Scott Nybakken

My quest to read every comic remotely linked to The Sandman continues with its (hopefully) last strand: those horror comics whose hosts were later appropriated by Neil Gaiman to be denizens of the Dreaming. The Witching Hour! is hosted by Mildred, Mordred, and Cynthia, the three-part witch-being who popped up in various guises throughout Gaiman's Sandman run. Post-Sandman, the Witches got their own story in James Robinson's awful WitchCraft, but maybe he should have taken a page from this show more book, because it is good plain fun.

Most of the stories were disposable, but they were usually also enjoyable. The highlight of the book, though, is definitely the frame narrative. Mildred and Mordred are "traditional" witches, while Cynthia is "mod"-- dressing in the latest fashions and using store-bought canned soups in her witches brews. They constantly bicker over what a good witches tale is, as well as how their never-seen manservant Egor should be treated (Cynthia likes him more than the others). Each issue weaves some small plot around their storytelling competition, like an attempt to take a group photograph, new neighbors at the swamp, or a visit from Cynthia's old college flame. Alex Toth usually provides the amazing artwork for these frame stories. The reader is often directly addressed, putting one in mind of the issue of Gaiman's Sandman where the reader is positioned as a dreamer talking to Matthew the Raven, Abel, Cain, et al. in the Dreaming-- which is presumably where all this takes place?

The witches eventually move to an apartment in the city for some reason, which would seem to promise some new hijinks, but unfortunately by that point the frame story has been squeezed down to a mere page or two per issue, rather than its original five or so. I'm not sure why that happened, but it robs the issues in the second half of the volume of a lot of their character.

The stories are pretty good throughout. Obviously a lot are about witches, and ostensibly each of the witches has a "theme" to their stories, but this is honored as much in the breach as in the observance-- Cynthia is criticized for telling "modern" stories, and then one of the other two will come out with one about a psychologist or computer dating! (In fact there are three stories about the perils of computer dating... I wouldn't've guessed it was already a thing and a worry in 1969-72.)  I particularly enjoyed "Trumpet Perilous!" (writer unknown, art by Jack Sparling and Jack Abel) for its audacious ending ("I'll grant you a little creativity Mordred--but what are you going to do with the world totally destroyed?") and "The Maze" (written by Al Gold and Marv Wolfman, art by Gray Morrow), which is about a guy trapped in a formless dimension, accompanied by some effective and chilling second-person narration. The whole issue of space horror stories, culminating in, of course, "The Haunted House in Space!" (writer unknown, art by Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon) was pretty fun, too.

It seems unlikely that anyone will be scared by any of the stories in here, but they're pretty enjoyable when you're in the right mood, and those three witches can lift most any material, no matter how weak.

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Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

Before the Darkness is DC's most recent reprint series for Legion of Super-Heroes, the one that finally totally seals the gap before The Great Darkness Saga, thus giving us a complete collection of the Legion from 1958 to 1984! I feel like this era is often spoken of in pretty disparaging terms, the consensus being that when Levitz and Giffen took over, they saved the book. Even in this very volume, the introduction comes show more across as an apology for what you are about to read, explaining that Gerry Conway—who writes most of the stories collected here—did not really like the Legion. Conway's run actually began with issues collected in the previous collection, Superboy and the Legion, Volume Two, and I didn't like much of what I read there.

So... I was pleasantly surprised by this run! I don't think Conway is among the great Legion writers, but this volume shows him to be among the solid ones. He provides more character focus than I remember from some previous Legion volumes, particularly on lesser-used, often-forgotten characters like Timber Wolf and Light Lass. Timber Wolf had largely faded into the background since he joined the Legion, but Conway gives him lots to do; Light Lass I don't remember doing anything at all ever, but here she's a versatile, integral member of the team. He shows off the powers of some other Legionnaires to good effect; Princess Projectra, always one of my favorites, got a couple excellent moments across these stories. We get a nice return to what Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel are up to, for example. Maybe Conway didn't love the Legion, but he clearly threw himself into its history and characters with a gusto that he probably could have got away with not having.

Conway is also, I think, more of a science fiction fan than most comics writers: you can tell he was probably reading actual prose sf, not just reading other comics and watching bad films. He uses stuff like tachyons and explores how the President of Earth might be elected. Genuinely interesting worldbuilding, which is something that usually happens in Legion by accident... if at all. I particularly liked the climax of one story: the Legion, in space suits, grabs onto a spaceship when it enters hyperspace. Without a hull between hyperspace and them, their perceptions of its strange dimensions threaten to drive them mad, but Brainiac 5 has the bright idea that Projectra should cast an illusion of reality, so they all perceive themselves in a beautiful meadow. This includes the villain, who's there with them... and he, not understanding the illusion, runs away from them, thus letting go of the ship and losing himself in the depths of hyperspace.

