Number 1011


Reptisaurus and the jungle love triangle


This entertaining Charlton comic is new to me, even though it was published in '63, when I was visiting the comic book spinner rack in my local drug store every week. I missed a monster book where the monster, Reptisaurus, is almost a bit player in the story, and the main plot involves a love triangle. Rich man, his blonde fiancée, and a white hunter who bags the babe! Oh yeah...they also figured in some Aztecs who worship Reptisaurus.

The artwork is by Montes and Bache. I don't know the work of Bill Montes at all, and what I know about Ernie Bache is that he worked with Dick Ayers during Ayers' original 1950's Ghost Rider days. A quick search of the internet didn't turn up any information on Bill Montes, and all I found about Bache is what I already knew. If anyone knows if these two men are still around please let me know.

A criticism I have is of the ashen gray the colorist made the Aztecs. I know this portrait I found online is heroic, glorified artwork, but it's probably closer to the real Aztecs than Charlton's colorist made them.

There were 6 issues of a Reptisaurus comic in 1962; Montes and Bache drew the last two issues, preceding this "special edition." From Reptisaurus Special Edition #1, 1963:






















Ernie Bache also inked this four-page humor strip from Charlton's Abbott and Costello #5, penciled by Grass Green. Grass was an early member of comics fandom, one of the first fans to attempt to turn pro. Most comics companies were by then closed shops, and what work he got was sporadic at best. I think the Steve Skeates script is funny, and Grass' artwork with Bache's inks serves it well.

Number 470


Who's afraid of the big bad werewolves


Karswell started this, posting horror stories from the '70s DC's, so I'm just following along behind him. It was his idea, really. I'm using him for inspiration.

Here are two werewolf stories, picked out because (1) they both have great Bernie Wrightson werewolf covers; (2) I like werewolves, and (3) because I own a page of the original artwork from "Way Of the Werewolf" from House of Mystery #231. It's by Gerry Talaoc, and demonstrates how the muddy coloring and printing of the 1970s obscured some really fine artwork. I've shown this page before, but it's worth looking at again.


"Deadly Stalkers Of the North" is drawn by Ricardo Villamonte and gives Wrightson an opportunity to draw three wolves on the cover. Weird Mystery Tales #21 has a cover date of August 1975, while House of Mystery #231 is dated May 1975. So 1975 was a good year for werewolves.