Favourite comics: The Christmas Spirit - Will Eisner

Continuing with the Christmas theme one of my favourite feastive comics is the above issue of the Spirit #12 (December 1975) by Wil Eisner. Published by Warren in the 1970’s this magazine reprinted Eisner’s classic newspaper strip from the 1940’s and ran for 16 (mostly) black and white issues before the title moved to Kitchen Sink. Up until I purchased this magazine (around 1980) from Arthur’s book stall in Glasgow, my knowledge of the Spirit was restricted to an illustration of the character from a half page advert that appeared in select DC comics in the early 1970’s for the “Menomonee Falls Gazette” - a weekly tabloid style paper featuring classic newspaper comic strips. The above tale "The Christmas Spirit” (originally published in December 1948) was one of 9 strips that featured in this issue and shows just how much of a master of the comic book form Will Eisner was – Enjoy.

The above half page advert for the "Menomonee Falls Gazette” appeared in DC titles around 1972/3.

Page Turners: The "Creepy" art of Bernie Wrightson

Bernie Wrightson was one of the true giants of the comic book genre that sprung from the well of talent that emerged in the late 1960’s - 1970's period. Although he may not have been as active in the world of superheroes, he was undoubtedly the master of horror and mystery comics books at this time producing an amazing output of high quality art and stories for DC's mystery titles where in 1969, he produced his first professional work “ The man who murdered himself” for "House of Mystery" #169. It would only be a couple of years later the Bernie would co-create with Len Wein, arguably comics greatest muck monster "Swamp Thing” in the pages of "House of Secrets" # 92. Although his short run on “Swamp Thing” (#1-10) is rightly considered the pinnacle of his comic book output, his work for Warrens Creepy and Eerie magazines was always extra special. Below (and above from Creepy #62) is a selection of Bernie’s front pieces for "Creepy" magazine that combine horror with a twinge of humour as only a true master of the genre could do.

Although I have a few of the original issues of “Creepy” where these front pieces originally appeared, all these are taken from the excellent "Creepy Archive – Bernie Wrightson” edition from Dark Horse comics.

Bring on the back-ups: Creepy 105 – Russ Heath magic

The first time I saw Russ Heath’s art was not on a comic strip, instead it was one of his many commercial advertising jobs where he drew those now famous Roman and Revolutionary War scenes advertising toy soldiers. These full page adverts appeared on the back page of many US comics in the 1960s and early 1970’s but at that time I had no idea who it was that drew these ads until many years later.

Among comic book fans Russ Heath (1926- 2018) was best known for his detailed art on western, adventure and war comics primarily for DC where he co-created with Robert Kanigher, the “Haunted Tank” strip (“GI Combat” issue 87) and drew the underwater adventure comic “Sea Devils” and various mystery comics. However, it was his work on DC's “Our Army at War” where he drew some Sgt Rock stories that I first became aware of his stunning artwork. As good as Heath’s art was on colour comics it was in the black and white field that he seemed to excel producing some of the his and comics best art. One of my favourites of his black and white strips was on the Nicola Cuti written tale “Dime Novel Hero” that appeared in the Warren black and white magazine “Creepy” issue 105 from December 1978. Enjoy the work of a genuine comic book master and one of comics best ever illustrators of werewolves (possibly only bettered by the late great Neal Adams) .

“Creepy” issue 105 from December 1978. – A fantastic issue that not only featured the above strip but also had a wonderfully illustrated John Severin tale “ Visit to a primitive planet” that I may show at some point.

Gone but not forgotten : Marvel Corner Image boxes

One of the many fascinating things about comics in the 1960’s/1970s were those great little corner box images that appeared on the covers of all Marvel comic books at this time. While they have now all but faded out of existence they were at one point in time a prominent feature of any Marvel comic book - and I loved them. As time went on and the characters costumes and/or art styles changed so to did those amazing little images on the left hand corner of the comic cover so there would be various versions of Thor, Spiderman, the Avengers etc. The corner box tradition carried on for decades until the early 1990s when for the most part, they were simply and unceremoniously dropped.

f course the corner box image wasn’t just reserved for Marvels Superhero comics as they also used them for their mystery, western and humour comics. Some of their mystery /horror images were pretty cool as can be seen above.

However, it really was the Marvel superhero corner image box that attracted my attention and made me want to pick up titles that I hadn't read before just to obtain that wee image. It really was a great marketing/branding idea and one I feel played a small, but important part of Marvels success.

Although Marvel were the main proponents of the corner box image other companies also used these including Warren publishing and even Charlton.

In the late 1990’s / early 2000’s artist Joe Jusko created a series of painted cover box images based on the originals that are pretty cool and would look amazing on the cover of any modern Marvel comic book.

Page turners: Neal Adams' best pages.......well some of them!

One of the core components of a good comic book has always been that killer page where the artist really goes out on a limb to create a splash page or a set of panels that sticks in the memory years after you first saw it. Jack Kirby, the Buscema brothers , John Romita and Gene Colan were all master of this craft but few artists surpassed Neal Adams in this arena. The above 2 page spread from the Avengers issue 93 filled me with complete awe when I first saw it as a teenager in glorious black and white in the pages of the UK weekly Mighty World of Marvel comic. The effect was just as strong when I eventually tracked down a copy of the US original a few years ago. The story, an obvious "tip of the hat" to the 1960's SF film "Fantastic Voyage" is encapsulated in this amazing 2 page spread with Ant-Man about to enter the Vision via his mouth to see why he has collapsed. Below are a selection of some of my other favourite pages from the magical pencil of Neal Adams.

The above page is from the same issue of the Avengers (issue 93) and is the second last page of sumptuously illustrated 9 page sequence where Ant-Man is inside the Vision trying to evade the attacks of his android immune system.

This splash page from Conan the Barbarian issue 37 is one of my all time favourite Conans pages and it doesn't even show Conan.

House of Mystery issue 186. HoM was always a great comic to pick up at this time as it regularly featured the art of the likes of Alex Toth, Russ Heath , Nester Redondo and Bernie Wrightson. This issue was a classic as not only did it have a nice little Bernie Wrightson strip it also featured this 11 page Adams story "Nightmare" . It’s been reprinted several times but I never fail to marvel at this atmospheric page. Seemingly the young girl was modelled on Neals daughter.

The above page is from Astonsihing Tales issue 12 featuring Ka-Zar.This was obviouly shoehorned into the main storyline that took place in the Everglades in order to recap the Man-Things origin. This strip was obviosly intended for another comic (perhaps Savage Tales) but was deemed to good not to use.

This page from the Crazy Super Special issue 1 (1975) is a parody of the then popular TV show McCloud featuring Dennis Weaver, and retitled as "McClown" for the purposes of ripping the @+$% out of the TV show. I think Adams is a marvellous cartoonist and while he may not be up there with the likes of Mort Drucker I love this 5 page story (and this page in particular) - that horse is just priceless.

Of course Adams also certainly knew how to draw sexy women as well as monsters as can be seen from the above illustration of Vampirella from issue 44 of her own magazine. This illo appeared only as the front piece for that particular issue and was not part of a comic strip but it is a beautifully drawn piece of art . Adams did draw a full Vampirella tale in issue 1 of her comic but I have yet to track that down. .