Yesterday's Papers - House of Hammer

House of Hammer volume 2, issue 6
March 1978

By the time this issue hit the shelves, Hammer Films were losing market share in favour of the new breed of horror movies – the horror business was changing and the Hammer films were feeling tired and couldn’t compete with the new wave of horror that was packing fans in at the cinemas. We’d already seen The Omen and The Exorcist and later this year a little movie called Halloween would change the horror genre when it ushered in the slasher years.

For now though it was business as usual for this Dez Skinn edited magazine. The cover is drawn by artist, Bill Phillips who was filling in for regular artist, Brian Lewis. Following Dez Skinn’s editorial in which the editor talks about, among other things, the interview with Peter Cushing which takes pride of place in this issue we are in to an all original Frankenstein comic strip written by Neil Adams and drawn by Dick Giordano. It’s a complete story this issue and features both Dracula and the Wolf-Man alongside old Frankie.

Following the strip we are into the regular Media Macabre section which tells us of upcoming genre delights -  We are told that Peter Cushing is to play a Nazi in an American movie called Hitler’s Son. This is apparently a comedy but we can find no trace of the film so my guess it that it came to nothing. Star Trek’s Carrie Fisher is quoted as saying, “I want to be the next Peter Lorre and I’m hoping the second Star Wars movie is called Abbot and Costello meet Star Wars.”  May the farce be with you indeed.

We are also told that horror legend, John Carradine is working on his 400th film and we are also told that Sean Connery has signed for Meteor, a SF movie, and we also learn that Donald Sutherland is to star in a new version of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers which is to be directed by Phillp Kaufman. We also learn that Lee Grant has finished work on the Swarm and will immediately go onto Damien Omen II.
We then learn that Sylvester Stallone is writing and due to star in a movie about writer, Edgar Allan Poe with the Italian Stallion playing the part of Poe. Thankfully this didn’t happen but Stallone wrote the entire script and still talks about the film from time to time. Way back in 2005 he said he was going to direct the movie and that Robert Downey Jnr would play Poe.
Film review come next with Rattlers given a thumbs up as is exploitation pic, The Axe.
The Peter Cushing interview comes next:

“I don’t mind being a horror film star. To complain would be like socking the gift horse in the mouth” Peter Cushing.

The interview covers over five pages and makes for an interesting read. Cushing tells all about his early life as well as his days as a superstar in the Hammer movies and about appearing in the recent hit, Star Wars.
House of Hammer always had a lively letters page and reading the page in this issue is a hoot – N. Clarke of London claims that HOH is the best horror magazine on the market, and David Last of Canada agreed and requests a feature on David Prowse who played the monster in Horror of Frankenstein and also filled the Darth Vader suit for Star Wars. The centre pages are made up of a feature on horror movie, Communion which sounds interesting here, but we as we now know turned out to be a bit of a bore.
Then we have the first part of a feature on the history of Hammer Films written by Bob Sheridan. This issue covers the years 1935 – 1956, starting with the formation on the company and ending on the production The Curse of Frankenstein. The final pages of the mag are taken up by another comic strip – Van Helsing’s Terror Tales, which was an anthology series of complete horror tales.

That’s fifty plus pages and all for the price of 35p, which would have made the magazine out of range for me at the time.  I was thirteen years old at the time and I seem to remember my newspaper round payed me 50p a week and by the time I picked up my regular comics and my Curlie-Wurly and bottle of Panda Pop, I didn’t have 35p left.

Yesterday's Papers - The House of Hammer

I grew up watching the Hammer horror movies on late night television and thought they were the coolest thing ever, of course I later discovered Universal's run of horror movies which were even cooler - at least Universal's Frankenstein movies were but Hammer topped them on the Dracula front. I also think Hammer's Mummy was better than Universals but then the American studio had the coolest Wolfman movie, so all things considered maybe it's a draw

I digress - recently I saw a lot of three old issues of The House of Hammer on eBay and just had to get them. Well, they were going cheap and I'd never read the magazine before. Hey it had a cover price of 35p - hey this was 1977 and 35p was a fortune to a twelve year old.

1977 - ah, the year of punk and maybe I'll write about that one day, but for now back to the monster mags.

