SUPERHEROES FROM THE CRYPT

MARVEL'S BRONZE AGE WORLD OF HORROR

The following is an in-depth portrayal and analysis of Marvel's foray into the horror genre during the Bronze Age period of the 1970s. Although limited to a few years of success only, Marvel's very own world of horror was quintessential in shaping and defining the more diverse structure of the Marvel Universe which grew out of the superhero dominated Silver Age of the 1960s.

It should be pointed out that the timespan notion of "Bronze Age" applied here (i.e. equalling the decade from January 1970 to December 1979) differs from the traditional point of view, which usually sets the end of the Bronze Age roughly around 1985.

But the world was changing fast. By the mid-1960s a generation gap and a political divide marked most of American culture, and society was changing alongside with it. Comic books were slower than other media in responding, but eventually social questions (many of which were also highly political issues) made their way into the storylines. The world of superheroes got far more complex than it had ever been, as their adventures suddenly took place in front of the backdrop of the Vietnam war or drugs. It got harder and harder to figure out what the problems really were, and the line between good and bad seemed blurred at times. But despite all the adaptations made, the superhero concept still seemed too clean to a growing number of readers. It was time for something new. The continuing rise of inner-city poverty and crime rates, the political and social aftermath of the Vietnam War, the hardships of economic recession, and the looming shadow of the oil shock of 1973 were just some of a number of problems that plagued the US in the very early 1970s. As the economy continued to slip, the decade looked set to become an era of disenchantment and mistrust. Much of the diversification of the comic book industry's output at the beginning of the 1970s mirrored the problems of society.

In 1970, Marvel Comics - together with the rest of the industry - thus found itself at a threshold. Comic books needed to find a way to adapt to the real life changes and thus renew its appeal to existing as well as new readers.

One approach was to make the world of superheroes more gloomy, such as depicting drug issues (Amazing Spider-Man #96-98, May-July 1971) or the deaths of central members of the regular cast (such as Gwen Stacy in Amazing Spider-Man #121 [June 1973] and the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #122 [July 1973]).

Another approach, which had previously stood the test of time in many economic and social crises, was to fall back on escapist themes. Among these, the horror genre has always been a popular metaphor - economic recession and vampires both left people at the mercy of something which was very much out of control for most individuals, but at least someone could drive a stake through the latter threat.

"A lot of them [sold] the ones that didn't sell didn't last very long, obviously. We did flood the market, but remember, this was that period (...) where Marvel suddenly decided to put out a whole bunch of books, and DC would have to match it (...) it was just constantly playing around with stuff, trying to get market share... it was really survival of the fittest. There were only these two companies, really, doing that kind of comic, competing with each other (...) lots of stuff came out in the '70s because of this approach." (Cooke, 2001)

Based on the past experience with Tower of Shadows and Chamber of Darkness, Where Monsters Dwell (first published January 1970), Where Creatures Roam (July 1970) and Fear (November 1970) featured no original material and simply reprinted monster stories from the late 1950s and very early 1960s.

Where Monsters Dwell would eventually become the longest running Marvel anthology reprint title, numbering 38 issues before being dropped in October 1975, whilst Where Creatures Roam ran for only 8 issues until discontinued in September 1971. A completely different fate, however, was meted out to Fear - retitled Adventure into Fear as of issue #10 (October 1972), it would turn to featuring new original material as of that point.

Roy Thomas provided the first two plots before handing over the concept to Larry Lieber and then Gerry Conway. The first four issues were pencilled by veteran artist Wally Wood, before George Tuska and Gene Colan both did two issues.

Many things were changing all around, and on the level of comic books, Marvel was trying to come up with new ideas and concepts. Thinking back on an experiment made in 1968 (Spectacular Spider-Man #1-2), one such attempt was to try and tap into a new generation of readers (like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had done in 1961/62) by designing titles with a larger size format which were meant to look more like magazines than traditional comic books and featured black and white content with more "adult" themes.

Savage Tales #1 (May 1971)

Testing the waters, Marvel published Savage Tales #1 in May 1971. Their first large-size black & white anthology magazine also featured Marvel's first horror character of the Seventies in an 11-page story, a creature called Man-Thing. Dying in a swamp, scientist Ted Sallis - who tested his own formula for the creation of "super soldiers" - rises again from the dead as a result of the mixture of swamp life and chemical waste.

It was, however, a one-off appareance for the Man-Thing (which would resurface many moons later to become one of Marvel's household Bronze Age horror characters) as Marvel's distributor faced severe difficulties in handling and marketing the first issue, resulting in a long delay before the next issue of Savage Tales could be published - in fact, it would be two more years before Marvel attempted another black & white magazine venture.

Amazing Spider-Man #101 (October 1971)

A Nobel-prize winning biochemist, Dr Morbius (presumably a name thought up by Stan Lee and Roy Thomas on the basis of Latin morbus, i.e. illness) had attempted to cure himself of a rare blood disease with an experimental treatment involving vampire bats. However, he instead became afflicted with a far worse condition that mimicked the powers and bloodthirst of legendary vampirism, meaning that he now had to digest blood in order to survive and felt a strong aversion to light. Morbius gained the ability to fly as well as superhuman strength, and his appearance became hideous: his canine teeth extended into fangs, his nose flattened to appear more like a bat's, and his skin became chalk-white. Similar to vampires, Morbius would turn others into "living vampires" by biting them.

According to Roy Thomas, he and artist Gil Kane actually wanted to introduce Dracula into Amazing Spider-Man #101 but were held back by Stan Lee who wanted a "super villain vampire" - and who possibly already had different plans in his mind for Dracula (Cooke, 2001). Thus Morbius became the first instance and example of what would become Marvel's principal Bronze Age approach to the horror genre: applying the superhero concept and letting loose, so to say, superheroes from the crypt.

The guiding principles were fairly simple and had mostly been tested previously. The real novelty was, as often, the approach of combining these different threads into one formula - something which Marvel was still virtually unbeatable at even ten years after the inception of the Fantastic Four.

The central approach was to create a character which would feature as the central figure of a continuing saga of individual episodes. As a result, the focus would shift in comparison to most popular culture storytelling, making the source of horror (e.g. Dracula) the main character of the plot and the subject of the storyline, complete with a more or less regular cast of individuals involved with the main character (such as Harker or Van Helsing had already been in Stoker's Dracula). This was very different to what had been presented in colour comics before - which often ran along the lines of "I dared to enter the haunted castle" and only provided a plot for a couple of pages. Marvel already knew from Dr Doom in Astonishing Tales that turning the "bad guy" into the main character of a comic book - its "anti-hero" so to speak - worked and was accepted by the readers.

A secondary aspect of this approach was to furnish such characters from the horror genre with their own comic book titles if they proved to be selling well enough, rather than having them appear in a more generic publication format. This, again, paralleled Marvel's approach to their superheroes since the early Silver Age period, but unlike the circulation restraints experienced in those days, Marvel would now virtually make it a policy of flooding the market, including horror titles. Some of them sold reasonably well, but if they didn't make it Marvel would just drop them and try something else in an attempt to get a bigger share of the market (Cooke, 2001).

King-Size Special Tower of Shadows #1
(December 1971)

The publication of King-Size Special Tower of Shadows #1 in December 1971 and Chamber of Darkness Special #1 in January 1972 was an attempt to breathe a second life into the original material Marvel had assigned for the first issues of these two titles when launched in late 1969.

King-Size Special Tower of Shadows #1 featured reprints from Tower of Shadows #1 and 2 (with a story from Atlas period Journey into Mystery #61 tossed in as filler for the final five pages) and Chamber of Darkness Special #1 likewise featured material from the first two issues of the title.

Chamber of Darkness Special #1
(January 1972)

Marvel Spotlight #2
(February 1972)

Werewolf by Night #1
(September 1972)

Marvel Team-Up #12
(October 1973)

Tomb of Dracula #18
(March 1974)

"I had this idea for something called "I, Werewolf." I wanted it narrated in first person (...) My wife Jeanie and I plotted the first issue one day when we got bored with a car show at Columbus Center in New York City, but I didn't like to write that stuff, so I'd always give assignments like that to Gerry [Conway] (...) Stan [Lee] liked everything but the title "I, Werewolf." He wanted to call it Werewolf by Night, and since all I cared about was the concept, not the name, that was fine by me. It was still narrated in the first person. I told Gerry to do it that way, and it worked out very well. Almost everything else after the first issue (...) was pretty much Gerry's, I think." (Cooke, 2001)

One of Marvel's most successful horror characters, Werewolf by Night made his first appearance in Marvel Spotlight #2 (one of Marvel's tryout magazines) in February 1972, and the launch was considered important enough to merit being mentioned in Marvel's regular monthly Bullpen Bulletin:

"We've got a hunch that its second issue [Marvel Spotlight] - now on sale - is gonna be a definite smash! The new series heralded therein is called WEREWOLF BY NIGHT - and if that doesn't clue you in that Marvel's branching out into new and exciting areas, then we'd better drop our soft-sell approach. Fact is, this new series idea was so thrilling that half the Bullpen has been dying to have a hand in it. ROY THOMAS conceived and plotted the first tale (with the advice and consent of his better half, JEANIE), then turned it over to GERRY CONWAY, who's turned in one of his greatest, wildest scripts to date. As for the art - well, say hello to Madcap MIKE PLOOG (...) who's making his comic-mag debut with this premier shocker, and who's destined to become one of Marvel's mightiest! In other words, we strongly advise you to pick up a copy of WEREWOLF BY NIGHT before it's sold out - and don't bother waiting till the full moon, okay?" (Marvel Comics December 1971 Bullpen Bulletin)

The series focussed on Jack Russell, whose family (originally from Eastern Europe) was cursed with lycanthropy. Starting on his 18th birthday, Russell would find himself transforming into a wolf-like creature every time there was a full moon. Similar to Bruce Banner and the Hulk, Jack Russell would always be seeking ways to either avoid or at least control the transformations. Eventually he would gain the ability to change into the werewolf at will and control the beast, except on three specific nights of the full moon when nothing goes.

Scripted by Gerry Conway and pencilled and inked by Mike Ploog, the character had a good reception amongst readers, earning the werewolf his own mag in September 1972 after appearing in Marvel Spotlight for three issues. Ploog, who had just turned thirty, was one of the emerging comic book stars of the early 1970s. After initial work for Warren's line of black & white horror magazines he approached Marvel with a Western sample of his artwork.

