My Birthday Books - 12

Here's another look at some more of my awesome Birthday Books, check 'em out folks 😀

Strange Suspense Stories #9

 Grade - VG

Cover - Jim Aparo
Story - Charles Nicholas, Vince Alascia, Fred Himes, and Mo Marcus

Art - ?

Ammortu's Moon
Neville Smyth is an explorer in Central Africa, when his guide Kajal is fatally wounded by a buffalo a local medicine man called Ammortu manages to save his life much to Neville's shock. His assisstant Helen Bliss comments on the strangeness of the green hued moon that night, Neville ponders that the moon shouldn't be like that at all at this time of the month. Ammortu claims that the moon healed Kajal and ot appears to have dissapeared after the healing ritual. Kajal is changed after the healing and seems to be in a hypnotic state under Ammortu's influenece He later saves the life of a rich chief and it seems that he takes all the riches of those that he cures. Neville and Helen confront Ammortu and he threatens and sets his controlled minions onto them. They spy on him later and discover that the strange green moon is actually an alien space craft, the plan is that Ammortu will use his powers to heal the leaders of the World some day and will control them to the aliens advantage. Neville makes Ammortu a gift of 'Green Fire' a 100 pound lump of pure uranium, it's green hue matches the 'moon' so he travels up to the ship with it as a gift to his alien masters and the modern machinery around it somehow causes it to explode!! The thralls of Ammortu are freed from his influence with the witch doctor's death. 

There is a 1 page text story next "The Ghost of Gonzales Garcia"

A House Needs a Friend
Fred Corby a real estate agent is showing the Sims around an old house, "a house where no living people should ever live again! That is what the neighbours say..." The unwelcoming spirit of Fothergill Tate, he cursed the house it seems. During his life Tate ruined a man's life and then killed him in a duel, he fixed his oppenents pistol so it was loaded but had no firing pin, the sabotaged pistol from that fateful day graces the mantelpiece. Spooked by a flying vase they leave but Mrs Sims has dropped an earring inside she returns for it seemingly under the spell of Fothergill's spirit, he wants her to live in the house with him forevermore. Mr Sims comes to her rescue and the spirit tussles with him, Mrs Sims points the tampered gun at Fothergill and by some miracle it fires at him and he drops to the floor and fades away. Mrs Sims ponders "I did a funny, didn't I Walt? I shot a man who wasn't there with a gun that couldn't work!" They decide to buy the now ghost free house and in the last panel we see that although Tate's spirit has been banished he hasn't gone far as he stands by a tree in the garden staring at the house.

Behold Beauty
This last one I won't go into as I used it as one of my 13 Nights of Halloween series of videos recently, so you can just watch that here for the full story.

All I can say is Divina was no lady!!

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #70

 Grade - ?

Cover - John Severin
Story - Gary Friedrich

Art - Dick Ayers/John Severin

The Missouri Marauders!
The Howling Commandos meet up with a bunch of guys with a similar temperment and grit for fighting Nazis, the Missouri Marauders. This is their 1st appearance and I think only appearance almost with the story completed in #71. The Marauders were National Guardsmen who had recieved the best Commando training and were to link up with the yowling yahoos for their 1st combat mission. Fury is not happy to play nursemaid to a bunch of green hillbillies and the Marauders are a proud bunch of testosterone fueled tough guys. In a pub in London they get into a fight with some sailors, they go to hightail it out and bump into and get into a fight with Fury and Dum Dum Duggan on their way in! They have to stop fighting as they are due at base in an hour to get on a plane to drop into France. Once on the ground in enemy territory they are to blow a bridge up together, they are abrasive towards each other but soon begin to impress each other with their grit and determination as they rally against harsh odds in trying to complete their mission.
Nick Fury, Agent of Shield #14

Grade - ?

Cover - Herb Trimpe/Sam Grainger
Story - Gary Friedrich

Art - Herb Trimpe/Sam Grainger

A Day in the Life
I guess Nick survived that mission in France from the last comic as here he is now heading up Shield. The question is though will he survive this day in his life? After 2 weeks of observation inside the psycho-projector he is sent home by Dr Kraus his examiner, Fury has no memory of his testing and feels like he's had a hard night partying. Agent 72 of Hydra has been tasked to kill him within 24 hours and is trying his darndest to complete his task or risk his superiors deadly wrath. He puts gas in Fury's shower and a guillotine in his cupboard both of which traps are narrowly avoided. He has to take out 2 agents on his way out of his building and then narrowly avoids electrocution from a rigged shaver socket on his flying car on the way up to the Shield helicarrier. He has to parachute onto the heli-carrier after his car malfunctions! Once on board he has a meeting with the Gaffer a tech guy who shows him a new flying bicycle, then goes to his office for some shut eye. He has some interaction with an Agent Huff, his secretary, who is ga-ga for him (this is her 1st and only appearance in the comic though). We see that Nick's own agents are spying on him as part of his psycho-projector observation, Kraus is convinced he is a double agent!! In previous issues there was a run in with a Super-Patriot and the death of a Shield agent that he says has him suspicious but it turns out that he himself is actually Hydra agent 72. Dum Dum Duggan has him sussed though, he breaks cover gassing Duggan then goes to assassinate Fury. He has a bead on him when Agent Huff disturbs him giving Nick the chance to get the drop on him. Other Shield agents come to try and apprehend Kraus/72 but he jet packs away. Nick hugs Huff to thank her for her efforts but is still concerned thinking to himself as to why the Super-Patriot looked so much like him when he was unmasked!!

