2016 Comic Challenge 114 Curse of the Weird #02

TITLE-Curse of the Weird #02
PUBLISHER-Marvel Comics

Starting in the fall of 1994 and lasting for 4 issues Curse of the Weird was a Marvel mini series that reprinted lots of pre-code horror/weird stories. I have no clue why I skipped this mini when it was coming out. But got lucky back in 2010 and found the complete run cheap at a con.

Like the titles the stories originally appeared in Curse of the Weird is an anthology title.In this issue we get 5 stories. Ghost of Grismore Castle is the first story. Written by Stan Lee,it has pencils by one of my favorite Silver Age artists Steve Ditko.The second story is titled Bat's Tale. Once again Stan Lee is the writer but this story has Russ Heath Jr doing the pencils. Up next is Innocent Bystander.Sadly the name of whoever wrote this story is unknown. And Dick Briefer handles the pencils.The 4th story is The Unsolid Man.Written by Carl Wessler and the legendary Joe Orlando handles the pencils.And the final story is No Sign of Life. Were once again Stan Lee does the writing. And the great Steve Ditko does the pencils.

Not only do you get 5 pretty good weird/horror stories. But also a bit of backstory for each story. With this being only a 4 issue mini I doubt we will ever see a trade of it. So it is nice that the single issues are worth at most cover price. And aren't that hard to find.

Curse of the Weird #02 gets a BUY!

Monster Menace 1-4

Monster Menace 1-4

This was a kinda companion piece to Marvel's "Curse of the Weird" 4 issue mini. This series focused on the various Marvel pre-Silver age giant monster stories. This is the place were Fin Fang Foom and Groot showed up for the first time. So highlights from the 4 issues are. "I spent Midnight with the Monster on Bald Mountain" written by Stan Lee and art by Steve Ditko is a great moody story that shows both men at their artistic peaks. "The Terror of Tim Boo Ba" again by Lee and Ditko not only has a monster with a great name,but a fun twist ending that had to be mind blowing to the kids that read these stories many years ago. "When the Totem Walks" starts off the second issue with another blast of pure fun from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. They take the stupid idea of a killer monster Totem Pole and make it into something believe able for a comic book. "Save me from the Weed" besides the laughable title,is a fun science fictionish story from Stan Lee with Jack Kirby doing the pencils and Dick Ayers on inks.This is one of the many radiation gone wrong stories that were all through out pop culture during this era. "I can't escape from the Creeping Things" is another mortality tale from Lee and Ditko that has a very early ecological slant to the story.Then wrapping up issue 2 is the highlight of the issue. "I fought Colossus" written by Stan Lee pencils by Jack Kirby and inks by Steve Ditko. Another of this era's "The machines are gonna take over " scare tales."I Live again" is the sequel to "The thing from Bald mountain" comic. It has the team of Lee and Ditko again and their talent shines through.Issue 4 starts off with a fun cover by Floyd Hughs. We start off with a sequel to the walking Totem story from a few issues back. "Orrgo the unconquerable" is a amazingly fun tale by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Then we get what I consider the highlight from the entire 4 issue series "Rorgg,King of the Spider Men!!". Written I am pretty sure by Stan Lee this has pencils from Jack Kirby and I think Dick Ayers did the inks. Small town gets invaded by a group of aliens that have 6 arms and look kinda like Spiderman when he grew the extra arms. This story was the best way to end what was a decent mini series. I enjoyed "Curse of the Weird" more,mostly cause the Marvel giant monster comics are not some of my favorite stuff. But judging this on all 4 issues "Monster Menace" gets a B.