"They gave me a call and asked if I was interested in doing a werewolf book, which was the kind of stuff I'd been doing for Warren. I said yes, that I'd love to. That's when I hooked up with Werewolf by Night." (Irving, 2006)

In the end, Werewolf by Night turned out to be Marvel's second most successful venture into the horror genre, when - after a run of nearly five years - Werewolf by Night was cancelled and ended its publication run with issue #43 in March 1977. For Mike Ploog, it was the beginning of a genre career at Marvel, where his art style made him a favourite with many readers of Marvel's horror books and something of a natural choice for the editors when it came to assigning an artist to a new horror title in the months to follow.

"I thought it was going to be a very short-lived thing for me. It was really hard work (...) I thought this would be a great learning period, and they'll get wise to me real fast, and I'll be off this job. Well, I just kept doing it and doing it, and they didn't tell me to stop." (Cooke, 2001)

During that time, Werewolf by Night had also appeared in several crossover plots, including encounters with Spider-Man (Marvel Team-Up #12, October 1973) and Dracula (Tomb of Dracula #18, March 1974). From a systematic point of view, the crossover with Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up #12 is of great importance because of its inherent statement with regard to Marvel's approach to continuity and the "Marvel Universe".

"SAVAGE TALES (our M-rated mag - for the mature reader) looks like such a howlin' hit that we're following it up with a ghoulish 50c goodie called THE TOMB OF DRACULA (or THE HOUSE OF DRACULA, we haven't decided yet). It's a wholly new concept, starring Dracula himself, as he is - was - and perhaps will be. With art by GENE COLAN, BERNI WRIGHTSON and GRAY MORROW among others, and a team of the world's most titanic scripters, headed by Marvel's merry masters SMILIN' STAN and RASCALLY ROY themselves! May we modestly say - it ain't to be missed!" (Marvel Comics July 1971 Bullpen Bulletin)

Originally planned as a black & white magazine rather than a colour comic book, this concept was changed as late as after completion of Gene Colan's artwork for what eventually became Tomb of Dracula #1. As a result, the original art was oriented to a magazine size of 8,5" x 11" rather than the standard size for a comic book and therefore had to be extended vertically and horizontally (Cooke, 2001). As far as the storyline of the first issue is concerned it is somewhat unclear who contributed what. According to the official Marvel statement, Stan Lee plotted the first issue (October 1971 Bullpen Bulletin), whereas Roy Thomas seems to remember plotting that issue himself, working on just a few verbal sentences made to him by Stan Lee (Cooke, 2001). Whilst this may well be a case of differing definitions of plotting and scripting, both sources agree on the fact that Gerry Conway (who was only nineteen at the time) - credited with writing the first issue on its splashpage - was brought in almost last minute to, basically, supply the dialogue (October 1971 Bullpen Bulletin).

Tomb of Dracula #7 (March 1973), the first issue scripted by Marv Wolfman

More than just a vampire - Gene Colan's original artwork exemplified by a frame from page 18 of Tomb of Dracula #9 (June 1973)
[scanned from the original art page in my personal collection]

The group of vampire hunters is upon Dracula in Tomb of Dracula #13 (October 1973)

The first appearance of Blade in Tomb of Dracula #10 (July 1973)

"The only strip I really begged for was Dracula. He [Stan Lee] promised it to me, but then he changed his mind, he was going to give it to Bill Everett (...) But I didn't take that for an answer. I worked up a page of Dracula, long before Bill did anything. I just sat there, and I inked it, a whole page of the character, just sample drawings of him. I fashioned him after Jack Palance, years before Palance played Dracula on TV, and I sent it in. I got an immediate call back. Stan said, "The strip is yours"." (Thomas, 2000)

Officially, the launch was further delayed because of restrictions on printing capabilities. These were due to an increase of pages in most Marvel titles, turning them into "king size" books - a move Marvel had to undo again only two months later (November 1971 Bullpen Bulletin), but with a cover date of April 1972, Marvel finally launched the much announced first issue of Tomb of Dracula featuring a cover by Neal Adams:

"You've waited a long time for it - you've demanded it - and here it is! The most famous, most fearful vampire of all! Yes - Count Dracula lives!" (Marvel Comics February 1972 Bullpen Bulletin)

According to Roy Thomas, Marvel's editor-in-chief at the time, Tomb of Dracula (the extension to the vampire count's name was necessary for Marvel to be able to copyright the title) had a good start, the book eventually becoming a good, solid seller for most of its run (Cooke, 2001). Despite an initial lack of constant authorship (Gerry Conway worked on issues #1-2, Archie Goodwin on issues #3-4, and Gardner Fox on issues #5-6), Marvel's newest horror title found favour with its readership, and the title went from bi-monthly to monthly publication as of Tomb of Dracula #9 in June 1973.

By that time, Marv Wolfman had taken over the scripting and Tomb of Dracula would eventually become the flagship of Marvel's line of horror titles and the longest running comic book title with a villain as its namegiving hero - above all thanks to the artwork of Gene Colan (often superbly inked by Tom Palmer) which was, in a word, definitive. After a long period of work on Daredevil, Colan created an intensely atmospheric visual rendition of the horror saga that was to unfold. The fact that he remained on the series for the entire length of its run was paramount to its success and is a prime reason for the status of cult classic which Tomb of Dracula has achieved.

"I kind of improved as the series went on. The more you work on something, the better you get at it. I felt that the character became my own (...) It was a monthly book and it was the only monthly book that held up at the time. They had other books like that but they didn’t last. Dracula did though." (Dlugos, 2002)

Colan established a distinctive look for Marvel's vampire count while maintaining many of the features readers would probably come to expect (such as the cape), and embedded this in a general visual atmospheric setting which went far beyond the classic horror comic qualities. Issue after issue Colan's style provided a truly captivating visual journey into the dark shadows, often incorporating well-known landmark buildings to set the scene.

The kick-off script used Bram Stoker's plot from the novel as part of its background storyline but opened with the re-animation of the vampire in modern times, which involved the last living descendant of Dracula, an American named Frank Drake. The great advantage of this approach was that the almost inevitable translocation of events to current times took place straight away, avoiding tedious twists and turns the storyline might otherwise have taken (as happened later on with the - greatly inferior - Monster of Frankenstein). The frequent change of writers, however, posed a problem, as Marv Wolfman concluded immediately when he was handed Tomb of Dracula #7 as author number four.

"A book that was six issues old - with three different writers and no direction. I realised pretty quickly that in order to do anything I had to decide on the handling of the characters and what the series was about (...) One of the things I did was write up pages upon pages of notes on who the characters were and where I wanted them to go. I was less concerned about the indivdiual plots at this point than I was about the direction of the characters. So I would write almost up to two years ahead, all the different turns of the characters and where they were gonna be, and issue by issue what would happen with the character. Then I went back and worried about the stories to make it work." (Comic Geek Speak, 2005)

Because of Marvel's systematic approach of having only "real" characters in its universe, never mind how fantastic they may be, Bram Stoker's book - as a consequence - is not, as everybody thinks, a work of fiction, but rather an account of actual events. The logic of this approach then dictates that the other characters of the novel - most importantly, Dracula's adversary Van Helsing - were just as real as the newly revived Dracula himself, setting the scene for Rachel van Helsing, granddaughter of the famous vampirologist, and Quincy Harker, the son of Jonathan and Mina Harker (both pivotal characters in Stoker's novel).

Fighting the newly risen lord of vampires would be a team effort - as it was in Stoker's novel - but this time the group of individuals would not be formed by family ties but rather by a common cause.

Harker, an elderly man bound to a wheelchair, is a man who uses scientific means and sophisticated machinery to hunt down vampires - something he has done, as he himself explains, for the past sixty years after having been trained by Abraham van Helsing himself. He is the driving force behind the group of vampire hunters, carrying on a lifelong crusade to fight and destroy vampires. Being old and paralyzed, he is seen as a kind of mastermind behind the group effort.

One of the best known characters amongst the group was an original Marvel creation with no ties to Stoker's novel whatsoever: Blade the Vampire Slayer, introduced in Tomb of Dracula #10, became the title-giving star of three movies and one of the most successful African-American characters in comic book history.

Marv Wolfman, after taking over the scripting as of Tomb of Dracula #7, stayed on the book together with Gene Colan until the title was finally cancelled after 70 issues in August 1979 - the longest run of any Bronze Age Marvel horror genre title and the "superhero from the crypt" par excellence.

"This was the first time anything like this had been done. I was fighting the Comics Code every single month. We were just stretching - for the first time - out of standard comics." (Comic Geek Speak, 2005)

Marvel's Tomb of Dracula broke new grounds. It was far more than just an average vampire tale, weaving an ongoing saga which plotted the vampire count against the group of vampire hunters and others who sought to put an end to his existence.

Gene Colan and Marv Wolfman achieved a quality of storytelling which was not only in the best vein of the classic gothic vampire stories but also added its very own stamp of originality and thematic momentum - which remains fresh and vibrant even 30+ years after it was created. Tomb of Dracula is a comic book classic beyond its genre, and the jewel in the crown of Marvel's bronze age horror world.

Launched in issue #5 of Marvel's tryout book Marvel Spotlight (which had already proven a successful launchpad for the Werewolf by Night series), the story introduced Johnny Blaze, a motorcycle stunt performer in a travelling circus who sold his soul to what he believed to be the devil in order to save the life of his stepfather. As a result, Johnny Blaze transformed into a leather-clad skeleton with a skull cloaked in a sheath of flame, riding a fiery motorcycle and wielding blasts of hellfire from his skeletal hands.

