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. 

2 comments:

Robert Thomas said...

Terrific write up and background of source material. I'm now on the hunt for Supernatural Thrillers both Marvel and Yaffa. Have you done a blog entry on the Yaffa editions?

spiros xenos said...

Thanks Robert. I'll get onto the Yaffas soon... So many Newtons yet to cover.