Next Ish: The Assassination of Nick Fury!

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My Birthday Books - 11

Here's another look at a few of my 'birthday books' once again!

Tower of Shadows #1

  Grade - GD (2.0)

Cover - John Romita

At the Stroke of Midnight!
Story - Jim Steranko

Art - Jim Steranko
This books shows the debut of Digger this book's story host. He later joined the team Night Shift led by The Shroud, one of their bases of operations is the Tower of Shadows

Unusual art here with the panel count doing all kinds of freaky stuff. The Fowlers have inhabited a vast mansion from Lou's uncle and are searching through it for hidden treasures. They are argumentative, Marie hen-pecks Lou; during their search and chat we discover that he killed his uncle and that the dead man was a studier of magic. A painting of Lou's uncle seems to move and point them to a hidden room, inside they find treasure, adorning themselves with some of the precious jewels they find. They also find a passageway that leads them back into the past to the time of revolutionary France. The Uncle beckons them from where he stands beside a guillotine. They were never seen again, I guess they looked like royalty with all that jewellery and lost their heads!

From Beyond the Brink
Story - Johnny Craig
Art Johnny Craig/John Romita
Arthur Watson is a writer working on a book about Psychic/Spiritualist de-bunker Hayden Hathaway. The book is almost done he just needs to get into Hathaway's head about "Why" he does what he does so fervently. They go to a session with Madame Angelica and spirits seem to appear. Hathaway tears the room apart trying to work out how the 'con' is created and upon realising that it is true, the secret of his search is revealed. Hathaway has been dead for some time and Angelica leads him to the afterlife that has eluded him all this time, leaving a stunned Arthur bemoaning that he can not finish his book now as nobody would believe it!

A Time to Die
Story - Stan Lee
Art - John Buscema/Don Heck
I featured this story during my 13 Nights of Halloween

In it an old man is seeking the secret to immortality. He has a mute assistant an escaped murderer from prison who he treats like dirt and berates constantly. The harassed henchman bides his time until the secret formula for eternal life is discovered where upon he makes his move, causing his master's death and taking the potion which has terrible results.

Ghostly Tales from the Haunted House #75

  Grade - ?

Cover - Jim Aparo
The book starts with an introduction page from the book host who was apparently called Mr. Dedd.

Phantom Patrol

Art - Sanho Kim

Here's another one that I featured in my 13 Nights of Halloween series

A soldier is called into a foxhole by a superior officer who orders him to get a message back to fire artillery on their position. He relays the message as ordered but says not to do it as it will kill the officer and his men. The barrage is completed anyway and the artillery officer tells the soldier that the man he saw was a ghost who had been sighted a number of times previously relaying similar attacks.

The Last Voyage

Art - Charles Nicholas and Vince Alascia

After being sent a mysterious letter promising riches Paul Dumas arrives at the dock where Captain Neelton takes him on his ghost crewed ship to a fog shrouded island. There he finds Lasoir who had been imprisoned on the island by Neelton as punishment for killing his crew, before abandoning him he agreed to send the letter that beckoned Dumas to the meeting. Dumas wants Lasoir's money but Lasoir's wants something far more sinister, he wants his soul to take over Dumas' body so he can escape the island posing as him. Lasoir chants magic that swaps souls and the body of Dumas goes back to the mainland with Lasoir's cash, but it turns out that it is instead Neelton who now lives as Dumas with Lasoir's money with I imagine the 2 men's souls lost or still entrapped on the island.

The Ghost of Glory!

Art - Pat Boyette

A two page story/feature about the death of chivalry in the battle for the skies during WWI, talking about how the honour of the Red Baron was usurped by the ruthlessness of Herman Goring.

No Other Man!

Art - Steve Ditko

A recently widowed woman seeks a new husband who she molds into the image of her deceased partner, with the intention of having the new guys spirit usurped by the old. There's no happy ending in this quirky haunted tale.

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #123

 Grade - VG

Cover - Curt Swan

Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen was published from October of 1954 until March of 1974, spanning a total of 163 issues. With issue #163, the title officially changed to Superman Family.

The Sacrifice of Jimmy Olsen!