Marvel Spotlight #5 (August 1972)

Ghost Rider #1 (September 1973)

Ghost Rider #10 (February 1975)

Marvel Team-Up #15 (November 1973)

"When Gary Friedrich started writing Daredevil, he said, "Instead of Stunt-Master, I'd like to make the villain a really weird motorcycle-riding character called Ghost Rider." He didn't describe him. I said, "Yeah, Gary, there's only one thing wrong with it," (...) "That's too good an idea to be just a villain in Daredevil. He should start out right away in his own book." When Gary wasn't there the day we were going to design it, Mike Ploog, who was going to be the artist, and I designed the character. I had this idea for the skull-head, something like Elvis' 1968 Special jumpsuit, and so forth, and Ploog put the fire on the head, just because he thought it looked nice. Gary liked it, so they went off and did it." (Cooke, 2001)

Friedrich, however, disagrees (and took Marvel to court in 2007), alleging that his copyrights to the character have been exploited:

"It was my idea. It was always my idea from the first time we talked about it, it turned out to be a guy with a flaming skull and rode a motorcycle. Ploog seems to think the flaming skull was his idea. But, to tell you the truth, it was my idea." (NN, 2001)

The official Marvel version at the time would seem to support Friedrich's view:

"The current ish of MARVEL SPOTLIGHT debuts a far-out new feature which we think you're gonna dig. It's called GHOST RIDER - but, as anybody with 20-20 vision can plainly see, he's no blood relation to the western hero we sprung on you some time back. Nope - this GR is a mad, mod, mystic hero who straddles both the world of motorcycles - and the supernatural! (...) It's by the titanic team of Groovy GARY FRIEDRICH, who dreamed the whole thing up, and Madcap MIKE PLOOG, whose own "Werewolf by Night" series is scheduled to gain its very own mag in a month or two!" (Marvel Comics August 1972 Bullpen Bulletin)

Ghost Rider starred in Marvel Spotlight for 7 issues and proved a great success. The additional good news for Marvel was that the horror genre had caught on to such an extent that original material could gain a readership just as well as classic characters could. Ghost Rider would eventually be given his own title book which hit the newsagent stands in September 1973.

For a surprisingly long period of time, the Ghost Rider remained something of an enigma. Half demon, half superhero, his adventures did not fall into the horror genre as clearly or as strictly as other titles, such as Tomb of Dracula. The Ghost Rider would get mixed up with the supernatural in one issue and with the Hulk in the next, and he saw his first cross-over with Marvel's superhero icon Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up #15 only two months after starting out in his own title book. This was a superhero who only called the crypt his part-time home for the first two years of his publication run.

However, when author Michael Fleisher and artist Don Perlin took over, the Ghost Rider would eventually shift completely to the horror genre. There were no more guest-appearances from other Marvel characters, and satanic cults, demonic bounty hunters, and vampire bats took center stage.

The Ghost Rider proved a highly successful character, bridging both the Bronze Age era 1970s and the early 1980s with a total of 81 issues. The saga finally came to an end in June 1983, making it one the longest running Marvel horror comic book series of all. In 2007, the Ghost Rider became the second Marvel horror character after Blade to feature as the title giving star in a big budget Hollywood movie.

Reader reaction to the Man-Thing (introduced in Savage Tales #1 in May 1971) had been very good, but the publication of a second story, originally planned for Savage Tales #2, had been postponed.

Astonishing Tales #13 (August 1972)

Following this second appearance, Man-Thing received his own regular series in Marvel's anthology title Adventure into Fear as 10-page lead character from issue #10 (October 1972) to issue #19 (January 1974).

"In his own series at last! The macabre Man-Thing - perhaps the most monstrous "hero" ever!" (Marvel Comics October 1972 Bullpen Bulletin)

Steve Gerber, who would become Man-Thing's most prominent writer, succeeded original author Gerry Conway as the feature continually expanded in terms of page numbers.

Adventure into Fear #10 (October 1972)

The final quarter of Marvel's 1972 publication roster saw more deja vu as three new anthology titles reached the market. For the October production run, Marvel re-introduced one of its best-known 1950s/1960s title: Journey into Mystery. Most would, of course, remember it for having been the launchpad of the Mighty Thor, who subsequently made the book his home from issue #83 (August 1962) until it changed its title to Mighty Thor after Journey into Mystery #125 (February 1966). Rather than continue the numbering where it had left off, Marvel - most certainly wanting to present something "new" - launched the revival with issue #1 (which accordingly became volume II) in October 1972.

Marvel's newest voyage into the world of the weird! And with titles like "Dig me no grave!" - "House!" - and "More than Blood!" - how can any ghostly-tales aficionado go wrong?" (Marvel Comics October 1971 Bullpen Bulletin)

Journey into Mystery #2 (December 1972)

Supernatural Thrillers #1 (December 1972)

"If you've latched onto the brand new premiere issue of CHAMBER OF CHILLS, Marvel's newest and most nightmarish weird-type entry - or if you dug last month's JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #1 - then doubtless you've noticed that we've added something a wee bit new to this kind of anthology title! For the foreseeable future (and we've got a zingy new crystal ball!), virtually each and every issue of these two mags, plus the fast-upcoming GOTHIC THRILLERS already in the works, will headline an eerie adaptation of a masterpiece by a major fantasy author (...) They'll be backed up by plenty of original stories as well, written by some of the finest scripters in the history of comix - and together, they're gonna knock you right out of your haunted house!" (Marvel Comics November 1972 Bullpen Bulletin)

This concept worked very well before, but once again, as with Tower of Shadows and Chamber of Darkness, a lack of editorial stability made the book's more literary approach falter after a few issues. As of Journey into Mystery #7 (October 1973), reprints from the original Atlas/Marvel Journey into Mystery from the mid-1950s started to appear and take over the book completely, occasionally accompanied by reprints from early stories which had appeared in Tales to Astonish and Strange Tales.

Chamber of Chills #1 (November 1972)

Chamber of Chills #25 (July 1976) - the last issue and a cover with "reprints" written all over it

Only a month later, in November 1972, the relaunch of Journey into Mystery was followed by another bi-monthly anthology title, Chamber of Chills, and Marvel would round off the 1972 horror genre production run with a third anthology title, Supernatural Thrillers (previously announced by Marvel as Gothic Thrillers), in December. Both titles initially followed the concept format of Journey into Mystery: Chamber of Chills #1 featured the comic book adaptation of an original short story by Harlan Ellison ("Delusion for a dragon slayer") and other original stories from Marvel's writership, whilst Supernatural Thrillers #1 adapted Theodore Sturgeon's story "It" to comic book format. As with Journey into Mystery, Chamber of Chills had impressive content quality for the first few issues, but once the ball was rolling, Marvel's problems with their pronounced lack of editorial guidance struck - in spite of Marvel showing at least a basic awareness of the problem:

"The big news this month is a spanking-new title called GOTHIC THRILLERS! That's the mag wherein we plan to present some of the greatest weird tales ever told - by some of the world's finest authors - in full, novel-length glory! (...) And, lest you think that our new JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY and CHAMBER OF CHILLS mags are going to turn into the usual ghost-and-goblins fare, we invite you to feast your mind and eyes upon the now-on-sale ish of JOURNEY! It features a spine-tingler called "Yours truly, Jack the Ripper", originally written by none other than ROBERT BLOCH - the far-famed author of Psycho and other wondrous works of mystery and menace!" (Marvel Comics December 1972 Bullpen Bulletin)

The first reprint material appeared in Chamber of Chills #5, and only three issues later the title would feature nothing but Atlas/Marvel period reprints until its final issue, Chamber of Chills #25, in July 1976.

Given its very basic editorial manpower - in comparison to rival DC (Cooke, 2001) - there seemingly wasn't much Marvel could do to prevent these changes in their horror anthology titles (and there wasn't, as pointed out before, much interest either, as it tied up a lot of workforce). From time to time, however, one of them would get away, and Supernatural Thrillers would be such a title. Following Sturgeon's "It" in its premier issue, the book featured well-known horror genre classics in its following issues: H.G. Wells' "Invisible Man" in issue #2, R. E. Howard's "The Valley of the Worm" in issue #3, R.L. Stevenson's "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" in issue #4 and, eventually, "The Mummy" in issue #5 which, lacking a literary prototype, was based on an original script by Marvel's Steve Gerber. This character would catch on, making the title its own up until its final issue, Supernatural Thrillers #15, in October 1975.

Monster of Frankenstein #1 (January 1973)

The Monster as drawn by John Buscema - the Karloff mould is subtle, but visible

The Monster by Bob Brown, displaying a very strong Karloff resemblance

The Monster by Val Mayerik, who eventually developed Marvel's own image of the monster

Frankenstein Monster #8 (January 1974)

"We've just got to clue you in to our own brand new creature-feature, the comic-mag we call THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN! With the unparalleled success of WEREWOLF BY NIGHT and THE TOMB OF DRACULA, it was impossible that we'd be able to resist the clarion call to add the most famous gargoyle of all to the mighty Marvel roster. And we've done it with a vengeance, people! First off, we got our Werewolf wonder-boy MIKE PLOOG to pencil - and monster-fan first class GARY FRIEDRICH to script. Next, we decided to do things up brown by being more faithful to Mary Shelley's original masterpiece of suspense than virtually any of the media have ever done before! Pick up a copy and see what we mean, okay? THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN - lumbering toward your friendly neighborhood newsstand right now!" (Marvel Comics January 1973 Bullpen Bulletin)

Shelley ended her novel with the monster bidding farewell to the explorer Sir Robert Walton somewhere in the vast emptiness of the Arctic Sea, and this is where Friedrich set out from. The year is 1898 and readers are introduced to the explorer's great-grandson, Robert Walton IV, who is about to reach the goal of his mission - finding the Monster. Once the block of ice encasing the creature is hauled onto the ship, Walton IV retells the classic tale from Shelley’s novel to a young midshipman.

A fairly ingenious framework to present the basic corpus of Shelley's novel, the adaptation was - as had been announced in Marvel's advertising - indeed faithful to the original literary work and, in actual fact, did better than most other adaptations (such as movies) by featuring almost all of the story's elements and characters - even including the narrative framework of the original novel which provides various different viewpoints of the monster's story.

The visual rendition of this concept was a challenge, because the image of Frankenstein's Monster had been so indelibly defined by Universal Pictures and Jack Pierce's make-up to the extent of making Boris Karloff's looks as monster iconic. This meant that assigned artist Mike Ploog was faced with the question of either following the established image (as closely as Universal's copyright on the make-up would allow [Frank, 1974]) or do something completely different which might not match up with the reader's expectations.

Marvel, not surprisingly, took no chances and so Mike Ploog came up with a Monster which, in visual terms, didn't copy the Universal imagery too closely but remained within the range of the Karloff mould. Later on in the publication run, John Buscema and Bob Brown would come closer to the Universal look, with Val Mayerik eventually taking this as a basis for a Karloff-based but nevertheless distinctive Marvel monster look.

