Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Halloween Week: Oh, Alfredo! "The Man Who Waxed--and Waned!" by Fleisher and Alcala
Halloween Week is rolling merrily along, Groove-ophiles! We've gotta have spooky old crones, cats, and curses to make the holiday complete,don't we? Well, this terror-tale, superbly illustrated by Alfredo Alcala, natch, has it all! Written by Michal Fleisher (who made Jonah Hex and The Spectre so magnificently moody), "The Man Who Waxed--and Waned!" first appeared in Forbidden Tales of the Dark Mansion #13 (but of course!), July 1973!
I always felt that DC missed a great opportunity by not giving Alfredo Alcala cover assignments on the mystery titles wherein he drew stories. Neal Adams and Berni Wrightson were great cover artists, but there were many other, lesser artists who did far more covers----whereas there was only ONE Alcala cover, and that was merely a blowup of an interior panel (SECRETS OF SINISTER HOUSE #10 in 1972)! A panel of his art was used in the covers of HOUSE OF MYSTERY #225 and #226 (amongst other artists' panels, 1974), and he did a few non-mystery covers in the early '80s (ARAK, SON OF THUNDER), but these weren't in his famously illustrative style.
ReplyDeleteAt Marvel he did only two covers: for humour title AARGH! #3 in May, 1975 and for PLANET OF THE APES #9 in October, 1976.
What a criminal waste of talent and opportunity on these publishers' part!
Chris A.