Story - Leo Dorfman

Art - Curt Swan/George Roussos
After believing himself an orphan for years Jimmy is suddenly pick up by limousine and taken to his super wealthy father Mark Olsen's estate. He has locked himself inside a glass house in a vault in his basement! Jimmy goes in to talk to him and learns of a terrible crime Olsen senior has supposedly committed and for which he has chosen to undergo a self sentenced penance for. He intends to stay locked inside the glass prison for one year but Jimmy offers to do the penance for him instead. Superman turns up as Jimmy has been absent for two days and is assured that all is well and Jimmy will emerge after a year as a prisoner. Superman flies off pondering what deeds Olsen Snr may have committed but we won't get to find out till next issue although the DC wiki synopsis says that Mark Olsen in actually Hal Rand... but then has no more information on the character. A bit of searching reveals that after this 2 part story wraps up he reappears in 128 with Superman on the cover rejecting his appeal in court to adopt Jimmy!

(I did some more research and can reveal that Hal Rand was a collegue of Jimmy's father who suffered from amnesia so thought he was Mark Olsen. The crime was to steal from a Mexican tomb and get the curse of Kulkukan that demanded penance.)

The Robber Robot!
Story - Jim Shooter
Art - Pete Costanza
A scientist, Prof Harker hatches a plan to ridicule Jimmy as he was angered by a news peice done about him. He gives Jimmy a robot which is actually a human in disguise but the idea is for him to extol the virtues of this mechanoid in a live interview with Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show and then for the man in the suit to reveal himself making Olsen look the fool for believing the hoax. The plan seems to go as it was supposed to with people starting to laugh at Jimmy's expense but then Jimmy reveals himself to be a robot and turns the tables on Harker instead! It's revealed that Jimmy observed something about the robot during his time with it/him that 

The Puzzles of Space and Time!
Story - E. Nelson Bridwell
Art - Pete Costanza
Jimmy Olsen turns up for a meeting of his fan club dressed up in a "perfect replica" Superman suit and talks about the importance of observation to the group. He illustrates some examples of the importance of this through a few anecdotes of encounters he'd had. Kidnapped and seemingly blasted into space he realises through careful observation that he was actually in a movie studio. A scientist's time viewing machine is similarly revealed to be a hoax. Jimmy then challenges his club members and the readers to test their powers of observation by spotting a lie that he has recently told. The sharp eyed will have realised that his "perfect replica" Superman suit actually has the red & yellow in the 'S' emblem inversed.

So that was this week's look into my books, a couple of horror anthologies and a silly Jimmy Olsen book haha thay are quite silly but fun in a Silver Age madness kind of way!!

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My Birthday Books - 10

Here we go again with another look at a trio of my birthday books.

The Incredible Hulk #119

  Grade - VG (4.0)

Cover - Herb Trimpe
Story - Stan Lee

Art - Herb Trimpe

At the Mercy of... Maximus the Mad!
Upon awakening on the island of Costa Salvador, Bruce Banner finds himself unable to think clearly, which turns out to be caused by a statue in the nearby village that emanates hypnotic pulses which subjugate the inhabitants to the will of the Great One. Angered Banner transforms to his great green raging counterpart and goes to the castle on the island to show that no 'great one' is mightier than the Hulk.

In the US President Nixon is informed that contact has been lost with Costa Salvador so tells General Ross and Major Talbot to stop their hulk-hunting and to go to the island to investigate what is happening there instead.


The so called "Great One" turns out to be Maximus, the exiled Inhuman prince, he is accompanied by his band of evil Inhumans: Aiero, Falcona, Leonus, Nebulo, Stallior, and Timberius. Having failed to rule the Hidden Land of the Inhumans, Maximus intends to slowly take over the entire world with similar statues put in strategic locations all over the world, slowly putting everyone under his control. The group fight to keep Hulk out but he proves to be a match for each of them. Eventually the military show up and Maximus tries to use Hulk's dislike of the military and their joint outcast status to sway him to join him. The last panel shows a frustrated Hulk fighting to make a decision, with the blurb promising next week, "The Dread Decision". Buy #120 to see how he goes with that, I will say that Betty Ross is with the army forces accompanying her father the General so she may well appeal to the jade juggernaut.

According to Marvel Wiki this book has the 1st appearance of  Richard Nixon as a topical reference, haha that makes this a most unusual key if you ask me! Go HERE for more fun facts about Nixon in Marvel comics, including his time as a zombie would-be world destroyer!! Also this is the 1st time Costa Salvador is used.

