I knew this had an adaptation, but I wouldn't have believed you if you had told me it ran so long.

My Youngest son has been on a David Cronenberg kick: he'd just watched Videodrome, although now I think I need to ask him if he recognized video tapes. Or Debbie Harry. I keep telling him he'll like eXistenz, but he had also just watched Nightbreed, which features Cronenberg as serial killer Dr. Philip K. Decker. In fact, the serial killer angle might have been played up in that movie's ad campaign: marketing maybe tried to push it as a slasher, which it wasn't, really. Back in 1990, I remember some ads in DC's higher-end titles for the film, with detailed portraits of some of the monstrous Night Breed; but Marvel/Epic would get an adaptation of the film. Then, like Star Wars before it, that series went on to original stories, starting here: from 1990, Clive Barker's Night Breed #5, "The Blasphemers - Prelude: Scattering Seeds of Damnation" Written by Dan Chichester, pencils by Jackson "Butch" Guice, painted colors by Alfred Ramirez.

Picking up where the movie ended, after the destruction of the Nightbreed's refuge Midian, several of the 'Breed were re-entering the world: a world that hated and feared them as monsters, although sometimes not without reason. Six of them rob a nearby gas station, but leave the attendant to round up a small posse to go after them. One, Aello, stays behind to slow down pursuit, by seducing one of the pursuers. That leaves their leader, Mulciber, free to argue with the bland-looking Oral: Oral was struggling to abide by the commandments of their god Baphomet, which maybe involved not killing and eating people. Mulciber argues, it was natural...and tasty. (Aello kills hers, by flying him up and dropping him: she had large angel wings, unusual eyes and eyebrows, and a spectacular rack. Her victim probably only noticed one of those things...) Mulciber gives Oral some rocks; setting up a great scare on the next page! I don't want to spoil it more than that.

Meanwhile, another Nightbreed girl was travelling with a piece of Baphomet, who blows a farmer's mind with a quick recap of their history. And the Nightbreed's possible savior, Aaron 'Cabal' Boone, and his crew take down a drug dealer; to shake him down for one of their own, that didn't go to Midian but had remained in the 'natural' world...

I had seen the movie again fairly recently, and while Cronenberg quite sells his role, it still wasn't really a slasher movie. It's maybe more about finding the people that are like yourself, even if you sometimes even find them disturbing. There's also the notion, can you deny what you really are, even if society doesn't approve? Also, I got seven issues of this over the weekend; and I wouldn't have been surprised if you told me it only ran seven issues: nope! It ran for 25, although that synopsis of the last issue makes it seem like the Nightbreed would find their new Midian, probably the one place you would expect if you've read a fair amount of X-Men comics. Read more!

Aw, of course the one time I find one of these...

...the regular artist's out that month! Well, we'll still take a quick look at this one: from 1992, the Fly #14, "Games Evil Plays" Written by Len Strazewski, pencils by Al Bigley, inks by Pablo Marcos. Cover by Mike Parobeck!

Have I not blogged any Impact Comics before? This was DC's first attempt at relaunching the Archie Comics/Red Circle superheroes, like the Comet and the Shield. I know I read the Comet at the time, since I was following artist Tom Lyle from Starman; but I should've been buying the Fly, which featured art by the great Mike Parobeck! Still, guest-artist Bigley does a good job with his character designs this issue.

This issue, the Fly has to (lamely) explain to his police contact his role in the brief disappearance of local teen Jason Troy, who of course was the Fly! Then, a fight with avid bowler and sportswoman Domino--altogether now, 'not that one,' although it would be hilarious to see Neena in this one's costume, which seems direct from Batman '66. She had a domino calling-card, to set up a fight in a bowling alley, but has billiard balls all over her outfit; kind of feels like she's all over the place. She puts the Fly through some Arcade-style traps at the bowling alley, then bails; but one of Jason's classmates may be getting too close to her...or trying, anyway; you know what high school guys are like. Domino could've been a mass-murderer that kicked puppies, but in that outfit... Read more!

80-Page Thursday: House of Mystery #259!

No cover scan this time, this copy only has a smidge barely hanging on! From 1978, House of Mystery #259. Cover by Joe Orlando and Dick Giordano.

