Recently in Werewolf by Night Category

As a big fan of the Marvel Monsters, I couldn't wait to see them meet each other.  In particular, I wanted Morbius to meet Werewolf By Night.

Giant-Size Werewolf By Night #3, published in 1975, featured this titanic event.  Would you believe this Gil Kane cover was the single best thing about this comic?  The interior artwork by Virgil Redondo is so horrible, I can't even bear to crop any scans and show you here.  It's like the artwork for a drab 1950s romance comic (not a Johnny Romita romance book--that would be cool) that some idiot thought was appropriate for a horror story.

Of all the Giant-Size books, the Werewolf drew the short end of the stick on artists.  What a shame--especially after being drawn by Ploog, Kane, and Sutton in the regular monthly series.  Nuff said.

If you haven't read Dark Reign Punisher The List (by Rick Remender and John Romita Jr), I highly recommend it.  The ending was very surprising to me, and it sets up this next Punisher arc (starting in issue #11) with art by Tony Moore.

Moore's cover to Punisher #12 brings back the Legion of Monsters to aid the Punisher (now FrankenCastle).  Morbius, Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night are all there, along with the Living Mummy, who I haven't seen in decades.  I'm looking forward to this, especially after the terrific job that Moore did recently Ghost Rider. 

I'll be you dollars to doughnuts that Moore remembers this cover...

The very first (and only?) appearance of the Legion of Monsters in Marvel Premiere #28, 1975.  As a total Marvel Monster freak, I couldn't wait to read this story.  Written by Bill Mantlo and Frank Robbins, you had to admire the lengths that Mantlo went to have Man-Thing transported out of the swamp--it was an ordeal just to get all these horror guys together to fight a menace.  It was a bit of a letdown, but I was always hoping for a return appearance.

Keep on eye on that logo, because it moved around a lot.

Later that year, Marvel published a black and white magazine called Legion of Monsters, with a Neal Adams cover painting.  I had hoped for a team-up, but the magazine contained only solo stories.  I believe most of them were inventory stories left over from the defunct magazines Dracula Lives and Monsters Unleashed.  The editorial indicated that the magazine was an ongoing publication, but issue #2 never appeared.

But Marvel was never one to let a crappy logo go to waste!  The Legion of Monsters title appeared yet again in Marvel Preview #8 in 1976.  You would think with a cover like this, there would be a team-up, right?  Blade and Morbius never crossed paths, they were featured in solo stories only.  More inventory material, this time left over from Vampire Tales.

Let's raise a glass to Tony Moore, who loves Marvel Monsters as much as we do!  Nuff said.

What would a Marvel monster version of the Defenders look like?  If Mike Ploog were drawing it, something like this nifty commission done for Leo Chuah on comicartfans.

Ghost Rider, Frankenstein, and Werewolf by Night on a moonlit night.  Greatness!  Nuff said.

Marvel Comics started producing calendars in 1975.  For the very first calendar (which I've been able to acquire recently, thanks to eBay), they tapped the best artists of that year...including Mike Ploog, who they unleashed in the month of October.

The October illustration featured the trio of monsters that Ploog had drawn in their own comics: Frankenstein, Man-Thing, and Werewolf by Night!  The big bad daddy of all supernatural characters, Dracula, lorded over all of them--Ploog had drawn this character as well, when he teamed up with Jack Russell in Werewolf by Night #15.

The month of October itself is ridden with monster-sized jokes by Marvel staffers. 

Oct. 4th: Man-Thing with the caption: Save the Everglades--Or Else!  That scares me into taking care of the environment.

Oct. 8th-9th:  Son of Satan asks pop for the hell-horse drawn chariot, but sister Santana asked for it first.

Oct. 13-15: Three nights of the full moon with Werewolf by Night.  Jack Russell's eyes go left, middle, right.

Oct. 19th: Jim Starlin's birthday.  Which is today, Happy Birthday Jim!

