Number 1488: Monsters of Karloff

Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery was a title of the 1970s from Gold Key/Whitman, which featured monster stories. What I remember about it from seeing it on the comic racks of its era was the art in each issue seemed uneven to me, a problem I found with most of the anthology comics of the time.

These two stories I found interesting and well drawn. “The Eternity Monster” is from issue #60 (1975), drawn by José Delbo; “The Axeman and the Taxman” is from #68 (1976) and identified (if you can call it that) as being by “West Coast artist?” by the Grand Comics Database.

There are more Boris Karloff monsters at Karswell’s The Horrors Of It All.
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Number 1167: Monster in town

 Carlos Garzón, from Bogotá, Colombia, saw Al Williamson's Flash Gordon work in the '60s. He found out Al was raised in Bogotá, so he sent him samples of his work. By 1970 Garzón was living in New York and working with Williamson. Despite their long collaboration, Garzón did solo jobs, also, including Gold Key's Flash Gordon and this five-page strip from Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #69 (1976).

I chose it because I found scans of the original art on Heritage Auctions, so I'm showing both versions.

George Wilson did the cover, based on a panel from the story.

The latest I heard was that Carlos is living in Orlando, Florida, working on various projects.

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Number 755: Boris's horrors

John Celardo is yet another of the comic book men who came into the field early (in his case, 1937) and stayed for a long time. Celardo was born in 1918. His art is distinctive because of his facility with brush inking--even the thinnest lines are drawn with a brush--and his muscular characters. Celardo drew and inked the Tarzan newspaper strip for years.

In the '70s he was doing some stories for Gold Key. I found these two sprinkled in with the regular fare in Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery. "They Came From the Deep" is from BKTOM #32, 1970, and "Monster On My Back" is from BKTOM #39, 1972. (Note: Grand Comics Database does its qualifying thing when it can't quite decide, by giving a "?" after Celardo's name on this story. I'll go on record by saying I believe it's drawn by Celardo.)

"They Came From the Deep" was inspired by "The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs, first published in 1903. "Monster On My Back" seems like an allegory for something. Choose your own. I think of a boss who was on my back for twenty years before my retirement.

The eerie cover for #32 is not credited in the Grand Comics Database and I don't know who painted it, but is another in a series of really strong painted covers on Gold Key comic books. Sometimes the comics themselves were disappointing, but the covers seldom were.

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Number 728


The apes of Ape-ril


As you read in Pappy's #705, I've got some weird thing for simians in comic books. I'm apparently one of many ape fans, because as I've said more than once, DC Comics found out years ago that putting gorillas on the covers of comic books sold more comic books.

I have three stories for you today: From DC's Strange Adventures #8, 1951, a tale of evolution* by Gardner Fox, illustrated by Bob Oksner and Bernard Sachs. Moving forward along the evolutionary scale we have Nick Cardy's drawing on "Experiment 1000" from House of Secrets #6, 1957. We swing from the branches, away from the DC experimental lab to the Gold Key jungle and a 1964 Boris Karloff tale, starring the Great Man himself, Karloff! chasing after the great white ape in "The Mystagogue." The art is by Frank Thorne.

Chuck Wells' is joining in with his Comic Book Catacombs Going Apeshit jungle story here.




























*Yet another take on Edmond Hamilton's "The Man Who Evolved," here.

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Say...what?

And here's an extra, from Smash Comics #11, 1940:




By Jove, Captain Cook...a rare chimpanzee with transplanted owl eyes trained to steal green so he could eventually steal the royal emeralds would have been my choice for the culprit, too!

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