The magazine featured a comic strip adaptation of one or other of the Hammer movies - each story seems to be complete and I have comic strip version of Twins of Evil, The Mummy's Shroud and The Gorgon. There's also a bonus tale in two of the issues from the anthology series, Van Helsing's Terror Tale. Think of something like The Twilight Zone introduced by a wonderfully drawn Peter Cushing as Van Helsing.

Between the strips there are many horror of Hammer related features. The news section is great to read all these years later - In one issue we learn that Warner Brothers are making yet another cut of Exorcist 2, removing the scenes where Richard Burton's priest admits to sexual feelings for Linda Blair. It also tells us that Omen II is currently in production. We are also told to forget the stale news that Superman 1 and 2 will be released in 1978 and 1979, but informs us that III and IV will be with us during the first two years of the eighties. Shock news is broken with the report that director, John Hancock as been sacked from the forthcoming, Jaws 2 and that Jeannot Szwarc now takes over.

Another issue informs us that Burnt Offerings has been selected as the best horror movie of 1976 and that ITV will start to show the first season of Wonderwoman starring newcomer, Linda Carter. We also learn that James Herbert's The Fog has been optioned for a film - wonder, what happened to that?

As always the letter pages in these old magazines are a blast to read - Post Morten was where horror fans sent their letters.


One bloodthirsty correspondent, James Belverton informs the magazine that he recently visited Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors and think the show should be featured in the magazine. Another reader, Kevin Hazen says, "this is a great magazine better than any of the American rubbish."

There is a letter from Bill George (Editor of The Late Show) of Maryland USA. and he talks about what he thinks the reasons are that Hammer seems to have stolen the lead in horror movies from the American studios.

These are great little magazines - reading them these days, so long after they were written is particularly interesting as they represent a snap shot of the state of popular culture at the time. And of course these Hammer films have stood the test of time and still boast a large cult following.

And so I leave you to savour a rather beautiful poster from Hammer, The Gorgon and also the last page of the comic strip version of the same movie.

Yesterday's Paper's - Vampirella

"Hi there! Welcome to the coolest girl meet ghoul mag on the market..."

And with those words so started Vampirella, a title created by J Forest Ackerman. The vampire myth always had a sexual subtext but Vampirella brought this to the fore.Vampirella first appeared as a horror-story hostess in Vampirella #1 (Sept. 1969), continuing in that capacity through issue #8 (Nov. 1970) when she was "revamped" as a leading character.

Of the character's origins the WIKI tells us that, Vampirella was originally presented as an inhabitant of the planet Draculon, a world where people lived on blood and where blood flowed in rivers. Draculon orbits two twin suns that were causing droughts across the planet, marking certain doom for Vampirella and her race. The race of which Vampirella was born, the Vampiri, were able to transform themselves into bats at will, sprout wings when required, and drink blood.
The story begins with the inhabitants of Draculon dying slowly due to the drying up of its blood. The last few lie dying when a spaceship from Earth crashes on the planet. Vampirella, sent to investigate, is attacked; retaliating, she discovers that the astronauts have blood in their veins. In order for her race to survive, she manages to pilot the ship back to Earth where her adventures begin. Vampirella becomes a "good" vampire, and devotes her energy to ridding our world of the homegrown "evil" kind.

Harris Comics revived Vampirella in the miniseries Morning In America, written by Kurt Busiek. Soon thereafter, Vampirella was established as being brainwashed by her sister and brother (in the story "Mystery Walk") and led to believe she was from the planet Drakulon. She learned that she was, in fact, the daughter of Lilith, whom popular medieval Jewish lore depicts as the first wife of Adam. Lilith would not submit before Adam and was cast out of Eden. She mated with demons in hell, giving birth to vampires who would kill the offspring of Adam and Eve on Earth. Later, she sought redemption from God and gave birth to Vampirella, whom she sent to Earth to kill all evil vampires. According to this account, Drakulon was a part of Hell where Lilith lived and ruled.

When I was a kid the Vampirella magazines were always placed on the top shelves with the dodgy magazines with titles like Rustler, Mayfair and Razzle, and because of this I never got to buy a copy, but the artwork on some of the covers were stunning and I used to wish I could get my grubby hands on a copy. The magazine seemed like forbidden fruit and my mates in our comic book gang used to speculate on what lay between the covers. Every now and then someone would claim that they had actually read a copy and the tales they would tell were...well, lurid.

