Weird Science-Fiction Fantasy Annual #2 (Banned Comics Week)

My final selection for Banned Comics week is a unique time capsule of the changes that EC Comics would have to endure after the Juvenile Delinquency Senate hearings and with the coming of the comic’s code. Sales of comic books had been plummeting across the board. To spare jobs and to keep from closing, EC cancelled its horror comics and began to merge other titles together. For instance, Weird Science and Weird Fantasy were merged together after both published their final issue #22. The new title was called Weird Science-Fantasy.

The new title was still edgy with bizarre aliens, screaming femme fatales and twist endings that stunned the reader back into reality. But when the CCA formed in 1954 one of the rules stated the word “Weird” could not be used in the title of a book. Thus, Gaines and Co. changed the name of the series to Incredible Science Fiction at issues #30. This book has the distinction of the being the very first comic to be approved by the CCA (as according to the reprint editors of this annual.)

ISF is tepid. The stories are no longer thrilling. The endings still have a twist but EC’s stunning style had been neutered. Incredible lasted 4 more issues but thanks to an confrontation with the CCA, Gaines decided to stop publishing comics altogether.

Before issue 34 was published, William Gaines sent a reprinted story for approval called “Judgment Day!" (Weird Fantasy  #18). This anti-racism story, was rejected because Judge Charles Murphy, the Comics Code Administrator, demanded that the star of the story, a black astronaut, be changed into a white hero. Gaines refused and threatened to take the matter all the way to the Supreme Court. The CCA, not wanting an early case of more unwanted publicity, backed down.  Gaines went on and  printed the story both without any changes or the CCA approval stamp. It would be the last comic printed by Gaines who would go one to devote his energies to the now magazine formatted MAD Magazine. Yes Mad would be just as subversive but because the book was no longer published in the size of a comic book, it was free from the intrusion of the Comics Code.

I’m not so much a fan of this treasury of latter day EC reprints. But for their historical value, this collection is priceless. You can see through volume 1 and later this second volume how EC’s style was slowly reined in to fit an Ozzie & Harriet lifestyle. Ultimately, by focusing on MAD, Gaines got the upper hand, thumbing his nose at American society all the way to the bank.

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Marvel Universe Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Team-up (Family Comic Friday)

It seems that Guardians of the Galaxy is the new flagship title of Marvel Comics…and the plan to do it paid off perfectly! Over the past year, this rag-tag bunch of heroes has been popping up on your favorite Saturday morning cartoons on Disney XD (although they air on Sunday) and now the Guardians are the kings of the box office! Rocket Racoon, lovable Groot, and the rest of the gang guest-starred throughout 2013-14 in episodes of Marvel Universe Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Marvel Universe: Ultimate Spider-man, and Marvel Universe: Hulk and the Agents of SMASH. All four of these episodes were later reprinted as photo-comics and then combined in digest form to co-incide with the release of the film.

 A photo-comic is when photographs are used in place of drawn or painted art to show the visual action of a comic. The images might be computer enhanced to add color or photoshopped effects. Then the standard word bubble is layered over the image if commucation is expressed for the represented scene. I normally like photo-comics (or picto-comics) but I’ve not been a fan of the Marvel Universe books because they are essentially the entire episode that I’ve already seen on TV. I perfer DC’s method which is when they publish a comic book for one of their cartoons, the book’s premise and art is all-new! But I made an exception this time.

For some reason my DVR doesn’t like the Guardians and I missed both the Avengers episode and the Agents of SMASH one too! So, I eagerly checked this book out from my local library because I missed them on TV the first go round. Plus, I’ve never read the first appearance of Rocket Raccoon, which appeared in Incredible Hulk #271 and is reprinted at the end of this book.

When I first went to the Orange County (NC) public library in 2001, I had just moved to the town a couple of days prior and I did like I also do, go to section 271.94 in the non-fiction section. There I found 2 5-foot long shelves of ‘comics.’ By that, I mean there was a Superman graphic novel, 3 Ultimate Spider-man volumes (none in order), something called Naurato, and a bunch of Bloom County and Garfield books. I wasn’t as gaga in comics as I am now, but I knew to be able to read more graphic novels for free I was going to have to work with my librarians.

I checked out everything that had in that section over a period of months. By that point, a librian noticed that I always checked out the graphic novels and wanted to know what I liked and didn’t like in their selection. I was able to work with her, suggested new titles, and doing some field research of my own and find new stuff for other patrons. Sometimes, I’d ever get first dibs on a special title that had newly arrived.

