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?


Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

11 comments:

  1. B SmithJune 21, 2018 at 3:14 AM

    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)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. keythd23June 21, 2018 at 10:42 AM

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

      Delete
    2. The Groovy AgentJune 21, 2018 at 2:36 PM

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

      Delete
  2. AnonymousJune 21, 2018 at 4:29 AM

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  3. keythd23June 21, 2018 at 10:40 AM

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

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousJune 21, 2018 at 3:59 PM

      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.

      Delete
    2. keythd23June 22, 2018 at 10:02 AM

      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.

      Delete
    3. AnonymousJune 22, 2018 at 4:15 PM

      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.

      Delete
  4. AnonymousJune 21, 2018 at 11:48 PM

    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

    ReplyDelete
  5. Artur CostaJune 22, 2018 at 2:04 AM

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

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Groovy AgentJune 22, 2018 at 8:01 AM

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

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin
Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


Note to "The Man": All images are presumed copyright by the respective copyright holders and are presented here as fair use under applicable laws, man! If you hold the copyright to a work I've posted and would like me to remove it, just drop me an e-mail and it's gone, baby, gone.


All other commentary and insanity copyright GroovyAge, Ltd.

As for the rest of ya, the purpose of this blog is to (re)introduce you to the great comics of the 1970s. If you like what you see, do what I do--go to a comics shop, bookstore, e-Bay or whatever and BUY YOUR OWN!