 Of course now, as an adult, not only have I seen a copy but I own maybe a dozen of the Warren issues. And you know what,...they contained some fine comic book writing.

Yep, that Vampirella remains one hot bird.

Yesterday's Papers - Wizard

Wizard comic from D C Thomson was a bit before my time - it was originally launched in 1922 and ran until 1963 when it merged with The Rover. The Wizard name was dropped from the title in 1969 but Wizard was relaunched in 1970 and this time ran until 1978. When it did eventually fold 1,970 issues had been published.

The scan left is from a 1970's edition of Wizard - the cover date is 6th March 1970.

I can never remember seeing Wizard on the shelves of my local newsagents by the time I started buying comics regularly in the mid 1970's and the first time I think I ever saw an issue was when I came across a few old issues in a boot sale.


Wizard was an anthology title of the kind typical of boy's comics of the period. The comic featured a mixture of sporting,adventure and humorous strips. And it also featured profiles of top sports men of the day.

There's a great website contaning many stories from classic Wizard issues HERE

Yesterday;s Papers - More Vintage ADS

Exciting!

Money for Money

Mmmm sweeties!

Does this newspaper still exist?

Are digital cameras this much fun

Cue sound effects as Supes soars overhead

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday's Papers - More vintage AD's

Bald dogs for sale by mail!!!

Just the thing for plugging cans

Early theme park A

Make bath time explosive

Yesterday's Papers - Vintage AD

The AD here comes from 1937 - I wonder if this uses Windows or Linux?

Yesterday's Papers - Action Comics Issue 1

I picked up a facsimile of Action Comics issue 1 which was originally published in 1938 at a Boot Sale in Cardiff this morning. It is noted for the debut of Superman. I love things like this and I was surprised to discover that the original Superman was a far different character than the one we know today - for a start his powers were much less than those he is now famous for.

The main difference is that he couldn't originally fly but was able to leap over large distances. The first story seems very quaint today given the more realistic style (if a man who can fly can be considered realistic) of modern comics. The comic gives an explantion of his powers (see image) and likens him to a Grasshopper - I wonder if he would have had the same success had he been called Grasshopper-man? Hey it worked for Spider-man!

It opens with Superman breaking into a governors house with proof that a woman due to be executed is innocent. From there the man of steel goes onto battle corruption while his alter ego Clark Kent is sent to get a story on this sensational Superman.

Superman may still be around today but what I found more interesting are the characters featured in the comic that are now forgotten. When the comic was published the western was still the most popular genre around and there are two cowboy based comic strips in this issue.

First up we have Chuck Dawson which is the story of Chuck Dawson, the fastest gun in the West who seems to be on an eternal quest to discover the crooked ranchers responsible for his father's murder.

It's all thrills and spills and made me nostalgic for the days when western comic strips were common in boy's adventure comics. Unlike Superman though Chuck Dawson is largely forgotten. Indeed until picking up this collectors edition I had never heard of the character.


Next up was Zatara the Master Magician - a story about a crime fighting magician. He does tricks and then battles gangsters while dressed in his stage get up which includes a top hat and cape.

A text story follows and then comes a comedy strip about a character called Sticky-mitt Simpson.

Action Comics is an American comic book series which introduced Superman, the first major superhero character as the term is popularly defined. The publisher was originally known as Detective Comics, Inc., and later as National Comics and as National Periodical Publications, before taking on its current name of DC Comics, a subsidiary of Time Warner.

Following on from the mis-adventures of Sticky-Mitt readers were treated to an educational strip that told the story of Marco Polo. And this in turn was followed by Pep Morgan, a sports strip centring on a boxer and his crooked manager. After that it was the adventures of Scoop Scanlon, master reporter and amateur crime buster. And the comic's final story was another western based adventure about a character called Tex Thompson.

 It's interesting to look at these old comics, knowing that from this an important icon of popular culture was born, and of course Action Comic is still running today though I believe that it is now primarily a Superman title.

