Number 2365: Fish Story

Alex Niño is one of the artists to come from the Philippines to American comic books in the 1970s. His style is unique, even among such an artistically talented bunch. DC editor, Joe Orlando, at some point threw up his hands and claimed he couldn’t tell what Niño was drawing. “Fish Story,” from Orlando-edited Secrets of Haunted House #1 (1975), while stylistically different from most other artists, is easy enough to follow. The six page story reminds me of not only the movie, Creature From the Black Lagoon, from 1954, but even writer/director Guillermo del Toro’s 2017 The Shape of Water. Written by Jack Oleck, “Fish Story” has its own twist.

Niño went from comic books to animation. According to online biographical information, he now paints. To go back to Joe Orlando’s opinion, some of the work Niño did, especially for Warren, was so ornate it was difficult to follow. I also feel some of his visions were so avant-garde for comic books that they impeded the story telling. But, I still like looking at it.

Another Filipino artist, Luis Dominguez, did the cover illustration.

Number 2075: Gloom and doom in the tomb

When Heritage Auctions sold the original art for “Tomb's-Day” in 2011, they said: “This shocker showcases art by Jack Davis at the peak of his career at EC. The bold ink work and attention to gritty detail that Davis put into every panel contrasted nicely with his signature cartoony style, perfect for the insanely hysterical faces of his ill-fated characters. The peerless portraits of the Crypt-Keeper are original art and not stats.”

As a fan of the late Jack Davis, it has always been fun for me to look at Davis’s early career — the foundation for his later success as a cartoonist and illustrator — through the pages of EC Comics. He came quickly to his mature style. He showed in the horror comics he could provide mood and suspense as well as laughs, as he did in Mad and Panic.

Thanks to Heritage for the scans I have appropriated from their site for the purposes of this post. The pages sold at auction in 2011 for $10,157.50. I showed them before, in 2012.

The story appeared in Vault of Horror #35 (1954). Script is credited to Jack Oleck.

Number 566


Forbidden Tales of Oleck and Alcala


A while back I showed you a couple of 1970s DC mystery stories by writer Jack Oleck and artist Alfredo Alcala, and because I admire both of them for their craft at horror, here are two more from that duo. "Head Of the House" is from Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion #9, and "The Monster" is from the subsequent issue, Forbidden Tales #10, both dated 1973.

"The Monster" is another from the same swamp that produced the 1940 Unknown story, "It!" by Theodore Sturgeon, which in turn influenced Air Fighters Comics' Heap, Swamp Thing, Man-Thing, Ring-A-Ding the Thing-Thing (that last one I made up), et al. The swamp monster is a genre unto itself. I like Oleck's snap ending to "Head Of the House" because of its ghoulishness. And what can I say about artwork by the late Alfredo Alcala except that it is always a joy, no matter the subject.

Number 538


Alex Niño


Alex Niño's angular, psychedelic style was probably the most unique of the Philippine comic artist invasion of the 1970s. He could take even the most routine script and turn it into something interesting. As I recall he had some trouble with editors over his style when he stretched his imagination too far, and made the stories difficult to decipher.

There's no problem with that here. These stories are written by Jack Oleck. "Fish Story" is from Secrets of the Haunted House #1 from '74, and "The Evil Power" is from Weird Mystery Tales #9, 1975.

Grantbridge Street has posted an Oleck/Niño DC story here.