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Comic Cover News No. 3

Comic Cover News No. 2

Comic Cover News No. 1

Marvel Masterworks Iron-Man Volume 5

The stories in this volume date from 1968-69 and are therfore towards the end of what we now call the Silver Age of Marvel Comics. With the expansion of the Marvel line, Stan Lee relinquished his scripting chores in favour of Archie Goodwin who had previously cut his teeth at Warren Publications. Artwork for issues 2-4 is provided by Johnny Craig best known for his work on EC Comics such as Crime SuspenseStories including a number of famous covers. Craig does a does a competant job here, although his best days were clearly behind him at this point. Issues 5-13 are illustrated by George Tuska, a more than competant artist who went on to make the Iron Man feature his own. We are also treated to a Not Brand Echh reprint by IM veteran Don Heck as an extra bonus feature. These stories are not what I would call the top-tier of the Marvel Silver Age and there is little integration with the rest of the then Marvel universe. We do get a guest appearance from the incredible Hulk in issue 9 but other stars are few and far between. Still, these tales are entertaining enough and we get to see some classic villains including The Controller, The Mandarin, The Unicorn and The Gladiator who is on-loan from the pages of Daredevil.

Real Boats Rock

"Show me a completely smooth operation and I'll show you someone who's covering mistakes. Real boats rock." Quoted from page 124 of Chapter House Dune by Frank Herbert.

A Touch of Death by Charles Williams

The 17th volume in the Hard Case Crime series was originally published in 1953. Lee Scarborough sees a chance to earn some big money but there is one obstacle, the venomous Madeline Butler. Despite starting off in classic private eye thriller mode, this book is more in the James M Cain model filled with nasty characters inhabiting a world where everybody is out for themselves and nobody can be trusted.

A Touch of Death is a real page-turner that keeps going relentlessly until the inevitable conclusion. Charles Williams is probably best known as the author of Dead Calm and this is his only novel to date to be selected for the HCC series. The painted cover is provided by Hard Case regular Chuck Pyle.

Killing Castro by Lawrence Block

The 51st volume in the Hard Case Crime series is proof that the line is still going strong with a lost classic that has been out of print for nearly fifty years. Hard Case favourite Lawrence Block provides a 1961-written tale about a group of men who travel to Cuba in order to assassinate Fidel Castro. Whilst the odd numbered chapters progress the main story, the even numbers set the scene by giving us background on Fidel, Cuba and the revolution. The book also sports a smart cover by artist Sharif Tarabay. I found this to be a relatively short read but definitely one of the better books in the impressive Hard Case library.

Brother Voodoo