Josh Bayer covers Marvel Two-In-One 29

Original cover by Rich Buckler and Frank Giacoia; Marvel 1977. Josh Bayer's website is here.

Mark Engblom covers Amazing Spider-man 131

Original cover by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia; Marvel 1974. Mark Engblom's site is here.

Kerry Callen covers Marvel Chillers 5

Original cover by Ed Hannigan and Frank Giacoia; Marvel 1976. Kerry Callen's website is here and the original drawing can be purchased here (but act fast).

Connor Willumsen covers Fantasy Masterpieces 9

Original cover by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia; Marvel 1967. Connor Willumsen's website is here.

James Henry Dufresne covers Frankenstein 13

Original cover by Ron Wilson, Mike Esposito, and Frank Giacoia; Marvel 1974. James Henry Dufresne's website is here.

Unexpected #119

Unexpected #119 (On Sale: April 2, 1970) has a cover by Nick Cardy.

We begin with "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who's the Deadliest of All?" drawn by Bernie Wrightson. That is followed by "The Swampchild" by Carl Wessler, Werner Roth and Frank Giacoia. Next is "Rachel Isn't Ready to Die" by George Kashdan, Sid Greene and Vinny Colletta. We next have "Rest in Pieces" drawn by Murphy Anderson and reprinted in Unexpected #160. We end with "A Phantom in the Tree" by Murray Boltinoff and Jerry Grandenetti.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Flash #196

Flash #196 (On Sale: February 12, 1970) has a cover by Murphy Anderson.

This issue begins "The Mightiest Punch of All Time" reprinted from Flash #153 and created by John Broome, Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella. Professor Zoom is released from prison in the 25th century when he fools the officials and passes an electronic psychological examination. Zoom returns to his lab where he perfects a machine that will enhance a person's tendency towards evil. Zoom tries to use the machine across the centuries to affect Al Desmond and force him to become Mr. Element again. Al contacts the Flash for help.

Zoom's machine fails to function properly when used from the 25th century, so he constructs his own cosmic treadmill and returns to the 20th century. A side-effect of the machine gives Professor Zoom temporary control over the residents of Central City. He forces the Municipal Council to pass a law which forbids the use of super speed within Central City. Flash is unable to use his own powers legally to battle Zoom. He tries to leave town, but Zoom captures him.

Zoom then brings Mr. Element to his hide-out to kill the Flash. Before returning to his criminal ways, Desmond has hypnotized himself. When he sees the Flash, the he succumbs to the hypnotic suggestion to release his foe. Once free of Zoom's trap, Flash punches Zoom. The punch counteracts the effects of Zoom's cosmic treadmill sending the villain back to the 25th century where he is again incarcerated. Desmond however has returned to his criminal ways, so Flash takes him to the future where scientists are able to rehabilitate him.

Next we have "The Speed of Doom" from Flash #108 by John Broome, Carmine Infantino and Frank Giacoia. Responding to Dr. Hirach’s offer to time his speed, Flash takes part in an experiment. However the experiment is actually a trap designed by an alien criminal. Flash is trapped on a treadmill and forced to run himself to death. He manages to escape by speeding up and surpassing light speed.

The alien criminal is a Mohru named Kee Feleg. The gang of criminals have been taking fulgramites from Earth which give them amazing speed. Flash follows the trail of one of his foes, when the Mohru disappears into the side of a hill. Another Mohru vanishes at the same spot. Flash runs into that spot and discovers it is a dimensional gateway to the Mohru’s world. Flash captures the gang and turns them over to the Mohru authorities.

That is followed by "The Origin of Flash's Masked Identity" from Flash #128 and created by John Broome, Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella. In the early days of the Flash’s career, Barry Allen wore a mask-less uniform. He did so on his first couple of cases and was not seen. While deciding whether or not to include a mask with his costume, he has a dream.

