Number 2460: Eye see you, Steel Claw!

The Steel Claw was an English superhero who was also a spy. Louis Crandell dressed like James Bond, but with a steel hand. And except for the hand he could become invisible.

In his original incarnation for the weekly Valiant he lasted from 1962 to 1973, but since then has been revived a few times. I got that information from Wikipedia, but otherwise I know very little about the Steel Claw. What attracted me to the character was the story in Valiant Space Special from 1967. I like that big walking eye. It certainly caught my eye!

No credits given for writing or drawing.

Number 2459: Johnny Craig on the EC frontier

Artist Johnny Craig joined the EC gang early on, like fellow artist Graham Ingels, editor/writer/artist Al Feldstein, and of course, William Gaines, who had inherited the job as owner/publisher when his father died in 1947.

Later on, as EC grew in popularity and sales, biographies were published of the individual artists. The biography of Johnny Craig on the last page of “Colorado Rose” looks to be a warm-up for the later biographies. (I can’t tell you if this was the only one from the early, pre-horror comics EC, because I am too lazy to look it up. How is that for not doing my homework?)

Craig was a good artist, but according to even Craig himself, he was slow. Later on he both wrote and drew, showing his talent at both, and even took over as editor of The Vault of Horror. Except for the sharp illustrations, “Colorado Rose” seems like a standard early EC story, which followed the trends of the rest of the comic book industry with  a Western comic to go along with a couple of crime comics and even a love comic.

I appreciate the artist biographies more now, because those were the days when comic books were under siege by Dr Wertham, teachers and parents, and later even the Congress of the United States. Guys like Johnny Craig, as well as the rest of the gang, could have chosen to remain anonymous, but they signed their work. Considering the times, I think Craig and his fellow artists were brave.

From Saddle Justice #5 (1949):

Number 2458: Going crazy for horror comics

I was reminded recently that artist Steve Stiles died in January, 2020 at age 76. In 1991 he did some horror comics work for publisher Bruce Hamilton, who is also deceased. Stiles, who began his art career as a comics fan, could draw in a variety of styles lovingly based on the work of other artists. The stories I am showing today are an homage to the EC horror comics.

This is a what I wrote about Stiles in the Pappy blog for December 28, 2011:

Steve Stiles is an artist I first encountered in early '60s science fiction fanzines.Years later I saw his artwork popping up in underground comix, alternative comics, even Heavy Metal magazine.

In '91 and '92 Bruce Hamilton published some black and white horror comics, Grave Tales, Dread of Night and Maggots. There were only eight total issues of the three titles, and Stiles had stories in five of them.

Both of the stories I'm showing today are about insanity and comic book artists. "Black and White and Red All Over" combines art styles of Jack Davis, Graham Ingels and Johnny Craig in homage to EC Comics. It's from Grave Tales #2 (1991), and is written by Eric Dinehart. "Perchance to Dream," published in Maggots #3, is written by Russ Miller. Both stories are lettered by Bill Pearson.

Number 2457: The weird tale of the witchy woman

I don’t know when the first comic book horror story appeared. When evaluating old stories one may have different definitions of what “horror” is. I tend to think of comic book horror as it was found in EC Comics and their myriad imitators. In creating their horror comics Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein of EC supposedly talked about a radio program they both liked, The Witch’s Tale, and that was their springboard. The Witch’s Tale featured Old Nancy as the witch. The old witch in this story does not have a name, just a story to tell. I presume one could imagine any witchy-sounding cackling noises.

“Weird Tales, The Tale of the Haunted Inn” is from Hit Comics #1 (1940). It’s likely they swiped the witch from the radio show, and the title of the feature from Weird Tales, the pulp magazine.

Number 2456: Space cowboys to the rescue!

I love an oddball comic. Space Western took two popular genres, cowboys and science fiction, and blended them. The numbering of the series, which lasted 6 issues, came from Charlton’s Cowboy Western.

The series was created by Walter Gibson, who was also the writer of the long-running pulp magazine, The Shadow, writing as Maxwell Grant. And here I thought the stories of the Shadow were a stretch for credibility!

This story, from Space Western #41 (1952), by Walter Gibson and Stan Campbell, is full of the craziness for which Space Western is known. Intelligent cacti from Venus come to earth to get an atom bomb, which Spurs and his gang are supposed to guard. You have a notion of how such a story will go when it is based on such a premise.

More Spurs! Just click on the thumbnail.