Recently in Marvel Monsters Category

The Hulk has clashed with Man-Thing on several occasions, but this Hulk #197 (in 1975) was their first meeting,  What's extra-special about this team-up is the cover by Berni Wrightson.  Wrightson was strictly a DC artist from the beginning of his career, and this was the first time I had ever seen him do Marvel work.  Wrightson's best known creation, Swamp Thing, was co-created with Len Wein, the writer/editor behind this issue of the Hulk.  It was interesting to see Wrightson's take on Marvel's muck-monster, but I really like Wrightson's depiction of the Hulk.  Years later, Wrightson would team with Jim Starlin on a Marvel Graphic Novel featuring the Hulk and the Thing.

The interior art was by Sal Buscema and Joe Staton.  After googling for Hulk 197, I found this cover recreation by Our Pal Sal on Eelco's Original Comic Art Gallery.  Go check out the rest of his collection!  Nuff said.

Art Adams' Man-Thing.  Sounds kind of disgusting, but it's a beautiful work of art!  You can check out Mr. Adams's Fog City Art Exchange website for more amazing images.

Nuff said.

Marvel had two surprise announcements in their August 2008 catalog preview.  This nifty Tomb of Dracula poster featuring art by Gene Colan will be released at that time!  As I've mentioned on Photon Torpedoes in my Tomb of Dracula retrospective, this is one of my favorite horror comics of all time.

Even more staggering is the announcement of the Tomb Of Dracula Omnibus Volume 1 Hardcover.  This will be a whopper of a book.  It will reprint Tomb of Dracula #1 thru #31, which covers the introduction of Blade, Hannibal King, the bodiless Dr. Sun, and Quincy Harker's gang of Dracula-busters.  I have all the original comics, but I suspect I will get this edition just to have them all in pristine condition.  I am hoping that the re-mastered color will be competent and not overpower the original artwork.  Tom Palmer's inks on Gene Colan's art was spectacular, and he often did the coloring.  Palmer was a master of applying the proper color to fit the mood of the story that he worked on.

But wait, this Omnibus has even more stuff!  Giant-Size Chillers #1, featuring the origin of Lilith (Ungrateful Daughter of Dracula), will be included.  And since one of the Tomb of Dracula issues was the second part of a confrontation with the infamous lycanthrope Jack Russell, Marvel is also inserting Werewolf by Night #15.  This may be my only chance to see Mike Ploog art in an oversized format!

You may have heard the recent sad news about Gene Colan's health problems due to his liver.  According to this article at the Hero Initiative, proceeds from the Dracula poster above will be routed to Gene.  You may already know that Clifford Meth is running an auction to benefit Gene as well.  Lots of ways to help Gene...please do.  Nuff said.

Jason Aaron concluded his first arc on Ghost Rider with a bang.  The Cycle Nurses make one last ditch effort to stop him, and his quest to find Zadkiel comes to a premature end.  Danny Ketch is back on the last page, no big surprise there if you've been reading all along (it was telegraphed in the previous issue).  I loved the kick-ass, cinematic pace of this story.  Roland Boschi's artwork was off the rails as he depicts Johnny Blaze changing from human to Ghost Rider in the first few pages.  To me, what is great about this take on Ghost Rider is that he's back to his roots, tearing up the road and going after demonic (or angelic) forces. 

Tan Eng Huat (Silver Surfer: In Thy Name) is coming on board, you can see some of his artwork at Jason Aaron's forum.  Aaron's saying that Huat will do Ghost Rider #24-27, and Boschi will return after that.  Jason Aaron was also interviewed on Comic Book Resources about his plans for the next arc.  He mentions that the Hellfire shotgun is coming back, which makes me think this is a role-reversal.  In the 1990s Ghost Rider featuring Danny Ketch as the title character, Blaze came roaring in and tried to kill him with this weapon.  Now Ketch is coming back and he's Blaze's enemy.  I wonder if the part about them being brothers is still true?  Nuff said.

Borrowing an idea from Yet Another Comics Blog Monkey day, Mondays around here will be known as Marvel Monster Mondays, featuring a classic (or perhaps goofy) take on monsterdom.  Our inaugural tribute features the February 2007 revival of Werewolf by Night.

I know it has been fashionable to beat up Greg Land for various imaginary crimes.  But man, I'll always love Greg Land for giving us Sojourn, and even better, for giving me this chance to see Jack Russell shine once again.  Mike Carey crafted a pretty decent story about Jack going into a red-state to rescue a young female werewolf from a gang of rednecks.  The artwork inside was just as awesome as the cover.

I liked the story because they did not try to reinvent Jack Russell, or reboot the series with an OC-style version.  In this story Jack Russell has come to terms with lycanthrope and appears to embrace it.  He's one tough, smart-alecky mofo even in human form.  No more whining about the wolf, and Russell's the master of his own transformations.  It really made me wish that Carey/Land would do a Werewolf by Night mini-series, but alas, I am sure there is not much profit in that compared to some of the Ultimate universe stuff these guys are doing.

There's a Legion of Monsters collection available from Amazon, which features Satana, Morbius, Man-Thing, and more.  Each issue had some pretty cool backups; the Werewolf issue had a Frankenstein story by Skottie Young which I found to be very much in the classic style.  Skottie Young seems to get beat up a lot too!  Nuff said.

Link: Werewolf by Night, California Gothic.