Dr. Strange #182

  Grade - GD (1.8)

Cover - Gene Colan
Story - Roy Thomas

Art - Gene Colan/Tom Palmer

And Juggernaut Makes Three!
Dr Strange is in the Nightmare dimension where he is still trapped (from the last issue) by the Eye of Agamotto. He is facing his old foe Nightmare who has captured Eternity (in #180) and is using it's power to threaten the Earth by collapsing the past and the future onto the present! Whilst Nightmare was boasting Strange summoned Juggernaut who was trapped in the Dream dimension at this point and he turns up and battles Nightmare as he is sure that Stephen is the key to him getting back to the Earthly realm. With his enormous strength plus some eldritch talent he has picked up whilst in exile Juggernaut is able to distract Nightmare long enough for Strange to escape the Eye's hold on him. Seeing this the 2 battling villains strike out at him together as one. Strange has cast an illusion though instead of hitting him the blasts strike at the bonds that hold Eternity fast and it is free. It belittle Nightmare saying that the time he was held were as nothing to him, essentially saying that Nightmare was beneath his contemplation. He consigns the 2 villains into oblivion and ushers Strange back through the void between worlds to his Sanctum Sanctorum. There he discovers, (through the fact that his name changes on a telegram he received), that Eternity has rewarded him for his help by providing him with the new alias of Stephen Sanders. I'm not sure why, I guess it must be to do with other events that happened in Strange's life around this time. I'm also not sure why he wears a blue/black mask as well in this comic, I'd not seen that before.

As I was looking through this I wasn't aware of how fragile this comic was and the cover came off!! 😢

Star-Spangled War Stories: Enemy Ace #146

 Grade - VG

Cover - Joe Kubert
Story - ?

Art - Russ Heath

Enemy Ace
In both the stories in this issue they are framed as tales told by Von Hammer, the 'enemy ace' to Klaus a new German pilot who is petrified of going up in a papier-mache' coffin.

In the 1st tale he tells of an American pilot newly arrived at a French air base during WWI, he is the 1st US pilot to fly with them and is determined to prove his worthiness in the air to show his gallic comrades that his countrymen can cut it in air battles. On his 1st night they play a game of darts with balloons tied to a board, he is able to hit the red balloon that symbolised 'Hawk' an enemy ace. His colleagues though fear that rather than bagging Hawk, he will just be a plump pigeon to be devoured by him. Next day on his 1st trip up he falls for Hawk's ploy and barely survives the ordeal and is grounded by his commander. 

Sometime later he is incensed when the Hawk downs a comrade just as he was coming in to land. He leaps in a plane and gives chase unable to get a bead on Hawk who leads him a merry chase right back to his own airbase where he promptly shoots the yank down again. Hawk plans to keep the American Leutenant prisoner but he flees climbing onboard a hot air balloon on the base. He takes up the machine gun on board and miraculously takes out Hawk in an arial balloon vs fokker dogfight!!

Brother Enemy!
Klaus is still unconvinced so Von Hammer tells him another story, in it we hear of twin brothers Richard and Carl who were seperated when they escaped in different life rafts from a sinking ship in a disaster that claimed both of their parents. Adopted into different foster homes they lost touch till they were grown up and war was declared, now a pilot Richard is determned to meet Carl and asks all over for people to be on the lookout for his twin.

Soon he is flying into war and on a bomb run gets into a dogfight with an enemy ace, he cuts his foes oil line which clouds their goggles, he goes in for the kill and sees the enemy pilot is his twin! He can not kill him and his flight team can not understand why he didn't finish him off. He doesn't tell them his fantastic story and they are angry with him, then in a second attempt to bomb the same target they again meet in the air. This time Carl gets the drop on Richard and it goes the same way he's about to deliver the killing blow when he sees that it's his twin. He too can not kill his twin.

Before a 3rd sortie both brothers are called out by their commanding officers and ordered to show no quarter for the enemy. They take to the air and go at each other in earnest but neither are able to gain the upper hand until they run out of bullets and ram each other in the air. Carl is knocked out but Richard grabs him from the falling wreckage and I assume parachutes down to the ground safely with him. It looks more like they emerge from the twisted wreckage of the 2 planes actually and there's no sign of a parachute anywhere!? Maybe it's ghosts of the two brothers who greet each other face to face on the ground.

The comic ends with a few cartoons but there is no resumption of the framing story so we never know if Von Hammer's tales help to convince the cowardly (actually very sensible) Klaus to do his duty.


    

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My Birthday Books - 9

Here's another look at a few of my birthday books folks. From September 1969 the same as me!

