Non-Distributed Wonders: Marvel’s Supernatural Thrillers

©Marvel. Cover by Steranko.

Over the past few months I’ve been taking notice of the failed experiments that Marvel and DC conducted in the early seventies; books that exploded onto the newsstand, flared and then failed.  The current DC Black Label comic Danger Street, written by Tom King, is an interesting example of picking up discarded DC Bronze Age First Issue Special characters and weaving them into something fresh and new. And I’ve developed something of a fascination for tracking down short-lived Bronze Age books that passed me by back in the swinging seventies.

A couple of months back I wrote a blog entry detailing the development and demise of Marvel title Worlds Unknown a series of eight colour comic books which preceded the Marvel Black & White magazine Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, set up by Roy Thomas to adapt classic Science Fiction novels in comic format.

These colour books escaped our attention in the UK as they were “Non-distributed” - not selected for distribution to UK newsagents by World Distributors. “ND” books quickly acquired a cachet all their own; their unattainable nature by normal means gave them a halo of exceptionalism, whatever the actual quality might be. Brief snippets of information as mentioned in Comic Media News or “Fox on the Run” or “The Worlds of Emlock” within the pages of Comics Unlimited only served to whet the appetite to an even greater degree.

Of course, ND comics cost 25p from comic dealers, whereas new comics on the stands were still only 9p each. But somehow I just accepted the extortionate pricing on the basis of the axiom that “the quality remained long after the price was forgotten”.

Worlds Unknown was not the only anthology book exploiting classic literature to endure the fate of “Non-distribution”. Equally interesting was the four-colour comic Supernatural Thrillers which we’ll take a closer look at today.

Like Worlds Unknown, comic Supernatural Thrillers similarly was to morph into a Curtis-distributed  Marvel Black & White magazine - in this case Masters of Terror, a magazine that was to run for two issues in the Summer of 1975, and be briefly revived as as issue of Marvel Preview in the Autumn of 1978.

I turned sixteen in the summer of 1975, was getting into Horror and SF novels, and would have been the ideal target audience for this book, had it been distributed in the UK. So now  forty-plus years later I’ve spent the last few months tracking down actual copies of these books for my own collection (no resorting to digital copies here!).

The concept behind Supernatural Thrillers was to render classic Science Fiction and/or Horror stories into comics format, with the intent of appealing to a wider audience. Unlike Unknown Worlds, the initiative was from Stan the Man himself, who then handed it over to Roy Thomas to run with. Roy later recounted in Alter Ego #70 :

JA: You did that Worlds Unknown color comic— 

THOMAS: Yeah, that was a favorite. But it didn’t sell.

JA: —and I forget the name of the other one, that had that great Steranko cover with The Invisible Man.

THOMAS: That was Supernatural Thrillers. Stan had the idea for that one, then turned it over to me, and I decided we should adapt some fantasy/horror classics, like Theodore Sturgeon’s “It” and “Killdozer.” H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man was Stan’s idea. I remember some of those worked out quite well, like Howard’s “Valley of the Worm.”

Despite the revisions in the Comics Code in 1971 which lifted the restrictions on Horror comics, the words “Horror” and “Terror” could not be used on a 4-color comic cover. 

General Standards – Part B

• No comics magazine shall use the word horror or terror in its title. The words may be used judiciously in the body of the magazine. [Footnote: The word horror or terror in a story title in the body of the magazine has been ruled to be an injudicious use, and therefore is not permitted.]

As shown at the top of this blog entry, the first issue cover dated Dec 1972 arrived with all stops pulled out. It sported a colourful cover by Steranko showing a muck-encrusted Swamp Monster being shot by what appears to be a big game hunter, with a tabloid style banner and sales pitch in overdrive.

The cover promised an exciting pursuit story, but in fact featured a very thoughtful and melancholy adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon’s novella “IT!”, as written by Roy Thomas himself and drawn sensitively by Marie Severin, inked by Frank Giacoia..  

© Marvel. Cover by Steranko

Before the sales figures were in, issue #2 hit the stands, which featured an adaptation of H. G. Wells’ “The Invisible Man” by Ron Goulart, with Val Mayerik and Dan Adkins on artistic duties. The cover was again drawn by Steranko. Reading this book now for the first time, my familiarity with Wells’ story took away any real impact of what is a well-drawn and coherent adaptation, giving some allowance for the “Gor Blimey, Guv” British stereotypes present in the book.

©Marvel. Cover by Gil Kane.

Issue #3 was the first signal of a change in direction, from adapting “classic” novels to adapting pulps - an adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s “The Valley of the Worm” scripted by Roy Thomas, and drawn by Gil Kane and Ernie Chan. Thomas commented in Alter Ego #70:

THOMAS:  I always thought in terms of bringing pulp-like writing into comics—even Doc Savage, which I was never wild about as writing—and there were a lot of clumsy things about Burroughs, even Howard. It was all pulp-type writing, but I felt that bringing in those characters and those concepts would elevate comics a little. It wasn’t that I didn’t like what Stan Lee, Gardner Fox, and other people had done, myself included... or that everything Howard did was better than most of what, say, Stan Lee did. It’s just that I felt that having a non- comics approach would broaden the appeal of comics and enrich it in some vague way. This is the same motivation that later made me want to bring in science-fiction and to do horror adaptations and not just new stories.