In the dream, Barry announces his identity publicly. People are skeptical at first, but when he stops a tornado the people believe him. Crowds flock to police headquarters to see him and get autographs. When a burglary occurs across town, Barry has a difficult time making his way through the crowds to get to the scene. When Flash arrives, the thieves have left. Flash is able to catch the getaway car and catch them.

Waking from his dream, Barry realizes that the delay from the crowd almost prevented him from catching the crooks. He decides it would be better to wear a mask and keep his identity secret.

We end with "The Mirror Master's Invincible Bodyguards" from Flash #136 and also the work of John Broome, Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella. Mirror Master, upset with being slighted by the criminal fraternity in a recent poll, breaks jail and begins a new robbery spree. To avoid capture by his nemesis the Flash, Mirror Master designs two mirror bodyguards which protect him from the Flash.

At the scene of his first crime the bodyguards stop Flash in his tracks, and the villain escapes with the loot. Mirror Master’s scheme has landed him as the top criminal in a new poll.

Flash tracks down his foe by tracing the radiation given off by the bodyguards. He locates Mirror Master’s hideout. Using his amazing speed abilities, Flash is able to create two-dimensional duplicates of himself that defeat the bodyguards. With the bodyguards pacified, Flash easily captures their master. The quick defeat lands a dejected Mirror Master at the bottom of yet another criminal poll.

Edited by Julius Schwartz.

Phantom Stranger #6

Phantom Stranger #6 (On Sale: January 15, 1970) has another winning cover by Neal Adams. The Stranger appears as a background face for the first time.

This issue contains the book-length "No. 13 Thirteenth Street" written and penciled by Mike Sekowsky and inked by, well, everyone says Vinny Colletta, but that ain't the whole truth., For certain Colletta's unmistakable inks grace (disgrace?) pages 7-12, but the rest of the book, the majority of the book is inked by someone much better. Who I'm not certain, though some of it looks like editor Joe Orlando.

This is yet another story with the four teenagers (really, that is a stretch here) from the previous few issues, who when their car breaks down find two elderly women being haunted in a house on 13th Street. They enter and people and things are flying about. They make a quick call to Dr. Thirteen, just as the Phantom Stranger arrives. The Stranger says the problem is a poltergeist; when Dr. Thirteen arrives he says the whole thing is a fraud perpetrated by the Phantom Stranger. Thirteen says this is just like the case of the haunting of the Deggs house, which he exposed as a hoax.

We cut to Chapter 2, entitled "The Case of the Diabolical Deggs House" which is inked by Vinny Colletta. The Deggs' house is being terrorized by flying objects, moving chairs, ghostly apparitions, etc. Dr. Thirteen is called and finds the culprit is Creepy Conway, a spurned beau of the teenage daughter. He, along with the help of the younger son and his chemistry set, faked all of the strange doings.

The story over, better inking returns for a page as Dr. Thirteen is attacked by a flying vase and the Phantom Stranger tells him he is being foolish to discount the supernatural. He then tells his own story, "The Haunting of Drood Wood -- or -- Give Me Back My Head!" This chapter has a harsher inking style, and if I had to guess at the inker (and I do), I would say Frank Giacoia inked the next five pages. There are actually a couple of really nice, simple but effective panels in this section of the story.

A wife drives her sleeping husband down a lonely read at night. He awakens to find out they are driving through Drood Wood and freaks out, telling her to turn around or he is a dead man due to a family curse. His wife thinks he is being silly, but suddenly they are confronted by a headless horseman of old. This scene is of course depicted so beautifully on the cover. The horseman asks the man, David, if he has found his head yet. David says that his family has searched for centuries and cannot find the man's head.

We then learn how David's ancestor, the Baron of Cheltenham, had found the man in a passionate embrace with his daughter and after trumping up some charges of theft, had the man's head cut off and buried separately. The headless man only wants to be with his beloved, but cannot go to her in death without his head. The Phantom Stranger arrives and shows the man that his head was actually made into the likeness on his tombstone (I almost said "headstone!"). His body once again whole the horseman rides off to finally be with his beloved.