Fantastic Four #90

  Grade - VG+ (4.5)

Cover - Jack Kirby/Joe Sinnott
Story - Stan Lee

Art - Jack Kirby/Joe Sinnott

The Skrull Takes a Slave!
The Fantastic Four and Crystal of the Inhumans, (I think she is the Human Torch's girlfriend in this era, she also stood in for the team during Invisible Girl's recent pregnancy), have captured Mole Man and his Mole Ship in the last issue. They outnumber him 5 to 1 yet somehow he still manages to escape them and flee underground. He'd left traps around his base and Benjamin (The Thing) Grimm wanted to shake some info from him but Reed (Mr Fantastic) Richards intervenes admonishing Grimm for thinking to resort to their foes base tactics. Mole Man takes advantage of the heated debate to bowl the team over and bound into his anti-grav drop chute he escapes back down to the bowels of the Earth. It's revealed that Reed let him escape as "The police couldn't hold him! He's committed no crime! It's a strange paradoxical world we live in... a man can be arrested for illegal parking... but there's actually no law against trying to conquer the planet!" Which is a bit of what I like to call Silver Age madness as I am pretty sure they could do him for plenty of crimes but the supergenius Reed acts like a prize plumb and let's him go free! 

 Thinking the rest of the team don't appreciate him enough Ben skulks off to visit Alicia his blind girlfriend who is currently babysitting the as yet unnamed baby son of Reed and Sue Richards. (Hey Franklin Richards is older than me!! He debuted in Fantastic Four annual #6, November 1968. I don't have any details on how long Sue was pregnant for in comic book time) 

Soon after Ben leaves the Mole Man's ship/house starts to self-destruct and the team members still examining the craft are forced to flee from it.

Meanwhile we see a Skrull is on Earth for a secret mission using his space tech and shape shifting abilities he plans on capturing The Thing. He arrives in New York using a scanner to find Ben, he then tells him of an alien invasion to lure him out to a remote location where his ship is hidden. He reveals himself to Grimm who tries to get to some clobbering but is felled instantly by a Nerve Gun.

The Witching Hour! #4

  Grade - VG/FN (5.0)

Cover - Nick Cardy

The 3 witch hosts of this book Mordred, Mildred and Cynthia visit their new neighbours across the swamp and proceed to tell them scary tales, making a contest out of which is the creepiest.

A Matter of Conscience!
Story - ? (Mildred the Witch!)

Art - Win Mortimer/George Roussos
A man troubled by the fear that his house is trying to kill him with crockery flying around and hitting him visits an exorcist who takes him to the underworld to confront his demons. It turns out the journey was just hypnosis, the exorcist is a psychiatrist who says he has cured the man's guilty complex that festered after he felt responsibility for the death of his wife as he wasn't able to summon a doctor quickly enough. It was his own guilt that created a poltergeist and now all is well, until suddenly a vase flies across the room smashing into the wall. 

I used this story for one of my 13 Nights of Halloween videos. Check it out and please sub my channel


Disaster in a Jar
Story - ? (Cynthia the witch)
Art - Pat Boyette
A door-to-door youth cream salesman has no luck selling his product so he decides to mess with the formula and then give it away for free. Everyone is fine with free samples of course and when it works miraculously they are all amazed and rush to buy it and are very happy, that is until all their hair falls out!! The crafty warlock who made the cream invested all his earning on cornering the wig market so now he becomes doubly as the now youthful women all require wigs to cover their smooth heads.

A Fistfull of Fire!
Story - ? (Mordred the witch)
Art - Jose Delbo
After the burning at the stake of a witch Judge Sewell and his friend Andrew take a short cut through the woods to make it home for dinner before a storm hits. Sewell say he doesn't believe in witches even though he executes young girls for allegedly being them but he believes in 'evil' and that is what he seeks to destroy. Meanwhile a coven of angry witches plot his demise and ambush the pair on the road planning to kill him with magic fire. Andrew reveals himself to be a powerful warlock and chases them off, his magic dwarfing their own. Angry that his secret is out because of these deluded fools with no real power of magic he turns to Judge Sewell and says "So tell me, Samuel, what will you do now... now that you're face to face with a real, live... ...warlock?!" I would guess that it does not end well for the judge.

After the 3 tell their tales the scared neighbours rush them out of the house, refusing to say which tale was the scariest, for this affront the witches cast the house and all within it up into space!!! Then Mordred turns to the reader to say that they can be the judge of which story was the most frightening but if they choose Cynthia's she'll curse them.

I love the 60's hippy patter that the witches use in this issue, the 2 ugly witches berate Cynthia for her 'with it' 'mod' tale and she accuses them of being 'out of it'!! There was another of my birthday books, The Unexpected, that featured the mad 'mod' witch another groovy gruesome hag and like her the 3 witches of this book later appear in Sandman of the Endless' Dreaming. 

More recently Vertigo did a Witching Hour one-shot in 2013 and right now it's the title of an event in the Wonder Woman books.

The Avengers Annual #3

 Grade - 

Cover - John Buscema/Frank Giacoia/Sam Rosen


"Captain America Joins... The Avengers!"

