where Creatures Roam issue 3

Where Monsters Dwell issue 37

Weird Wonder Tales issue 5

A picture of the great man himself, perhaps from a time when he was drawing one of the above tales.

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!