Back in the present and back to Joe Orlando's inking, the Stranger says the story proves that evil exists and then asks Tara to show herself. Tara reveals herself along with a creature thing, but says she is not the cause of the strange goings-on, that it is the work of one of the elderly women, Abigail. Abigail says that she found an old book their father had and used one of the spells in it to conjure up a thing to punish her sister for always eating the pistachio ice cream and leaving her only the chocolate.

When the Phantom Stranger tries to get the book, Tala orders the thing to keep it from him, but the Stranger gets to the book first and throws it into the fireplace. Tala and the thing then disappear. Dr. Thirteen says that the whole thing was a performance by the Stranger, as usual. Abigail's sister invites the teenagers to spend the night and offers them dinner, complete with pistachio ice cream for dessert, but sends Abigail to bed without dinner for causing all the fuss.

However, after dinner all that is left in the house is chocolate ice cream. Upstairs we find Abigail with a home copier and a copy of the book wondering what else she can do to her sister. This story was reprinted in Showcase Presents: The Phantom Stranger Vol. 1 TPB.

Edited by Joe Orlando.

From Beyond the Unknown #3

From Beyond the Unknown #3 (On Sale: December 23, 1969) has a great cover by Neal Adams.

We begin with our cover-story, "When Earth Turned into a Comet" reprinted from Strange Adventures #150 and created by Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella. An astronaut on the Moon uses illusion and bluff to save the Earth from invaders.

Next is "Prisoner of the Electronic Eye" from Mystery In Space #53 and the work of John Broome, Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia. A man must figure out how to escape from an inescapable room so he can stop Earth and Saturn from going to war.

The next story is "The Space Hermit" from Strange Adventures #34 and the product of Sid Gerson and Henry Sharp. When an alien sealed in an indestructible bubble crashes into a ballpark a scientist works to free him. The question is should he? Between 1953 and 1955 Henry Enoch Sharp drew 15 science-fiction stories fro DC Comics appearing in Mystery In Space and Strange Adventures; this is the only one of those stories where Sharp provided both pencils and inks. During his tenure at DC Sharp also worked for St. John Publishing.

Henry Enoch Sharp started off in the early 1950s working for the pulps, drawing for Fantastic Adventures and Other Worlds along with doing some advertising work. As the pulps began to die, Sharp switched over to comics, spending four years at Ziff-Davis where he worked on a number of books including G.I. Joe (see his cover painting for G.I. Joe #10, which is actually issue #1) and Sky Pilot. Then in a change of careers, Sharp began to work in television as a writer where he had a successful run through the mid-1970s.

Henry Sharp wrote for such diverse shows as The Real McCoys, Bachelor Father, The Donna Read Show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Andy Griffith Show, McHales's Navy, Bewitched, Here Comes the Brides, Mission: Impossible, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Target, MacKenzie's Raiders and The Addams Family. Moreover, Sharp was the Story Consultant and one of the writers for The Wild Wild West for four years. In the 1970s he wrote for Valley of the Dinosaurs, Super Friends and The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan.

Our last story is "Escape from Earth" reprinted from Mystery In Space #61 and created by John Broome and Murphy Anderson. In the 30th century the Council of Eternity decrees that all the people of Earth must enter the Chamber of Immortality so they will live forever. Four people decide that the new immortals no longer seem fully human and contrive to escape from Earth and find a new planet to live on as mortals, even though this means if caught immortality will be forced on them and they will be given a jail sentence of 100,000 years!

Edited by Julius Schwartz.

Showcase #88

Showcase #88 (On Sale: December 11, 1969) has a Jason's Quest cover by Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano.

We begin with "The Beginning" of Jason's Quest, written and drawn by Mike Sekowsky and inked by Frank Giacoia. Every resource I can find says this story was inked by Dick Giordano, but I am looking at the pages and it just ain't so, no way, no how.

Before we get to the recap of this book, I must say a few words about Mike Sekowsky at this point in his career. Mike had been in comics since 1941 when he started at Timely and had drawn just about every genre there was: super-hero, western, war, funny animal, romance, TV , jungle action and science-fiction, and though he was known as a super-hero artist, he obviously was more attracted to action stories with more humanistic characters.

