Sgt Spook vs Suez, Master Magician!

From "Blue Bolt Comics volume 2 # 3", it's Sergeant Spook by Macolm Kildale, who was the artist that also drew Speed Centaur for Centaur Publications. He was the artist who worked with John Giunta on Centaur's first story of Jane, The Magician From Mars, found in "Amazing-Man Comics 7". At Hillman, he worked on The Steel Shark, found in "Victory Comics". Mr Kildale contributed the Spitfire story in "Spitfire Comics" published by John F. Mahon (although most Historians attribute Spitfire Comics to Harvey Comics ... which I don't agree with). Out of all of Kildale's work, which really doesn't add-up a lot, Sgt. Spook is probably my favorite. That's most likely due to the fact that the villains he faced were as interesting as he was.

And just so my loyal readers know (do I have any?), I have the balance of the year planned-out in regards to what stories I'll be posting. On average, there will be at least four stories every week to help distract everyone from reality for a few mintues.

Satana's Fatal Beauty

From "The Beyond # 14" comes yet another Tale of Terror!!! "Satana's Fatal Beauty" is, by the way, my favorite story from this issue. As I said previously, I'm not a huge horror comic fan, and before picking-up this issue of The Beyond, the only horror comics you would find in my collection was "Asylum" from Millenium Publications, unless you count John Ostrander & Tom Mandrake's Spectre series a horror comic ... which I pretty much don't.

And now it's time to show how "My Opinion Doesn't Matter" regarding Horror Movies.

Only a handful of days away from Halloween, and I still haven't watched any horror movies (wait! Does "Spawn" count as horror?). That's partly because none of the networks want to show anything when I want to watch it, and partly because I have twin toddlers who I would prefer not exposing to that kind of thing just yet. While I might not love horror comics, I do enjoy a good horror film, and here are some of my favorites (minus the one I can never remember the title of or who was even in it):

The Blair Witch Project: I know some people don't like this film, but I think it is one of the greatest films I've ever seen because it was presented in a "this really happened" kind of way. Oh, and just so you know, I thought the sequel ok, but I would have preferred the producers to have taken the same approach as the first movie rather than making a traditional horror film.

Phantasm: The first one only, because I can't take the sequels seriously. "The Ball is Back"? Like, someone thought "Phantasm" was only about a flying steel ball?

White Noise: What creeps me out about this movie is not so much the movie itself, but the whole idea of EVP (aka Electronic Voice Phenomenon). I take everything with a grain of salt, but when you experience something like that first-hand without the intention of actually trying to discover if "The Dead" really can talk back, it makes you wonder if it's possible.

Amityville Horror: I used to watch this over and over again as a kid.

Exorcist III: George C. Scott was a great actor and is probably the only reason I ever bothered to watch this movie.

Vault of Horror: I only first caught this movie a couple of years ago on cable and I was surprised by how many actors I recognized from other movies and tv shows. It's not overly terrrifying (unless Dr Who's Tom Baker scares you), but it does contain a nice group of well-written short stories.

The Ring: One of the few newer horror movies that I enjoy watching now and then.

The Omen: It's a classic.

Salem's Lot: The original with David Soul. I'm not into Stephen King like everybody else seems to be, but this is my favorite movie that was adapted from his work ("It" would be the only other one I like).

And finally, The Thing: With Kurt Russel and those poor dogs.

Fanged Nemesis of The North!

"Fanged Nemesis of the North" is another story from Ace's "The Beyond # 14". The Beyond series lasted 30 issues, starting with # 1, cover-dated November 1950, and ending with issue # 30, cover-dated January 1955.

The Beyond 14: The Gong of Singh Chlam

With Halloween a little over a week away, it wouldn't be right not to post something horror-related this week. Luckily, I have one Golden Age horror comic in my collection which I can share with everyone.

Trying to get my hands on Golden Age horror books has been more than annoying.
See, the problem starts with the fact that I'm fairly cheap and don't like spending a lot of money one a single comic book. You'ld think a place like eBay would make life easier, but it doesn't. There are tons of fans of Horror Comics, but only so many of those comics to go around (you'ld think a current comic publisher would get a clue and start reprinting those books). More often than not, bidding gets pretty heated, and it doesn't take long for a horror book to go beyond what I'm willing to pay for one, which isn't a lot to begin with. While I like reading horror stories now and then, I'm not a big enough fan of any title or creator to go "I gotta have that book" and fight for it. Well, one day I lucked-out and I was able to win "The Beyond # 14" (published with a "August 1952" cover-date by Unity Publishing Corp aka Ace Periodicals), which I now begin to share with the entire world, starting with ...

Hydroman

From "Heroic Comics # 28" (January 1945) comes this adventure of Hydroman, published by The Eastern Color Printing Company. Hydroman first appeared in Heroic Comics # 1 (August 1940) and ran straight-through to issue 29 (March 1945). Towards the end of his run, he would team-up with Rainbow Boy, who unfortunately (or not, if you don't like Rainbow Boy) does not appear in the following story.

Hydroman was created by Bill Everett, who is known for creating a character or two for other comic companies back in the day. By the time issue 28 of Heroic came-out, Everett was long gone and other artists were drawing the strip. In today's comic world, Dynamite Entertainment has taken Hydroman and featured him quite heavily in their "Project Superpowers" series.

Nightmare & Sleepy

From "Clue Comics # 5" comes Nightmare & Sleepy vs The Crooked Nine! Published by Hillman Periodicals, Nightmare first appeared in Clue Comics # 1, cover-dated "January 1943", and last appeared in Clue Comics volume 2 number 2, dated "April 1947". Just so you know, issue # 6 contains two Nightmare stories. Oddly, there were no issues of Clue Comics produced during 1945, as the title rarely was published on a regular basis.

Nightmare, who was professional wrestler Bob White (Terry Wake, his "boy manager", was Sleepy), wore two different costumes during his Golden Age run. He first appeared in his second costume in issue # 7. I personally prefer his original skeleton-based costume, as do most fans of the character.













Want to see me post more Golden Age Nightmare stories? Then you better place your vote in the poll!

Text Story Bonanza!

Text stories seem to get over-looked by a lot of folks, so that's why I'm jamming them down everyone's throat today! In this post, you're getting NOT only one, not just two, not even simply three text stories, but FIVE text stories, all involving superheroes.

See, back in the day, comic book publishers would throw-in a text story, not as a way to fill-up the issue (there was plenty of one-page humor strips for that), but as a way to get their comics reclassified so they could get cheaper mail rates from the post office. Did kids & adults back then read the text stories? I don't know, but for at least one character, they were the only stories you were ever going to see of them.

Of the five stories I'm posting, three were posted here before: Aman the Amazing Boy from "Amazing-Man Comics # 10" [March 1940;, Black Terror from "Black Terror # 26" [April 1949] and Dr Darkness. Only Dr Darkness NEVER appeared in anything other than a text story (well, to my knowledge, anyway). His first appearance, according to the Grand Comic-Book Database, was in "Keen Detective Funnies 24" [September 1940], the last issue of that title. While goldenagecomics.co.uk has that issue available for free downloads, their file does not include the good Doctor's tale. His last appearance was in "Fantoman 4" [December 1940], which is the story I'm posting here today.

The other two stories I'm sharing are from "Black Cat # 22" [April 1950] and the Sub-Zero story from "Blue Bolt Comics volume 2 issue 3" [August 1941].

Oh, and don't forget to vote in the "Should I post stories from Golden Age comics that I don't own?" poll. Your vote could be the one that makes a difference!