Thing Tuesday: Teaming Up with Ghost Rider on Christmas Eve!

How did Marvel celebrate Christmas back in 1975?  By teaming up ol' Benjamin J Grimm with this Satan spawn…

...Ghost Rider from Marvel Two In One #8, cover by Gil Kane and Joe Sinnott.  Silent Night, Deadly Night!  Doesn't take place in Bethlehem but on an Indian reservation that Johnny Blaze happens to be cruzin' by lookin' for trouble.

Just remember, no matter what your religion, the world of comics has you covered, as witnessed by this little card by Michael Cho.  

I plan on having Daimon Hellstrom, Simon Garth and Jericho Drumm over on Christmas and eating Deviled Eggs.  Nuff Said!

Monster Monday: Ghost Rider Slurpee cup

The Marvel Monsters were well represented in Marvel's Slurpee cups from 1975.  Man-Thing, Dracula, and Ghost Rider has their own cups.

Johnny Blaze was featured on his hellblazing cycle.  Now where did this image come from?  A Ghost Rider comic or an issue of Marvel Spotlight?

Neither!  It was lifted off the cover of Marvel Two-In-One #8, cover dated Mar 1975 but it probably was on the stands in Dec 1974.  The Slurpee cups were sold at 7-Eleven the spring/summer of 75.  The cover is by Gil Kane and Joe Sinnott.  Always found that one a strange tale...Ghost Rider in a Christmas story.  Nuff Said!

Celebrate Halloween with the Bronze Age of Marvel Horror: Dracula, Werewolf, Frankenstein, Ghost Rider, and Son of Satan!

Halloween 2010 is finally here!  My favorite holiday...somehow I feel the rest of the year is all downhill from this point.  Thanksgiving, Christmas, bah, not as good in my opinion.  In fact I would like to be put in suspended animation starting on November 1st.  Re-animate my body after January 1st, give me a strong cup of coffee and everything will be just fine.

Here are some classic Marvel horror comic covers from the Bronze Age.  No particular order, just grabbing a pack of Marvels that lurk in the dead of night.



Tomb of Dracula #26 cover by Gil Kane and Tom Palmer, from 1974.  The story by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan was part 1 of the Chimera storyline, a very good one as I recall.



Werewolf by Night #5 cover by Mike Ploog from 1973.  Jack Russell's sister Lissa is held captive by a madman, who sends the Werewolf out to assassinate someone who lives in a heavily guarded compound.



The Frankenstein Monster #10 cover by John Romita from 1974.  The cover is evocative of the early Frankenstein horror films and could almost be a poster.  In this case, the cover was much better than the interior story, about the Monster meeting "The Last Frankenstein" who brings him over to London.



It's even better to look at the original art by John Romita to the Frankenstein Monster #10 cover.  I found this over on Romitaman's website.



Ghost Rider #2 cover by Gil Kane and Joe Sinnott is frightening because you've got big bad SATAN, all red and aflame and eager to snatch up Johnny Blaze's soul.  Given that groovy midriff-bearing outfit, it would be hard to deny Witch-Woman's request to Step Right Up and Shake Hands with SATAN!




John Romita also drew the cover to Marvel Spotlight #13, the second full length story featuring the Son of Satan.  Who else can stop the Big Satan except for his ever rebellious son?  This comic featured the origin story of Daimon Hellstrom, which made me very uncomfortable to think that anyone's Mom would sleep with the Devil.  BTW, you think it is easy to design a costume for the Hellspawn?  That outfit by Romita is sheer genius.

Have a great Halloween 2010!  Were I made the emperor of the world, we would abolish those holidays and make them Halloween part 2 and 3.  Nuff Said!

Update: Comments from my old MT blog...

3 Comments

By Nick Caputo on November 2, 2010 12:35 PM

While the inks on the Frankenstein cover are definitely by John Romita, the pencils are by the one and only Gil Kane.

Nick Caputo

By Andres - traductor jurado ingles on November 20, 2010 11:15 AM

Thanks for sharing!! the comics are great!

By John McNally on December 17, 2010 1:25 AM

Thanks for this Richard. Great memories. Gil Kane did some lovely work on Captain Marvel, they were my favourites.

John

Ghost Rider on a Monster Monday: Ultimate GR, Leinil Yu, and Ghost Rider 2 movie news

Mark Millar once remarked that he has several notebooks with all kinds of ideas for Marvel characters.  His new Ultimates mini-series has been giving him the opportunity to showcase a lot of revised heroes and villains. 

Ghost Rider appeared in Ultimate Comics Avengers, Vol. 2: Crime and Punishment.  His first appearance was in this glorious double page spread.  His Ultimate origin still remains tied to Satan, and this supernatural creature is more than a match for the Ultimate Avengers.

M. Schulman is the lucky fellow who owns the pencils to this page by Leinil Yu.  I was surprised to see that Leinil pencils the image on paper, not that I object, I just assumed all young artists drew on the computer.

Millar's take on Ghost Rider is a nice tweak, giving Johnny Blaze a new motivation to keep riding on his hellcycle.  This series also featured the Punisher, who joins the Ultimate Avengers--against his will--to hunt down the Ghost Rider.  The only problem is that he approves of the villains that Ghost Rider is killing.

One piece of Ghost Rider movie news came last week:  Ghost Rider 2 will go into production very soon in Romania.  It will be shot in 3D, of course, because you demanded to see a flaming skull as close as possible.  Don't look too closely at the Penance Stare in this film. 