The adaptation was a detailed and thorough Sword & Sorcery adaptation of the REH story. Great artwork and an engrossing story.

"The Valley of the Worm" was to be very warmly received by readers, getting more positive mail than the first two issues combined.

The story was later reprinted in issue #1 of B&W Kull and the Barbarians in the May 1975 issue, a new comic that Roy kicked off, which ran for 3 issues. Issue #1 was a book of reprint material of various Robert E Howard stories previously printed in various colour comics [Read Roy’s comments from zip comic ]

The letter col in issue #3 was full of praise for issue #1, with a letter from future comics pro David Michelinie himself.   The editorial commentary from Roy intimated that Marvel had put itself in a bit of a strait-jacket with mandating a supernatural element in each story, as the line between SF and Supernatural was thin. Marvel would shortly be premiering a sister mag called Worlds Unknown for purely SF, so it started to signal that Supernatural Thrillers was still finding it’s feet since the first three issues had adapted first a modern SF novella, then a classic horror story, and then a Sword & Sorcery pulp.

All three issues were strong individually, but there was no consistency of identity across the books, which is especially important in an anthology title. Supernatural Thrillers did not even have an identifiable logo, so each issue appeared to be a one-off.

©Marvel. Cover by John Romita Sr.

Supernatural Thrillers #4 returned to classic out-of-copyright source material with an adaptation of R.L. Stevenson’s “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. The rendering of Mr Hyde on the cover could have been easily re-coloured to be The Hulk, which of course, may have been John Romita's nod to the original source idea for the Hulk.

© Marvel

But with issue #5, the format departed from existing classic material, becoming an adventure comic - featuring a brand-new story of The Living Mummy, written by Steve Gerber, drawn by Rich Buckler and Frank Chiarmonte.  There seems to be deliberate echoes emulating Neal Adams in places - see page 11, and page 12 for example  - and the villain is drawn in an eerily similar mannger to those Adams drew in the Batman/House of Mystery team-up from Brave and Bold #93 “Red Water, Crimson Death”.

Issue #11. Rich Buckler channeling Neal Adams?

The villain in The Living Mummy. © Marvel

©DC. The villain from B&B #93, by Neal Adams

The editorial comment in the lettercol in issue #5 makes no mention of the abrupt change of pace with the introduction of the new  The Living Mummy. But it does include a plug for the new Marvel B&Ws - Dracula Lives!, Tales of the Zombie!, Vampire Tales!, Monsters Unleashed! and the new prose Horror book The Haunt of Horror (no exclamation make after this title).. 

Issue #6 then returns to an established literary property The Legend of Sleepy Hollow as the basis for a brand-new feature “The Headless Horseman Rides Again”, written by Gary Friedrich and drawn by George Tuska.   There was no lettercol in this issue, and I found the artwork uninspired, but I was never a particular George Tuska fan.

With issue #7 - with a very nice art job by Val Mayerik - the decision had been made to stick with The Living Mummy, and jettison the idea of a supernatural anthology four-colour comic.    Stan Lee had come to the conclusion that the B&W magazine format offered more scope outside the confines of the Comics Code Authority, as well as enabled to cater to a more adult audience.

With issue #10  Roy Thomas handed the editorial reins to Len Wein. The comic continued as “The Living Mummy” until its demise with the Oct 1975 issue. However, three months earlier, in July 1975, in parallel with the new Kull and the Barbarians B&W magazine mentioned above,  Marvel decided to issue a new B&W Masters of Terror B&W magazine harvesting early material from Supernatural Thrillers.

As the Marvel Black & White magazine reprints were not under the aegis of the CCA, the word “Terror” could be used in the title without fear of repercussions. 

© Marvel

© Marvel

The covers for issues #1 and #2 adapted the original Supernatural Thrillers covers, but were painted versions of the original Steranko artwork, this time by Gray Morrow and Dad Adkins respectively. These are very nice issues, and I think presenting the material in the B&W format brought a more adult sensibility to the content.

The final “Masters of Terror” was a one-off issue of Marvel Preview. The new book shared nothing with its predecessor other than the title, and was an attempt to bring a hybrid Private Detective/Horror title to the market, as explained by editor Rick Marschall. 

I really like this magazine, not least for the superb Gene Colan artwork across three separate stories, plus it has a very interesting article by Ron Goulart on "The Rise of the Private Eye" in popular fiction. I would have sought out more if it had been a success, but obviously it did not elicit sufficient reader interest.

© Marvel. Gene Colan's artwork in Marvel Preview #16

In conclusion, Supernatural Thrillers was an experiment that failed. largely due to having insufficient clarity on what it wanted to be. By all accounts, Roy Thomas was far more interested in a hard-SF book, as shown in Unknown Worlds. But these books are not without merit, and worth picking up to experience Marvel trying to push the boundaries of the comic book in the early 1970s.

The Living Mummy is one of the lesser/known Marvel characters, appearing only once more in a team-up with The Thing in Marvel Two-In-One #95 in 1983.

Perhaps the character will re-appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point. It would be an ideal candidate for a Marvel TV one-off, similar to last Halloween’s "Werewolf by Night" film.

Did any of our regular readers collect Supernatural Thrillers? Thoughts?