While everyone else at DC was chasing Marvel super-heroes or attempting to relive their time at EC, Mike Sekowsky was following a different path. He made the Metal Men look human and turned them into thriller characters on the run. He participated big-time in the biggest deflowering of super-powers in comic history by separating Wonder Woman from her powers and costume. He took chances on new types of books and I for one appreciated the effort. I may be the only one, but I particularly appreciated Jason's Quest.

We begin at "The Beginning" as Jason Davis' father has been mortally wounded in a shooting. Summoned by the doctors to his deathbed, the blonde young man listens to a stunning series of revelations. His real name is Jason Grant, Jr. and when he was just a child his real father had been murdered by a mobster named Tuborg, who sought the elder Grant's latest invention. As Tuborg's killers combed the house for witnesses, Grant's servant, Davis, rushed to the nursery, commanding the nanny to take Jason's twin sister, someone Jason never knew existed, into hiding while he did the same with young Jason. The nanny headed for London while Davis brought Jason to America. Over the next nineteen years, Davis moved himself and Jason constantly, always trying to stay one step ahead of Tuborg's searching thugs.

In preparation for the day Jason would take over the fight, Davis drilled commando training into the boy's head. With his final breath, he gasped, "Your sister ... somehow your father secreted on her person evidence that will end Tuborg and his evil empire. In the fireplace at home ... the box your father gave me -- it has your papers ... money ... and -- and ... I'm ... I'm ... sor --"

In five and a half short pages, including one splash, Sekowsky has neatly set up the entire series and there is not a spandex outfit or alien super-power in sight.

Unknown to Jason, Tuborg had planted a bug in the hospital room and heard every word. Finding Jason's sister was now their number one priority. Jason flies to London, buys a motorcycle and begins his search for his sister. From an ex-neighbor he gets a picture of her and a direction; she is heading for the continent.

Tuborg's men ambush Jason on the road and though they don't get the picture, they get enough clues to track her to a ferry soon to go across the channel. On the ferry Jason saves a woman named Gee Gee from two thugs. Gee Gee asks if Jason would like to travel with her, but he declines, wanting instead to head out looking for his sister. As he drives away Gee Gee removes her black wig and is revealed as Jason's sister.

The three-page back-up "Ghost Rider" is written and drawn by Mike Sekowsky and really is inked by Dick Giordano. It is the tale of teenagers, bikers and ghostly riders.

Edited by Mike Sekowsky.

Josh Burggraf covers Machine Man 1

Original cover by Jack Kirby and Frank Giacoia; Marvel 1978. Josh Burggraf's website is here.

Challengers of the Unknown #72

Challengers of the Unknown #72 (On Sale: December 2, 1969) has a cover by Neal Adams.

The Challengers of the Unknown star in "A Plague of Darkness" by Denny O'Neil, Dick Dillin and Frank Giacoia. The back-up story is "Nobody Lives Forever... or Do They?" by Dave Wood and Lee Elias.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

From Beyond the Unknown #2 (On Sale: October 23, 1969) has a cover by Murphy Anderson.

We begin with "Parade of the Planets" by Otto Binder and Frank Giacoia from Mystery in Space #52. Next is "Giants of the Cosmic Ray" by France Herron, Carmine Infantino and Bernard Sachs from Strange Adventures #82. Lastly we have "The Brain-Masters of Polaris" by John Broome, Alex Toth and Sy Barry from Strange Adventures #12.

Edited by Julius Schwartz.

Challengers of the Unknown #71

Challengers of the Unknown #71 (On Sale: October 2, 1969) has a cover by Nick Cardy.

The full-length story "When Evil Calls" is by Denny O'Neil, Jack Sparling and Frank Giacoia.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff

Unexpected #115

Unexpected #115 (On Sale: August 7, 1969) has a cover by Neal Adams.

