Young Love #82

Young Love #82 (On Sale: July 9, 1970) has a cover inked by Dick Giordano.

We begin with "He's the One I Want." That is followed by "Happy Ending." We end with "Please, Please... Make Him Forget Her" drawn by the great Gray Morrow.

Edited by Dick Giordano.

House of Secrets #86

House of Secrets #86 (On Sale: April 2, 1970) has a nice cover by Neal Adams.

This one has a framing sequence drawn by Bill Draut featuring Abel and of course, Goldie. After a page we are led into "Strain" drawn by George Tuska, the story of man tearing through the night, trying to put some distance between him and the life he has just destroyed. As he is car careens through the night he suddenly hears a strange musical strain, of such beauty that he stops his car to find its source. He is drawn to the house it emanates from and entering he is further drawn down dark corridors till he finally finds the source. His wife, Martha is at a piano playing. Seeing her he knows he has been saved, but the music is so compelling he can't concentrate so finally he he grabs her hands to make her stop.

Only it is no longer his wife, the one her murdered earlier tonight, it is instead an old hag, who says she is there to avenge his wife. She quickly slams the keyboard cover on his fingers and he finds himself back in his car, slamming into a tree. When the police find him the next day they note that his fingers are oddly bruised.

Next is "The Golden Tower of the Sun" by Gerry Conway and Gray Morrow. This one is not really a comic story but an illustrated text story. I have a confession to make here. I never read the text stories and still have some sort of block against doing so, so I don't know what this story is about, save what I can make out from the wonderful Gray Morrow illustrations. It appears to be the story of a rock and roll singer and some sort of spiritual or inter-dimensional travel.

Next is our cover-story, "The Ballad of Little Joe" by Gerry Conway and Bill Draut, or as he is credited here, Big Bad Bill. Jonathan Poe lives alone in his large house, just him and his puppets and his memories. His favorite puppet seems to be the pink-haired Little Joe, who is always breaking and whom Jonathan is constantly repairing. Through it all Little Joe's face is always laughing and Jonathan wonders if it is because he has made him that way or if Little Joe actually has something to laugh about.

Not nearly so funny is Jonathan's daughter, Sheila, who sees her father's obsession with his puppets as unhealthy. He tells her that since he has outlived the rest of the family, what is wrong with "My puppets! A shadow tracing of life--and for this you think me addled." The sky suddenly burst into fire and Jonathan sees it as a sign from heaven while all Sheila sees is heat lightening. She says when she returns tomorrow she will have a lawyer and a sheriff and they will deal with Jonathan.

As this is happening inside the house a portal is opening and a member of the Quaros, an alien race existing beneath the Earth's crust and out to conquer the surface steps into the room and grabs Little Joe. Jonathan returns just as the portal closes, and wonders who could have come in and stolen Little Joe. Far beneath the Earth, the Quaros work on Little Joe and using some miracle machine manage to bring him to life. They tell Little Joe that in return for his life he must betray the people of Earth and they send him back on some mission to do just that.

But when he steps through the portal and into Jonathan's workshop he wakes up the sleeping Jonathan and tells him of the Quaros's plans to conquer the Earth. Seeing this the Quaros decide to kill them both and open the portal once again, aiming a huge ray gun through it. As the gun fires Little Joe leaps in front of Jonathan, taking the full power of the blast. Seeing this Jonathan's heart gives out and he dies.

In the silence of the room, the now restored to a puppet Little Joe weeps for his maker. When Sheila returns the next day and finds her dead father she regrets how she had treated him and sees that she has a lot to make up for. She picks up Little Joe and takes him with her.

We end with a small two-page strip that made the rounds of the DC horror books for a few months. It is entitled "The Day After Doomsday" and they are all illustrated by Jack Sparling. In this one it is a week later and a solitary man pulls himself out of the rubble of the city. He walks around for a bit, the last man on Earth, when suddenly he is shot at. He ducks behind a building and sees his assailant, a beautiful blond woman. He implores her to put down the gun for the sake of humanity, that it is up to them to rebuild the human race and to get it right this time. He tells her his name is Adam. She replies, "Really? My name is Gertrude!"

The entire book was reprinted in Showcase Presents: The House of Secrets Vol. 1 TPB.

Edited by Dick Giordano.

House of Secrets #83

House of Secrets #83 (On Sale: September 30, 1969) has a cover by the legendary Gray Morrow. This is Gray's first work for DC comics and another great addition to the DC stable of artists courtesy of editor Dick Giordano. It will be a year before we see any more Gray Morrow work at DC and at that time we will explore the history of this amazing artist.

This issue has a wonderful framing sequence drawn by Bill Draut where Abel spends the entire issue trying to get into the House of Secrets and being thwarted at every move. It has some nice physical comedy and does a nice interplay with the stories in the issue. For example, Abel tells his imaginary friend, Goldie, that the first story was told to him by a wandering wolfman.