This time, the framing sequence is fairy queen Stardust, who has crashed in front of the House; but will die without belief to sustain her. Abel believes in her, and surprisingly, so does Cain, who opens with "The Miracle at San Sebastian." (A real place I suspect drawn with no reference! I almost think the town and mission were taken from an episode of Have Gun, Will Travel.) The town is being sucked dry by a vampire, and the local priest laments, even as he's able to save a little girl, that he was too old and frail to stop the monster. He might have a little help coming, though. (Framing sequence written by Paul Kupperberg, pencils by Ric Estrada, inks by Romeo Tanghal; "The Miracle at San Sebastian" Written by Roger McKenzie, art by Noly Panaligan.)

Next, another voodoo number, "Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow!" These probably aren't especially culturally sensitive, but this one at least has art from the great Michael Golden! (Story by David Manak and David Michelinie.) A murderous treasure hunter tries to use a young boy, to extort the treasure from his grandma, a voodoo witch. (No prizes for guessing it doesn't go great!) Then, a somewhat rare sci-fi number, "Return to Camelot Seven," in which two space cops visit said planet, only to find the human colony destroyed, and the local natives on the warpath. Still, the natives had been in the right, as the humans had been infected--literally--with greed, for the native's local metal. (Written by Steve Clement, pencils by Don Newton, inks by Bob Layton.)

"Do You Believe In..." finds a Victorian mugger, dismayed that his young daughter spent too much time listening to a kindly couple's fairy tales, when she could be earning her keep. Yeah, she was probably like six! Lazy freeloader...of course, he'll get his, sure enough. (Written by Greg Potter, art by John Fuller.) Abel then gets to tell some stories, starting with "Never Steal from a Blind Man." (Story idea by Michael Pell, script by Maxene Fabe, art by Flor Dery.) After nearly getting nicked, mugger Nicky Pardon considers changing his ways, but doesn't want to give up the fun, so he decides to limit his robberies to the blind. Less eyewitnesses; but again, he'll get his.

"Fire Sale" finds a nightclub owner planning arson, not only to cash in on the insurance money, but also to get the secrets of magic out of the Incredible Santini: the owner believed, at least some of Santini's act was legit magic. The fire kills about forty people, which I feel like would cut into any insurance payout; but the owner drags Santini away and ties him up, to get the secrets of his power, and to make a deal with the devil...(Written by Bob Toomey, art by George Ruppert and Frank Chiaramonte.) Then, in "Vampiress of Central Park," Lady Zarko takes a nighttime stroll in Central Park, looking for a drink: she is of course the titular vampiress, and drains the first mugger to cross her, although he then returns as a vampire himself, more quickly than expected. With his gang, the new vampire then tries to take Zarko, but they had forgotten vampires' other powers...and weaknesses. (Written by Don Glut, pencils by Juan Ortiz, inks by Vince Colletta.)

Finally, a young chump blows his savings at cards, when he misses drawing the "Jack of Diamonds." His wife is disappointed, but understanding; which probably just makes him feel worse, which leaves him open to a deal with the devil. The chump is not up on the legalese in the contract, but the devil explains the main clause: for the rest of the night, he would win at gambling without fail, but tomorrow would forfeit his soul. Sure enough, he then cleans up, but the devil returns for his soul in the morning. Luckily, his wife was able to parse out the conditions of the contract, and points out a contradiction: if he wins without fail, technically that wasn't 'gambling,' so...The devil concedes, rather graciously, y'ask me; while the chump promises to never gamble again. He looks real dumb, though; I'm not sure even that took. (Written by Bob Toomey, art by Rubeny.)

The framing sequence ends with Stardust rescued, of course. House of Mystery was an 80-page Dollar Comic from #251 to this issue: #251 had a Neal Adams cover I remember from a house ad, as moderately terrifying, since it was barely a glimpse! I thought I had grabbed that sometime, but so far we've seen #253 last week, and #256 a few years back. Read more!

"Measure."

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In actual time, how long as it been since Spider-Man used to sell photos of himself to the Daily Bugle? That's been phased out for years, since some might argue it was ethically questionable, but I'd say it was because freelance pay like that would never have been enough to live in NYC. Today's book made me feel like Superman was doing the same thing, sort of, even if he wasn't directly paid for it. From 1974, Superman #280, "Duel of the Diamond Demons!" Written by Elliot S! Maggin, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Bob Oksner.

