I think I bought this in August, but in time for Halloween!

A fun little pickup: from 2003, Neal Adam's Monsters, story and art by Neal Adams.

Actually, this was collected in 2003, but bits and pieces of this, like Frankenstein's monster, had appeared here and there beforehand. In the introduction, Adams mentions having the idea for the Werewolf as "a person who would literally turn into a wolf," and the story appearing before the Howling, which was released in 1981.

Along with his Dracula vs. Frankenstein vs. Werewolf story, this also collects some of Adam's design work for Stuart Gordon's adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's From Beyond and a smattering of Marvel covers for good measure. For $2.49, a steal!

Watching scary movies from this evening through the weekend, so have a good Halloween!
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Oh, I'm sure Egypt loves being compared to a mummy, yeah.

Hmm, I wasn't expecting to find an interesting page in Marvel Two-in-One #95. The last year or two of the book was generally done-in-one throwaway stories with the Thing and whoever needed their copyright renewed that month; and was winding down to it's last issue, #100. Of course, this is by no means a modern comic classic: archeologist gone bad Gamal Hassan sends a mystic crown to Alicia, putting her under his power and putting the Thing on the case. Not that it's in the yellow pages or anything, but maybe it would've been easier to find a blind sculptress that isn't the Thing's girlfriend, genius. It's not really clear why exactly he needs a blind artist, either, but Hassan sets her to work finding the Spirit Gem of Nephrus. Well, after dressing Alicia in a pretty skimpy outfit, anyway.

For some reason, Hassan's "innoculous archaeological dig" has automated rocket launcher defenses.

More after the break!

Eventually, N'kantu, the Living Mummy shows up; the soul of his old enemy Nephrus takes over Hassan, and violence insues. Ben and N'kantu don't fare that well, and in the end Alicia turns the crown on the gem. She plainly says she can't kill Nephrus, but totally does. Hmm. All's well that ends well, except for N'kantu, who's still a shambling mockery of a man unable to even die.

Or sort of unable to die. I mean, really, he's a mummy: he's gotta be flammable as hell. And 90% of his problems would be solved by learning english, or at least some modern language; and by wearing clothes over the bandages. The only other N'kantu appearance I have, was in Captain America #361; but that's exactly what I love about the Marvel Universe: it's stuffed to the gills full of super-heroes, Micronauts, giant Shogun Warriors, Godzilla, and ROM; but still has a place for the old school monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Mummy. And N'kantu actually appeared in Civil War, if you can believe it...

Panels from Marvel Two-in-One #95, "The Power to Live...the Power to Die!..." Scripted by David Anthony Kraft, pencils by Alan Kupperberg, inks by Jon D'agostino.


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Today on Creature Feature, "Walt Simonson vs. the 9-Panel Grid!"

Slacking off for the holiday, but here's a page from Video Jack #6, written/plotted by Cary Bates, plotted by Keith Giffen, art by Walt Simonson. It wasn't a very successful series, but damnit if Epic didn't used to try some new stuff. Simonson isn't an artist I usually think of for working in the 9-panel grid page style, although I've seen him cram a ton of smaller panels per page; usually head shots, like in Star Slammers or Orion. Coming up later though: some of the best panels of that style. Soon. Read more!