Now, 11-years later, the graphic novels have their own section of 2 full 6-teired shelves, as well as a special shelf in the new arrivals area. Not only that but there is now a graphic novel section for kids. (Their used to be a teen section but it was merged with the adult graphic novels.)

Libraries have really been getting into the action in the past 5 years- thanks mostly to the popularity of the slew of TV shows and movies about super heroes. I’ve been to several comic conventions across North Carolina in which public libraries are hosting booths to let guests know that they too have graphic novel sections. Manga is also becoming a blossoming member of library shelves as well as DVDs starring Iron Man, Thor, and Superman.

My library has a comic book club that meets weekly and I saw a flyer that the Durham County main branch has 2 different graphic novel clubs meeting on 2 separate days weekly as well! Also, there have been screenings of Marvel movies at my library and branches in Durham and Chapel Hill.

I mention all of this because readers might not be aware of much importance has been place on graphic novels and comics recently at the local library. The library is a vital tool for me because I couldn’t afford to read all of the comics I do on this blog without their help and assistance. So, be sure to check your library to see if they have a graphic novel section. And if they don’t or it’s paltry like mines was that first time I inspected it, they see a librian. They’ll be glad to assist you. You might even get lucky like I did and find and awesome one who likes graphic novels too and asks you for wish lists! Hey, they might even get filled.

The books reprinted in this collection are: MARVEL UNIVERSE AVENGERS EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES 18, MARVEL UNIVERSE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN 22, MARVEL UNIVERSE HULK: AGENTS OF S.M.A.S.H. 4, INCREDIBLE HULK (1968) 271

In the Avengers, we’re introduced to a Michael Korvac, a man who may have been abducted by an alien force and turned into a living bomb. The Guardians of the Galaxy are summoned to the Avengers mansion where Korvac is recovering and all heck breaks loose. Then in Ultimate Spider-man, Spidey learns that his teammate Nova is more than just a goof-ball with cosmic powers when Rocket Raccoon summons him to outer space to defeat the Korvac menace which has returned. Lastly, Hulk and the Agents of SMASH team-up with Rocket to free the Guardians from the clutches of the Collector before the entire solar system are destroyed by Kree and Skrull forces. That awesome story was a Christmas story to boot! That means thanks to my stupid DVR last year; I missed a super hero Christmas special! GRRR!

Anyway, speaking of holidays, next week I’ll dive in to the world of Halloween Comics. They’re not just for kids and are down-right spooky. So, I’ll let you in one what is family friendly and what should wait until you’re older.

Worth Consuming

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

 

The Vault of Horror #22 (Banned Comics Week)

 This issue has stuck with me for years since I first read it back in 1990. The cover bears the image of a group of child carrying a scratch made coffin down a dirt path. The story is titled ‘Let The Punishment Fit The Crime.’ In this tale, a group of children hold a mock funeral through a small town. The town’s folk then recall how the kids asked them each questions about justice and capital punishment. It’s only on the last page do we learn that these kids have found one of their peers guilty of a criminal offense (kidnapping a girl’s dolly) and had him killed by pushing him onto a live wire and then buried.

   Now my biggest peeve is if kids pushed someone onto a live wire, how did they get the child off the electricity and into a coffin without killing themselves in the process? But in the 1950s, child advocacy groups hit a conniption fit with this issue, saying it encouraged children to exact vigilante justice. (Interestingly enough, when Dr. Wertham attacked the most well-known vigilante superhero, Batman, he didn’t criticize his sense of justice. No, Dr. Wertham implied that since Batman hung around with a young boy who wore hot pants, he must’ve been a homosexual! - Don’t believe me- look it up on Google!)

Anyway, back to this comic. I mentioned that civic groups saw this issue as a prime example of being a bad influence on children. But I would argue that it would be the advocates for children who did more damage than these comics. Wertham skewed his research by twisting around the responses of the children he interviewed until they forcefully admitted that they were deviants and in need of therapy thanks to the damning influence of comics.

  There’s another instance that I cannot remember how I found out about this but I both read about it in the great book about the comic book scare of the 50s called “The 10-cent Plague” and I saw a video of the episode somewhere and I just cannot recall it for citing purposes. But the program I recall was a 1950s news show that devotes one episode on juvenile delinquency. In the episode, it showed kids reading EC Comics and then smoking, playing with knives, and then tying up a chum and beating him up.

The newscaster’s narration blames comic books for this wanton behavior. What he does not mention is that producers of his show hired kids off the street, and filmed them while encouraging them to use weapons and hog-tie one of their friends. The only thing the kids reportedly did on their own volition was to read the comic books. It was a bunch of so called responsible adults who put the kids up to acting like a bunch of thugs.