And the first story is "The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of" by Marv Wolfman and Alex Toth. Jim Ivey awakens to find himself in a strange land where a beautiful woman is being attacked by a hideous monster. Jim fights and defeats the monster and meets the woman, Princess Lyla, who takes Jim to see her father, King Shalla. On the way as Jim and Lyla kiss the world fades away and Jim finds himself in a hospital bed, awakening from a dream. Jim has some fatal, incurable disease and knows he is dying.

That night, as sleep takes him once again, Jim finds himself back on the strange world with Lyla, where he meets and is accepted by King Shalla. Weeks go by and every time Jim sleeps he returns to his beloved Lyla and thoughts of death disappear. But one night assassins attempt to kill King Shalla and Jim fights them off, but the assassin's blade finds Jim and he is mortally wounded. On his deathbed Jim tells Lyla, "It's going to be all right Lyla--I see, now...I'll never have to leave you again, dear--Kiss me, darling--this is--forever!' Back in the "real" world the doctors note that Jim dies with a strange smile on his lips. Reprinted in DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #24.

Next is "Bigger Than a Breadbox" drawn by Mike Roy and Mike Peppe. While searching through the attic used by her departed inventor and husband, Abner, widow Elmira finds a strange box, which she puts to use as a mailbox. The next morning she finds an anonymous letter in the box, which she assumes is from the postman, Mr. Smith, whom she finds sort of cute. The letter speaks of being lonely and looking for someone to correspond with. Playing along with postman Smith's game, Elmira writes an anonymous letter back.

The weeks and many letters pass and Elmira finds herself looking forward to each new letter and the "game" she is playing with Mr. Smith. Sometimes it seems like he doesn't even put the letter in the box and yet one is there almost daily. Finally a letter comes asking Elmira if she would like to meet in person. As she is putting her response into the box postman Smith comes by and she tell him that her answer to his letter is "yes." He says he has no idea what she is talking about and that he has delivered no mail to her box in a very long time.

Crushed that he would spurn her so, she retreats to the house and begins sobbing, when she is interrupted by a knock at the door. There, holding out a bouquet of flowers to her is a scaly orange creature. Though Elmira called the box a worthless piece of tin, her departed husband Abner called it an interdimensional teleporter.

This was one of only seven stories that Mike Roy drew for DC and the next to last one. It was also the first work he had done for them since he drew all of the stories and the cover for Jackie Gleason and the Honeymooners #3 in 1956. Roy studied at the High School of Industrial Art, as well as the Pratt Institute. He began his comics career in the 1940s, assisting Bill Everett, the creator of the original 'Sub-mariner' at Atlas Comics. He worked through the Funnies Inc. shop, and contributed to comic books by Holyoke Publications ('Hammerhead Hawley'), Archie Comics (funny titles) and Hillman Periodical (crime, war and western).

He also appeared in Lev Gleason titles like Crime Does Not Pay, Crime and Punishment, Daredevil and Desperado. During the first half of the 1950s, Roy produced a large amount of artwork for the romance titles of Better Publications. He later also contributed to many Dell/Western titles.

Roy also worked on newspaper strips. Between 1948 and 1951, he did the 'The Saint' daily and Sunday strip for the New York Herald Tribune. In the 1950s, he made the newspaper strips 'Ken Weston' and 'Nero Wolfe', and assisted on 'Flash Gordon'. In the 1960s followed the acclaimed Native American Sunday strip 'Akwas', and the 'Hoss Laffs' daily and the 'Indian Lore and Crafts' Sunday page. Mike Roy was active until the 1990s, working mainly on educational comics for Custom Comic Services. His final work was Screaming Eagle, a hardcover graphic novel for Discovery Comics. Mike Roy also co-founded a museum for Native American and Eskimo Art. He died in 1996.

Lastly we have "The House of Endless Years" by Gerry Conway and Bill Draut. This little gem is about two girls and their dog searching in the woods for, Neal, the brother to one of them. It is thee that they come upon a house. One believes a witch lives there, the other believes she is just an old hag, but the both know that this is where Neal may be and so they head toward it. In the basement the old woman tells Neal that he was a fool to come there, when a flock of bats tell her that the girls are coming. She tells the bats to keep them away, but Neal cries out for his sister. The two girls hear Neal's cry and enter the house.

There they are confronted by the woman who pleads with them to leave before the evil of the house takes them over as it did her many years ago. The dog thinks the woman is attacking the girls and jumps to defend them, causing the old woman to fall down the stairs. When the girls reach her, she has turned to dust. Suddenly they notice that the dog is now old and withered and then they see Neal. Neal, now an old man warning them to leave before it is too late. Neal, who collapses at their feet and turns to dust. The two young girls, now ancient woman look down at Neal, who they know is not old, but young, just like them. This has been reprinted in House of Mystery #224, DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #24, Welcome Back to the House of Mystery #1, and Showcase Presents: The House of Mystery Vol. 3 TPB. It and the entire contents of this issue have been reprinted in Showcase Presents: The House of Secrets Vol. 1 TPB.

Edited by Dick Giordano.