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Post by Ish Kabbible on Sept 29, 2014 14:24:19 GMT -5
The scanned page from mrp for Adventure # 432 states Art Continuity by Russell Carley. I recall seeing such a credit from DC during the 70s in their mystery books as well. Is this a Michael Fleisher thing or did other writers employ it. I presume Fleisher came up with the plot, Carley broke down the action panel by panel for Aparo to draw and then Fleisher did the dialogue. So its the Marvel Method with a middleman
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 14:27:55 GMT -5
#437 - The Human Bombs & the Spectre - Fleisher/Ernie Chan (pencils)/Aparo (inks). Plus another Aquaman story by Paul Levitz & Grell.
A scientist hypnotizes people into committing crimes. To prevent capture they have bombs attached to them which they set off if the police try to stop them. One of the more gruesome tales. The scientist has two of his henchmen jump into a barracuda tank while under hypnosis. We also see a victim blow up themselves & a police officer. Needless to say Gwen becomes one of the hypnotized human bombs & Jim gets involved. The Spectre kills the scientist by hypnotizing him & having him jump into an alligator pit to be eaten alive.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 14:30:46 GMT -5
No. But for those that are curious:
Writer Harlan Ellison in a 1979 interview described Fleisher and his comics work as "crazy", "certifiable", "twisted", "derange-o", "bugfuck", and "lunatic". He also erroneously claimed that a Publishers Weekly review called Fleisher's novel Chasing Hairy "the product of a sick mind", and that Fleisher's Spectre series had been discontinued by DC Comics because the company "realized they had turned loose a lunatic on the world."[11] While some observers considered the diatribe humorous hyperbole,[12] Fleisher, saying his "business reputation has been destroyed" and believing he was falsely portrayed as insane, filed a $2 million libel suit against Ellison, publisher Gary Groth and the magazine in which the interview appeared, The Comics Journal.[13][14] The case came to court in 1986, and resulted in a verdict for the defendants.
Taken from Wikipedia.
In the interview, Harlan was asked what comics he had enjoyed recently. He was actually praising Fleisher's Spectre series for being "crazy etc etc" .There are many authors who would have loved to have those Ellison's comments on the cover of their own book See. There are two sides to every story... |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 14:36:42 GMT -5
The scanned page from mrp for Adventure # 432 states Art Continuity by Russell Carley. I recall seeing such a credit from DC during the 70s in their mystery books as well. Is this a Michael Fleisher thing or did other writers employ it. I presume Fleisher came up with the plot, Carley broke down the action panel by panel for Aparo to draw and then Fleisher did the dialogue. So its the Marvel Method with a middleman Prior to the Spectre Fleisher had only written novels. Carley helped him with plotting for comics with visuals by doing rough layouts until #434. Then he just helped with the plots. By #438 he was not helping Fleisher at all. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 14:43:28 GMT -5
#438 - The Spectre Haunts the Museum of Fear - Fleisher/Chan (pencils)/Aparo (inks).
The Curator of the Museum of Natural History kidnaps victims & uses taxidermy to create realistic displays. The Spectre brings the gorilla display to "life" & has the stuffed gorillas kill the curator.
For me the most boring story in the entire run.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 14:51:07 GMT -5
#438 - The Spectre Haunts the Museum of Fear - Fleisher/Chan (pencils)/Aparo (inks).
The Curator of the Museum of Natural History kidnaps victims & uses taxidermy to create realistic displays. The Spectre brings the gorilla display to "life" & has the stuffed gorillas kill the curator.
For me the most boring story in the entire run.
but...but...but...gorilla on the cover! It doesn't need anything else!  -M |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 14:52:30 GMT -5
#439 - The Voice that Doomed the Spectre - Fleisher & Aparo. Part One of a two part story.
Thru the whole series Jim will not marry Gwen because he is a ghost. "Gwen I am a dead man. A ghost! I don't even breathe...". Jim asks God to release him from his mission. The next day God grants him his wish. Jim gets shot in the line of duty. After he recovers he proposes to Gwen. To be continued...
Only one death scene in this story when The Spectre brings to life a logo of a three headed snake to squeeze the life out of the bad guys.
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Post by fanboystranger on Sept 29, 2014 15:03:16 GMT -5
The scanned page from mrp for Adventure # 432 states Art Continuity by Russell Carley. I recall seeing such a credit from DC during the 70s in their mystery books as well. Is this a Michael Fleisher thing or did other writers employ it. I presume Fleisher came up with the plot, Carley broke down the action panel by panel for Aparo to draw and then Fleisher did the dialogue. So its the Marvel Method with a middleman This is essentially it, although I'm not certain if Fleisher dialogued the book before or after Aparo had completed the artwork. The introduction to The Wrath of The Spectre tpb DC released around a decade ago explained the process. Fleisher and Carley were close friends, and worked on the book together before handing it off to Aparo to illustrate. The "Art Continuity" credit was something they invented to explain the division of labor.
