It's Friday again so it's time for another look at some of my 'birthday books' once more. Check out these 3 comics that are all cover dated September 1969 and so are all born the same time as I was 😃
Ghost Manor #8
Grade - VG+ (4.5)
Cover - Sanho Kim
Watch Your Step
Art - Sanho Kim
This is just a single title page introducing us to the stories inside the book. The unnamed host of the book is a one-eyed, pasty-skinned, hooded figure who gives us a classic "Heh Heh Hehheh" maniacal laugh, the staple of all good creepy anthology horror book hosts.
The Top Floor of Hades!
Story - Joe Gill
Art - Sanho Kim
Unscrupulous mine owner Grant Wycross cares more for money than he does the safety of his men, resulting in the death of Harry Jones whose spirit it is said haunts the mine. When pit inspector Forran declares the mine unsafe Wycross refuses to close instead trapping him by using dynamite to cause a cave-in. The ghost of Jones saves him and leads him to safety, the mine is so deep that he has to lead him past molten rock bubbling beneath, the so called "Top Floor of Hades." Forran confronts Wycross who flees the wrong way down to the firey pit. Jones ghost tries to lead him to safety too but Wycross' cowardice leads to his death.
The Spirit Speaks
A one page text story.
When Helen Deane gets trapped in a cave her living spirit reaches out to the man she loves to come and rescue her.
When Helen Deane gets trapped in a cave her living spirit reaches out to the man she loves to come and rescue her.
Till Death Us Do Part?
Story - Joe Gill
Art - Sanho Kim
Newly wed Tommy lost his wife Susan in a car accident just after their honeymoon, mourning her by the graveside she begins to haunt him, making him doubt his sanity. He tells her he was betrothed to her "until death do we part" and she is dead so needs to leave him be. She goes and months later he meets Ellen who seems familiar and apparently knew his wife before her death. Soon they marry and we see Susan's ghost arm in arm with Ellen as the trio stand at the altar. I think the implication is meant to be that her ghost has possessed Ellen but it's not exactly clear.
Trick or Treat!
Story - Joe Gill
Art - Sanho Kim
JP Laydin is an ornery old cuss who is mean to kids trick or treating at his door, cuffing them around the ear. A passing pair, Sarah who is dressed as a witch and Lucifer who is dressed like the Devil decide to "test" him. JP sets his vicious dog on them but it chases him out of the house instead, he finds himself in stark silence, alone in the night where he comes across a grave headstone which has his name upon it. The couple startle him yelling "Trick or Treat" and he falls into an open grave, terrified he asks them what they want of him and they tell him to mend his ways which he does. It's kind of like Dicken's Christmas Carol but set at Halloween. In the last panel Sarah removes her witch mask to reveal an even witchier face underneath.
The Man Who Had Ghosts
Art - Don Perlin
In this 2 page story we see Oliver Fritt a man who is followed by ghosts which he cannot see. Passersby can see them though but he just thinks they are crazy fools talking nonsense. He's having trouble selling his house presumably as buyers see the ghosts and flee. Finally he sells the place to a couple into spiritulism and seances, who think it the perfect place. I imagine they won't be too happy though as the ghosts move out following Fritt when he leaves.
Superboy #159
Grade - VG
Cover - Neal Adams
Story - Frank Robbins
Cover - Neal Adams
Story - Frank Robbins
Art - Bob Brown/Wally Wood
The Day it Rained Superboys!
The story opens with Superboy inexplicably the target of the Air Corps as he has become Public Enemy #1. Then in flashback mode we see a number of nefarious attacks perpetrated by Superboy that has led to him gaining this unlikely status. Totally out of character for the Boy of Steel, he destroys an airship, nearly wrecks a ship by dropping an iceberg in front of it, totals a bridge and breaches a dam amongst other acts of evil. The Mayor of Smallville proclaims a "day of shame" and Ma & Pa Kent are distraught at their boys actions. They wonder if it could be anything to do with Superboy's robot duplicates as the events seem to have been happening almost simultaneously but Pa remembers that they were all destroyed after someone had recently been able to take control of them.