According to this Nicholas Cage quote on Comic Book Movie News (who got it from MTV):

"This story picks up eight years after the first film. You don't have to have seen the first film. It doesn't contradict anything that happened in the first film, but we're pretending that our audience hasn't seen the first film. It's as if you took that same character where things ended in the first film and then picked it up eight years later - he's just in a much darker, existential place."

One stroke against this film right on the starting gate is that Cage is back as Johnny Blaze.  Who wants to see a middle aged man as Ghost Rider?  Johnny Blaze should be no more than 30 years old.  Eva Mendes won't return as Roxanne Simpson, saving me from another frontal lobotomy.  The directors are Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, who produced an entertaining movie in Crank, but fell apart in other works.   

I really don't demand too much from this type of movie.  The first Ghost Rider film I can still watch, if I fast forward right to the scenes where the flesh burns off Cage's face.  The scene at the end with the cowboy version of Ghost Rider, played by Sam Elliott, riding on a flaming horse was really cool.  Nuff Said!

Link: Schulman's Gallery on ComicArtFans.

Link: Ultimate Comics Avengers, Vol. 2: Crime and Punishment

Live Blogging Frank Miller's The Spirit on DVD

Monster Monday: Michael Golden Ghost Rider covers

It's going to be a monstrous week for me.  The only thing that can make it better is a week of Michael Golden covers...starting off with my favorite hell-raiser, Ghost Rider!

This 1991 cover appeared in the Doctor Strange Ghost Rider special.  The interior story wasn't that great, but the cover alone justified the buck fifty.  I love how Golden draws that hellcycle climbing up that mystic bridge.

Surprisingly, Doctor Strange is very small, even though he's the co-star.  I am sure the editors wanted Ghost Rider to be the focal point, since his popularity was much greater.  The version above was the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider.

Golden did draw the Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider 10 years earlier in this cover to Defenders 96.  Blaze's hellcycle is literally ablaze in flame, which Golden details in utter delight.  Doctor Strange and Daimon Hellstrom appear in the background.

Which Ghost Rider do you prefer?  Ketch's bike is cooler, but Blaze's uniform, an ode to Evel Knivel, simply can't be beat.  Nuff Said!

Monster Monday: Jim Starlin Ghost Rider, from The Comic Reader

Beginning...a week of covers from one of the most famous fanzines of all time: The Comic Reader! 

Launched by Paul Levitz in the 1960s, and later published by Street Enterprises, TCR was a prime source of insider news on the comics world.

TCR was a digest-sized mag published in black and white for the first few years.  The magazine switched to color covers after the first 100 issues, and they were often able to snag superstar artists to draw them...like this Ghost Rider cover to issue 154 by Jim Starlin.  This cover references a story that Starlin wrote and drew for Ghost Rider #35 (1979), titled "Death Race".  I've often wondered if this image was a rejected cover that Starlin had intended for that issue.  Nuff Said!

Monster Monday: Ghost Rider promo by Javier Saltares

Here's a 1990 drawing by Javier Saltares that I found on Romitaman's website.  According to the description, this was a promotional drawing for the "second-generation" Danny Ketch Ghost Rider that debuted later in 1990.  Nuff said!

Monster Monday: When One Isn't Enough, You Need A Legion of Monsters!

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.

Mike McKone'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.

Monster Monday: Mike Ploog Ghost Rider cover recreations

When Ghost Rider first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #5, I was absolutely run over (pardon the pun) by Mike Ploog's artwork and character design.  Especially intriguing was the cover blurb: Is He Alive or Dead?  I sold my original as a kid, but I was able to buy a back issue a few years ago.  It's still one of my favorite origin issues ever.

Here are the pencils to a recreation that Ploog did a few years ago, from Pheng Taing on comicartfans.

Marvel Spotlight #8 really showed me the potential of Ghost Rider as a character--by taking him out of the city and pitting him against another brand of magic.  It was also cool to see the Ghost Rider--a revamp of a Western character--in an Indian reservation.

Ploog's recreation--also from Pheng Taing--really oomphs up the crazy magic going on here.  What lucky guy to have both of these!  Nuff said.

A Mike Ploog Monster Mash for Halloween

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.

Ghost Rider in a Marvel Swimsuit

Ghost Rider in a Marvel Swimsuit?  It really happened, true believer!

The 1993 Marvel Swimsuit issue had this groovy centerfold featuring the Spirit of Vengeance on a beach.  Naked, which means burning on the beach.  Imagine your surprise if you got to this point in the magazine, expect to see something like a sexy Adam Hughes She-Hulk?  Nuff said.

Ghost Rider, Tearin' Up the Backroads of America

I've been a Ghost Rider fan since the character first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #5.  Ever since Mike Ploog and Gary Friedrich left the strip, it's lacked a good solid direction.  Things have gotten better since Daniel Way brought Johnny Blaze back from Hell in this new series, as we've learned that Johnny is really an avenging angel of vengeance.  New writer Jason Aaron has taken this situation to new heights with Johnny Blaze taking to the backroads of America, searching for clues about Zadkiel, the angel responsible for his predicament.  Johnny just happens to find a boy who ran into Zadkiel while in a coma...but the boy is guarded by an army of Tarentino-kinky naughty Cycle Nurses.  This terrific double splash page by Roland Boschi kicks off Ghost Rider #22, where Blaze is fighting a road full of demonic creatures on Cannibal Highway.

Of course, it does not hurt at all to have cover artist Marko Djurdjevic promoting the Ghost Rider.  This cover is not just an awesome image; Blaze really does pick up a scythe to cut a swath through his enemies.  Nuff said.