The three-buck copy I bought was a bit doodled on, but it's such a cover I couldn't resist it! The story inside wasn't what I expected, though: from 1966,
Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane #63, "The Satanic Schemes of S.K.U.L.!" Written by Leo Dorfman, art by Kurt Schaffenberger.
When Perry White takes a temporary appointment as senator...for whatever state Metropolis is in...Van Benson is made his replacement at the
Daily Planet. Lois would rather see them promote from within--probably her if she could sit still for that job--but initially finds Van handsome. Then a slave driver, but she still agrees to dinner with him, and he takes her to the smancy Kitten Club, the top spot in town, and where everyone knows your name. Or, at least all the girls seem to know Van. The club has an elaborate stage show, with Tamara, mistress of the whip, snagging Van's eyeglasses case with it. Van explains, it's all part of the act, and they'd be returned later. The coat-check girl returns them to Lois for him, and she checks them out--and they seem to have a secret anti-Superman message on the lenses!
Lois starts working the case, which leads to a secret cult: Superman Killers' Underground League! S.K.U.L. meet wearing hoods, but then use "some weird fluorescent effect" to appear as skeletons; which I guess is thematically on point? The leader appears as a red skeleton (not
that one, although rest assured, they don't skip that joke) and lights a series of candles, shaped like Superman's friends, to symbolize their deaths. It would admittedly be somewhat terrifying to watch a bunch of chanting weirdos burn a candle shaped like me, I have to admit. Lois then goes undercover at the Kitten Club, using Superman interplanetary trophies borrowed from Jimmy, to pass herself off as a magician. (Supes probably specifically asked Jimmy to keep those trophies out of the wrong hands...) She eventually infiltrates S.K.U.L. and wins a drawing for the plum assignment, of murdering Superman!
Unfortunately, Lois's instructions are in code, so she brings in Lana to help her break it. The message gives a meeting point, to pick up "
Weapon X" (not that--oh, never mind) so Lois and Lana decide to get a message to Superman, on the front page of the
Planet. But, they're stopped before it hits print, by Superman, who badmouths their lamebrain scheme as gumming up his chance to take out S.K.U.L. If they were so smart, why didn't they see through his Clark Kent disguise? But this isn't Superman--or Clark--it's Van Benson in disguise! But, he wasn't the leader of S.K.U.L. like Lois thought, he was an undercover agent! Or was he...? To be continued...and I don't have the next issue yet, so it might be a bit. All the stage-show stuff seems vaguely familiar, though, like from a horror movie I might'a seen on Svengoolie:
Cult of the Cobra maybe...no, something with more of a Satany/voodoo vibe, maybe more John Hoyt.
1 comment:
Idk why but every time I see the Leo Dorfman’s name I automatically think of Tim Comway’s Dorf character.
Anyhoo, yeah seeing a killer cult burning highly-detailed candle images of myself & my friends & family would kinda freak me out too, although I’d have to give them props for their attention to detail.
How funny would it be if Van Benson was really Superman in disguise? Sure it wouldn’t make sense, but how often were a lot of Silver Age stories held together by the loosest strands of logic?
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