Lilith: The Starter Wife

The legend of Lilith is an old one going way back in one form or another for several thousands of years. While the origin and version of the story of Lilith is open to interpretation in Marvel Comics continuity she was the very first vampire, cursed to be immortal and drink the blood and life of her victims.

This Lilith is not the same one who would later be known as the daughter of Marvel's Dracula character. The Lilith as described in Vampire Tales #4 (April 1974) would make another appearance in Marvel Graphic Novel #20 (1985) as the demon who guided and influenced Martin Greenberg, the novelist vampire.

Read more about Lilith here.

Book of Revelation in 3-D!

Nothing says Halloween like shock horror, and for the very best one should look no further than the Bible! In the 1950s one of the art jobs that Basil Wolverton accepted was to illustrate passages from the Christian Bible for Ambassador Press. This project likely came about after the market for the lurid and ultra-violent comic books he was used to illustrating dried up in the wake of parent groups and politicians interfering with subject matter they deemed inappropriate for children. Of all the work he did for that company his illustrations depicting Armageddon from the Book of Revelation have garnered the most attention. Wolverton, a master of stomach-churning illustration outdid himself in this instance.

Presumably the same demographic who got the vapors over a corpse being manipulated by an alien Brain Bat from Venus had no problem with the far more horrifying imagery he created for the Christian market. I never accepted the joyful glee and anticipation of horrible death on a planetary scale that so many fundamentalists embrace. While Wolverton worked on the Bible project for several years usually only a few pages of his highly detailed work are readily available for study. While copies of these pages in color or black and white can be located here and there it is most unusual is to find this art in a 3-D format. While the 3-D panels are an interesting novelty it is the full color versions that are the most horrific. You can read a bit more about Basil Wolverton and view some other illustrations from that project here.

You will need the traditional red-and-blue 3-D glasses that I posted about previously to fully experience the End Times for yourself. Enjoy!

Click the pictures to bring about the Apocalypse!

Ambassador Press (1955).

She's so popular with all the boys

I don't know how oblivious a woman would be to wear these shoes with the highly reflective mirrors built right into the the tops of the toes. Then again, 90% of what this store sells seems to cater to the weekend party-skank crowd so this style may be entirely intentional.

By the way, wandering the Ladie's section of a shoe store with a camera sure gets you some wary looks from the staff.

Found on the rack at a shoe store 10-3-08, San Diego.

No, but I read the Special Edition

Being awesome, Bully recently sent me the really sweet Ghost Word Special Edition hardcover from Fanatagraphics. For Ghost World fans this is a pretty nice collection that contains some extras that are either out of print or in separate, hard to find collections. One of the interesting additions to this issue is the screenplay for the film. There are also notes, poster art and many other nifty things included. For anyone else not familiar with Daniel Clowes or do not believe how good a comic book format story can be this edition is a good place to start learning. The story also contains mature subject matter that is not unnecessarily gratuitous.

I doubt I can add much in the way of a review for Daniel Clowes' most popular work, Ghost World. Whatever my understanding of it is may be 180 degrees from any other review, essay or article ever written on the subject. I first read Ghost World when it came out in the trade many years ago. Even though I was pretty much disgusted and done with comics back then (Thanks, Marvel!) I was intrigued by the buzz and liked what I read.

To be clear though, Ghost World is not, as Bully would opine, FUN. It is a good piece of work even though it can be emotionally painful to read. Ghost World is full of sad, unhappy and dissatisfied people. At least, it is if you subscribe to Enid's outlook on things. Because how could anyone be happy if Enid is miserable? While consisting of an ensemble cast Enid treats everyone as if they are shadows or constructs that exist only when she is looking directly at them. The stories are also very voyeuristic in nature and the reader is as much attracted as they would be repulsed by Enid's disdainful, hipster viewpoint.

Yet Clowes makes it clear that not everyone is like Enid as much as she believes they are. That is what is intriguing about Ghost World. One almost hates the sense of superiority that Enid displays towards everything and anything. She works very hard in finding a reason to feel contempt towards all things, including herself, but she is loathe to change anything. The story is also about fear. Enid is frightened that the future very well could be great and that all her time bitching, judging and moaning about the state of things was a waste of time and that she is at fault and not the world around her. Ghost World is not so much a story about coming of age but of leaving behind preconceptions and entering maturity. Eventually, even the most unaware individual catches a glance at themselves in the mirror in an unguarded moment and realizes they were almost always full of crap. When forced to accept that she may have to leave her unhappy, though comfortable and unchanging life, Enid artfully avoids any meaningful reflection until she effectively wanders into a hall of mirrors with a hammer concealed in her purse.