Story - Stan Lee

Art - Jack Kirby/George Roussos
This is a reprint of Avengers #4 from March 1964. 
The story starts with The Avengers taking on Namor, the Sub-Mariner, in a lull in battle he storms off and encounters native Inuit people worshipping a man encased in a block of ice. In anger he tosses the block into the sea. It drifts off and melts and The Avengers find the man drifting under the water and pull him on board. Captain America (Steve Rogers) awakens from his long sleep and to be honest the whole man out of time thing is barely mentioned at all. They arrive back in the US and The Avengers get turned to stone by a villain posing as a reporter. Steve emerges from their craft after them and assumes the petrified Avengers are just statues. Later he meets Rick Jones, (who resembles his old partner Bucky), who comes to him looking for The Avengers and they piece together what happened and apprehend the villain and get him to change them back. The perpetrator was a D'bari alien named Vuk who's ship is stuck in mud under the sea, he attacked our heroes at Namor's orders who promised in return to free his ship.

The Avengers manage to free his ship and Namor and some of his men arrive and they battle. Captain America jumps into the fight when Rick is threatened. The ground starts to shake and Namor thinking it a massive Earthquake at sea leaves The Avengers to die but it turns out to just be the spaceship taking off. Captain America is welcomed to join The Avengers and Rick Jones spends the last two panels worrying that if he becomes Cap's new partner he'd feel like he was betraying The Hulk.

"The Fantastic Origin of the Red Skull"

Story - Stan Lee

Art - Jack Kirby/Chic Stone

"Lest Tyranny Triumph!"

Story - Stan Lee

Art - Jack Kirby/Frank Ray

"Sentinel and the Spy!"

Story - Stan Lee

Art - Jack Kirby/Frank Ray

The next three chapters of the annual are reprinted from Tales of Suspense #66 - 68 from 1965. We start off with Captain America and Bucky captured by the Red Skull. With Cap tied up Red Skull taunts him telling him his origin. He grew up poor and a victim on the streets, they when he grew up he was a hotel bellboy who Hitler decided on a whim to forge into the ultimate Aryan, a Nazi in his own image. Eventually he rose to the 2nd highest position of power in Germany. Cap tries to escape and is unbowed by the Nazi until a chemical he has been plied with suddenly overcomes his mind making him a mindless zombie for Skull to command.

Now with his will subjugated Cap prepares for a mission to go and kill leaders of the Allied high command. Red Skull takes Cap to see Hitler who is 1st scared then tries to hit Steve who instinctively blocks hurting poor old Adolph's hand. Bucky leads a break out and sneaks into Cap's Nazi commando unit after knocking out and stealing the uniform of one of the soldiers. Once they parachute into America and enter a base to assassinate a general Bucky leaps into action. He starts fighting the unit single-handed whilst Cap goes to do his murderous mission. Luckily his will kicks in at the moment of truth and he and Bucky mop up the Nazis.

After the failure of this mission Red Skull activates a sleeper in a POW camp, he escapes and steals Project Vanish which turns out to be a gun that literally makes things vanish!! He takes out a tank and holds the allies at bay until an injured Cap fools him into turning up the power to maximum as he knows the prototype device can not handle it. His gamble pays off as the gun explodes. Bucky is just able to get the injured Cap out of his costume and into uniform before their Sarge turns up.


Well that's it for this week, once again I ended up rushing it, I maybe shouldn't impose time deadlines on these but as only about 4 people read them it is only stubbornness keeping me doing it anyway 😝

    

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My Birthday Books - 8

It's time for another of my weekly look at some of my birthday books.

The Mighty Avengers #68

  Grade - ?

Cover - Sal Buscema/Sam Grainger
Story - Roy Thomas

Art - Sal Buscema

"...And We Battle for the Earth!"
This issue begins with The Avengers and a Shield team storming the underground base of Ultron-6, just before they reach the evil megalomaniac robot he pulls a switch to engulf Manhatten in a fiery cataclysm!! Luckilly it doesn't trigger properly and he manages to escape. It turns out it was Vision who destroyed Ultron-6's bomb, he been forced by a type of post-hypnotic command to re-construct Ultron back in Avengers #66. The effort of some recent battle causes him to collapse, Hank Pym tries charging him with solar energy to no avail and so uses a rudimentry mind probe to skim his mind looking for a weakness to destroy Ultron. They discover he is picturing the Molecular Rearranger the only device able to shape Adamantium, the metal of which the robot is made. Pym makes a trip to Wakanda to borrow some Vibranium from Black Panther then sets an obvious trap for Ultron using eminent physicist Dr. Myron MacLain the only man who knows the formula for Adamantium as bait. Ultron sees through it but assured of his own power he decides to trip it so he can get the Dr. and force him to make an army of Adamantium robots under his command. The trap is set in the U.N. building, calling himself the ultimate Ultron now the megalomaniac mechanoid attacks and is met in battle by The Avengers. He is a match for their power and captures Dr. MacLain and uses a mind draining device built into his body to steal the knowlege from his mind. This turns out to all have been a more intricate trap though than Ultron could have envisioned, the Dr. is Pym in disguise, his sub-conscious mind filled with a short phrase that causes Ultron to go mad and explode. (The Vibranium they borrowed was used to shield the blast.) The phrase is revealed to be from the bible, the commandment "thou shalt not kill".

