Goodnight Gene Colan

Legendary comic book artist, Gene Colan, has passed away at the age of eighty-four according to Newsarama. He was best known for his work on Daredevil, The Tomb of Dracula and Howard The Duck for Marvel Comics as well as Batman and Detective Comics for DC Comics. You can read about Gene Colan's long career here.

Halloween Countdown 2009 Day 25: The Spectre Comics

DC Comics gave the Spectre his own regular series in 1967 that lasted for ten issues. I have no copies from that first sries. However, the Ghost of Vengeance was back in his own title twenty years later. José Luis García-López did the cover of The Spectre #5 (August 1987). Doug Moench wrote "The Mystery of My Murder" while Gene Colan and Steve Mitchell did the art. The inside front cover has a tribute to E. Nelson Bridwell (1931-1987). "Speculations" was the title of the letters page that was two pages in this issue. Interesting ads include MPC Ertl model cars, Tang and Dungeons & Dragons basic set.

Tom Mandrake did the cover to The Spectre #0 (October 1994) for DC Comics. He also penciled, inked and colored the featured story titled "The Temptation of the Spectre" that was written by John Ostrander. This is part of the third series featuring the Ghost of Vengeance. The issue does feature a letters page, Daily Planet ("Zero Hour For Earth" being the main headline) and "DC Universe" dedicated to Neal Pozner (1955-1994). Interesting ads include Fate, Star Trek annual #5, Metropolis S.C.U., Starman, R.E.B.E.L.S., Flash and Star Trek Master Series from SkyBox.

The second series lasted for thirty-one issues and folded in 1989 but he did not give up the ghost for he was back in 1992 with a third series.

Dave Johnson did the cover of The Spectre #34 (October 1995) for DC Comics. John Ostrander wrote "Blood Suckers" while John Ridgeway provided the artwork. Interesting ads include Underworld Unleashed, Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions movie poster, The Prophecy movie poster, Vampire the Eternal Struggle trading card game from Deckmaster, Batman: Knight Gallery (this is one my to want list due to the different costumes), Sovereign Seven, Shadow Dragon annual #1 (the "Legends" event which provided Year One stories in all the annuals), Batman: Brotherhood of the Bat (Elseworlds one-shot), Batman Man-Bat (three issue Elseworlds mini series) and Mega City's Most Wanted action figures from Judge Dredd.

The third series lasted until #62 (February 1998). The Ghost of Vengeance returned in a fourth series that lasted from 2001 to 2003. Unfortunately, I have none of those issues.

Halloween Countdown 2099 Day 16: Night Force

I only have four issues of Night Force from DC Comics in my collection, which just happens to be the first two issues and the last two issues. The covers of Night Force #1 (August 1982) and #2 (September 1982) were done by Gene Colan and Dick Giordano while Gene did #13 (August 1983) and #14 (September 1983). Marv Wolfman was the writer and editor of this horror comic series. The first issue was titled "The Summoning, Chapter One: Genesis" while the second issue was "The Summoning, Chapter Two: The Burning Hand". Night Force #13's story was titled "Mark of the Beast Part 3: Past Tense" while #14 was titled "The Final Conflict".

2008 Halloween Countdown 15: Elvira's House of Mystery #11

Elvira's House of Mystery #11 (January 1987) is the final issue of the series from DC Comics. The cover of her riding a broom is by Dave Stevens. The five page segment featuring the Mistress of the Dark is simply titled "Elvira's House of Mystery" pencilled by Gene Colan and inked by Dick Giordano (unfortunately, the writer is once again uncredited). The three horror stories in this issue are the following: "Bugs", "Deadly Affairs" and "Killer Turf". I have included all four pages of Elvira's Post-Mortems that features the winner of the "Find Cain" contest.

Elvira's House of Mystery #11 cover

Elvira's House of Mystery page 1

Elvira's House of Mystery page 2

Elvira's House of Mystery page 3

Elvira's House of Mystery page 4

Elvira's House of Mystery page 5

Elvira's Post-Mortems page 1

Elvira's Post-Mortems page 2

Elvira's Post-Mortems page 3

Elvira's Post-Mortems page 4
For larger images, check out Elvira's House of Mystery.

Aiding Gene Colan

Clifford Meth has posted about an auction to help Gene Colan at his blog, Everyone's Wrong and I'm Right. The legendary comic book artist has a failing liver. He worked for Timely Comics and Atlas Comics in the Golden Age before working for DC Comics and Marvel Comics in the Silver Age. Gene Colan also did work for Archie and Dark Horse.