Werewolf by Night

Werewolf by Night #15 (March, 1974)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

The second and concluding chapter of Marvel Comics’ 1973 crossover between Tomb of Dracula and Werewolf by Night introduces itself with a spectacular cover by Mike Ploog: one that epitomizes Marvel’s early-’70s horror trend as well or better than any other I can think of; and, truth be told, one of my very favorite covers in any genre from this particular era of comics.

Beyond the cover, writer Marv Wolfman, penciller Ploog, and inker Frank Chiaramonte pick up the story right where Wolfman, penciller Gene Colan, and inker Tom Palmer left off at the end of ToD #18, with our two series’ protagonists quite literally at each other’s throats: Read More

Tomb of Dracula #18 (March, 1974)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

I suppose we should probably begin today’s post by acknowledging that the battle between two of Marvel Comics’ biggest horror stars — the vampiric Count Dracula and the lycanthropic Jack Russell — that ran through that duo’s respective titles in November and December of 1973 wasn’t quite the first time that two of Marvel Comics’ monstrous headliners faced off with one another.  That distinction belongs instead to Frankenstein #8, which beat ToD #18 to the stands by just one month. Even so, while that comics’ Gary Friedrich-John Buscema tale certainly had its charms, it was set in the 19th century, and didn’t cross over from one monster’s title to the other’s; instead, the dust-up between Drac and the Frankenstein Monster concluded in the following bi-monthly issue of Frankenstein itself, which came out in December.  For those two reasons, it didn’t feel quite as special as the almost-concurrent Tomb of Dracula/Werewolf by Night crossover — at least, it didn’t to your humble blogger, either then or now.  (Naturally, your own mileage may vary, but for better or worse, the Dracula/Werewolf event is the one I’ve opted to write about.)  Read More

Werewolf by Night #14 (February, 1974)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

It’s been over a year since we last looked in on our favorite teenage werewolf, Jack Russell, so we have a bit of catching up to do before we get into our discussion of today’s main topic.  Following issue #3‘s conclusion of the extended plotline concerning the Darkhold — the mystical bound volume that had acted as a MacGuffin for most of the series’ early run — subsequent installments had seen Jack involved in a succession of one or two-part adventures that usually involved his younger sister Lissa (who learned Jack’s lycanthropic secret in issue #4) and/or his best friend Jack Cowan (who had to wait until issue #12 to get clued in regarding that vital info).  On the creative end, the feature’s original writer-artist team of Gerry Conway and Mike Ploog, who’d been on board ever since the Werewolf’s three-issue tryout in Marvel Spotlight, came to an end with #4; while Ploog remained the book’s penciller for three more issues, Conway was succeeded by Len Wein, who served as writer through #8.  That last issue was drawn by Werner Roth as his one and only effort on the title; the next saw the arrival of a new artist — Tom Sutton — who was joined by an “old” writer — Gerry Conway.  (As a side note, the same month that Werewolf by Night #8 came out saw the Werewolf meet Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up #12 — a Conway-Wein collaboration that firmly established Jack Russell’s adventures as taking place in the main Marvel Comics continuity.)  Read More

Werewolf by Night #3 (January, 1973)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Back in September of last year, we took a look at Marvel Spotlight #2 (Feb., 1972), the comic book in which the feature “Werewolf by Night” made its debut.  That issue introduced readers to Jack Russell, a modern Los Angeles teenager who, on his eighteenth birthday, made the very unwelcome discovery that he’d inherited the curse of lycanthropy from his late father, who’d been a baron in some unnamed European locale (eventually revealed to be — where else? — Transylvania) before being slain by silver bullets.  We also met Jack’s younger sister, Lissa — who might share his curse — as well as his stepfather, Philip, whom both we and Jack were led to suspect by the end of this premiere episode might well be responsible for the death of Jack and Lissa’s mother, Laura, in an automobile accident.

Most of the key concepts, then, as well as the characters, that would drive storylines not only through this then-new feature’s three-issue run in Marvel Spotlight, but into the earliest issues of its own title as well, can be found in its first installment, as scripted by Gerry Conway (from a plot by Roy and Jean Thomas) and drawn by Mike Ploog.  But there was one key ingredient to the series’ early continuity that wouldn’t be mentioned until MS #3, and wouldn’t make an on-panel appearance until issue #4.  This ingredient was the Darkhold — a sinister compendium of mystical lore that would come to stand as perhaps the most significant contribution to the Marvel Universe ever made by the series, ultimately becoming rather more consequential in the grand scheme of things than the Werewolf himself.  Read More

Marvel Spotlight #2 (February, 1972)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

From the perspective of a half century later, the horror boom in American comics in the early 1970s looks all but inevitable.  The appeal of the classic movie monsters to young audiences had been clear ever since the first syndicated collection of old Universal horror films started showing up on TV sets in the late 1950s, quickly becoming widely popular.  The subsequent success of Warren Publishing’s Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine (originally produced in 1958 as a one-shot publication, but almost immediately converted into an ongoing periodical), can only have reinforced the sense among U.S. comics publishers that there was gold to be mined in those dark, storm-blasted hills of Gothic horror — as must have Warren’s following up FMoF in the next decade with the black-and-white comics magazines Creepy, Eerie, and, as the 1960s drew to a close, Vampirella.  Then there was the mid-to-late Sixties success of Dark Shadows, the daytime television serial that began its broadcast life firmly planted in the genre of Gothic romance, but soon morphed into a much more freewheeling fantasy show, happily recycling the tropes of both classic horror fiction and old monster movies, and bringing vampires, werewolves, zombies, and their ghastly ilk into America’s homes five afternoons a week.  Read More