Thursday, June 21, 2018

Oh, Alfredo: "The Man Who Waxed--and Waned!" by Fleisher, Carley, and Alcala

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Sometimes a comicbook writer will come up with an idea that is so good (or so chilling!) that they're compelled to use it again (with some variation, natch). One such creepy cool idea belonged to Michael Fleisher who used it in Forbidden Tales of the Dark Mansion #13 (July 1973) with master artist Alfredo Alcala AND (on the cover, at least) monster-master Mike Kaluta--a melting man! "The Man Who Waxed--and Waned" is definitely a spooky shocker, as you're about to see...














The idea of the melting man was such a good one, Fleisher used it again in the debut story of his legendary Spectre run  in Adventure Comics illoed (Adventure Comics #431, October 1973) by yet another artiste, Jim Aparo. Kinda cool, innit?


11 comments:

  1. And he used it again in "A Connecticut Ice Cream Man in King Arthur's Court", the Toth-illustrated cover story in House of Secrets #123 (September 1974)

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    1. I'll have to check that out. I stopped buying HOS a year before. But anything illustrated by Toth is worth having.

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    2. I shall track that one down. Thanks, Groove-ophile!

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  2. Alfredo Alcala always had a lot of atmosphere in his art. Though he wasn't as strong in drawing as Nestor Redondo or Tony de Zuniga he drew well enough & had more of an eerie ambience in his pages than they did, making him perfect for these horror-mystery tales that DC churned out in the '70s.

    Regards,
    Chris A.

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  3. As much as I like Alfredo Alcala, it was the Kaluta cover that made this issue.

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    1. I like many aspects of Kaluta's art, but he had a problem with faces: the distance between the eyebrows & the nostrils was often too long & he didn't construct noses well at all. Al Williamson had a problem with faces in his early days & solved it with photo reference. Kaluta should have followed suit. Still, he had a lot going for him even in those days.

      Regards,
      Chris A.

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    2. I never noticed that about his art. I think in his heyday he was right up there with Wrightson. The Coming of Ghaglan was his masterpiece.

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    3. Loved that one,but Berni did a lot of uncredited work on it. I think Kaluta's illustrations for Swords of Shahrazzar were some of his best, & his DC covers around 1980 (Time Warp, Brave & the Bold) were even stronger than his early '70s covers. He did some beautiful paintings for a Tolkien calendar in the '90s, too.

      Best regards,
      Chris A.

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  4. Thanks for posting! Loved seeing the connection with the classic Fleisher/J. Aparo Spectre. That Adventure run may have been Aparo at his best, which is saying a lot!

    C. Hall

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  5. Even YOU used that story twice (the first one being in Halloween Week, october 28, 2014).

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    1. Doh! I'd forgotten about that, Artur! Oh, well, at least I gave this one a little twist.

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