The way the adaptation of Shelley's novel was handled met with an enthusiastic reader reaction, and it all seemed to work out as Roy Thomas had planned:

"I wanted to adapt the novel in the first few issues, and then go on from there." (Cooke, 2001)

But what seemed like a blessing at first quickly turned into a curse as Friedrich had to come up with an original plot which would meet the high expectations set by the first four issues. It proved extremely difficult to "go on from there", and the fact that Friedrich opened his first original plot - still set in the year 1898 - with a quote from the lyrics of CCR's 1969 song "Bad Moon Rising" would, with hindsight, be unintentionally fitting for the anachronisms which would befall the title for most of the remaining saga: Marvel's tale of the Frankenstein Monster quickly became unbalanced and lumbered about, plagued with a sometimes glaringly inconsistent plot and far too much lack of atmosphere.

Only three issues after the Shelley adaptation Marvel already felt the need to give the series a shot in the arm with a three-part appearance of Dracula, Marvel's most successful horror character by far. Once the battle with the vampire count was over, Marvel decided to prepare the monster for a transfer to the present by, once again, deep-freezing him in ice.

The switch to modern times under writer Doug Moench and artist Val Meyerik as of The Frankenstein Monster #12 was a controversial issue amongst readers but handled in a swift and convincing way by the creative team.

Nevertheless, the lack of a true genre atmosphere remained, despite Moench's successful attempts to reduce inconsistencies and add new interest in the form of a regular supporting cast.

Marvel had run the Frankenstein Monster more or less straight into the ground, and the end of the series came about - without announcement and therefore abruptly in the midst of the storyline - in September 1975 with issue 18. Sales by that time must have been dismal, and the only conclusion to draw was that whilst Marvel was able to make the most out of Dracula as a classic horror figure, The Frankenstein Monster simply failed to leave its mark.

"CRYPT OF SHADOWS #1: Another pulse-pounding premier issue! You'll shudder to spend - "Midnight on Black Mountain!" Bonus: a tale of terror by Basil Wolverton, one of the most-copied comix artists of all time!" (Marvel Comics January 1973 Bullpen Bulletin)

Crypt of Shadows #1 (January 1973)

Vault of Evil #1 (February 1973)

Beware #1 (March 1973)

"VAULT OF EVIL #1: You've wandered into the Chamber of Chills - and come shuddering out of the Crypt of Shadows! Now, it's time to enter - the Vault of Evil! Some of the scariest spook-taculars of all!" (Marvel Comics February 1973 Bullpen Bulletin)

The Marvel Comics Group was growing and growing fast, not the least due to the increasing range of horror titles, and by early 1973 the expansion reached an overall total of well over three dozen titles published by Marvel every month (according to the March 1973 Bullpen Bulletin). Slightly more verbose, the announcement of three new anthology titles in one single month also displayed Marvel's intention to look beyond the horror genre as such and test the waters for crossover sci-fi material as well:

"We've a couple of other new mags debuting this go-round, too, for those of you who simply can't get enough of our macabre mystery-type thrillers. Don't miss your collector's-item editions of a trio of winners called UNCANNY TALES, THE DEAD OF NIGHT, and WEIRD WONDER TALES! The latter, incidentally, features startling sagas of a more science-fiction nature, drawn by some of comicdom's finest!" (Marvel Comics March 1973 Bullpen Bulletin)

The wording "drawn by some of comicdom's finest" was, of course, a euphemistic way of describing the fact that the book featured reprint material from the Atlas period.

Weird Wonder Tales #1 (December 1973) and the final issue of Crypt of Shadows (#21, November 1975)

Dead of Night #2 (February 1974)

Uncanny Tales #1 (December 1973)

Uncanny Tales from the Grave #3 (April 1974)

The time seemed just right, and so Marvel did what it had done in the field of the horror genre over the past two years: challenge the competitors. In this case, the result was nothing less than a full scale assault on the black & white magazine market, essentially flooding the market with no less than four horror magazines, a humour magazine, a revived Savage Tales and a movie gag photo magazine - all in 1973.

By this time, the situation was such that, from the perspective of Marvel's editor-in-chief at the time, Roy Thomas, the House of Ideas had the horror market pretty much cornered:

"Nobody else really competed with Marvel except Warren with the black & whites." (Cooke, 2001)

This confidence was further boosted with the new set of black & white magazines Marvel was about to launch and therefore lash out at the only remaining real competitor according to Thomas.

In-house ad for Dracula Lives!

Dracula Lives! #12 (May 1975)

Monsters Unleashed! #2 (September 1973)

Tales of the Zombie #7 (September 1974)

Vampire Tales #1 (August 1973)

Haunt of Horror #2 (July 1974)

Legion of Monsters #1 (September 1975)

"Can there be any doubt that the Second Age of Marvel is upon us in full glorious bloom?" (Marvel Comics June 1973 Bullpen Bulletin)

The first black and white horror magazine to be launched was Dracula Lives! in June 1973 (with the cover only carrying the date "1973"). Advertised as a "giant sized 75c comic" (June 1973 Bullpen Bulletin) Dracula Lives! #1 in fact only contained 35 pages of new original material in its total pagination of 72. The remaining pages were filled with pre-code reprints from the early 1950s and text-only articles plus photos from old movies. In order to stay clear of the established Tomb of Dracula and avoid contradictions with the storyline of Marvel's most successful horror title, the material in Dracula Lives! generally stuck to a different set of time and location.

Next in line was Monsters Unleashed, first published in July 1973, which followed the formula set out by Dracula Lives! the month before. Whilst the first issue seemed to indicate that this title would feature adaptations of literary horror stories in the vein of the colour titles Journey Into Mystery and Chamber Of Chills, Monsters Unleashed quickly became just as erratic as many of Marvel's previously released colour anthology titles. Apart from sword and sorcery material creeping in - which didn't seem to fit the magazine's title at all - Marvel decided to feature black & white versions of some of their horror genre figures already featuring in colour titles as of issue #2 - most noteably the Frankenstein Monster.

"Beginning this go-round, [Monsters Unleashed #2] spotlights a senses-staggering new serial starring THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN, picking up where our ever-fabulous color comic leaves off!" (Marvel Comics August 1973 Bullpen Bulletin)

The third black & white title of this barrage was Tales of the Zombie. Written by Steve Gerber and very atmospherically pencilled by John Buscema and inked by Tom Palmer, the story centering around Simon Garth, a successful coffee harvester in New Orleans who is turned into a Zombie by means of voodoo rituals, lived up to Marvel's definition of "mature" - it was violent and graphic, and topped with a fair amount of nudity.

Tales of the Zombie was unique in that it featured a complete story arc across the entire ten issues Marvel would eventually publish. The magazine is, however, even more noteworthy for the fact that it featured zombies both as story characters as well as in its title - at a time when the Comics Code (not applicable to magazines) still had an outright ban on the walking dead (Nyberg, 1998).

Finally, Vampire Tales #1 was published in August 1973, featuring an adaptation by Ron Goulart and Roy Thomas (pencilled by Win Mortimer) of the short story The Vampyre, published in 1819 by John Polidori (based on a fragment by Lord Byron) and the progenitor of the literary vampire of the romantic period. Issue #2, however, went a completely different way and featured a reprint of the Morbius origin sequence from The Amazing Spider-Man #102, after which he would be featured in his own ongoing series in Vampire Tales until June 1975.

Marvel's entry into the black & white horror comic magazine scene was impressive, but at the end of the day this all-out assault launched in order to cut into competitor Warren's niche market had very little effect, as James Warren himself concluded:

"They didn't understand what was involved. They weren't set up at the time like we were; they didn't look at their artists and writers like we did - they were production houses with deadlines to meet (...) The mindset at National and Marvel sometimes regarded scheduling and deadlines as being more important than the product (...) It was a half-hearted attempt to float something to see if it'll sink. It was no way to launch a new line (...) You saw the content; it was mediocre. I talked to Stan years later and said, "You have 'Stan Lee Presents' on these books! How can you have your name on stuff like this?" I now realize I was saying the wrong thing because he was part of a huge company that operated on a different mindset." (Cooke, 2001)

Different mindset or not, the black & white market did not prove a successful venture for Marvel. The titles launched soldiered on for a couple of issues and were then quietly dropped from production, despite the fact that, unlike the many promising colour anthology titles, Marvel provided the black & white magazine line with stable editorship and that the man in charge, Marv Wolfman, had even worked for Warren prior to signing on at Marvel (Cooke, 2001).

The problem was elsewhere. Warren was the established black & white comic magazine market leader, so Marvel had to compete with established publications such as Vampirella. Luring readers away from these would be extremely difficult at the outset, so Marvel needed to build a market position through new readership. The House of Ideas, however, couldn't have picked a more adverse time for this, as the US economy and the US dollar went into the worst slump since the 1970 recession and consumers, stunned by higher prices, were spending less and less (NN, 1973).

Unable to escape the general market situation, Marvel even had to increase the cover prices of their established colour comic books in early 1974, communicated through their June 1974 cover date letters pages. This was the worst possible setting for the black & white comic magazines, as the established readership already needed to pay more just to continue buying their regular comic books before even thinking about something new, and together with content which was hardly ever a "must buy", it eventually broke the neck of Marvel's venture into the black & white comic magazine market.

Marvel did make one final attempt in April 1974 with the launch of Haunt of Horror under the editorship of Roy Thomas and Marv Wolfman. Starting with issue #2 the magazine became the home of "Gabriel Devil-Hunter", Marvel's answer to the splash created by the movie The Exorcist in 1973. Written by Doug Moench and pencilled by a number of constantly changing artists, Gabriel seemed to derive much of his appearance from Nick Fury with his eyepatch and firm jaw. As for content, the quality was very poor - or, in the words of Tony Isabella (editor for issues #3 and #4):

"The lead feature - Gabriel Devil-Hunter - was this blatant attempt to cash in on the success of The Exorcist. It was awful stuff and a real pain in the butt to produce (...) Marv was milking The Exorcist for all he could (...) Editing "Haunt Of Horror" was not my finest hour, but sometimes you have to take one for the team." (K, 2005)

Haunt of Horror lasted for five issues before cancellation in January 1975, and the helter skelter publication dates (ranging from monthly to tri-monthly) really speak for themselves. Marvel finally quit trying for the black & white market with original material. Masters of Terror, launched in May 1975, was an all-reprint b&w magazine featuring stories previously published in their colour anthology books such as Supernatural Thrillers or Tower of Shadows, but this only lasted for a mere two issues.

The headliners of the various cancelled b&w magazines were regrouped in September 1975 in Legion of Monsters #1 - which would remain the only issue published. For the rest of the Bronze Age period, Marvel's less than successful venture into the b&w magazine market finally came to a grinding halt until October 1979, when Tomb of Dracula would be transferred from the colour format to the b&w magazine of the same title - again, with little success.

