Friday, November 29, 2019

Werewolf By Night #7: The Yaffa edition


Page Publications' digest-sized Werewolf By Night #7 was published in 1981:


The cover is from Marvel Comics' Werewolf By Night #20:


The contents are as follows:

Vampires on the Moon!, originally published in Werewolf by Night #19, July 1974
Eye of the Wolf!, originally published in Werewolf by Night #20, August 1974
One Werewolf's Cure... Another's Poison!, originally published in Werewolf by Night #21, September 1974

This issue also includes black and white prints of the relevant front covers. 

This is the cover to Werewolf By Night #21 without the Marvel comics trade dress and price and issue number  boxes:


The final page includes this cover, also without trade dress, caption boxes and price and issue number boxes:


Compare this to the cover of Werewolf By Night #19:


The GCD indexer notes that this cover has alterations to the faces of Werewolf and Dracula. It is difficult to be certain if the Yaffa edition is substantially different to the Marvel edition due to the reproduction quality, but it does appear to me that the eyeballs on each face are different, and the linework on the Earth in the background also appears to differ. Similarly to query over the cover on Yaffa's Werewolf By Night #8, I'd like to see clearer prints of the Marvel pre-production covers in order to make a firm call either way.

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Mr. and Mrs. Superman


Mr. and Mrs. Superman was a feature which ran in DC's The Superman Family series. It's a series which is probably best categorised as fondly remembered rather than one over which fanboys get passionately obsessive, but I do note that there have been calls once or twice for a trade paperback collection.

Maybe the closest we'll come to such a thing is this one-shot Murray Comics issue:


Mr. and Mrs. Superman was published c.December 1981. The cover is crudely enlarged from the small panel on the bottom right of the cover to The Superman Family #207:


The story contents are as follows:

The Turnabout Powers!, originally published in The Superman Family #207, June 1980
Lois Lane's Super-Risk, originally published in The Superman Family #195, May-June 1975
Editor of the Star, originally published in The Superman Family #196, July-August 1975
The Leaning Tower of Metropolis!, originally published in The Superman Family #198, November-December 1979
Susie's Flying Saucer!, originally published in The Superman Family #199, January-February 1980
The Magical Manhunters of Metropolis!, originally published in The Superman Family #210, September 1981
The Man Who Discovered Kryptonite!, originally published in The Superman Family #202, July-August 1980
The Critic Killer!, originally published in The Superman Family #203, September-October 1980
The Rescue of his Majesty, Johnny Thunder!, originally published in The Superman Family #204, November-December 1980
Catch a Falling Star!, originally published in The Superman Family #205, January-February 1981
Hostage of the Harlequin, originally published in The Superman Family #206, March-April 1981
The 5th-Dimensional Hijack!, originally published in The Superman Family #208, July 1981 

Instalments of this series appeared in many other Murray issues, most prominently in the Superman The Comic series, but also in various other one-shots such as Superman Family. There is also an instalment lurking rather unexpectedly in Federal Comics' Vigilante #6

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Be Outta Town Before Noon, Kid! - or the Queen's English will getcha!


Be Outta Town Before Noon, Kid! is a 7-page Two-Gun Kid story originally published in Two Gun Kid #54:


This story was reprinted in The Mighty Marvel Western #14:


As the indexer of the GCD entry notes, the Two-Gun Kid was redrawn in this edition, adding his mask and outfit to reflect his contemporary appearance. To illustrate, compare the figure of the Two-Gun Kid in the original version to the redrawn masked version:

Two-Gun Kid #54

Mighty Marvel Western #14

I don't have copies of these two issues, but I do have copies of this story as reprinted in Australia by Page Publications in the 1970's. Here's scans of the complete story:





Clearly these pages are as per the original Atlas version. Except...The title of this story is : Be Out Of Town... The Queen's English, y'know...

For comparison, here's scans of the splash page in the Atlas and Marvel editions respectively:



The scans above of the Australian edition are from my copy of Gunslinger Western #4:


It was published earlier in Maverick Western Library #7:


and in Tin Star Western Library #38:


All three Australian covers are by Keith Chatto, and they have nothing to do with Two-Gun Kid at all, which is fine by me. 