There are 3 more really good stories in this issue. First up is ‘Together They Lie,’ a creepy story of a man who discovers that his wife may not have been as faithful to him as he originally believed. The ending of this story seems to me might have heavily influenced the first vignette in the classic Stephen King tribute to EC Comics, Creepshow.

  After the cover story, we join old Doc Swanson as he tracks down a killer in a small town in a story called “A Slight Case of Murder!” I was on edge trying to guess who the killer was and I admit I was shocked when I found out. But looking back, I can see that this issue must have inspired the film Men In Black in a way. I won’t spoil it, but if you read this tale, you’ll know I am right. Lastly, a marionette artist spends his final night on earth reflecting on his art and his marriage that suddenly went sour. It’s got a gruesome ending, but in my opinion the weakest of the 4 stories.

This issue reprints Vault of Horror #33. It’s a favorite of mine and a spooky classic.

Worth Consuming

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Two-Fisted Tales #9 (Banned Comics Week)

 

Not everything EC published was considered subversive. William Gaines, who would eventually go on to publish Mad Magazine, published comics based on the Bible, classic works of fiction, and reprints of comic strips from highly circulated newspapers. But perhaps the most well regarded series published by EC was Two-Fisted Tales.

   These were macho stories that starred fighting men and dastardly villains. Many stories were to some degree historically accurate, if only in means of dress, armament and procedures of the soldiers depicted in this books. Two-Fisted Tales not only flew under the radar of the Senate hearings on Juvenile Delinquency but was also revived, albeit very briefly, after the establishment of the Comics Code Authority.

  Two-Fisted Tales has appeared in many movies and TV shows, often as a prop used by servicemen or 50s youths. The book is discussed as a favorite of Corey Feldman’s character in the film Stand By Me. The series was used as reading material by servicemen in various episodes of MASH.

   It’s interesting that I mention MASH because this issue which reprints Two-Fisted Tales #26, like the long-running classic sitcom, is set during the Korean War. This issue is devoted to an account of the Marine retreat at the Changjin Reservoir after over a million Chinese soldiers poured into North Korean to assist those armies that were looking at sure defeat by UN forces. (This event is also the focus of at least 2 episodes of MASH, when the camp has to bug-out and is mentioned again as a news flash over the intercom during a surgery scene.)

The retreat is broken down into 4 chapters drawn by such greats as Jack Davis, Harvey Kurtzman and of course, the master of EC war comics, John Severin. Chapter one explores how the Marines were literally ‘this close’ to victory in North Korea before the Chi-Com forces entered the war. Chapter 2 looks at both the American retreat as well as the advancement of the Chinese by focusing on both an American pilot and a Communist ensign who are trying to gain as much ground as possible.

Chapter 3 has the Americans almost ready to regroup before being attacked by ‘Banzai forces.” This forces which would attack after a series of vicious mortar barrages and then scare their American opponents by striking in complete darkness while banging cymbals and blaring trumpets. The attack causes one soldier to undergo ‘shell shock’ and again this experience was the plot of several episodes of MASH.

Lastly, we see the mass evacuation of the last remaining free port in UN control in North Korea. As troops manage to remove the citizens by boat and plane, American soldiers were destroying tons of food, ammo, and gasoline to prevent it from getting in the hands of the advancing enemy. This tragic tale of wanton destruction and pure waste is witnessed through the eyes of a tiny dog. It’s perhaps the saddest part of the entire story both making feel terrible sympathy for the puppy, that I know isn’t real and how this scene was played our 25 years later during the surrender of Saigon.

Hardly a gory comic, yes the spoils of war are real and they’re not downplayed. But EC didn’t hype the trauma for dramatic effect like in their other war comic Front-line Combat. If anything, the tone of this book was very patriotic and also a prayer for servicemen and women that were still over in Korea when this issue was first published in 1951.

To me, this was like reading an issue of MASH (if that ever existed but wouldn’t it have been awesome if it did?) The only things missing were a laugh track and a serviceman in drag.

Worth Consuming

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Tales from the Crypt #2, (Banned Comics Week)

 This doubled sized reprint from Russ Cochran contains issue #34 of Crypt and Crime Suspenstories #15. Though I mention Gemstone as the publisher of the most of the EC Comics reprints in my collection, it was actually Cochran from Missouri who first obtained the rights to reprint the entire EC line. (Other EC reprints exist before this but Cochran was the first to reprint the entire line of EC Comics comics.) The collection was very popular, but it was a niche market.