We begin with "Diary of a Madman" by Carl Wessler and Ed Robbins. Some sources indicate that this was the last story Ed Robbins drew for DC, others say he drew some war stories in 1970 and 1971, but I haven't tracked those down yet. Robbins' last comic book work appears to be for Western in Grimm's Ghost Stories in 1975-76. Born in 1919 Ed Robbins died in 1982.

He was one of those guys who worked everywhere, but rarely made a name for himself. He worked at the Beck and Costanza Studio between 1942 and 1953, the Iger Studio in 53-54 and the Simon and Kirby Studio in 1955.

For Archie he drew Roy, the Super Boy, the Scarlet Avenger, The Shield, Steel Sterling and Zamboni, the Miracle Man. At Centaur he drew Craig Carter and the Masked Marvel. At Charlton he crime and war stories. At DC he drew Gang Busters in the 50s and horror, romance and war stories in the 1960s. At Dell he drew horror stories in the early 60s and at Feature Comics he drew romance stories during the late 50s. At Fawcett he drew romance comics for years along with Captain Marvel, the Marvel Family and Mary Marvel. In the 40s and 50s he work for Atlas/Marvel on the Black Avenger, the Human Torch, the Thunderer and assorted horror and war stories. He did one story for Warren in 1970.

If Ed Robbins ever made a name for himself though, it was during his two-years stint on the Mike Hammer newspaper strip in the 1950s, where his hard-boiled gutsy graphic style was years ahead of the British strips of the 60s, such as Jim Holdaway on Modesty Blaise and Yaroslav Horak on James Bond (I used to follow both of these strips in the wonderful Menomonee Falls Gazette in the 1970s).

Next we have "Abracadabra -- You're Dead" by Dave Wood, Curt Swan and Jack Abel. We end with "The Day Nobody Died" by Dave Wood, Werner Roth and Frank Giacoia. This story was reprinted in Unexpected #161.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Strange Adventures #220

Strange Adventures #220 (On Sale: July 17, 1969) has an Adam Strange cover by Joe Kubert.

We begin with Adam Strange in "The Beast from the Runaway World" reprinted from Mystery In Space #55 and created by Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino and Bernard Sachs. Adam Strange waits for the Zeta Beam to strike Earth and return him to Rann, but the Beam never comes. Puzzled by its failure to appear, Adam calculates when the next beam is scheduled to strike and takes it to Rann.

When he arrives, he meets Alanna, who explains that the first beam was intercepted by a planet with an erratic orbit. A creature from that planet was brought to Rann, Zaradak. Zaradak, a giant dinosaur-like beast, has been causing damage on Rann ever since.

Adam attempts to stop the creature with his ray-gun, but the creature absorbs and reflects the blast. Adam has food brought to the beast, which settles its rampage. It was only hungry.

When an alien attack force arrives, Adam plans to use the creature to deflect their bombs, but the Zeta energy in the creature returns it to its native world. Adam flies into space to intercept the bomb, destroying with his ray-gun just prior to his own return ride to Earth on the Zeta Beam.

Next is "The Star Oscar" reprinted from Strange Adventures #34 and the work of Sid Gerson and Frank Giacoia.

We end with the Atomic Knights in "The Lost City of Los Angeles" reprinted from Strange Adventures #126 and produced by John Broome and Murphy Anderson. After a hurricane devastates Durvale, Gardner Grayle proposes to discover what remains of the country. He instructs the Hobard brothers to build gliders with which they can fly across country. Bryndon joins Gardner and the Hobards on the trip west. The plains of the midwest are black and lifeless and the Rocky Mountains have become volcanic.

The Knights finally reach Los Angeles, where they locate a small band of living humans. The Knights help them retrieve a supply of food from a canyon protected by electrical beings which are merely illusionary. After getting the food, Bryndon sets up a radio allowing the Knights to communicate with Durvale.

Edited by Julius Schwartz.

