Flyday Fridays are back at THOIA! And wowzers, I'm not sure we've partaken a tale from Marvel's legendary Legion of Monsters #1 one-shot (September 1975) before, so I guess it's finally time to hear what all the buzzzz is about! The titanic, three-way team-up of Gerry Conway, Paul Kirchner, and Ralph Reese do a pretty consistent job of plopping real life side show actor / performer, Schlitzie into the horrible, humiliatin' action, though of course underground comix legend, Bill Griffith first popularized Schlitzie's likeness as Zippy the Pin Head in both comic books and syndicated strips just a few years earlier. This all coming about, of course, in large part thanks to the rediscovery of Todd Browning's 1932 cult classic, FREAKS, as it made it's grand revival through the 60's midnight movie circuit, and late-nite horror host show airings on the 'ol boob tube. Okay, with all of that out of the way, let's not forget to gaze longingly at the glorious cover painting by Neal Adams-- Yow! I guess I could've mentioned The Ramones here too...
In the 70s, Marvel was on fire. Some of the great superhero work was going on -- in 1975, when this was published, is actually the year of the original Clone Saga in Amazing! But also all the original monster work and stuff from exploitation cinema: Tomb of Dracula, Werewolf by Night, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Ghost Rider, Blade -- all exploitation / monster movie originated stuff.
ReplyDeleteThey also started making a lot of B&W mags (Curtis was the distributor they made up to get around the comics code) and almost all of them were just awesome.
Everything from that period of Marvel was just the best.
This mag was no exception. This is one of the horror stories where the ending isn't as important -- it obvious who is going to get it for being an outright jerk -- but it's how well this is staged. How you really feel for Chuckles and how the other characters just ooze hatefulness.
Any chance to blather on about 70s Marvel and I'll do it :)
Attaching person sized wings to the little brat, Chuckles must have been channeling the spirit of Dr. Frankenstein.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting the T shirt iron on ad, that was a blast from the past.