 The Russ Cochran Company found itself unable to recoup its losses and sold the rights to newly established Gemstone. Gemstone got the brilliant idea to reprint in small batches and later reissue as needed. Thus, back issues of past copies could either be ordered through mail or replenished in comic shops nationwide. It’s this method that’s held on for over 25 years and helped keep the EC Comics from fading into obscurity.

   In Tales, our first story is by the Crypt Keeper in segment called “The Crypt of Terror” which was Tales’ original title. That story is based on the cover image in which a mad scientist creates a Frankenstein type monster and it goes on the rampage at a carnival. Then the Vault Keeper spins a yarn about two con men who dupe a small town into believing their sitting on the next oil boom. The Crypt Keeper then returns in his signature segment “Grim Fairy Tales” which are fanciful fables with gruesome endings. This go-round, the Crypt Keeper regales us with a story of a king who goes too far when he learns about taxation.

The last story is by the Haunt of Fear’s Old Witch. It’s rather interesting as it’s adapted by Ray Bradbury of Fahrenheit 451 fame. It’s a fairly light tale in which an old woman filled with salt and vinegar doesn’t want to die so badly that her spirit storms the mortuary in which her body is housed and demands it back.

  What I found so intriguing about this ghost story was that it’s basically by a well-known author. When Fredic Wertham testified before the Senate during the Juvenile Delinquency hearings, he claims that there was no ‘artistic merit’ to the prose found in comic books. Bradbury is such a big deal that not only did my wife read some of his work in high school for her English classes, I read it too! And I went to a strict anti-anything secular Christian school! So when ever anybody tells you that comics are rubble- you can point out that the great Ray Bradbury was featured in comics as was Harlan Ellison, Stephen King, and even Doctor Seuss!

Before I close, let’s examine the Crime Suspenstories reprint. The first tale is a film noir-type love triangle between a wife with a bad heart, her husband, and his best friend who happens to be her lover. Take about Double Indemnity! Then Ray Bradbury returns! This time, his tale ‘the Screaming Woman’ stars a little girl who hears a woman begging to be released from a shallow grave but nobody will believe the tyke’s warnings. Next, we get an interesting story told in two parts in which the same man must suffer through thirst an dehydration first on the high seas and then in the Sahara. There are plenty clever twists in ‘Water, Water Everywhere…” as well as a unique story structure that clearly influenced some of the greats of the Silver Age like Julie Schwartz, Gardner Fox, and Stan Lee. Finally, the Old Witch guests to recall the bickering marriage of a hen-pecked husband and his meddlesome wife.

The Crime comics of the 1950s were a thing of the past by 1959. Crimes of the heart in which implied sex, adultery, and murder were considered taboo. Thus there was a rise in crime digests like Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen. Those mags contained the occasional illustration but were considered so wordy that it wouldn’t appeal to kids. Crime Magazines were still available where kids could reach them and they still had graphic covers. But the changing format was considered enough to prevent kids from going into a wanton frenzy like un-coded comics were said to have inspired.

True, it was 30-years later, but in the 80s I remember walking into a newsstand and buying crime mags as a gift for my mother who loved a good mystery. I was never carded. I couldn’t have been- I was 8! Still, the view towards comic books as low culture is proof of the hypocrisy of censorship. The next time someone tells you comic books are kids’ stuff and for the uneducated, ask them if they watch The Walking Dead, or have seen Men in Black? When they say “yes” tell them it was based on a comic book and watch their face drop. Argument won in your favor!

Worth Consuming

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Tales from the Crypt Presents the Vault of Horror #5 (Banned Comics Week)

The main horror titles of EC Comics were Tales from the Crypt, the Haunt of Fear, and the Vault of Horror. The most well-known of these titles is obviously Tales from the Crypt thanks to a 1990s TV series on HBO, hosted by the delightfully funny, Crypt Keeper. But my favorite of the EC horror anthologies was the Vault of Horror.

It was hosted by the Vault Keeper and featured tales of deception, corruption, passion, murder, and intrigue. There was always a twist ending to these tales but the bad guys didn’t always get their just desserts. Sometimes, the hero took the fall! For the American government, that just couldn’t do! Thus, when the Comics Code Authority was established, titles were required to tell stories in which the villain got punished for his crimes. An allowance was allowed for stories to have cliffhangers throughout several issues as long as the villain received punishment before the story was captioned ‘The End.’

In this issue, a young wife who’s trapped in a loveless marriage takes advantage of a sinkhole on their family farm. We then meet a talented surgeon who loses his arm and conducts dangerous experiments in an attempt to make himself whole again. Then a young man meets the woman of his dreams at a masquerade ball. But when it’s time to unmask, it becomes his worst nightmare.  Lastly, a weight loss remedy bears some dangerous fruit.

