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 2252: Bernie Wrightson and the nightmare horror

In the early 1970s, when picking up comics with Bernie Wrightson’s artwork, it was with an eye toward Wrightson’s influences, including Graham “Ghastly” Ingels of EC Comics fame. At the time EC Comics were very chic among many of the comic book cognoscenti, imitated in both fanzines and underground comix. I liked Wrightson’s work, even when it was mainstream, for Marvel or DC. I was pleased when I picked up House of Mystery #204, attracted by the blob-monster cover, and the story’s artwork, both by Bernie.

The art is good, but the story is weak. The shrewish wife tells her beleaguered husband of her nightmare, which turns out to be a premonition. That is not a new idea, and even at that time seemed hackneyed. But, I loved Bernie’s artwork, so I don’t care if “All in the Family” does not live up to the drawings. That was a common failing in DC’s so-called “mystery” stories (can’t call them “horror” because of the Comics Code). Joe Orlando, a former artist at EC Comics, was the editor of House of Mystery. I consider the cover for this issue to be in the EC tradition.

This past Saturday, October 27, 2018, would have been Bernard Albert Wrightson’s 70th birthday. Bernie got taken by brain cancer last year, a real-life nightmare and horror story. It took away his ability to draw, then took his life. Read the Bernie Wrightson obituary by his widow, Liz.

 I mentioned Joe Orlando and EC Comics above. Here’s a Halloween bonus for you, the original art for “The Craving Grave” from Tales from the Crypt #39 (1954). The story is written by Bill Gaines and Albert Feldstein, and drawn by Orlando.

The tale has an added dimension to its dead body digging her way out of a grave to go after her killers: it is told from the point of view of the grave. If you can believe that a corpse can drag living people into the grave, then you can also believe a grave can think.

What we know is true about “The Craving Grave” is it was sold on Heritage Auctions (from whence came these scans; thank you, Heritage) for $7,760.50.

Number 1770: Rocket to the Moon

Maza of the Moon, by Otis Adelbert Kline, is the source for Rocket to the Moon, an Avon one-shot comic from 1951. Kline, whose interplanetary novels emulated Edgar Rice Burroughs, was a literary agent in addition to author. Maza was published as a four-part serial in Argosy in 1929, then as a book in 1930.

Kline died in 1946, so he did not see later reprints of his works. Ace Books did a series of them in the early sixties, with attractive covers by the likes of Roy Krenkel and as you can see by the cover of Maza, Frank Frazetta

Reading Rocket to the Moon has the genre clichés: earthman on another planet, swordplay, and a beautiful princess...always. The earthman always wins the fight and always gets the princess. Hurrah for earthguys! It was a formula that worked in its day, and still has a certain nostalgic charm.

Unfortunately, comic book readers would not associate Kline’s name with this version, because it is left uncredited. You may remember another one-shot Avon adaptation I showed a few months ago, An Earthman on Venus, which left writer Ralph Milne Farley’s name off the comic book. The artwork for Rocket to the Moon is credited to Joe Orlando. The scans are from the 1964 IW Super Comics reprint, Strange Planets #12. The cover scan, which I found on the Heritage Auctions site, is from the original 1951 publication.