Phantom Stranger #3

Phantom Stranger #3 (On Sale: July 15, 1969) has its first cover by Neal Adams, and the new Neal Adams logo. What is interesting is that while the logo depicts the revamped Phantom Stranger, using his hat's shadow as a mask, the cover shows an entirely different guy, closer to the Bill Draut covers of the first two issues.

We begin with the Phantom Stranger in "How Do You Know My Name?" a reprint from Phantom Stranger #5 (1953) by John Broome, Frank Giacoa and Joe Giella. A carnival mystic, Vasti, predicts supernatural behavior will increase at an amusement park. Suddenly ghosts and spectres are seen and cause trouble for the park. The Phantom Stranger investigates in order to debunk the supernatural explanation. He exposes Vasti as a fraud, trying to force the park owner to sell cheaply.

Next we have Doctor 13 in "No Such Thing as Ghosts" a reprint from Star-Spangled Comics #126 by France Herron and Leonard Starr. We end with the only new material in the book, the Phantom Stranger in "Some Day in Some Dark Alley..." by Mike Friedrich and Bill Draut. This was reprinted in Showcase Presents: Phantom Stranger Vol. 1 TPB.

Edited by Joe Orlando.

Strange Adventures #217

Strange Adventures #217 (On Sale: January 21, 1969) has a nice Adam Strange cover by Neal Adams. Deadman is gone and Adam Strange and Atomic Knights reprints have become the order of the day. Since this was my introduction to both series, it was all new to me.

We begin with the origin of Adam Strange, "Secret of the Eternal City," a reprint from Showcase #17 by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky and Frank Giacoia. While escaping from some Inca villagers, Adam Strange is struck by a Zeta Beam originating from the planet Rann. Originally designed for communications, the Zeta Beam has been altered by its long journey through space, and it teleports Adam Strange to Rann.

On a world 25 trillion miles from Earth, Adam meets Alanna, a woman and her scientist father, Sardath. Using their advanced technology they teach Adam their language. Adam then gets a tour of the planet from Alanna. Rann itself was more advanced than Earth, but a great war caused much technology to be lost, and a majority of its population has reverted to barbarism.

While exploring the city-state of Kamorak, Adam and Alanna come under attack from alien invaders searching for the element Vitatron. Alanna believes it exists in Samakand, a city which only appears once every 25 years. Adam and Alanna contact the scientists of Samakand and are able to lure the invaders there and trap them in the fourth dimension.

After the threat has passed, the Zeta radiation in Adam’s body wears off, and he is transported back to Earth. Having found a new home and new love on Rann, Adam calculates the next occurrence of the Zeta Beam which will once again return him to Rann.

Next is the origin of the Atomic Knights, "The Rise of the Atomic Knights" from Strange Adventures #117 by John Broome and Murphy Anderson. Gardner Grayle, a man who is statistically the average soldier, has survived World War III, which took place from October 9, 1986 to October 29, 1986 and lasted only 20 days. In the post-holocaust world, all plant and animal life has been destroyed. The only remaining food supplies are being hoarded by a tyrant called the Black Baron.

Grayle is attacked by looters trying to rob him. He escapes, then helps another man, Douglas Herald, fend off the attackers. Grayle and Herald discover a set of six medieval suits of armor that have become resistant to radiation. The two men decide to use the suits to attack the Baron's stronghold. They recruit three other men to join the fight, leaving the last suit of armor behind because it is too small.

The five men assault the Baron's stronghold wearing the armor which resists the tyrant's ray guns. The Baron nearly kills Grayle, but he is rescued by an unknown person wearing the sixth suit of armor. After the Baron is defeated, the sixth knight is revealed to be Marene, Herald's sister. The six knights agree to stay together to fight for justice in the post-apocalyptic world.

DC Comics Presents #57, the post-World War III reality within the Atomic Knights series is said to be a computer simulation run by the real Gardner Grayle. However, Hercules Unbound #10 links the Atomic Knights to Kamandi, Omac, and Hercules. Either the events depicted in the series happened outside the simulation or DC just has some really screwy continuity.

Edited by Julius Schwartz.