Undercover Comics

STRANGE TALES #174 - There Walks the GOLEM!

One of the earlier comics I ever had was this Strange Tales #174 from the Spring of 1974.

(STRANGE TALES #174 - Cover Dated June 1974 - on Newsstands March 26, 1974 - cover art by Ernie Chan? John Buscema? Tony DeZuniga?)

What a great cover and what a controversy surrounding who drew it!
I've read Gil Kane, Tony DeZuniga, John Romita, and Ernie Chan for pencils and then Ernie Chan, Tony DeZuniga, and John Romita for inks. Personally, I think it's John Buscema breakdowns finished by either DeZuniga or Chan, but... anyone ever ask one of them?

(STRANGE TALES #174 - Cover Dated June 1974 - on Newsstands March 26, 1974 - art by John Buscema)

Written by Len Wein (Who'd soon be one of Marvel's early 70's revolving Editor-In-Chiefs) and drawn by John Buscema, 'There Walks the Golem' is the story of a archeiologist who is trying to discover the remains of an ancient legend, when he and his family are approached by shady looking desert soldiers needing a place to stay. It doesn't turn out well, and you kind of know where it's headed, but still... it's good little opening to the first part of three Golem stories Marvel would publish inbetween the Brother Voodoo short run and Jim Starlin's Adam Warlock run.

Note: There was a reprint issue inbetween this and the other two Golem stories, which reprinted both stories from Amazing Adventures #1 (1961). I can't remember ever seeing that issue for some reason.

(STRANGE TALES #174 - Cover Dated June 1974 - on Newsstands March 26, 1974 - art by John Buscema)

Big John Buscema is, of course in fine form here, even with somewhat bland inks by Jim Mooney. I miss this brand of storytelling. It's fun to read these old comics, because the artists MADE them easy and fun to read. And Big John was one of the best.

(STRANGE TALES #174 - Cover Dated June 1974 - on Newsstands March 26, 1974 - art by John Buscema)

One of the sequences I always loved in this was at the end of the Professor's story of the Golem's past, as the sand slowly swallows him up. The words, the art... it left an impression on me that I still look back on and smile about!

(STRANGE TALES #174 - Cover Dated June 1974 - on Newsstands March 26, 1974)

In the middle of the story (and I never understood why they did it this way), is the editorial stuff and here is Marvel's spin on their price increase. Now 25 cents! Oh, if they only knew...

(STRANGE TALES #174 - Cover Dated June 1974 - on Newsstands March 26, 1974)

Just as interesting is this blurb that follows it... Golem is the first Jewish Superhero! He is? When did it become known that Wesley Dodds was Jewish? He was the Golden Age Sandman - I think that predates the Golem by quite a few years...

(STRANGE TALES #174 - Cover Dated June 1974 - on Newsstands March 26, 1974 - art by John Buscema)

The big reveal in the issue of course is the Golem returning and doleing out his vengeance. There's a twist to it though, which I won't reveal here (45 year spoiler free), but I will show the sequence above as I really dug it as a 11 year old reading this story....

And for your enjoyment, here is the 3 page back-up story, in it's entirety, reprinted from Strage Tales #110 (December 1952), heavily influenced by the style and story of EC Comics of the same period. It's great Russ Heath art that perfectly captures the tone of the Stan Lee's story.

I would have to say, Marvel/Atlas' first 'Horror' comic would've been (though Venus was already starting to get weird, in a cool way, just a month or two earlier) Suspense #3 (May 1950 on newsstands February 2nd, 1950), which really seemed to capture the EC style. EC had begun the changeover to Horror in January cover dated books and seen an instant surge in sales.

Marvel/Atlas, as they did with anything that someone else had success with, quickly began to copy it.

One of these days I'll do an entry on all the ways Stan Lee copied EC Comics over the years. They were successful, until the other publishers put them out of business, so it makes sense that SOMEONE copied what they did right.