Also, the introduction points out that the genesis of the Adventure Spectre series was that Joe Orlando was mugged, and he channelled that anger into the books he was editing at the time. It was Orlando who was pushing Fleisher to get weirder and nastier with the Spectre's punishments.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,864
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Post by shaxper on Sept 29, 2014 15:04:06 GMT -5
#439 - The Voice that Doomed the Spectre - Fleisher & Aparo. Part One of a two part story.
Thru the whole series Jim will not marry Gwen because he is a ghost. "Gwen I am a dead man. A ghost! I don't even breathe...". Jim asks God to release him from his mission. The next day God grants him his wish. Jim gets shot in the line of duty. After he recovers he proposes to Gwen. To be continued...
Only one death scene in this story when The Spectre brings to life a logo of a three headed snake to squeeze the life out of the bad guys.
View Attachment
I kind of feel like this is where Fleischer really lost direction. The fun of the earlier stories had been unleashing the primal sadism that the franchise always contained but never properly exploited. By this point, Fleischer appears to be walking away from that and trying way too hard to impose characterization, drama, and continuity on a work that simply wasn't built for those kinds of things. I could care less about Jim's relationship with Gwen, nor whether that nosy reporter would figure out the truth. None of that really mattered in contrast to the excitement and guilty pleasure perverseness the feature was providing. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 15:04:33 GMT -5
#440 - The Conclusion. The Second Death of the Spectre - Fleisher & Aparo.
Before his wedding Corrigan (now alive) goes after criminal Ducky McLaren. He gets killed. Ducky dumps Jim's corpse at Gwen's door. After his funeral God makes him the Spectre again. Jim is not happy because he feels he should get to have his "eternal rest".
He then kills Ducky by enlarging his rubber duck toy which then eats Ducky. The escaping henchmen are flung into orbit in their car by the Spectre. They burn up in the atmosphere. He then reappears to Gwen as a ghost. The last panel shows Jim Corrigan's open grave. Dates on gravestone 1940-1975. With #441 Aquaman becomes the lead feature.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Sept 29, 2014 15:08:55 GMT -5
md62 won't forget about The Wrath Of The Spectre #4. Of course not
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,864
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Post by shaxper on Sept 29, 2014 15:09:48 GMT -5
md62 won't forget about The Wrath Of The Spectre #4. Of course not I was about to chime in with the same  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 15:11:25 GMT -5
#439 - The Voice that Doomed the Spectre - Fleisher & Aparo. Part One of a two part story.
Thru the whole series Jim will not marry Gwen because he is a ghost. "Gwen I am a dead man. A ghost! I don't even breathe...". Jim asks God to release him from his mission. The next day God grants him his wish. Jim gets shot in the line of duty. After he recovers he proposes to Gwen. To be continued...
Only one death scene in this story when The Spectre brings to life a logo of a three headed snake to squeeze the life out of the bad guys.
I kind of feel like this is where Fleischer really lost direction. The fun of the earlier stories had been unleashing the primal sadism that the franchise always contained but never properly exploited. By this point, Fleischer appears to be walking away from that and trying way too hard to impose characterization, drama, and continuity on a work that simply wasn't built for those kinds of things. I could care less about Jim's relationship with Gwen, nor whether that nosy reporter would figure out the truth. None of that really mattered in contrast to the excitement and guilty pleasure perverseness the feature was providing. I agree. Fleisher was probably told Aquaman would be taking over the book so he changed direction to write a conclusion to his run. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Sept 29, 2014 15:14:39 GMT -5
I kind of feel like this is where Fleischer really lost direction. The fun of the earlier stories had been unleashing the primal sadism that the franchise always contained but never properly exploited. By this point, Fleischer appears to be walking away from that and trying way too hard to impose characterization, drama, and continuity on a work that simply wasn't built for those kinds of things. I could care less about Jim's relationship with Gwen, nor whether that nosy reporter would figure out the truth. None of that really mattered in contrast to the excitement and guilty pleasure perverseness the feature was providing. I agree. Fleisher was probably told Aquaman would be taking over the book so he changed direction to write a conclusion to his run. Umm wouldn't the contents of The Wrath Of The Spectre #4 challenge this theory? |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 15:29:36 GMT -5
In 1988 a 4 issue Wrath of the Spectre was released. #1-3 reprinted the Adventure Comics stories. #4 had Jim Aparo pencil 3 scripts Fleisher had written that were never published. Mike DeCarlo did inks on the first 2 stories.
The first story was " The Arson Fiend & the Spectre". Earl Crawford appears in these stories. It feels like they should have been published before #439-440. It doesn't fit IMO. Earl is the focus. Gone were the gruesome killings. It felt like a generic fill in.
The second story was " The Maniac & the Spectre". It was continued from the first story & again focused on Earl. Gwen & Jim acted like a couple. One slightly gruesome scene where the Spectre changes a criminal into a cactus.
The third story was "The Voodoo Hag of Doom". Pablo Marcos (inks). Earl was again the main focus. The Spectre felt like a supporting character in his own story. The last villain he didn't even kill. Just had him become insane.
I would skip these stories.
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