I'm sure there are other Page Publications digest-size editions of this issue to be unearthed, and there are possibly some regular-sized reprintings of this story, but I'm also curious whether there are pre-1971 Australian printings of this story in the various Transport/Horwitz series

Update 14 December 2022: This story was also published in Page Publications' Gunshot Western Library #33 under another Chatto cover:



Sunday, November 24, 2019

Monsters Unleashed #NN[4]: The Newton edition


Newton Comics' Monsters Unleashed #NN[4] was published c.March-April 1977:



The story contents are as follows:

The Invisible Man, originally published in Masters of Terror #2, September 1975
The Man Who Cried Werewolf!, originally published in Masters of Terror #2, September 1975
Monsters From The Sea, originally published in Monsters Unleashed Annual #1, 1975
Dig Me No Grave!, originally published in Masters of Terror #2, September 1975
Birthright!, originally published in Monsters Unleashed Annual #1, 1975
Terror Toons, originally published in Masters of Terror #2, September 1975
The Music of Erich Zann!, originally published in Masters of Terror #2, September 1975
His Own Kind!, originally published in Haunt of Horror #1, May 1974
[Pickman's Model], originally published in Masters of Terror #2, September 1975
The Last Man!, originally published in Haunt of Horror #1, May 1974
Lifeboat!, originally published in Monsters Unleashed Annual #1, 1975
To Love, Honor, Cherish... ...'Til Death, originally published in Monsters Unleashed Annual #1, 1975
Thunderbird, originally published in Monsters Unleashed Annual #1, 1975

All the stories attributed above to Masters of Terror #2 were previously published in other comics, and you can identify these by following the links to the GCD entries. However , there is a reason I have nominated Masters of Terror #2 as the original source. Consider the example of The Invisible Man, which was originally published in Supernatural Thrillers #2. Here's a scan of the splash page:


This is the version reprinted in Australia c.May 1978 in Page Publications' Supernatural Thrillers #1:


However, the version published in Newton's Monsters Unleashed #NN[4] has been modified thus:


This is the version published in Masters of Terror #2:


Consider also this two-page spread:


The splash page on the left is from His Own Kind!. This is the only page of this story in this issue. The page on the right is the second page of Pickman's Model. The rest of this story is included in this issue. I can confirm that this version of Pickman's Model is the version published in Masters of Terror #2. This version has greyscale shading, and black caption boxes similar to The Invisible Man.

I haven't confirmed any other such modifications to the other reprints in Masters of Terror #2, but based on these two samples, I am assuming they are most likely related to this source rather than the original printings. Consider also that Terror Toons is exclusive to Masters of Terror #2.

Similarly, many of the other stories were published in Monsters Unleashed Annual #1, which itself reprinted stories from previous issues of Monsters Unleashed. It may be for this reason that To Love, Honor, Cherish... ...'Til Death was reprinted twice by Newton - the previous time was in Monsters Unleashed #1.

This issue contains a number of single-page pinup/filler pages:

The Invincible Iron Man: 
This is from the cover of Marvel Comics' The Invincible Iron Man #8 and I expect it was earmarked as a Newton Comics Iron Man cover. It appeared on the cover of Page Publications' The Invincible Iron Man #3

The Silver Surfer: 
This had been published previously by Newton on the cover of The Silver Surfer #6.

The Mighty Thor:
 This is from the cover of Marvel Comics' Thor #129 and had previously been pressed into service as a Newton poster in Dracula #9.

The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu:
This is from the cover of Marvel Comics' The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #13 and was likely intended as a cover in the Newton series.

Dracula: 
This had previously been published on the cover of Newton's Dracula #4.

The inner and rear covers have non-comics advertisements as per my designated Set C of issues published February/March 1977.

The indicia title is Monsters Unleashed (without the exclamation mark) and does not include a Newton Comics date - it probably belongs in the white space after the Marvel copyright date. The indicia advises The issue is distributed by Gordon & Gotch. 

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Monsters Unleashed #2: The Newton edition


Newton Comics' Monsters Unleashed #2 is cover-dated February 1976:


The cover art is signed by Gray Morrow, however it differs significantly from the original cover on Marvel Comics' Monsters Unleashed #1:


The original painting is in the hands of a collector.