Oct. 28th-29th: Two creatures called IT!  The first one was featured in Supernatural Thrillers #1, the second one was a hero who appeared briefly in Astonishing Tales.

Oct. 30th: The Halloween party in Rutland Vermont, which was featured by Roy Thomas in both Avengers and Defenders (Marvel Feature #2).  Several comics creators made the trek to this party.  If only we could go back in a time machine! 

Many thanks to Sanctum Sanctorum Comix for providing the scans of the Marvel Calendars!  Nuff said.

This cover hit me right out of nowhere.  Greg Land doing a terrific rendition of Son of Satan, Man-Thing, Morbius, and Werewolf by Night for…Marvel Zombies?

It turns out that in a world overrun by zombies, these supernatural creatures are the best resistance the planet has to offer.  I’m very interested in reading this one.

I’m beginning to think Greg Land loves the classic Marvel Monsters as much as I do.  Nuff said.

Last month, I wrote about Giant Size Creatures, that introduced Dracula’s daughter, Lilith.  Marvel was determined to expand their line of horror characters with female versions of their famous monsters.  Soon after Lilith appeared, Giant-Size Creatures #1 appeared on the newsstands (which was re-titled Giant-Size Werewolf with issue #2), featuring a female were-creature: Tigra!

The cover was not half-bad, it definitely peaked my interest to see a female werewolf teaming up with Jack Russell to fight a horde of Hydra agents.

This issue was written by Tony Isabella, and drawn by Don Perlin and Vince Colletta. Now I have to say something that almost got me lynched at a con once…Vinnie Colletta is my least favorite inker in the entire world.  Some people love Colletta on Kirby’s Thor, but I do not.  One of the worst art teams that I can think of would have to be Colletta paired with Don Perlin.  I never really cared for Perlin on Werewolf by Night, he killed the book for me after Ploog left the series.  See how they depicted this dramatic scene of Tigra clashing with the Werewolf on a moonlit beach?  This is the best scene in the whole book, true believers!

Tony Isabella certainly took the creation of Tigra seriously.  I was really surprised to discover that Tigra was really Greer Nelson, from Marvel’s short-lived Claws of the Cat series.  Instead of making Greer a woman with a werewolf curse, she joined an underground group of Cat People who saved her life by transforming her into a were-cat.  Unlike Jack Russell, she retained her intelligence and preferred not to change back to human form.

Tigra was awarded a series try-out, starting in Marvel Chillers #3, and her artistic depiction was immensely superior.  Will Meugniot, the artist who would later go on to draw the sexy DNAgents, immediately knocked me out with this splash page.  Meugniot emphasized all of Tigra’s curves, oomphed up that bikini, and gave Tigra some nice cat-bling to go along with it.

The stories in Marvel Chillers #3-7 pushed Tigra firmly into super-hero territory, although the artistic teams shuffled with almost every issue.  Marvel Chillers #4 had a fill-in story by Chris Claremont and Frank Robbins, #5 saw Isabella and Meugniot return, #6 featured a pretty good early job by John Byrne, and #7 finished things off with dynamic cover by Jack Kirby.  Even back in the 70s, Tigra was single-handedly fighting off a Skrull invasion!

Even though Tigra lost her series, she was never forgotten in the Marvel Universe and became more well known that Jack Russell.  Tigra was a founding member of the West Coast Avengers and became a fixture of Marvel’s super-team.  Which leads to the modern era, where Frank Cho doesn’t miss a beat in depicting Tigra as a sex-kitten.  Oh that Frank Cho…exposing the dark underbelly of our Marvel consciousness!

Even though Tigra and Skrull-Pym’s little love-nest got interrupted by an Ultron-invasion, we just learned in Avengers: The Initiative #20 that they hooked up later on.  Tigra confesses to Hellcat that she is pregnant and Skull-Pym was the father!  Perhaps this subplot ends here, with Tigra later saying that she will terminate the pregnancy.  But it is ironic to see Tigra in a scene with Hellcat, since the Greer Nelson started out wearing this costume in the 1970s!  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.