Action Comics is the second-longest running DC Comics series after Detective Comics; however, it cannot claim to have had an uninterrupted run, due in large part to two separate occasions on which the title was put on a three-month hiatus. The first of these occurred during the summer of 1986, with issue #583 bearing a cover date of September, and issue #584 listing January, 1987. The regular Superman titles were suspended during this period to allow for the "post-Crisis" revising of the Superman story through the publication of John Byrne's six-issue The Man of Steel limited series.Publication was again suspended between issues #686 and #687 (February and June 1993) following the "Death of Superman" and "Funeral for a Friend" storylines, before Action Comics returned in June with the "Reign of the Supermen" arc. (The two "Funeral for a Friend" issues, #685 and #686 featured the cover announcement of "Supergirl in Action Comics" highlighting the passing of Superman.)

 I'm unsure what an original copy of this comic would be worth today but it is a fair bet that it would be a crazy amount of money. Indeed there can't be many copies of this issue still in existence. A Google search came up with the following information - The Original Edition of this historic masterpiece was once sold at an auction for the large sum of $317,200 and spread news across the world. There were only 100 copies sold.

Yesterday's Papers - Marvel Comics

Archive reader, John Taftwell sent me a scan of what was effectively the first ever Marvel comic book - it was actually published by Timely Comics which was founded by Martin Goodman in 1939, though the company would later become the Marvel Comics known today.

The comic's first story is The Human Torch though this is a different character to the Human Torch we know today - the character was not Johnny Storm but actually named Jim Hammond. Created by writer-artist Carl Burgos.The "Human" Torch was actually an android made by scientist Phineas Horton. He possessed the ability to surround himself with fire and control flames. In his earliest appearances, he was portrayed as a science fiction monstrosity, but quickly became a hero.

 See the image left and the character even resembles the Human Torch from The Fantastic Four - this first strip is just a retelling of the Frankenstein story. Firstly The Human Torch is treated with suspicion and the authorities try to destroy him, but the Torch manages to fight off all attempts on his life and he flies off, vowing that no one will ever use him for selfish gain or crime.

It was great fun reading this story and realising that from this basic style of storytelling the mighty Marvel empire developed. The second story featured another character familiar to modern comic book readers Namor The Sub Mariner.


The mutant son of a human sea captain and of a princess of the mythical undersea kingdom of Atlantis, Namor possesses the super-strength and aquatic abilities of the "Homo mermanus" race, as well as the mutant ability of flight, along with other superhuman powers. Through the years, he has been alternately portrayed as a good-natured but short-fused superhero, or a hostile invader seeking vengeance for perceived wrongs that misguided surface-dwellers committed against his kingdom.

Modern character

Next up is Tarzan-alike, Kazar The Great - the character was actually created for the pulp magazine of the 1930's and was adapted for Timely Comics. Born in South Africa in 1918, three-year-old David Rand accompanied his British parents John and Constance on a flight to Cairo to visit his grandfather. Unfortunately, their plane crashed in the jungles of Congo. Constance died in the crash and John was driven mad. Living in the jungle with his father, isolated from the local tribes, David grew under the jungle’s hardships into an unusually powerful youth and developed strong empathy with wildlife, notably rescuing Zar the Lion from quicksand. When a criminal named Paul de Kraft discovered emeralds in Congo, John died opposing him only for Zar to scare Paul de Kraft off. With the support of Zar, David became the jungle's leading warrior within a few years challenging different animals like Bardak the Ape and N'Jaga the Leopard. Considered to be "god-like" by the natives, David Rand ended up named Ka-Zar (native for "Brother of Zar"). When Paul de Kraft returned to seize the emerald deposits, Ka-Zar killed him thus avenging his father.

Next up is the western story, The Masked Raider - it is the story of Jim Gardley who rides a horse called Lightening. And rights wrong wherever he finds them - something of The Lone Ranger there. Indeed The Lone Ranger was a popular radio series at the time of this comic so it seems obvious that this was where the writers took their influence from.


It was great reading this comic - as a kid I grew up reading British comics and although it was the homegrown titles I preferred I did from time to time get titles like The Mighty World of Marvel which featured reprint material from the American comics in the British format - that's how I came to know characters like Spiderman and the Hulk, but most of this early stuff was new to me. And it's good to have what is effectively the first ever Marvel comic even if it is a digital version and not some extremely valuable ancient comic book.

Reprint comics like this introduced many British kids to American superheroes.