The Newton variant was subsequently published in Australia by Page Publications on the cover of Monsters Unleashed #1 (1978), which was itself reprinted as Monsters Unleashed #NN (1982):


The contents are as follows:

[A Tale of Two Monsters!], originally published in Monsters Unleashed #7, August 1974
The Monster in the Mist!, originally published in Astonishing #60, April 1957 [Monsters Unleashed #7] August 1974 
The Frankenstein Legend, originally published in Monsters Unleashed #7, August 1974 
Bleeding Stones, originally published in Monsters Unleashed #7, August 1974 
Madness Under a Mid-Summer Moon, originally published in Monsters Unleashed #7, August 1974
Blind Man's Bluff!, originally published in Monsters Unleashed #7, August 1974
Fever in the Freak House, originally published in Monsters Unleashed #8, October 1974 
The Jewel That Snarled At Slight Greed, originally published in Monsters Unleashed #9, December 1974 


The Frankenstein Legend is a text and photo article. Madness Under a Mid-Summer Moon is an illustrated prose story.

This printing of A Tale of Two Monsters! omits the title at the bottom of the first page:


The Hulk poster in this issue is relatively common, having appeared a few times in various issues, and hails from the cover of Newton Comics' The Incredible Hulk #10:


This issue includes the following in-house advertisements: 




Doctor Strange #10 

Rounding out this issue is a subscription page, two letters pages, a t-shirt offer and a contest with the expiry date 21 February 1976.

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Monsters Unleashed #1: The Newton edition


Newton Comics' Monsters Unleashed #1 was published 27 December 1975:


The cover is from Marvel Comics' Monsters Unleashed #5:


The contents are as follows:

Web of Hate, originally published in Monsters Unleashed #4, February 1974 
A Monster Reborn!, originally published in Monsters Unleashed #4, February 1974 
The Monster Maker - A Review of Ray Harryhausen's Film Fantasy Scrapbook, originally published in Monsters Unleashed #4, February 1974
To Love, Honor, Cherish... ...'Til Death!, originally published in Monsters Unleashed #4, February 1974 
All the Faces of Fear!, originally published in Monsters Unleashed #5, April 1974
Our Martian Heritage: An Excursion into Fantasy, originally published in Monsters Unleashed #4, February 1974
Demon of Slaughter Mansion!, originally published in Monsters Unleashed #5, April 1974
Darkflame!, originally published in Monsters Unleashed #6, June 1974
[The] Dinosaur Dictionary, originally published in Monsters Unleashed #6, June 1974
Werewolf Tale To End All Werewolf Tales!, originally published in Journey into Unknown Worlds #29, July 1954 [Monsters Unleashed #5, April 1974] 

The Monster Maker, Our Martian Heritage and [The] Dinosaur Dictionary are non-comics text and photo features. [The] Dinosaur Dictionary is three double-page spreads. The fifth page is duplicated, slightly enlarged, and tacked onto the end as filler, effectively making this a 7-page feature.

The poster in this issue is a black and white print of the cover to Newton's X-Men #3:


Oddly it says First Edition Kung Fu in the modified Marvel Collector Classic stamp slot.

The following in-house advertisements are also in this issue:



A subscription page, t-shirt offer and contest round out the issue.

This issue was advertised in-house:

This ad is scanned from The Incredible Hulk #14.

This issue was also advertised alongside The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1 in the Sunday Observer 28 December 1975:


The publication date was also announced in the December 1975 letter column.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Werewolf By Night #8: The Yaffa variant cover


This is the cover to Marvel Comics' Werewolf By Night #22:


The GCD listing credits John Romita with alterations on Werewolf's face.

Compare this image to the cover of Page Publications' Werewolf By Night #8:


As you can see there are distinct differences in some of the linework, prominently so on Atlas' eyes.

I'm guessing the Yaffa cover is a pre-production image which inadvertently leaked onto the Australian market. Or maybe the alterations are by Yaffa staffers. I'm not sure. If the pre-Romita art exists I'd love to see it to settle this query.

This issue was published late-1981 and reprints the main features from Werewolf By Night #'s 22-24. The splash page is omitted from this printing of Face of the Fiend.