#5 Movie Comics  Fiction House, 1946 Series

Movie Comics (by Fiction House, not the earlier series of the same name by DC) featured adaptations of current movies along with text pieces and original material such as "Mitzi of the Movies" (by Matt Baker!). The series ran for 4 issues. Bob Lubbers drew the covers and the stories that were adapted from current movies. 

The series ran for four issues. Mickey Rooney was one of the biggest stars of the era and issue #3 featured an adaptation of the movie "Love Laughs At Andy Hardy", in what turned out to be the final installment of the crazy popular Andy Hardy series. The movie went into general release in January 1947 (U.S) and this issue hit the stands in April 1947. 

Sorry, forgot to add it lasted 4 issues 

Btw for those who may be interested, that's not Bonita Granville on the cover, despite what some online sites state. It's 6'2" Dorothy Ford. 

And in case I didn't make it super-clear, the series lasted 4 count 'em four issues. 

5. Tomb of Dracula #1-70, Marvel Comics, 1971- 1979
based on the novel by Bram Stoker (mostly) by Marv Wolfman (writer), Gene Colan (penciler), and Tom Palmer(inker)

While I started collecting comics from an interest in monster stories, it took a while before I picked up on this series. Vampires never really interested me, but I am unable to explain why I didn't try more issues in the very early 70's. Eventually I bought an issue, enjoyed it immensely, and never missed another.
Unsurprisingly, this series has been selected by a number of participants in this year's CCC celebration. I don't have a lot of new insights to offer up, so I'll just mention a few of the things I loved about TOD:
1. The supporting cast. It's one of the richest and best of any mainstream comic of the 70's: Rachel, Frank, Quincy, Blade, Taj, Harold, Hannibal, Domini, Janus... By contrast, the companion comics (Dracula Lives, Giant-Size Dracula) didn't have them, and were far lesser for it.
2. Novel stories. The vampire formula can be repetitive and boring, but Wolfman found so many new angles to keep the reader's interest: Dracula's son, the rebellion of the vampires against Dracula, Dracula forced into defending innocent children, the half-vampire vampire hunter Blade, vampire detective Hannibal King, a surprising confrontation with, of all characters, the Silver Surfer--and it worked!, the more obvious crossovers with the Frankenstein Monster and Werewolf by Night (where Gene Colan's art made me realize that I was a leg man!).
3. Dracula's character. Marv didn't let the supporting characters carry the book. Dracula was as rich and engaging as anyone in the comic, retaining the reader's sympathy without diluting his monstrous nature.
4. Consistency. Once the series found its footing, which happened very early on, there were no rough patches, no radical changes in the direction of the comic or the creative team.
5. Concluding. The series came to a satisfying end. If Marvel's Dracula had never again appeared, I wouldn't have been disappointed.

That's some Bob Haney crazy all right

Day Eight: Master of Kung Fu 45-50 (October 1976-March 1977)

I’m afraid I can’t add much to what others have said already.

This was one of the few continuing stories in comics ever whose next installment I found myself dying to read. Yes, Doug Moench could be a tad verbose and his narration and some dialogue often ran toward navel-gazing, but the novelistic scope of the story, the many “Easter eggs” (before there was such a term) subtly and not-so-subtly hidden throughout, and of course, the greatness of Paul Gulacy’s cinematic art more than compensated.



For those of us of a certain age, Gulacy’s Steranko-esque style was a welcome reminder of how good Steranko’s brief time in comics had been, and to be honest, Gulacy took Steranko’s style a step further. (Though Gulacy never showed here the mastery of anatomy, of say, Gil Kane.)

Each chapter/issue was narrated by a different character, which was nothing new if you’d seen Rashomon (I hadn’t), but was still quite a coup for comics and a nice challenge that Moench set for himself.

The stakes were impossibly high, with Fu trying to blow up the moon. A scheme worthy of his malevolent genius, for sure.



My only real beef is that for whatever reason, the covers were all penciled and inked by different artists. None really captured the atmosphere of the saga; in fact, all of them were basically standard Marvel-generic covers that gave absolutely no indication of the painstakingly rendered Gulacy art inside. (The exact opposite of the many Carmine Infantino gems for Detective and Batman that hid yet another bland Moldoff-Giella dud.)

Maybe Marvel thought the interiors were too esoteric or “out there” for the casual reader?

In any event, an epic like this should have had some unified look to the covers. Hell, you’d never even know the books were chapters in a longer arc. And I get that Gulacy wouldn’t have had time to do covers, but, come on, figure out something! This couldn't have been Archie Goodwin's fault.

FINE since we still haven't had the totals. (Is Cei-u okay?)

5. Dell/Gold Key Peanuts 1956-1969.



The original comic BOOK adaption of one of (screw it, THE) greatest American comic strip of all time. The comic book does a good job of both capturing the tone of the daily strip and ignoring the tone of the daily strip, which makes these comics completely fascinating. The look of the strip is just a liiiitttle bit off bu the characterization of the Peanuts gang is spot on... except in the daily strip, Charlie Brown never built a robot!

It's the juxtaposition of traditional comic narratives and the relatively introverted, quiet, action-less Peanuts characters that make these books a... unique experience for us Peanuts fans. Plus Charles M. Schulz covers on most of 'em! What more could you ask for?