Marvel's 1973 barrage of black and white magazines was an attempt to ride on a wave of "mature content" which very quickly became based on nothing more than cliches which were amplified through covers which too often were repetitive, unimaginative and - to a certain degree - even crude.

Stan Lee wanted to complete Marvel's rendition of the classic Universal Horror Cabinet from the 1930s when he called for Marvel's own Mummy character (Cooke, 2001). Again, as with Dracula, a tag-on was needed in order to be able to copyright the character, so the House of Ideas came up with The Living Mummy and a background plot which follows the underlying motives of most Mummy stories: an innocent and well meaning individual is punished unjustly by being mummified alive, comes back to life, and seeks out revenge.

In Steve Gerber's storyline, this translated into a noble African tribal prince called N'Kantu who - together with the members of his tribe - is defeated and enslaved by the Ancient Egyptians. Forced to work on monuments for the pharaoh, N'Kantu plans and leads a rebellion which ultimately fails and for which he is punished by the high-priest Nephrus. He paralyses N'Kantu whose body is then wrapped in papyrus, and his blood drained and replaced with an unknown alchemical preservative. Finally, N'Kantu - conscious through the entire ordeal - is placed inside a stone sarcophagus. 3,000 years later N'Kantu regaines control from his paralyzing fluid and digs himself free to wreak havoc on those that had wronged him, going on a murderous rampage in Cairo until he locates Dr Alexi Skarab who is a descendant of Nephrus. Events go all wrong when the police force arrives on the scene, and eventually N'Kantu is seemingly electrocuted.

Supernatural Thrillers #5
(August 1973)

Following the initial introduction of N'Kantu, the seemingly lifeless body of the mummy is shipped to a New York museum. Not long, though, and N'Kantu awakens. The rest of the The Living Mummy story arc centers on N'Kantu regaining his memory and his conflict with the Elementals - four extradimensional humanoids who use the mummy as a pawn against a foe called the Living Pharaoh to obtain the Ruby Scarab (which grants special powers to its bearer).

"I wanted the Living Mummy series to be Marvel's "Swamp Thing" (...) Impetuous youngster that I was, and, in light of the amazing art Val Mayerik was doing on the series, I thought we could match that quality. Sadly, at the time, my intended goal was considerably beyond my abilities. Still, I gave it my best (...) I think I did some decent work on the Living Mummy. I got a little pretentious here and there (...) but, overall, there were a lot of good ideas and writing in those books. Would that I had been good enough to carry off the story I wanted to tell." (K, 2005)

The editorial perspective regarding horror titles by that time was quantity over quality, as Roy Thomas freely admits with regard to the very little time devoted to most individual titles:

"By that stage, we just had so many we weren't paying much attention, and were just sort of throwing them out." (Cooke, 2001)

Strange Tales #169
(September 1973)

Marvel Team-Up #24
(August 1974)
Tomb of Dracula #35
(August 1975)

"We've just revived one of our most popular title of the sizzlin' 60s - a little thing called STRANGE TALES - and used it to usher in the eerie adventures of perhaps the most unique superhero ever! We call him - BROTHER VOODOO! You'll call him - sensational! That's STRANGE TALES #169, now on sale - and well worth the five-year wait!" (Marvel Comics September 1973 Bullpen Bulletin)

Similar to Blade from Tomb of Dracula, Brother Voodoo was a character who fought evil. When New York psychologist Jericho Drumm returns to his native Haiti after twelve years in the U.S. he finds his brother Daniel on his deathbed.

Previously not believing in the superstitions of his ancestors, Drumm needs to adjust his views when he realizes that his brother is a voodoo priest (a "houngan") whose condition has been inflicted by Damballah, a powerful serpent god, at the command of an evil voodoo sorcerer (a "bokor").

Daniel extracts a promise from Jericho to learn the ways of voodoo and avenge his death. Jericho Drumm is instructed in this task by Papa Jambo, an aged master, who resurrects Daniel's spirit and merges it with Jericho's own, making Brother Voodoo the most powerful voodoo master of all. After defeating Damballah, Brother Voodoo continues to fight for those who have no protector on the isle of Haiti.

The impetus to launch a voodoo themed series came from Roy Thomas:

"I said "Let's do a character who's into voodoo, and tied to Jamaica in some way" (...) I had made up a character years ago, who was more of the Phantom type, called Dr. Voodoo, and (...) Stan didn't like that, but he suggested, "It's Brother Voodoo!" I said, "Okay, it's Brother Voodoo." (Cooke, 2001)

Marvel navigated around the fact that zombies were still banned under the comics code by calling the undead creatures "zuvembies". However, this little masquerade did not have to be held up for long, as the format didn't prove very successful and only lasted for a five issues run before being dropped after Strange Tales #173 in April 1974.

Brother Voodoo continued briefly as a backup in the black & white Tales of the Zombie issues #6 (July 1974) and #10 (March 1975) before being relegated to Marvel's guest star circuit in which he managed to hang on over the years and achieve a certain degree of fame, albeit as a very minor and also somewhat contrived Marvel character.

Apart from mostly one-off guest appearances (e.g. alongside Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up #24 in August 1974 or face-to-face with the werewolf in Werewolf by Night #39 in July 1976) Brother Voodoo featured in a multi-issue story arc in Marvel's top-selling horror title Tomb of Dracula, which ran from issue #31 to #36 between April and September 1975.

Amazing Spider-Man #124 (September 1973)

Creatures On The Loose #30 (July 1974)

"We were just trying to do a little bit of everything. So since we had a werewolf, we did Man-Wolf. Stan just wanted a character called Man-Wolf. It was that whole Marvel-flooding-the-market thing (...) We didn't have a concept for Man-Wolf, and Gerry and John Romita were trying to come up with something. My only contribution was to say, "Hey, make it J. Jonah Jameson's son! He was an astronaut, and he went up in space, and he found a moon rock, and it turns him into a wolf!" Just like Morbius was a science-fictional vampire, we could make Man-Wolf a science-fiction werewolf." (Cooke, 2001)

In context, it must be pointed out, however, that Amazing Spider-Man was, at that time, running on an almost unparalleled level of intensity in its storytelling, virtually producing one classic issue after the other as the the deaths of two central figures - Gwen Stacy and the Green Goblin - continued to reverberate through the book month after month. Gil Kane left Amazing Spider-Man in between the two Man-Wolf issues #124 and #125 and was followed by Ross Andru, who would leave his mark for the next sixty issues.

Like Morbius, Man-Wolf fought Spider-Man a few more times before receiving his own series, beginning in Creatures on the Loose #30, in July 1974. It lasted for the rest of the run of this book (which had been Tower of Shadows before taking on its new title in March 1971), which ended in September 1975. Jameson's lycanthropy, however, came back from time to time, allowing Man-Wolf to make various guest appearances over the years.

Marvel Premiere #45 (December 1978)

"This month (...) heralds the mind-bending beginning of a startling new series we call THE SON OF SATAN. This one not only picks up where GHOST RIDER left off in the pages of MARVEL SPOTLIGHT, but guest-stars our supernatural cyclist just for good measure. Sneek a peek at what Groovy GARY FRIEDRICH and Happy HERB TRIMPE are layin' down - and see if you don't find Daimon Hellstrom, THE SON OF SATAN, one of the most phantasmagorical new Marvel creations of all!" (Marvel Comics October 1973 Bullpen Bulletin)

Although "phantasmagorical" sounds like one of Stan Lee's many zany word creations, it is in fact based on an originally French noun describing "a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a dream or as created by the imagination" (according to the Random House 2006 Dictionary) - which fits the character of Daimon Hellstrom, aka the Son of Satan, rather well.

Marvel Spotlight #12 (October 1973)

Marvel Team-Up #32 (April 1975)

Marvel Two-In-One #14 (March 1976)

Following a row of horror characters which had, over a period of roughly two and a half years, become quite long, Stan Lee was now aiming for the "ultimate horror", the maior domus of hell himself. Roy Thomas, however, felt that this might be crossing a line better left untouched and managed to stop Lee who was just a foot or so short of creating what would have been the ultimate superhero from the crypt - the devil himself.

"Stan called me into the office one day, and said he wanted to do a book called Mark of Satan, but this time, the hero/villain was going to be Satan himself. (...) I'm not religious, but I thought this was going to get us in trouble, and who needs it? I didn't even like the idea. So I went off and thought about it for a little bit, and I came back and said, "I think we're asking for trouble with Mark of Satan, but what if you made it Son of Satan? You could still have Satan as a character, but he's not the hero." It's a little different from Dracula, where the heroes were the human beings fighting the vampire. Stan loved it." (Cooke, 2001)

Gary Friedrich set the general plot in a way which had "Rosemary's Baby meets the Exorcist" written all over it: Satan, taking the name Hellstrom, marries a woman named Victoria Wingate and together they have two children. Even though the boy - Daimon - is born with a huge pentagram on his chest as a birthmark and the girl is named Satana by the father the mother never suspects a thing. When she finally does find out, she spends years in a mental institution (during which the children are raised separately). After her death, Daimon finds her diary and learns of his family background.

Marvel's original concept was aimed at making the Son of Satan a dual-natured character in the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde tradition. By day he was supposed to be Daimon Hellstrom, a priest - by night, though, his dark heritage would take over, endowing him with destructive powers, a red cape and a trident fork. Daimon routinely visited Hell during his adventures (usually gaining access through some underground passage), with touches of the greek Hades and Dante's Inferno here and there. Daimon's actions, despite his darkside persona in control at night, were always aimed at bringing his father's empire down.

Satan made a few appearances as a character in Marvel comic books (e.g. in early issues of Ghost Rider and laterissues of Tomb of Dracula), but it never really worked, and the House of Ideas knew it. However, Daimon Hellstrom was received well enough by the readers for Marvel to have him continue until Marvel Spotlight #24 (October 1975) before moving him to his own book, Son of Satan #1, in December 1975. The title lasted for eight issues before being cancelled in February 1977. He had his first cross-over in Giant-Size Defenders #2 in October 1974 and would later on even become a member of this "non-team", whilst the classic encounter with Spidey - which in this case would perhaps have seemed less inevitable than others - took place in April 1975 in Marvel Team-Up #32.

But perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this character and his title - all in all one of Marvel's lesser concepts for their Bronze Age horror genre run - is that it sparked no controversy or protest to speak of when published in the mid-1970s.

Kicking off Marvel's new horror offerings for 1974, Man-Thing received his own solo title in January 1974. Written by Steve Gerber, the art was entrusted, successively, to Val Mayerik, Mike Ploog, and Jim Mooney. Like many other major Marvel horror characters, Man-Thing had his additional quarterly Giant-Size Man-Thing which totalled five issues between August 1974 and August 1975. Apart from featuring Atlas period horror and sci-fi reprints as back-ups, Giant-Size Man-Thing issues #4 and #5 have become classics due to the fact that they ran a Howard the Duck feature, Steve Gerber's whacky Donald-Duck-meets-Fritz-the-Cat spoof.

Man-Thing #1 (January 1974)

"There are a couple of elements to that particular question. One of which is that I was rooming with Gerry Conway who wrote the first Man-Thing story. It was just independent creation. We were doing Swamp Thing and Gerry and I think Gray Morrow was doing Man-Thing. Neither of us knew the other was doing the same thing. The weirdest aspect is that I actually wrote the second Man-Thing story; the whole "Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch". In Gerry's first story anything the Man-Thing touched burned. It was a protagonist who could never interact with anybody so I came up with the idea of fear." (Epstein, AN)

Marvel Two-In-One #1
(January 1974)

Master of Kung Fu #19
(August 1974)

Daredevil #114
(October 1974)

Incredible Hulk #197
(March 1976)

Iron Man Annual #3
(1976)

Howard the Duck #22
(March 1978)

Marvel Team-Up #68
(April 1978)

Marvel Team-Up #3 (July 1972)

Adventure Into Fear #20 (February 1974)

"The Morbius story was done in the vein of just like any other super-villain - we even gave him primary costume colors of red and blue, just like Spider-Man." (Lee & Thomas, 1998)

Gil Kane, who was the first to draw Morbius and also pencilled his early appearances, had a large influence in the overall creative process and also a clear affinity to the character:

"When Roy Thomas became the editor-in-chief you always sort of plotted the stuff you drew... but with Roy there was greater freedom for me, so (...) for Spider-Man I made up the vampire (...) That was my character. I based him on Jack Palance." (Ringenberg, AN)

It must rank as one of the curiosities of Marvel Comics that both Gil Kane and Gene Colan had actor Jack Palance in their minds when they drew the facial features of their vampire characters, Morbius and Dracula - even though the final visual appearances did differ quite considerably.

Marvel itself, however, tried to liken the solo appearances of Morbius to Dracula as often as possible, even adding blurs to some covers which told the potential buyer that this comic book was "in the fearful tradition of Dracula!". Allusions to the best-selling Tomb of Dracula were further increased by having Morbius encounter Blade in Adventures into Fear #24 and subsequent issues, where Morbius continued as the star of the bi-monthly title (with "The Living Vampire" set in far larger letters on the covers than the book's actual title) until cancellation came about in December 1975 with issue #31 - which a cover blurb announced as the "thrill-fraught final issue".

Adventure Into Fear #24 (October 1974)

Adventure Into Fear #31 (December 1975)

Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1 (June 1974)

Partly in parallel to his appearances in Marvel's colour comic books, Morbius also featured in the eleven issues of the black & white magazine Vampire Tales from August 1973 to June 1975. Other appearances in colour titles included Giant-Size Werewolf by Night #4 (April 1975), Marvel Two-In-One #15 (May 1976) and Spectacular Spider-Man #6 (May 1977). In Marvel Premiere #28 (February 1976) Morbius featured as part of the one-off "Legion of Monsters".

Based on his attire and the very circumstances of his creation by Lee, Thomas and Kane, Morbius is the visually most obvious "superhero from the crypt".

Giant-Size Werewolf #4
(April 1975)

Marvel Two-In-One #15
(May 1976)

Spectacular Spider-Man #6
(May 1977)

The Golem - an animated being created from clay - has a long standing in Jewish folklore but is best known through the tale about Rabbi Judah Loew who defends the Prague ghetto by creating a golem. In the late 19th century the golem was adopted by mainstream European society, and Gustav Meyrink's 1915 novel Der Golem (1915) served as inspiration for the classic expressionist silent movie Der Golem - Wie er in die Welt kam (1920) by German actor and director Paul Wegener. Also released in the USA in 1921, it featured Karl Freund as director of photography, who would later shoot The Mummy with Boris Karloff.

Strange Tales #174 (June 1974)

Marvel Two-In-One #11 (September 1975)

"In centuries agone, they had called him a myth, a creature formed of stone and clay and the blood of a people's oppression - a moving monolith who rose before the voice of tyranny - shattered it in his monumental fists - then vanished into the sands of time - there to be almost forgotten - until today! Now, once more, he rises - summoned from his eons-long sleep to protect those he loves. Now for the first time in untold decades - there walks the Golem!"

Marvel's serious problems regarding sustained editorship have been pointed out above on several occasions, but no other character was hit by this the way the Golem was.

Written by Len Wein and pencilled by John Buscema with inking from Jim Mooney - a great lineup of proven quality to start any new comic book character - the plot kicked off deep in the Sahara desert, where Abraham Adamson (a descendant of the famous Rabbi Judah Loew from Prague) is actually searching for the Golem (accompanied by his nephew Jason, his niece Rebecca and excavator Wayne Logan) after having carefully studied the ancient parchments of the legend. Their search is successful and they are able to unearth the Golem statue when they are discovered by Colonel Omar and his gang of looting soldiers. Wounded by their gunfire, Adamson is left behind to die with the Golem while his companions are taken as hostages. With all of his remaining strength, Abraham Adamson intones the "Mystic Alphabets of the 221 Gates" to bring the statue to life, but when nothing seems to happen Abraham begins to cry in desperation - and when one of his tears lands on the foot of the giant statue, a searing flash of light appears. In that very moment Abraham Adamson dies - and the light begins to shine in the eyes of the Golem...

Wein, Buscema and Mooney thus provided an impressive and extremely well executed start, but this momentum was all but wasted when the creative team was changed completely for the next issue and editor Roy Thomas brought on longtime Iron Man plotter Mike Friedrich as writer and Tony de Zuniga as penciller and inker. Even worse, the team didn't make the deadline and so Strange Tales #175 featured nothing but Atlas reprints in August 1974.

"Thus, even with an open-ended plotline and too much left unexplained, we've decided to call things to a halt. We goofed. It's not the first time, It won't be the last. (But it may be the only time we're gonna be so shamefacedly candid about it)." (Marvel Comics Letters Page in Strange Tales #176, October 1974)

Marvel's fragile editorial set-up had finally reached the point where this system actually axed a series itself - and most noteably one with a far more promising start than many others even before this had fully cleared the launchpad.

"[The Golem] was okay, but it didn't sell very well - [although] according to Gerry Conway, checking sales records in 1976, it actually outsold the early issues of Strange Tales featuring "Warlock" by Jim Starlin that succeeded the Golem series, even though of course Warlock has made more of a mark over the years." (Cooke, 2001)

The entire incident was also, of course, an indication of the lack of cohesiveness Marvel displayed both in its approach of thinking as well as its approach in handling things when launching a new title at that time - as Roy Thomas freely admits:

"Maybe if I - and later Marv and Len - if we'd kept on top of everything - but it was just such an awful lot of work, and so some of it just kind of got away from us (...) We were just trying to do a little bit of everything." (Cooke, 2001)

The dangling plot was taken up and concluded a year later in Marvel Two-In-One #11 (September 1975) in a story fittingly announced on the cover as "End of a legend!". Scripted by Bill Mantlo and pencilled by Bob Brown, it remains the Golem's last stand in Marveldom. Thus the first announced attempt of Marvel to establish a "Jewish hero" (as the Golem was labelled in the letters page of Strange Tales #176) faltered because Marvel Comics itself tripped over the cable and pulled the plug.

Nevertheless, Marvel seemingly put out a new anthology title, Tomb of Darkness, in July 1974. In reality, this was simply a new title for the book previously labelled Beware, which was last published in May 1974.

Tomb of Darkness #9
(July 1974)

It continued the formula of featuring entirely reprint material from such early 1950s Atlas titles as Adventures into Terror, Journey into Mystery or Adventures into Weird Worlds, with early stories and artwork by, amongst many others, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The title thus continued its bi-monthly run until November 1976, when Tomb of Darkness #23 became the final issue.

1974 was only half over, but Marvel would release no more new horror titles during the rest of the year. With a readership market which no longer showed signs of growing, consolidating the position and market share was the order of the day for Marvel in order to keep competitors (above all, of course, DC) at bay.

Tomb of Darkness #13
(March 1975)

Marvel was trying to regain stability, but found itself in more turbulences as Roy Thomas, who stepped down as editor-in-chief in 1974, was followed by no less than four EICs in a period of three years only: Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Gerry Conway (who returned from DC but left the job again after a mere three weeks) and Archie Goodwin .

By mid-1975, Marvel had lost $2 million and found itself in bad financial shape. Although sales remained strong, the profits had dropped. In response to this financial crisis, Marvel Comics owner Cadence installed a new company president, who pared the number of titles produced, firmed up publishing schedules, and reorganized sales and distribution. Not something to be done in a day or two, Marvel would spend the rest of the 1970s cutting back on expenses and new publications in an effort to remain profitable (Daniels, 1991).

The most successful new venture Marvel was able to launch in that troublesome year of 1975 was the re-intrdouction of the X-Men in Giant-Size X-Men. The characters would become the company's most popular franchise and open up new markets both in the US and abroad. The superhero theme showed future potential for becoming a strong seller once again only two years later, in 1977, when a TV series featuring the Hulk became a big hit. Also in 1977, Stan Lee himself branched out by creating and writing a syndicated Spider-Man newspaper comicstrip which soon became highly popular and successful and which is now the longest running strip ever featuring a superhero. The industry was suffering, but the classic Marvel comic characters were proving a solid base for retreat.

In sharp contrast, Marvel's grand pandemonium of horror titles almost collapsed. 11 titles were cancelled in 1975 and one saw a change of genre. At the end of the year, the total of Marvel's colour horror titles was down from 19 to 9. Despite the cut of more than 50% of titles, this still seemed like a sizeable number, but the problems Marvel had with the horror genre ran deeper than what was evident at first sight. Not only was the industry in flux, but society as a whole was in transition, and with it popular culture as television was drawing kids away from reading, including comics.