While I bought the first collection and read it, I also purchased yet failed to completely watch the film version starring Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson when it came out on DVD. When I played it the movie was mostly on in the background for noise, much like when I place Serenity in the DVD player. I think I've semi-watched both films about 15 times each, without actually watching them in their entirety.

On an aside, I expect that when the Ghost World DVD is next re-issued I imagine the credit for lead actress of Birch will be relegated to a smaller type size in favor of a blurb stating STARRING SCARLETT JOHANSSON in great big letters (much like the names of Julia Roberts now appear on the slip-case for the Justine Bateman vehicle Satisfaction and likewise Jack Nicholson for The Little Shop of Horrors). It's funny to see movies again when a player was in the beginning of or a lull in their career to be hyped as the star, when originally they may have only appeared in one scene as Victim #3 or something like that. That's marketing, though.

You can get your own copy of the Ghost World Special Edition here at Fantagraphics. Do it. You'll be cooler than all the other kids.

Hemingway introduces Kiki

Galaxy Magazine (June 1951).

Hair Hygiene

Published 1945.

Friday Catblogging: War of Human cats

Fantastic Adventures (August 1940).
Story by Festus Pragnell with art from Jay Jackson.

Going to the chapel

Waiting for the taxi in 100 degree heat (Korea 1987).

Pack of weirdies

Brain Power in 3-D

Hey, Kids! Time to break out the old 3-D glasses for a trip into the retro-future!

Brain Power is a nifty little science fiction tale published in True 3D #1 way back in December of 1953! If I was alive then, I would have enjoyed one of these in my stocking that Christmas!

True 3-D was an experiment in the "3-Dimensional" experience by Harvey Comics that lasted all of two issues. In the 1950s comic books and the cinema both made attempts during that era to drum up some extra business through gimmicks and bizarre, if not outright fraudulent, stunts. The 3-D craze didn't last long as consumers swiftly realized that the special effects didn't really ad anything to the product other than being a cheap novelty and for the average B-Movie and Grade-C comic book the extra expense of producing the effects may have been prohibitive.

Yet 3-D is an aspect of entertainment that refuses to fade completely away. 3-D has made several temporary resurgences, and comes in cycles. 3-D appeared most recently in the film Journey to the Center of the Earth. The graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier and the Superman: Beyond comic book mini used 3-D effects to further the story. For my money the 3-D experience I've enjoyed the most were those great Viewmaster Donald Duck slides of years past.

Brain Power as I've reproduced it here is best enjoyed using the traditional red and blue 3-D glasses. I used them and the story looked great on the monitor. In some panels the printing process is a bit off but it still an enjoyable read with a surprise, shocking twist ending sure to send a tingle up the spine of the reader! If you don't have the glasses then you can easily make some out of colored plastic. The ingenious could even print out some colored shapes suitable for use if they used the right printing media. FYI, the polarized dark lenses you can get at a movie theater won't work.

Finding 3-D glasses or colored plastic of the correct hue in San Diego was pretty difficult. I was having no luck finding what I needed at various party, craft and retail stores and I was getting disappointed. Also, angry. There was some interactive Hannah Montana thing that had 3-D glasses but there was no way I was buying stuff that expensive just for the cheap spectacles. So I stopped into one of those San Diego comic book shops that sell more stuff than just comics to see if they had any. I asked the proprietor if they had any 3-D glasses and he did not, but ever the sales-person, reminded me that Superman: Beyond #1 was published a few weeks earlier. I checked out the copy to make sure it still retained the special glasses and then purchased it. The proprietor cautioned me not to break apart the cardboard glasses and that I should keep the book intact as is because "the magazine was a collector's item and would be sure to appreciate in value."

Sure, dude. Maybe so, but I just can't take seriously the advice of any comic book store owner that doesn't maintain their own humorous comic book web blog.

Click the images to make them...Well, you know.

Enjoy!

Found Photo: Emily and Sami

If you lost a photo at the Clairemont Town Square in San Diego this week I found it over by the place that sells the juice slushies. The back reads:

Emily 5 1/2 m
Sami 4 1/2
Christmas 07'

Don't fret that you were careless and forever lost a memento of a very special memory! Just print this photo out and it is like you never lost it. No need for thanks, I'm a gentleman in that way.

Investigate Accidents

Fantastic Universe (March 1960).