I would've sworn this had been reprinted recently...This month, Clark Kent and Steve Lombard get called onto the carpet by their crabby boss Morgan Edge, since ratings were down; probably because WMET News has what's very obviously Walter Cronkite! (Hmm, with the "Piker's Peak" reference yesterday, this makes two straight posts with 'kronkites.' Weird.) Clark's at a loss what to do about that, then gets suckered in another of Lombard's petty tricks to impress new girls. But, taking a spin in WGBS's "flying newsroom," he's there in time to see the Metro bridge collapsing, and after setting up automatic cameras, to switch to Superman and save it. Clark gets the story put together just in time to make the live broadcast, which Edge watches with one of their sponsors: Edge is puzzled, since Kent was clumsy, late, and badly dressed, yet somehow the consummate professional when on the air. He'd be more impressed, if he had been in on another Lombard 'joke,' as Steve nicks Clark's script during a break, thinking he would panic and stammer, but Clark carries on perfectly, of course having already memorized all the lines!

Over the next few days, Superman seems to be all over the place, making the news constantly. When he was going to appear at a charity function, Edge says he'll have Lombard take that softball, to give Kent a break: arriving as Superman, he notices Steve "showing rare ingenuity" with a high shot, away from the other cameramen. Supes was there to squeeze a lump of coal into a diamond for charity, but as he does Lombard becomes dizzy, then crashes the scene, as a diamond monster, there for revenge!

Steve blasts Superman with eye beams, to turn him into a diamond as well; and Supes realizes Steve had been changed, because of the radiation he'd taken for his bum knee (save me some!) in his debut in Superman #264. (We don't have that one, but we saw the DC Comics Presents cover version of it!) Superman had also subconsciously been causing disasters, which he then stopped to improve ratings...I feel like that needed to be unpacked more, but no time: turning diamond himself, Superman has to punch diamond-Lombard so hard it knocks the radiation out of him...yeah, I know, but they were running out of pages...and Lombard returns to normal. Still, Clark gets him in the end, switching his script at a test run, for nursery rhymes. (I do like that Lombard managed to make it into the last Superman movie, as a tool, but maybe not a bad guy. Like he'd probably do the right thing...eventually.)

The lead feature, despite the striking cover, is maybe shorted a bit; to make room for a "Life of Clark Kent" back-up, "The Last Headline" (Written by Martin Pasko, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Tex Blaisdell.) Edge gives Kent a new assignment, that he specifically doesn't want: a documentary, capping the career of editor Perry White, before he was forced into retirement at age 65. White absolutely didn't want to retire, but Edge had wanted to get rid of him, probably because he was among the few to stand up to him. White had been tasked with tailing an embezzler, that he had put away years ago: the money had never been recovered. Kent gets it on camera, with a brief aside to 'accidentally' knock out the embezzler's partner; as White blocks three bullets with a garbage can lid like he was Captain America, then pulls the embezzler out of the collapsing building! Later, Edge watches the rough cut of Kent's documentary, which features Kent addressing him directly: Perry shouldn't be forced to retire...and the entire staff of the Planet would walk if he did. Edge acquiesces, although it's probably still obvious he's not thrilled about it; and Perry gives Clark a nod of gratitude, before getting back to work.

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I opened this one up and swear I could hear the Schmatterhorn music.

Yes, I do have cartoons on an awful lot. From 1982, Unknown Soldier #264, featuring "Hell is a Cold Place!" Written by Bob Haney, pencils by Dick Ayers, inks by Gerry Talaoc; "Killers of the Sky! Chapter Three: A Coffin for Aces!" Written by Robert Kanigher, art by Dan Spiegle; and "George Washington Died Here!" Written by Bob Haney, pencils by José Delbo, inks by Andy Mushynsky. This is another one from late in the run, and I'm not sure if the back-up features were burning off war stories as DC sunsetted those titles, or if there was the hope that collectively they'd be enough of a draw to continue. In the opener, an Allied plane had crashed in Switzerland, on the treacherous mountain called "the Needle." The plane had been carrying a new, advanced bomb sight; and the Unknown Soldier was in a race with the Nazi "Black Knight" Von Stauffen. (Stauffen? Instead of potatoes--oh, never mind.) But, Stauffen wasn't even aware of the plane; this was more personal: he was lugging the corpse of his father up there, who had previously failed to conquer the mountain, and whose frozen corpsicle had recently been found in a glacier. (Found frozen in a block of ice and he didn't revive? R.I.P. to him but Americans are built different.) An American had beat the elder Von Stauffen to the top and died there; now the younger was going to toss the American's carcass and replace it with dad's, for a propaganda victory. With a little help from Von Stauffen getting tripped up by the American climber's bones, the Unknown Soldier beats him, but is too nice to leave him to die on the mountain. He returns to Switzerland with the bomb sight and the captured Von Stauffen (although I don't think he gets to keep him there!) as well as the American climber's diary, proof of Nazi lies.