Worse still, the horror genre was seeing fundamental changes. Mainstream Hollywood was focussing on disaster movies and thrillers such as Spielberg's 1975 box office hit Jaws, whilst independent filmmakers came up with disturbingly explicit and gorey "splatter" movies such as the 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the hit movie Halloween (1978). Also on the rise was the occult horror film, following up on the box office success of The Exorcist in 1973, which prompted major studios to release movies with big name stars and high production values, such as de Palma’s Carrie in 1976 (based on a book by Stephen King) and Hollywood legend Gregory Peck in The Omen that same year.

The classic "gothic" horror theme was over and out, but only one of Marvel's three flagship horror titles - The Ghost Rider - could be seen as fitting the new horror themes, whilst Tomb of Dracula and Werewolf by Night clearly represented the more "old-fashioned" school of the genre. The only other Marvel horror comic which seemed to be "spot on" was - nomen est omen - Marvel Spotlight, which throughout 1975 featured the Son of Satan until he was given his own title book in December of that year.

Marvel tried to branch out more into the occult and launched Marvel Chillers #1 in October 1975 - the first new horror title in 15 months after the relaunch of Beware as Tomb of Darkness in July 1974 - which featured Modred the Mystic, a 6th century wizard placed in suspended animation until reanimated in modern times in London.

Marvel Chillers #1
(October 1975)

Son of Satan #1
(December 1975)

Thus, by December 1975, another horror genre character and title had come - and gone. As usual, this would never rule out one-off appareances in other titles, and Modred would thus briefly resurface in November 1977 in Marvel two-In-One #33 and in Avengers #185 - 187 (July-September 1979). Finally, in parallel to the launch of Son of Satan, Daimon Hellstrom's sister Satana - developed by Roy Thomas and John Romita and first featured in a four page story in the black and white Vampire Tales #2 - became the main feature of Marvel Premiere #27 in December 1975, but this remained a one-off appearance in this umbrella title. Originally, both Modred and Satana - along with a few other characters - had been announced in mid-1975 as planned features in Giant-Size Werewolf by Night and Giant-Size Dracula respectively (in the June 1975 Bullpen Bulletin) in a planned move to cut down on the amount of - highly unpopular - reprints in the Giant-Size horror titles. Not surprisingly, the plan fell apart completely, not the least because both Giant-Size Dracula and Giant-Size Werewolf were cancelled, each after a run of five issues, in June and July 1975. Marvel was thinking about restructuring their horror range, but by mid-1975 cancellation more often than not became the only viable choice.

Marvel Premiere #27
(December 1975)

Marvel Two-In-One #33
(November 1977)

Dead of Night #11
(August 1975)

Marvel Spotlight #26
(February 1976)

The first to feel the axe was the reprint anthology Dead of Night, which appeared on the newsagent racks for the last time in August 1975 after a total run of 11 issues. Oddly enough, the anthology format of Dead of Night was dropped just in time for its last issue and replaced by a 16-page original story by Scott Edelmann (plot) and Rico Rival (pencils) featuring The Scarecrow. Obviously not to be confused with DC's Batman villain created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane who first featured in World's Finest Comics #3 (Fall 1941), Marvel's character was originally - by name, at least - an Iron Man villain without superhuman powers (a circus contortionist by trade) who made his debut in Tales of Suspense #51. Now, however, he was portrayed as a mysterious character who has the ability to leave a painting and spread terror.

An interesting but short-lived concept in the mould of Dorian Gray, it was devised to be published as a bi-monthly feature taking over Dead of Night , (according to a text page entitled "A bit of rag and a clump of straw" appearing in Dead of Night #11), but could not save the title from cancellation. Despite plans for its own series, the appearances of the Scarecrow thereafter were limited to one-off stints in Marvel Spotlight #26 (February 1976) and Marvel Two-In-One #18 (August 1976).

September 1975 saw a far more high-profile - by name and popular culture status - title drop dead when The Frankenstein Monster appeared for the last time with issue #18. There would, however, be far more axing the following month - in fact, October 1975 can be seen as the turning point for Marvel's world of horror.

Tales of Suspense #51
(March 1964)

Marvel Two-In-One #18
(August 1976)

And finally, two more reprint titles fell victim when Crypt of Shadows (totalling 21 issues) and Vault of Evil (totalling 23 issues) were deleted in November 1975. Within four months, Marvel had slashed through its range of horror colour comic books, and true to the genre it quickly became an actual bloodshed.

Champions #1
(October 1975)

Naturally, most of this new material had nothing to do with the horror genre, but when Marvel launched a new team in Champions #1 in October 1975, former X-Men Angel and Iceman together with the Black Widow and Hercules were joined by the Ghost Rider, adding a touch of the supernatural.

Authors and artists on this title kept changing, meaning that despite the invested talent - Tony Isabella, Chris Claremont and Bill Mantlo scripting, and George Tuska, Don Heck and Bob Hall pencilling - the title lacked a constant artistic direction. The Ghost Rider stayed on the team until the final issue, Champions #17, in January 1978.

Reminiscent of the Super Villain Team-Up formula (which Marvel had launched in August 1975), the Legion of Monsters was a "non-team" formed on the spot as a mountain suddenly erupts out of the earth in the middle of Los Angeles and the four key horror figures all happen to be around.

Marvel Premiere #28 (Feb 1976)

Despite the cover-blurbs announcements that this was "the most spine-tingling team-up of all", providing "Action in the mysterious Marvel manner", Marvel Premiere #28 may be seen as living proof why such a "horror team" might not work just as well - probably due to the same reasons which made Universal Pictures' "second wave" of 1940s horror movies so second grade: Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman and the Mummy were all strong characters in their own movies, but once they were being thrown together the quality of the stories deteriorated rapidly.

The success of Marvel Premiere #28 was minimal, and the Legion of Monsters was not to be seen again throughout the remaining years of the Bronze Age.

The idea was not, of course, a new one, and even its potential for success had long been proven by Albert L. Kanter who first published Classic Comics in 1941 (the series changed its name in 1947 to Classics Illustrated in a move to dodge the growing criticism directed towards comics as a whole). The line was launched with an adaptation of The Three Musketeers and soon distributed by a dedicated publishing company (Gilberton Publications), which would eventually handle Illustrated Classics for the next quarter-century. Sold off to another company, titles continued to be issued until the final demise in 1971.

Unlike other comic books that went off sale when the next issue was released, each issue of Classics Illustrated was reprinted as often as necessary to make it continually available. The selling point was, more or less, to expose young comic book readers to great literature and thus awaken their intellectual appetites. In reality, however, fairly long and complex stories were condensed into a single comic book, often achieved only by omitting key plot elements or characters. Some adaptations were outright confusing, and it is to be assumed that many a reader who tried to take a short cut through his English class reading assignments by going for the Classics Illustrated versions was in for a nasty surprise.

Marvel Classics Comics #1 (1976)

Marvel Classics Comics #3 (1976)

Marvel Classics Comics #9 (1976)

"Hey, troops, remember the old Classics Comics mags? Remember how everyone loved those comic book versions of the world's greatest stories? Remember what a great help they were with school book reports? Well, ol' Marvel remembers, too. And that's why we're real excited to announce that your bleary-eyed Bullpen has done it again. We're bringing the classics back to life! We're starting a whole new series of 50c magazines, a full 48 pages per issue - with no ads! We expect Marvel's new line of classics to be the biggest thing since Aunt May's face lift, so watch for 'em, hear?" (Marvel Comics July 1975 Stan's Soapbox)

It would, however, be 1976 before Marvel Classics Comics #1 was released, featuring an adaptation of a classic of the horror genre, Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde, scripted by Kin Platt and drawn by veteran Philippine comic book artist Nestor Redondo

Eventually, 36 issues would be produced, and most of the literary works adapted for Marvel Classics Comics had featured in Classics Illustrated before, with only two exceptions - one being the adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula in Marvel Classics Comics #9, scripted by Naunerle Farr and drawn by Nestor Redondo. Other issues to feature works associated - sometimes in a broader sense - with the horror genre were The Time Machine (issue #2, 1976 ) scripted by Otto Binder and pencilled by Alex Nino, Hunchback of Notre Dame (issue #3, 1976) scripted by Naunerle Farr and drawn by Jon Lo Famia, Frankenstein (issue #20, 1977) scripted by John Warner and pencilled by Dino Castrillo, Invisible Man (issue #25, 1977) scripted by Doug Moench and drawn by Dino Castrillo, and finally three short stories by Edgar Allan Poe (issue #28, 1977), retold by Donald F. McGregor and illustrated by Michael Golden.

Apart from Doug Moench's adaptation of H. G. Wells' account of the Invisible Man, none of the artists engaged in the production of Marvel Classics Comics were truly household names at Marvel. It was a typical sideline, of which Marvel would pursue many more in years to come.

Marvel Classics Comics #20 (1977)

Marvel Classics Comics #25 (1977)

It could be seen as a statement by Marvel indicating that these characters could also be handled differently than before, i.e. in a completely traditional manner rather than having them in a setting which was specific to the Marvel universe. In effect, it turned around much of what had been laid out before, and the grim reality of the horror genre in Marvel's production output as of 1976 spoke the same language. In the end, Marvel Classics Comics #9 and Marvel Classics Comics #20 were in a curious yet direct competition with Tomb of Dracula and the previously cancelled Frankenstein Monster - and they compared very unfavourably.

Marvel's world of horror was slowly bowing out, and in February 1977 even Marvel's attempt to cash in on the interest in the occult originally caused by the Exorcist movie ultimately proved unsuccesful as Son of Satan was cancelled after a mere 8 issues.

Weird Wonder Tales #19
(December 1976)

Marvel also lost the last of its once so numerous anthology horror titles when the plug was pulled for Weird Wonder Tales after 22 issues in May 1977. Remarkably, Weird Wonder Tales #19 had featured a heavily edited (i.e. retconned, partially redrawn and completely relettered) reprint from the 1961 Amazing Adventures featuring Dr Druid (called "Dr Droom" in the original material and regarded as Marvel's first superhero by some) and ran another Dr Druid story in the final issue (with lookalike characters spliced into issues #20 and #21).