Yesterday's Papers - David Whitehead interview

Intro issue one

Recently I wrote about an old magazine called, The Western as part of our Yesterday's Papers series. I had only come across the magazine by chance on eBay and had not previously been aware of it. Anyway I discovered that only four issues had been published and by coincidence I found a lot of all four issues on eBay and so I promptly placed a maximum bid of £15 and, such was my desire for these magazines, I would have gone higher but there were no other bidders and I got the lot for 99p - bargain.

Now as I said in the previous post on the subject I wasn't aware of the magazine back in the day, which I can't figure out - since I was sixteen at the time and most certainly would have bought it had I seen it. The only thing I can think is that the distribution was not that good and it didn't find its way out to the backwood where I lived. However I did discover that David Whitehead, fellow Black Horse author and friend of the Archive was involved, as was Mike Stotter which is another name well known to westerns followers, particularly those fans of the British westerns of the 70's and 80's.


"Western Magazine grew out of the original George G Gilman Appreciation Society. I started that and ran it for the first year, producing three issues of the magazine "Steele Edge" and the "Steele Edge Annual 1977". Mike Stotter took over the running of the club after that and I remained involved, albeit to a lesser extent," David Whitehead points out, "During this time, Mike and I got to know the Piccadilly Cowboys pretty well and one of them (I forget which one) suggested we ought to try and take the idea of a western magazine further. We thought that was a pretty good idea so we cobbled together a proposal and sent it to IPC Magazines. We didn't hear anything for quite a while, and then right out of the blue we were summoned to King's Reach Tower, where they had their offices."


King's Reach Towers - now that's a familiar address to anyone who read comic books during the 70's and 80's - of course it was not really a building at all but 2000AD editor Tharg's spaceship using a cloaking device, but that didn't deter David and Mike. A man's got to do what a man's got to do, and all that.



"As I recall, we saw the head honcho in a top-floor office. I remember it was a massive office, men in suits standing around as if the guy behind the desk was a Mafia kingpin, and Mike and I nervously pitched our idea. At the end of it they said they agreed -- it was a great idea and they were going to go with it. It's strange, we were told. We never take ideas from outsiders, and yet yours is the second one we've taken in as many weeks.The other one was from someone who'd suggested a skateboarding magazine" David continues, "Next came the sticky problem of just how much they were going to pay us for the idea. The figure of £50 was mentioned, which was a bit of a disappointment. Mike sought advice from (I think) Laurence James, who confirmed that £50 was an insult. He rang IPC and told them that if they didn't make a realistic offer, he and the other PCs would withdraw their support for the project. IPC came back with a revised offer ... of £600!"

THE MAGNIFICENT FOUR

The Piccadilly Cowboys are well represented in each issue - there are short stories from George G. Gilman,  James A. Muir, Neil Hunter ,John B Harvey and J. T. Edson, but it wasn't all the brits and issue 1 even boasted fiction from the legendary Louis L'amour.


The resulting magazine was indeed excellent - a dream for western fans and it is such a pity it didn't survive longer. The four issues I've collected form the entire run and they'll take pride of place in my collection. Each issue contains some brilliant well researched articles. In fact David Whitehead's article looking at the beginnings of western fiction with the dime novels, which appeared in the first issue, is a great read. But then so too are all the other articles - they all share a clear, concise writing style and are deeply researched.

the artwork was exceptional

"The development of the magazine was given to an IPC staffer named Dennis Winston. He and his assistant, Willie Shrimpton, grasped the concept at once. Mike and I were engaged as consultants and basically we came up with ideas for articles and suggestions for the kind of fiction western readers would want to see," David Whitehead recalls. "I remember that at the time I'd just read a stand-out Louis Masterson MORGAN KANE book called KILLER KANE, and learned shortly thereafter that Corgi Books wasn't going to issue any more. Bitterly disappointed, I suggested that Dennis could do worse than run a Morgan Kane short story. To my delight he contacted Masterson's Norwegian  publisher, Bladkompaniet, got a story called "The Gunfighter", and had it translated into English. It appeared in the magazine as 'Wind of Death' I think (Wind of Death did indeed appear in issue 2. Tainted Archive). That was the kind of clout Mike and I wielded at the time!"

So David and Mike now found themselves big players in British western circles.