Black Panther's chief advisor, Taku debuts in this issue.

The Twilight Zone #30

  Grade - VG

Cover - George Wilson

The number on the cover is 10016-909 but apparently this is #30. It's a very strange way of numbering but that's the Twilight Zone for you I suppose. This is an anthology type comic with suspenseful, mystery, and spooky stories done in the style of the classic TV series "The Twilight Zone" which starred Rod Serling as it's host.

Tall Timber

Art - Joe Certa

A logger Madera climbs an ancient redwood, an "immense sentry of time" intending to cut it's branches, he feel dizzy on his ascent then spots a forest fire below. He climbs downs and finds that he has been transported into the past somehow. He is captured by natives and imprisoned alongside a spanish conquistador. The pair are tied up to a tree and left to die as sacrifice. They manage to escape and Madera discovers that the conquistador is his ancestor. He climbs back up the tree and upon descending finds he is back in his own time, he refuses to cut down the tree.

The Vanishing Hero

Art by Joe Certa.

text story

A 1 page article/story about a ghost soldier Marshall Dickerson alleged to have shown up during various wars in history.

   In The Cards

Art - Bob Jenney

Another article/story based on the life of World land and water speed record holder Malcolm Campbell and his son Donald who followed him in the pursuit of speed records. It's alleged that the night before he died attempting a new water record he was playing Solitaire and drew a Queen and Ace of spades apparently mirroring the cards that Mary Queen of Scots drew the night before her beheading. He sees this as an omen of his own death and the next day his premonition proves to have been correct! 

Made In Hong Kong

Art - Win Mortimer

Bill Portland is having an odd day, he has headaches, memory loss and blackouts. He feels a strange urge to buy a TV and has a strange feeling when he finds it was made in Hong Kong. Still dizzy he turns on the set to see a the face of a man he knows to be Won Lee which prompts him immediately to get a flight to Hong Kong. Whilst on the plane he seems to go back in time, he's flying a plane during war and is shot down over China by a Japanese pilot. Concussed he is pulled from the plane and delivered to allied Chinese soldiers by Won Lee. As Portland is carried off he tells Lee that, "I have seen a time many years from now! A time when a message will come from you and I will come for you!" I take this to mean that the start of the story is him having a concussion vision of the future! 

The Phantom Balloon

Art - Win Mortimer

This is the end of a trio of time related stories in this issue. This time a solo hot-air balloonist Ernie Greco rises through the clouds and veers dangerously towards a deadly storm cloud. He sees another balloonist seemingly in an old style vintage balloon named The Grey Eagle. Just then a fire starts on his balloon dooming him but Grey Eagle's occupant throws him a rope rescuing him. Grey Eagles pilot is silent and dressed in old-fashioned clothing. Greco awakes suddenly back on solid ground with no sign of any balloons in the sky, a passing old-timer tells him that there was once a balloon about 2 hundred years ago called Grey Eagle that "Folks say he went up and never came down!"

I mentioned my Heavy Metal podcast in the video, you can check it out HERE

Prince Namor, The Sub-Mariner #17

 Grade - ?

Cover - Marie Severin/Joe Gaudioso/Sam Rosen
Story - Roy Thomas

Art - Marie Severin/Jay Hawk

From the Stars.. The Stalker!
A traitorous priest Kormok with designs on ruling New Atlantis says that a vision from Father Neptune requires Namor the Sub-Mariner to take the sacred trident to be reforged in the brazier of the living flame on the site of the original Atlantis. Kormok has forged an alliance with an alien race the Alpha Centaurians, they will take out Namor for him to allow Kormok to usurp him in his abscence. Little does the traitor know of their real intention, to steal the Earth's water. Dynorr the Stalker is waiting for Namor along his journey to ambush and capture him. Namor is able to best him twice in battle but Stalker has allies aboard a spaceship which is able to capture "The Avenging Son" Namor using a funnel beam that we see is suctioning him up from the water up into space. Stalker is seen in the last panel gloating "..you shall NEVER return!!" If he ever should return he will have to face Kormok who has wasted no time in usurping his crown.

This issue has a lot of 1st appearance's in it; Kormok, Dynorr the Stalker, Yennon, Obtu, the Alpha Centurions and their planet Alpha Centauri A. I don't think any of them went on to have more than a handful of appearances in Marvel comics.


So that's the books for this week, tune in next week for a look at 3 more of my birthday books.

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My Birthday Books - 7

Thanks for checking out my blog folks, here's another of my regular weekly looks at my birthday books. That is books that came into the world at more or less the same time as I did, that being September 1969.