Superboy in the meantime has been in his Cave of Silence working on these very same robots totally unaware of his new fugitive status. With the bots fixed he sends them off to fly by different routes to his basement under the Kent's home, but they are all destroyed on the way by various countries armed forces. This is when he too comes under air attack by US pilots. The armed forces are being advised by Professor Ruthol, a geologist who offers to sell his vast stockpile of Kryptonite to them to deal with Superboy, making himself a vast profit in the process. Arriving home and unaware of what is happening the Kents confront him about his actions, showing him television news footage of his crimes. The news also reports that a K armed World Anti-Aircraft Network is out to get him. His adoptive parents believe in their super-son and they hatch a plan. Superboy disguises himself as Voltron The Unconquerable and presents himself to the Anti-Superboy Defense Council as an emissary sent from Voltra to handle the menace before his depradations spread out from Earth. Prof Ruthol suspects Voltron to be Superboy and lays a trap for him using a Superboy robot of his own as decoy. Voltron smashes the robot which is full of Kryptonite and succumbs to it's radiation. Triumphantly Ruthol unmasks himself as being Lex Luthor and exults in his smart plan, using his own Superboy robots to discredit the real thing and then managing to dispatch him with a robot full of K. Just then a hand grabs his shoulder, Luthor is foiled, this is the real Superboy, Voltron was really just another robot designed to lure out the culprit who had blackened Superboy's name.
This was a bit of a convoluted tale I must say haha, oh Silver Age madness you've gotta love it!! With this being a comic from 1969 and with Superman being a teen still the story itself seems to be set quite some time before that year. At one point Superboy speaks of Hitler saying "In case Hitler stops ranting and acts" which makes me figure the timeline to be before WWII, so pre 1939. If modern day in this comic is 1969, this is at least 30 years before. How old is Superboy supposed to be? Is he a Teen, 13 perhaps? This makes Clark Kent 43 already at this time. Another thing, at no point does it 'rain' Superboys, a few Superboy robots do get destroyed and fall out of the sky but I don't think that qualifies haha
The Day it Rained Superboys!
The story opens with Superboy inexplicably the target of the Air Corps as he has become Public Enemy #1. Then in flashback mode we see a number of nefarious attacks perpetrated by Superboy that has led to him gaining this unlikely status. Totally out of character for the Boy of Steel, he destroys an airship, nearly wrecks a ship by dropping an iceberg in front of it, totals a bridge and breaches a dam amongst other acts of evil. The Mayor of Smallville proclaims a "day of shame" and Ma & Pa Kent are distraught at their boys actions. They wonder if it could be anything to do with Superboy's robot duplicates as the events seem to have been happening almost simultaneously but Pa remembers that they were all destroyed after someone had recently been able to take control of them.
Superboy in the meantime has been in his Cave of Silence working on these very same robots totally unaware of his new fugitive status. With the bots fixed he sends them off to fly by different routes to his basement under the Kent's home, but they are all destroyed on the way by various countries armed forces. This is when he too comes under air attack by US pilots. The armed forces are being advised by Professor Ruthol, a geologist who offers to sell his vast stockpile of Kryptonite to them to deal with Superboy, making himself a vast profit in the process. Arriving home and unaware of what is happening the Kents confront him about his actions, showing him television news footage of his crimes. The news also reports that a K armed World Anti-Aircraft Network is out to get him. His adoptive parents believe in their super-son and they hatch a plan. Superboy disguises himself as Voltron The Unconquerable and presents himself to the Anti-Superboy Defense Council as an emissary sent from Voltra to handle the menace before his depradations spread out from Earth. Prof Ruthol suspects Voltron to be Superboy and lays a trap for him using a Superboy robot of his own as decoy. Voltron smashes the robot which is full of Kryptonite and succumbs to it's radiation. Triumphantly Ruthol unmasks himself as being Lex Luthor and exults in his smart plan, using his own Superboy robots to discredit the real thing and then managing to dispatch him with a robot full of K. Just then a hand grabs his shoulder, Luthor is foiled, this is the real Superboy, Voltron was really just another robot designed to lure out the culprit who had blackened Superboy's name.