"Killers of the Sky!" was a Balloon Buster feature, although his more-popular rival Enemy Ace also appears: they would keep fighting it out until the second-to-last issue. But, to save a young boy's sight, he had turned over a small child to Enemy Ace, to get him treatment in Berlin. The Buster, Steve Savage, had an almost pathological obsession with not being seen as "pore white trash" and is generally looked down upon by his elitist fellow pilots, although he was probably the best of them. He also seemed to get in trouble a lot, as he nearly catches the rope for letting Von Hammer escape after he returned the cured child; but Savage had a general that was pretty much his "guardian angel," keeping his direct C.O. from coming down on him.

Finally, a Tomahawk story--possibly the last Tomahawk story? His series had run from 1950 to 1972, but aside from the requisite Crisis on Infinite Earths cameos and such, he might not have appeared again until his Vertigo Visions in 1998. I think that one tied in more to Native American spiritualism but was still more "realistic" than Tomahawk's book usually ran: it was set during the Revolutionary War, but rather a more out-there version of it? In the vein of the Blackhawk books of the time. Previously, Tomahawk and his crew had been framed by the traitorous Lord Shilling, for the attempted assassination of George Washington; which of course was a ploy for Shilling to kill Washington himself! Tomahawk has to bust him and his boys out of the stockade, take Washington's place for Shilling's murder attempt, and then face Shilling for what could be their final duel. Shilling catches a tomahawk in the forehead and falls over a fortress's wall, but Tomahawk still seems positive he'd be back to hassle him again. Of course, the most unrealistic thing about this one is the notion that George Washington was ever wrong, or needed saving. Read more!

I was thinking of this one, since my theory was there were like maybe two Phantom Stranger stories people really remembered: the Secret Origins issue with four possible origins for him, and his Vertigo Visions one-shot. Then I pick up the latter, and realize I maybe hadn't read it before? So much for that theory...from 1993, Vertigo Visions: the Phantom Stranger #1, "Geronton" Written by Alisa Kwitney, art by Guy Davis. Cover by John Bolton.

As an old man with a distinctive hat watches from upstairs, Naomi Walker starts her first night shift, as the massive old age home Paradise Gardens. The orderly on duty is friendly--too friendly, as in a "call HR" kind of way--and the creep factor just keeps increasing: the first patient Naomi is introduced to is both medicated out of her mind, and had maggots in her hair. Later, another room is locked, with the occupant described as "prone to fits" and dangerous; which Naomi of course has to see for herself: it's the old man, who tries to warn her off. But, Naomi doesn't seem to scare easily, and is already taken with the house. Then a strange man appears outside--one that seems to resemble the old man...

I don't want to spoil anything on this one, and I'm trying to think of a way to phrase this that isn't condescending or disparaging, but if you were to make a list of common Vertigo themes and situations, this one checks a lot of boxes, in the best way! It also ties into what passed for continuity at Vertigo, with a plot point from Sandman that was used in Lucifer and Stanley and His Monster! I wasn't familiar with Alisa Kwitney, although we did see a Batman story from her some time back. Guy Davis of course draws the hell out of this: I was surprised that on the Vertigo checklist, he didn't draw that month's issue of Sandman Mystery Theatre. I had thought he did most of that run, since I'm thinking of his long run on B.P.R.D. I also love that Vertigo had a checklist; their cross-sell game was strong: there are multiple ads for Vertigo titles and even just as a brand, as well as the Vertigo-adjacent Garth Ennis Demon. Read more!