( Perhaps the below intro gets a bit OTT , but it flows into a review of the The Witching Hour SP !!!!!!!!!!! )
( The original heading was " My SHOWCASE PRESENTS Purchase To-Day.........)
...picks up a little - gravitas ????? - seeing as , not knowing that enough extra $ would come in to allow such a purchase , my earlier comment calling for a complete PHANTOM STRANGER collection that noted the existence of a mostly-complete?? ( I was told that the SHOWCASE issue's Dr. 13 material , or similar , was left out ??? ) SHOWCASE PRESENTS Stranger collection...and my LCS had both volumes !!!!!!!!!
However , my first thought , actually?? , had been to buy the SHAZAM! volume - Would that , and writing a report on reading it here , show enough 70s dedication on my part to be considered for a Bronze Age Bro position , should such a position become open/the hiring situation defreeze ? However , at the end -----
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I bought the THE WITCHING HOUR SP .
More later !!!
Replies
...So !!!!!!!!!
Indeed...I bought the THE WITCHING HOUR SP .
It collects the first 19 ishes , first edited by Dick Giordano , then , by DC's , eternal , " other " editor (to fans) , Murray Boltinoff .
The last 4 issues go into the Bigger & Better year , becoming 1/3 reprints . There's some reprinting earlier in the run , too .
The last 15c issue , #14 , had a well-remembered by me All Williamson story as the cover , " The Haunted House In Space! " , (with no Willi billing on the bacover copy?...Shameful . :-) ) , but , in fact , turned out to be an all-space horror stories ish , even to including a how rare?? U.S. comics story by Australiand Stan and Reg Pitt on art . ( The latter Pitt credited as " Design " !! 0 .
Was this a trial balloon to bring back MYSTERY IN SPACE , which was brought down by the 48 pages switch ?
...Okay , I have now fallen into a concept/straightjacket ( Appropriate !!!!!!!!! ) of by-issue reading of the SP: TWO . I read #1 to-day , which like 2 and 3 are 12c-priced...DC got into the " mystery " thing QUICK! at the end of the SA !...........
...Now , I reached all the way through issue #12 to-day , while waiting for medical attention...
Now , if nothing else , TWH is a , um , showcase of SENSATIONAL! artists , and ones who rarely worked with Silver/Bronze DC .
Perhaps Giordano , an artist's , editorship contributed to this .
Some of " The Atomic Age Heroic Realists " in it -
Al Williamson , Grey Morrow , Wally Wood - folks who rarely did DC super-heroes , as well as " regular DC guys such as Jack Sparling and George Tuska , not really fan's favorites those blokes .
Plus , is this about 1/3 a regular title for Alex Toth , he has frequent stories AND draws the introductory/continuity material with Mordred , Mildred , and Cynthia , the three withes , in every issue...Which takes up maybe 1/5 to 1/4 of the comics story , all told , whether you include the intro/outro panels of the stories themselves (Which may include continuity panels unrelated to the story on the same page) .
Cynthia , the " mod witch " , wants to tell " up-to-date " horror stories , while her half-sisters wish to stick to traditional terrors .
Some especially excellent " Reader - We Challenge YOU ! " second splash panels by Alex !
Though it's pre-Code revision , and bad guys are punished , not to spoil but , a couple stories definitely have (presumably) innocent people caught up in/victimized by supernatural doings with no respite for them...Perhaps it was post-revision that everyone perhaps fell into relying on the sub-EC - Parodied as " You sharpen the pencils too much , and the pencils are all gonna get together and sharpen YOUR big fat head !!!!!!!!!!! " - formula too much ?
( Too much !!!!! )
...Credits for writers on stories don't start until #10 , w/a Gerry Conway ( Is it " Gerald " ? ) Toth story . Before that , many to most " full-length " new stories have artist's signatures .
Ther are text stories , uncredited in most issues . One of the last credits one of Murray Boltinoff's pen names - Murray wrote fair amounts of stories in his comics , using different pseudonyms , feeling that an editor's name should only appear once in a comic book .
Imagine how comics history mighta differed , pilgrim , had Stan Lee felt that way !!!!!!!!!!! Woo woo ! - Um , where was I ???????:-)
A late text stories invites letters , saying " from time to time " they may print letters...
...I'm through #16 now , the beginning of the 48-page era - with the comic becoming about 1/3 reprints - and Murray Boltinoff most definitely having taken over by this time .
...I've gone further...........
In the early issues , not only do the witches , lead skinny witch Mildred , fat one Mordred , and Mod Witch Cynthia , occupy ( Oooohh - I won't say it !!!!!!!!! ) 3-5 pages , they do have issue-to-issue continuity and assigned personalities , of a sort - Modred is said to especially favor stories involving an " inhabited object " , Mildred just likes old-fashioned scary stories , while Cynthia is stated to like stories involving modern things - such as computer dating , surfing , and what we weren't calling " supermodels " yet , ( " That skinny English babe - SHE'S the queen ! " ! ) , all of which show up within her early tales...a real piece of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In/Marshall McLuhan " with-it " -ess !!!!!!!!!!!
Later on , the witches' story pace dwindles down to the first page , that and the standard int-outro-ing and occasional Greek Chorus/whatever-izing within their tales , as per horr- Oops , mystery !!!!!!!!! - book standards .
...The first credited story's writer is " Gerald " Conway , for a Toth story in #10 involving a La Belle Epoque?? French dandy who...Well . I'm not spoiling here . It's a good-'un !!!!!!!!!!!
,,,The fact that text stories (though not letcols) are reprinted here makes me think that that GHOSTS SP I have mentioned before may , in fact , reprint the " What About The 1980 President ? " tp...Anyone seen it ??
...Okay , I'll think of something to add later , now I'm just kicking this up.........
...SPOILER territory now.........
iIRC , the book , even before the Code's loosening , has a couple stories that appear to violate Code provisions...One wraparound involves - jokey - use of the vampire & werewolf concepts , which I thought was Code-forbidden then , and the one and only Jack Oleck story involves.....................A visitor to Great Britain getting caught up in a local Satanic cult's murder of a young ( presumably a virgin ! As I said , pre-Code revision...) woman in a sacrifice...with him ending up being imprisoned for it on the testimony of " a respected authority figure " ( which was an original Code concern itself , not denigriating(??) such , remember)...who is , uh huh , one of the Dark One's followers himself !!! Gulp...
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