Queen of the Super Females

Mapy Cortes as Reina Eva XLV, queen of a hidden island science utopia populated entirely by women.


From the 1946 Spanish film El Sexo Fuerte aka Super Females.

How embarassing

Return of the Whispering Gorilla

In the original pulp story The Whispering Gorilla a crime-victim had his brain transplanted into the body of a gorilla. After fighting crime while becoming something of a celebrity the hero suffered a brutal beating at the hands of the local police, causing brain damage which reverted his human brain to that of a wild animal. When last seen, the Whispering Gorilla was being returned to Africa and set free to live among other apes in the hope that he would at last find peace. What no one anticipated is that the injuries suffered by "W. G." were temporary and he soon regained his human intelligence.

In the February 1943 issue of Fantastic Adventures the tale Return of the Whispering Gorilla was published. In this issue "W.G." is found alive and well (as well as a human brain can be after being placed into the body of a giant primate) in Africa. "W.G." is still fighting crime though this time it isn't petty mobsters he is attacking. This time he is fighting the incursions of the organized criminal cabal of the Nazi invasion into Africa.

In the 1940 issue of Fantastic Adventures the story was credited to Don Wilcox. In the sequel three years later it is David V. Reed penning the story with "permission by Don Wilcox". While many pulp stories are hit-and-miss when it comes to quality the move from the Whispering Gorilla as a Shadow-like mystery man to an heroic defender of the realm is welcome. Any sequel that features a gorilla pummeling Nazis is automatically superior to the original entry.


BONUS! "Introducing the Author" page profiling David Reed and featuring Fantastic Adventures editor Julius Schwartz many years before his tenure at DC Comics.

A dog's gotta do what a dog's gotta do

"Go. I've got this."

Superman #680. Best comic of the year.

Metal men vs. The Walking Dead

All I can say is, this idea came from one of the most terrifying, exciting and awesome dreams I've had in years. I don't know what anyone else dreams about, but one sequence that stuck with me after waking was of Platinum drawing herself out into a fine wire and looping herself around a horde of zombies, then tightening up and cleanly slicing them all into neatly stacked patties of zombie meat.

Sacrilege Lands - Never Surrender

Grocery Store Artifact: FAIL

The spell check function is useless if you don't understand when a word is spelled differently it has a different meaning.

Unless we were in coal country. I'd sell smokes, booze, fireworks, spray paint and sharp objects to anyone brave enough to go a mile underground and work under those conditions.

Rod Baby

My Life #6 (January 1949).

Twinkle and the Lonesome House of Shadows

AND THEN ROM SHOWS UP...

From Calling all Kids #26 (August 1949) and ROM, Spaceknight #5 (April 1980).

Some context for the noobs.

LN-18 and her Wonderbird

Young Maureen O'Sullivan as LN-18, a typical teenager of the year 1980, and her sweet ride from the 1930 film Just Imagine.

Sacrilege Lands - Glamour

Some more "proof of concept" imagery for Sacrilege Lands.

You would think after 21 years of marriage my wife would stop insisting I created this image only to justify to her all those pictures of David Boreanaz I was downloading.

Friday Night Fights: Lock and load hands, and come out fightin'!

GUN HANDS.
SOMEDAY.

From New America #4 (March 1988).

Friday Night Fights: Ladies Night, Round 7!

Eva Bartok

Eva Bartok. Hungarian. Concentration Camp survivor. Space Girl.

From the film Spaceways (1953).

Sacrilege Lands - Military Working Arachnid

Weird and Headless

Amazing Stories - The Headless Horror (May 1944).

Conan vs. Terminator

I was looking through my collection of Savage Sword of Conan magazines and one cover by Earl Norem (see it here) in particular gave me an idea. The ethereal specter of death hovering over the plain in the background of the battle scene could easily be the skull of a T-100. The bodies of the slain heaped up beneath Conan's heels could be not only Hyperborean warriors but the chassis of wrecked Terminator soldiers as well.


A Conan vs. Terminator film would be rad. I'd pay to see the film twice or more. I'd eat the marketing tie-in Happy Meals. I'd buy all the novelization and comic book adaptations plus the ensuing series and one-shots. I'd fall for every Special Edition and Director's Cut re-issue of the DVD. I'd purchase two each of all the toys (one to play with, one to keep in original packaging). No matter how stupid or useless any product some soulless clown in a licensing office thought up in connection with the Conan vs. Terminator franchise I would buy it, and be glad to do it.

Original art elements by Earl Norem and Paul Gulacy.