Captain Marvel #16

 Grade - Fine

Cover - Don Heck/Syd Shores/Sam Rosen
Story - Archie Goodwin

Art - Don Heck/Syd Shores

Behind the Mask of Zo!
Mar-vel is trying to destroy Tam-bor a magnetic device that is threatening to destroy the Universe. Ronan the Public Accuser turns up and tries to execute him for crimes against the Kree. Mar-vel manages to destroy Tam-bor but is helpless and about to be executed when he is saved by the Supreme Sentry sent by the Supreme Intelligence himself to bring him to Hala. Mar-vel is informed that he was the pawn of Zo who is really Zarek and has instigated a plot along with Ronan to overthrow the Kree Empire. Zarek tries to kill the Intelligence with a Negatron Sphere but Mar-vel jumps on it taking the blast himself. Miraculously he survives and the Supreme Intelligence rewards him for his bravery by giving him a new uniform and powers and allows him to return to Earth to get revenge against Yonn-rogg, however he some how ends up in the Negative Zone.

Iron Man #17

  Grade - VG

Cover - George Tuska
Story - Archie Goodwin

Art - George Tuska/Johnny Craig

The Beginning of the End!
Returning from Africa, Iron Man is struck by fake lightning by agents of Madam Masque in the employ of Mordecai Midas, he crash lands to Earth. Meanwhile Masque destroys a Stark Industries lab with explosives which triggers a Life Model Decoy (robot) of Tony Stark to reactivate. Masque takes Tony's cousin Morgan to meet her boss Midas, a greedy villain who wishes to be the richest man on Earth, he wants Tony's wealth and Morgan is helping with insider information. However Midas is not happy with Morgan and threatens him with death if he doesn't start providing better intel. Iron Man recovers from his crash landing and returns to Stark Industries where he soon discovers that he's been ousted from his own life by the LMD. It takes him out when he tries to tackle it and finds himself thrown from his own facility with only his life-preserving chest plate to his name. He discovers that the LMD has been busy undermining his life, his credit cards don't work, his signature has been changed on records and with The Avengers away Jarvis their butler won't allow him access without the new security codes. Tony is reduced to charging his chestplate by plugging into a parked car which draws the attention of the police. Running away from the law he is captured by Madame Masque. I'm not sure how Midas's plan to rob Tony will work when he's already had it stolen by the LMD!!

As I said in the video this is the 1st appearance of the villain Midas and the 1st full appearance of Stark's Secretary Ms Greer. Also there is a character named Vic who we see in 1 panel reporting to the police that Stark is breaking into a car to use it's battery. He gets subdued many years later by Daredevil for operating a fake cash machine!!
  G.I. Combat #137

 Grade - VG- (3.5)

Cover - Joe Kubert

The book doesn't contain credits for art or writer and even the DC wiki does not say. I got artist info on each story by signatures within the books pages.

The Haunted Tank in: We Can't See!
Story - ?

Art - Russ Heath
Jeb and the crew of the Haunted Tank are in North Africa and help a local boy Ali who is being bullied by thugs. As a matter of honour he gives them his only possession a song bird. Later they take out a Nazi plane that had downed a British pilot. The British flyer dies but tells them of his mission to destroy a poison gas dump before he passes. They decide to complete his mission and manage to do so, however the dump also has magnesium in it and the resulting flare blinds them. Ali becomes there eyes but they are attacked in hand to hand combat by pursuing Germans with Ali directing their blows in their blinded state. He keeps them in the fight long enough for their eyesight to clear and they defeat the Nazis. They return Ali's songbird to him who says "He sings of happiness that is found when friends help one another" to which Reb replies "Maybe-- some day-- the whole world will discover your bird's secret-- and they'll be no more war ever again!"

The Haunted Tank was created by Russ Heath and debuted in G.I. Combat #87. (1961)  

Battle Album
Centre spread about the machines of war, this week it's the Sherman and Panther tanks.

The letters page features a letter with a writer complaining about how the comic cover does not match the interior story.

There is a 3/4s page G.I. Jinx humour cartoon.

Story of a Boot!
Story - ?
Art - Joe Kubert
In this quirky story a war correspondent asks a soldier his story he answers that there's a story in his boot and produces a button, a map and some plaster dust from it but the exhausted GI conks out before he can talk. We then get to see what story the boot would say 'if it could talk' and it tells how the items managed to get into it during the taking of the town. The soldier wakes up to continue his slog and the reporter is left thinking that he must be combat-happy to say such a strange thing about their being a story in his boot! It's a pretty normal battle action story just told in a most unusual and entertaining manner.

The next issue of this book #138 features the debut of The Losers!

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My Birthday Books - 6

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.

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

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

Our Army at War: Sgt Rock #210

 Grade - VG/FN

Cover - Joe Kubert
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!"
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.

    

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