This was a bit of a convoluted tale I must say haha, oh Silver Age madness you've gotta love it!! With this being a comic from 1969 and with Superman being a teen still the story itself seems to be set quite some time before that year. At one point Superboy speaks of Hitler saying "In case Hitler stops ranting and acts" which makes me figure the timeline to be before WWII, so pre 1939. If modern day in this comic is 1969, this is at least 30 years before. How old is Superboy supposed to be? Is he a Teen, 13 perhaps? This makes Clark Kent 43 already at this time. Another thing, at no point does it 'rain' Superboys, a few Superboy robots do get destroyed and fall out of the sky but I don't think that qualifies haha
Our Army at War: Sgt Rock #210
Grade - VG/FN
What a strange story haha I thought the Superhero stuff from DC at this time was a bit quirky but this is pure daftness on so many levels! Great art though.
Death's Promise
Cover - Joe Kubert
Story - Robert Kanigher
Story - Robert Kanigher
Art - Joe Kubert/Russ Heath
Sgt. Rock: I'm Kilroy!
Sgt Rock and Easy Company are on a mission in Italy to take out a mini-sub base. Their inside agent who supplied intel goes by the name Kilroy and has a bizarre way of keeping things covert, he leaves negative graffiti mocking Rock's intelligence all over the place. Including messages in bottles as they arrive at the coast by dinghy. They sneak into the base but get captured and are about to be killed when an unseen Kilroy tosses them a grenade, in the confusion Rock and Co, manage to blow the sub fuel supplies and swim to safety. Staggering to shore they see Kilroy's final message scrawled in the sand which is "Sgt. Rock's mother was a petrified tree!"Sgt. Rock: I'm Kilroy!
What a strange story haha I thought the Superhero stuff from DC at this time was a bit quirky but this is pure daftness on so many levels! Great art though.
Death's Promise
Before the 2nd story there is a centre spread of a new on-going feature called Battle Album about the machines of war. This one shows some of the equipment used by the German and Russian forces at the battle of Stalingrad. Also we get the letters page with a poignant letter from a girl named Patsy who asks them to not do any stories "...about the war in Viet Nam please. My brother is there and I don't think I can stand to read about it." That really got me I have to say, I love these old stories and comics they are like history exhibits to me. I hope Patsy's brother came home safely.
In this 2nd story we have Brett Decker from Tennessee, as a boy his granny told him that the Deckers "know Death" and when they see him they can do a deal with him. She herself made a deal with Death to hold off on claiming her until her grandson was old enough to fend for himself. Years later as a man Brett is in the Rebel army during the Civil War, he sees Death one day and bargains with the entity to not claim him in battle. This is agreed upon and for 4 years of War he is fearless, not a bullet grazes him. Death says "You'll not die in battle... not at Chicamauga... not at Chattanooga... not at Lookout Mountain... Death always keeps his promise!" Finally with the war over Brett rests up against a tree reminiscing, his rifle stands propped up against a 2nd tree. He is just pondering "Death kept his promise... but-- why was he smiling when - UGH!" His thoughts cut off suddenly as his rifle topples over and discharges killing him instantly. You knew it would happen eventually really didn't you? I am just surprised he never died of disease or was injured badly and died in a military hospital because when you make a deal with Death you gotta make sure you cover all the possible loopholes!!
The book finishes up with a couple of small fun cartoon pages, 1 about a couple of guys in a bi-plane and the other called "Out of this World" about a pair of little green aliens.
So that's my look at some of my Birthday Books this week comic fans, come back next week for 3 more cool comics.
So that's my look at some of my Birthday Books this week comic fans, come back next week for 3 more cool comics.
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