Genius Covers: Always in the horror comics section

Judging comics by their covers. 

You can find other entries in the Genius Covers series HERE

When I make it to a comic shop I haven't been to before, my first stop is typically the horror comics section. There are so many great unknown/short-lived horror series that have such great covers that I'll pick up some of them before going with issues of th more well-known series. 

Monsters on the Prowl started off as Chamber of Darkness before switching names after issue No. 8. The series also switched from new content to reprinting older stories from the Atlas Comics days before they became Marvel Comics in 1961. Issue No. 27 (from Nov. 1973) features a story written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Jack Kirby that is originally from 1963. The monster that is prowling is Sserpo who is a brick-like monster sort of like the Fantastic Four's The Thing if he was the size of a skyscraper. 


First Monsters on the Prowl and now Creatures on the Loose. 

Seeing a pattern here? 

Creatures on the Loose was originally called Tower of Shadows before going through a similar transition as Monsters on the Prowl. My issue, No. 34 from March 1975, comes from the final story line in the series which focuses on J. Jonah Jameson's son John Jameson who is....you guessed it -- Man-Wolf. These issues were illustrated by the great George Perez. 


The last issue isn't strictly horror but I will always pick up a reasonably priced Doom Patrol. This is No. 113 from June of 1967 and the original run of the comic only lasted eight more issue to issue No. 121. DC Comics then did something that no other comic had done before in ending a series...I won't spoil exactly what they did here, especially if the great Doom Patrol TV series has inspired you to investigate where it all started. 

This great silver age issue has the team going Robotman vs. another robot man in the form of Arsenal who has a sword for one hand and an AK-47 for the other.  


Comments

Fuji said…
I love looking at comic book covers. I wonder if Sserpo and The Thing ever crossed paths. And how does Arsenal reload the AK-47?
Jon said…
I always look for the horror books first anytime I'm somewhere that has comics. Although for me, I'm more interested in reading them, but do have a healthy appreciation for the covers as well.