The masquerade story, entitled “the Mask of Horror” is such an example of a story in which a rather innocent man meets a tragic demise. The man is spurned by his finance whose is cheating on him with an older gentleman. Determined to get over the harlot, the bachelor goes to a party only to take his troubles off his failed relationship. It’s when a drunken friend introduces him to a woman dressed as a miserly vampire does things go sour. The guy forgets his troubles and feels that this woman is his true love. But the only thing he feels at story’s end is her fangs in his neck.

  The only thing that guy did was fall in love with another woman. But, I don’t see him as immoral because his first relationship was destroyed by his fiancé. Just because the guy didn’t end the relationship while his girl was in another man’s arms, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t kaput. Still, I am sure that the message of the story was a misogynistic “beware of wanton women” that was the moral of many of EC’s stories involving passion. In the sinkhole story, the woman falls in love with a handsome health inspector but he turns out to be married. The wife had previously killed her husband, faking his death in a sinkhole, but she is forced to be with her loveless hubby forever, when his bloated corpse rises from the household well and snatches her into the underground river below that formed the giant crevice.

EC was as nourish and ghoulish as they come and I loved it. I still do. My dad until he died took pride in how I saved my money doing odd jobs to buy the complete Vault of Horror Collection from Gemstone in the late 80s. It was the first time I ever set a financial goal and made smart decisions with my hard earned cash. Nowadays, I continue to save my money trying to collect the entire EC library that Gemstone reissued continuously from circa 1988-2000.

Along with the reprint of Vault of Horror #18, this edition also reprints Weird Science #11. In those pages, the great Wally Wood regales us with a futuristic story in which a uranium company condemns both the earth and the moon with its questionable mining practices. Then a computer system learns about love for the first time and gets terribly confused. Then a ship is stranded on a planet of giants while a man goes back in time and ends up becoming his own father in a head-scratcher that makes Terminator seem plausible.

Worth Consuming

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Frontline Combat #3 (Banned Comics Week)

My first selection for Banned Comics Week is one of the less controversial books published by EC Comics. FrontLine Combat showed the gritty face of war for what it was. It didn’t pull any punches. But unlike the crime and horror titles of EC, the war titles were nowhere near as gory or visually graphic. That didn’t mean that they pulled any punches either.

  In the opening tale “Tin Can’ a young sailor assigned to latrine duty likens Christ’s parable on how every member of a church is like a part of the body to the role of soldiers on a boat. But this young ensign’s role is tragically down-played when his destroyer is hit by an enemy mine. The next tale involves a group of American POWS trying to survive a long trek during the Korean War. Their decisions will mean life, death, or freedom. Then an old French farmer reflects on the many wars that have ensnared his native land while Joes trying to liberate his village during World War II.

But it’s the final story that is perhaps the most controversial. In the Desert Fox, artist and writer Wally Wood parallels the German General’s glorious time in Africa to the atrocities in Europe at the hands of his fellow Nazis. The final two pages of the story recall dozens of heinous murders of Jews, anti-Nazi sympathizers, and other minorities while reflecting on Rommel’s last week in Germany. Considered a national hero to the German people, Hitler was jealous place that Desert Fox had in the hearts of Germans nationwide and saw him as a possible usurper to his role as Furher.  Thus, Rommel was framed for an attempt assassination on Hitler and forced to commit suicide by poison, much like Socrates. Only, Rommel’s death was covered up and made to look like a stroke had taken the General’s life.

  These sorts of expose stories were what eventually led to EC Comics becoming a target of the American government and other civic minded peoples. In issue #26 of Weird Science-Fiction Fantasy, the entire issue was devoted to the ‘cover-up’ of UFOs by the American military. More than likely these flying saucers were experimental aircraft being tested by the Army and Air Force. But these if these sightings were confirmed then top secret projects would be in danger of being exposed. Thus, the military would do its best thing to dismay the American populace- deny, Deny, DENY. But by publically challenging the US Air Force with an entire issue of documented reports of flying saucers, it’s sure to not win you very many influential fans. (They also hired a decorated marine pilot by the name of Keyhoe to help with the publication of this issue and it almost led to the soldier’s court-martial.)

EC Comics was known to continue pushing the social envelope with morality plays and damning reports that hoped to challenge how people saw not only themselves but their government. This issue is just a small bit of evidence of how the publishing company and its owner William (Mad Magazine) Gaines were considered subversive and in need to be quieted. The first step to ending the rein of EC was slowly underway…

Worth Consuming

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.