Random Happenstance

Is the Twilight Zone associated more with New Year's than Halloween nowadays, because of the marathons? Well, we're still checking out the comics this month! From 1971, The Twilight Zone #38, painted cover by George Wilson.

Luis Dominguez draws "A Date With Death," in which a newspaper photographer is taken too soon by Death--literally, Death misread the date in his little notebook. Death is forced to grant the photog a wish, and seeking scoops he opts to follow Death on his rounds for 24 hours. Maybe he should've been more curious about his upcoming demise: spying Death's dropped notebook, he sees he's going to die at the foot of the Empire State Building at high noon. He's about to do the smart thing and drive hard in the opposite direction; which probably wouldn't have delayed his death, it probably would've caused the ESB to get launched ten miles into the air then land on him or something. Still, his nose for news is too strong, and the photographer gets sucked back in to get pictures of rampaging circus animals. Geez, busy news day. Kind of a dumb one.

I loved Thor #309, wherein a cat avenges the crap out of his master's death; but "The Cat with the Evil Eye" gets three times the revenge after grave-robbers kill his caretaker. Dig it. Art by Win Mortimer. "Buried Alive" is amusingly stupid: a grifter returns home to gloat, but has another of his seizures, "suspended animation of death." Luckily, he had a medic-alert type bracelet explaining his condition; unluckily, his stupid family is illiterate...That one probably could've ended there, but it goes on to make a teachable moment, not an ironic death. (Art by Frank Bolle.)

Finally, there's "The General's Statue," with art by Joe Certa. A young sculptor has done a striking job sculpting a war hero general, but why does its arm keep falling off? You can probably guess, but not for the reason you'd think!

I'm still looking for a cheap copy of TZ #70 with "The Tyranny of Time" by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez; but I know I got #68 recently. Need to find it, I can't remember the twist ending, and it was literally a twist ending...