"The magazine was a long time in development, but when it was finally launched in November 1980 IPC ran a couple  of TV adverts during World of Sport and held a launch party at Frontier City, a fake western town out in Hungerford. They ferried everyone from London to West Berkshire by coach, and as the coach approached its destination it was attacked by Indians on horseback, firing sucker-tipped arrows!" Recalls David Whitehead. "I can't remember why, but my girlfriend (now wife) Janet and I had to make our own way there by train, and when we arrived at the station and checked the map that had come with our invitation, we realised that it was hopelessly inaccurate. It made Frontier City look as if it was right next door. In fact, it was about two or three miles outside of town. We went into the local police station to get directions and then set off on foot. A moment later we heard a car horn. When we turned around, there was a policeman in a police car. 'You're going the wrong way,' he said. And then: 'Come on, get in.' So Janet and I really arrived in style, in the back of a patrol car. Frontier City was fabulous. I remember pushing through the batwing doors of the saloon and weaving between tables and saloon girls to reach the bar. The bartender asked us to name our poison. Clint Eastwood-style I replied: 'Two Pepsis, please.' "

Sounds like a wonderful evening - of course back then The Archive would have been tucked up in bed back in South Wales - I was only just fifteen you know!

"That evening the magazine's financial director sought out Mike and I and gave us each an envelope. When we opened them, we found letters thanking us for our hard work ... and cheques for an additional £400 'because we'd like to make your fee up to £1000.' What a far cry from the original £50!! That night I also met B J Holmes for the one and only time, and yet we really clicked and are still firm friends today."

With such a high profile launch it would suggest that the magazine was expected to do well, so it must have come as a shock when the title was folded after just four monthly issues.

"  I'm still not entirely sure why. It was either some kind of tax write-off or a casualty of a recent NUJ strike. I think it could have run forever. It still looks pretty impressive, even all these years later."


And so to finish I ask David if he can remember anything particularly well from those days?

 "There is one postscript I can add. I went up to Melton Mowbray to have lunch with J T Edson at the infamous White Lion, and J T confided that he was considering financing a similar magazine. His secretary wanted to call it HEAD WEST, the HEAD part being a play on the ED part of Edson, but J T had his doubts. Later, when J T came down to London to appear on an Esther Rantzen chat show, we met again at the offices of IPC to discuss the project further. Sadly it never came to pass."

Check out David's own website HERE

 

Yesterday's Papers - Western Magazine

This British magazine was published by IPC Publications from 1980 - 1981. I can't believe I was not aware of this magazine back in the day. I would have been around fifteen when it came out and would certainly have bought it but I can't recall ever seeing it. Maybe the distribution was not wonderful and it didn't make it into my local newsagents. Or then again 70p could have been a little steep for me back in the day.

In fact this issue which I came across in a secondhand shop is the first ever issue I've seen. Apparently the magazine was short lived - only four were ever published. I found them all on Ebay and have just won the auction so I'll be waiting eagerly for the postman over the next few days.

The magazine is a western fan's dream - it contains articles relating to the old west, film, book and even music reviews as well as short fiction. This particular issue contains a short story by Edge author, George G. Gilman as well as Hart the Regulator by John Harvey and an extract from The Return of Sudden by Fredrick H. Christian. Incidentally the Gilman story, Adam Steele Bad Business at Newville will be posted here on the Archive this weekend.

On the non fiction front there' a great feature on the Sharps rifle - the gun favoured by buffalo hunters, outlaws and lawmen everywhere. In fact the Sharps, along with the Colt must rate among the most iconic Wild West weapons.



There's also a detailed article on Miss Sure Shot herself - Annie Oakley. There's also a fun letters page with a £5 reward for the letter deemed the best of the month by the editor, one Dennis Winston.

Clint Eastwood is the cover star and there is an article by John B. Harvey, one of the Piccadilly Cowboys, looking at his career up to this date - it's an entertaining piece where the author bemoans the fact that a feminist friend felt he was sexist because there was a poster of Clint Eastwood in his home. An interesting point of the article is of how little the author seems to regard the Dirty Harry movies and how highly he rates the westerns.




It's a shame this magazine didn't go on longer - man, I wish something like this was published now. It's absolutely excellent - I notice in the credits that David Whitehead was a consultant - is that the David Whitehead who writes for, among others, the Black Horse range? Michael Stotter, which is another name I know, was also involved.

Still in a sense I've got three new issues to look forward to when that eBay lot arrives through my letterbox and into my eager hands.