Weird Wonder Tales #22
(May 1977)

Star Wars #1 (July 1977) - the comic book which saved Marvel

"We had been losing money for several years (...) Actually a lot of credit should go to Roy Thomas, who - kicking and screaming - had dragged Marvel into doing Star Wars. If we hadn't done Star Wars (...) we would have gone out of business. Star Wars single-handedly saved Marvel... and that kept us alive." (Thomas, 2000)

It was a time for laser swords and death stars in a future which took place in outer space, not vampires and other ghostly appearances rooted in the earthly reality of the present. The same market which had demanded horror comic books a few years back was now yearning for science fiction, and Marvel - as virtually always - was quick to follow.

Actually, the two genres were not that far apart. Some books and movies always defied a clear distinction between horror and science fiction, as the latter was not always concerned with space travel and starships only.

Marvel also kept mixing up the two genres, such as having the Mummy face "extradimensional humanoids" in the form of The Elementals. However, when Marvel released their own version of Godzilla in August 1977 this was more of a sci-fi themed move than an attempt at a horror revival. Actually, it was a Godzilla revival, triggered - like so many other things - by the Star Wars movie, resulting in many of the numerous Godzilla movies playing as reruns on local television.

Godzilla first featured in the 1954 Toho Co. Ltd.'s movie Gojira, the most expensive movie ever produced in Japan at the time. It was such a huge success that it spawned a new style of Japanese cinema and a genre in its own right: the kaiju eiga ("giant monster"). The monster's mutant creation and subsequent release on the world was the result of nuclear energy, unleashed by the terror of nuclear war. As the only nation ever attacked by atomic weapons Japan had its own reasons to fear such mutations, and Gojira turned these fears into cinematic terror (Hixson, 2002).

Godzilla #1 (August 1977)

Godzilla #20 (March 1979)

Godzilla also fought other gigantic monsters, which was very much in line with the seemingly endless string of Japanese Godzilla movies.

Nevertheless, the gigantic lizard moved within the Marvel universe and quickly found himself up against S.H.I.E.L.D., the Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-Enforcement Division of Nick Fury fame, as well as the Champions (oddly enough minus the Ghost Rider, who was a member of the team in its own book at the time) and even the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and - very briefly - with Spider-Man in the last few issues of the series.

Trying to establish a west coast based title in contrast to Marvel's standard east coast / New York bias, Moench realised that the title needed added interest. Godzilla as a character didn't work as a superhero from the crypt - it had to be seen as a sci-fi book anyway - so he was in desperate need of superhero relief.

It didn't work.

Godzilla wasn't Star Wars after all, and so the overall storyline was wrapped up neatly (with Godzilla going out to sea, back to where he came from) for the cancellation of the title, which came in July 1979 with issue #24.

Godzilla #23 (June 1979)

This did not, however, preclude a horror themed comic book from selling well enough to justify a one-off issue, especially if it was a film tie-in. In precisely such a context, Marvel published The Island of Dr Moreau in October 1977.

Island of Dr. Moreau #1 (October 1977)

"When comic book art aficionados get together, some sooner or later points out the strong similarity between the visual techniques of comics and those of the movies. You'd certainly get no arguments from these quarters, as just about every sturdy soul in the Bullpen is a dyed-in-the-wool movie buff. Maybe that's why 1977 is shaping up as the year when merry Marvel and the wild world of the movies really come together. In addition to such continuing tie-in titles as STAR WARS, we're about to launch a number of bonus-size, one-issue film adaptations, timed to appear at the same time as the movies which they cover. The first one to come your way is based on American-International's THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (...) This eerie classic is from the book by H. G. Wells about an island empire populated by the half-human beings Dr. Moreau creates from wild animals." (Stan Lee in his October 1977 Soapbox column)

Oddly enough, The Island of Dr Moreau was numbered as issue #1 all the same, but a second issue never materialized. Scripted by Doug Moench and pencilled by Lara Hama, the comic book contained 30 pages which told the story of Andrew Braddock who is cast adrift for days on a lifeboat.

Over time, more movie adaptations would be released by Marvel, but there would be no trace of the horror genre after Dr Moreau between Battlestar Galactica, Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Again, horror in its classic form had simply lost its appeal to readers, even in a one-off format. A mere six years after virtually exploding onto Marvel's production list, the horror genre had outlived its market value.

In 1978, only three regular titles remained - Tomb of Dracula, Ghost Rider, and Godzilla - although some might argue that Kirby's curiously unbalanced Devil Dinosaur - which ran for nine issues from April to December 1978 and featured "the King's" seriously high-flying philosophical approach with a story telling technique aimed at nine year olds - was as much a horror title as Godzilla. With two rampaging dinosaur titles balancing out Dracula and the Ghost Rider, it seemed as though even the very essence of the genre was now in danger of being thrown overboard.

Other horror characters were only passing through guest appearances in straight superhero titles, such as Brother Voodoo in Marvel Two-In-One #41 (July 1978) and the Man-Thing in Marvel Two-In-One #43 (September 1978). But then the whole industry was having a rough time, and indications of a better future were few and far between as DC had significantly cut back it's line of titles toward the end of 1978 in the "DC Implosion".

By 1979 the market for comic books had shrunk to an all-time low, and Marvel's overall annual sales figures of approximately 5,8 million copies hadn't been as low since 1965 (Tolworthy, AN). Marvel's horror genre flagship title, Tomb of Dracula, was cancelled after 70 issues in August 1979 - the longest running Bronze Age Marvel horror genre title and the "superhero from the crypt" par excellence had bowed out.

 
Marvel Two-In-One #41
(July 1978)

Man-Thing (vol. II) #1
(November 1979)

Closing the saga on Dracula and the gang of vampire hunters with the death of both its title character and his arch-enemy Quincy Harker, Tomb of Dracula #70 served as a symbolic end of an era. 

Just like the comic book title featuring Dracula, the company named Marvel Comics had, in some ways, reached the end of a familiar road: the company's passing from the hands of owner Martin Goodman into those of a series of faceless corporations, Stan Lee's departure from the company's NYC offices in order to be closer to the Hollywood "in people", the resignation of Roy Thomas as Editor-in-Chief and the new philosophy instigated by Jim Shooter, the end of the days of free-wheeling experimentation and the rise of the X-Men phenomenon, and finally the exodus of much of the talent which made the Bronze Age shine - all of this cast an uncertain shape of things to come.

However, just as the decade of the 1970s and with the Bronze Age of comic books were coming to a close, the horror genre gave off a last spark.

The Man-Thing had been the very first original Marvel horror creation back in the May 1971 black & white test-tube Savage Tales #1, and oddly enough it would also be the last Marvel horror character to receive its own new Bronze Age title when Man-Thing (volume II) #1 was launched in November 1979. In the end, however, even the Man-Thing could not turn around market trends which had run against the horror genre for a few years now, and after only 11 bi-monthly issues, Man-Thing vol. II was cancelled in July 1981.

Marvel Two-In-One #43
(September 1978)

Marvel Team-Up #81
(May 1979)

However, the horror genre was not, as the actual publication figures clearly show, an overall Bronze Age period phenomenon: It almost exploded onto the Marvel comic book scene in 1972/73, peaked in 1973/74, was just as swiftly reduced in output quantity by 1975/76 and only played a very minor part in Marvel's total output of comic book titles for the remaining years of the 1970s.

By the end of the first Bronze Period year, 15% of the production output - i.e. every sixth comic book Marvel published - was a horror title. By the end of 1972, the actual number of horror titles had doubled in comparison to 1970, but the share of the total publication output remained virtually the same (17%) as Marvel had also increased the number of comic book titles it published in a massive way.

The decline, which set in in 1975 with substantial cancellations of horror titles, was even more dramatic in terms of the importance - or growing lack of it - which the genre held for Marvel because the total number of titles published in that year would be the highest of the entire Bronze Age period.

In analysing the impact of the horror genre on Marvel Comics in terms of quantity and thematic diversity, it is however important to take into account the role of the reprint titles.

In the end, and with the added clarity of hindsight, Marvel's outing into the world of ghouls, monsters and vampires must rank as one of the most innovative moves in the company's history.

Covering the genre from wall to wall whilst infusing it with the underlying principles of the superhero comic book was an innovative approach. Without it, there would be no Tomb of Dracula or Ghost Rider, which became comic book classics beyond the borders of the horror genre. The "superhero from the crypt", as I have labelled him, is one of Marvel's milestone contribution not just to the Bronze Age period of the 1970s, but to comic book history as a whole. Not surprisingly, a number of these characters have reappeared throughout the past 25 years and keep on doing so.

Furthermore, Marvel owes much of the new momentum the House of Ideas gained through the series of increasingly popular and big budget movie adaptations to its Bronze Age world of horror, too: the movie which, in a way, broke the ice for Marvel in 1998 was Blade - the vampire slayer from Tomb of Dracula.

'nuff said.

Some of the best Marvel's world of horror had to offer: the artistic genius of Gene Colan, inked and coloured by Tom Palmer (Tomb of Dracula #25)

Tomb of Dracula is by far the best covered series, with reading options in the black and white Essentials range as well as high-end colour Omnibus editions, plus a few separate reprints mainly of the first issues over the years. The only other material to receive the comprehensive colour reprint treatment is, somewhat paradoxically, the reprint material from the Atlas age, which has been covered in full by Marvel in their Masterworks edition.

Most Bronze Age Marvel Horror, however, is restricted to the black and white Essentials range, which covers a lot of this era either in dedicated volumes (e.g. Werewolf By Night, Monster of Frankenstein, Ghost Rider and Man-Thing [the latter since also featured in a comprehensive Omnibus colour edition]) or Essentials compilation volumes which feature the likes of Son of Satan or Brother Voodoo, along with some material from the b&w magazines and the lesser characters such as the Golem or Modred.

In 2007 Marvel published a series of single issues featuring some of their best known horror characters, and this new material was collected in a hardcover trade titled Legion of Monsters which also featured material from Legion of Monsters #1, Marvel Premiere #28 (with the "Legion of Monsters") as well as all the Scarecrow material from Dead of Night #11, Marvel Spotlight #26 and Marvel Two-In-One #18 - plus the entire horror section from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

In addition, the three volumes of Marvel Firsts - The 1970s published in 2012 offer many "first issues" (the theme of the books) of Bronze Age Marvel Horror in their original (i.e. non photoshop enhanced) colours.

The illustrations presented here are copyright material and are reproduced for strictly non-commercial and appreciative review purposes only.
Text is (c) 2008-2015 Adrian Wymann

page originally posted on the web 27 May 2008
updated and reposted 2 March 2014
last updated 12 April 2015

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