A lot of them are goofy, of course. Not sure what was up with the one about the guy who attacked the Legion with fake pirates! But every story by Conway has at least one solid moment of characterization, one clever twist. I particularly liked the saga of the "Dark Man."

Conway also writes out Tyroc but tries to smooth out his history in the process. When originally introduced, it seemed as though Tyroc came from an island where all humans of African descent were segregated to—and ignored. This story establishes something very different, that it's a Brigadoonesque place that only appears every two centuries, and that it was settled by escaped slaves from the 1800s. I guess this is better? Unfortunately, it writes Tyroc out, so he never gets a chance to make much of an impact as a character.

Outside of Conway's stuff, there's a pretty bad fill-in by J. M. DeMatteis, which spends more time on overcomplicated exposition of the villain's backstory than the actual story, and three issues of Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes. This miniseries, written by Paul Kupperberg from a plot by E. Nelson Bridwell, with art by Jim Janes and Frank Chiaramonte, was I believe the first official attempt to put this history of the Legion into some kind of detailed order. With the way I dance around Legion history out of sequence, it's hard for me to know for certain, but I think this story is the source of many retcons we now take for granted.

The plot is thin: R. J. Brande is dying and his assistant Marla Latham sneaks into Legion H.Q. to steal files on the Legionnaires because he thinks one might secretly be related to him and thus be able to provide a blood transfusion. Like, why not just ask? But it's an excuse to watch some history tapes and for the Legion to reexplain their own backstories, and I appreciated that more than the mediocre attempt at drama. It's also the story that reveals Brande is secretly a Durlan and the father of Chameleon Boy.

The art in this volume is generally quite solid, too. One story by Jim Sherman, which is always nice, but most of it is by the new-to-me Jim Janes, who I would say is above-average for the era is terms of doing character work with the art. I see he continues on into the next volume, but apparently has not done much other comics work, alas. I feel like he could have blossomed into quite a talent given time. Steve Ditko does one issue, and unlike most Legion artists, he gives the Legionnaires spacesuits, not just bubble helmets. But the spacesuits are colored to look like their costumes, which means any Legionnaire with bare arms or legs (which is most of the women and many of the men) has a spacesuit that is mostly flesh-colored. (I guess this could be the colorist's fault. On the other hand, the colorist was clearly told during some issues to make the outfits more modest, as parts of characters like Shadow Lass and Princess Projectra that are usually colored like skin are made to be part of their outfits.) show less

Secrets of Sinister House has a more distinct identity than some of DC's other horror titles; it actually starts off as The Secret House of Sinister Love and features issue-length stories, as opposed to The House of Mystery, The House of Secrets, and The Witching Hour!, which crammed three or so stories into each issue. In addition, the stories have a unique theme: gothic romance. Which seems to mean young ladies being lured into strange houses on strange pretenses to be manipulated into show more marriages. So kinda weird, but strangely enjoyable-- how many variations on that theme can be devised?

Not a ton, as with issue #6, the series switches to the more traditional collections of stories, but in the interim there's some strangely enjoyable stuff; the full-length stories mean these stories have much more of an impact than some of their contemporaries. Particularly there's some lavish artwork from some of DC's best, like Alex Toth in "Bride of the Falcon" (a young woman in Venice), or Tony Dezuniga in "Kiss of the Serpent" (a young woman in India).

The later issues lose this gimmick, but it still seems more cohesive than in some series. I did enjoy the creativity of "The Hag's Curse" and "The Hamptons' Revenge" (written by Sheldon Mayer, art by Sam Glanzman), two stories of different time periods that literally run in parallel to each other-- take that indie comics innovators of the 2000s. We even get a story that seems rooted in DC's "Great Disaster," with "When Is Tomorrow Yesterday?" (written by Sheldon Mayer, art by Alfredo Alcala). The book does begin to get kinda dumb with its own theme by the end, though, such as issue #16, where each story is about a literal "sinister house"! Lame.

I picked this volume up because, as with its contemporaries, its host was reclaimed by Neil Gaiman as a resident of the Dreaming in The Sandman. But Eve is a virtual non-entity in these pages. The Secret House of Sinister Love actually begins as hosted by Cain, pulling out a file from the House of Mystery. Finally, with issue #6, Eve gets an amazing introduction, where Cain and Abel run away from the Sinister House because they don't want to be there when "that thousand-year-old female horror arrives!" (she's apparently been sleeping), but after that, she's just a recycled Alfredo Alcala headshot at the beginning of each story, with no personality. She does have a raven with her, though-- Matthew's predecessor? There's even an appearance in one story of three witches living in an apartment together-- Mildred, Mordred, and Cynthia of The Witching Hour! perhaps?

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Like all the titles in the DC horror renaissance of the late 1960s and 1970s, House of Secrets has its individuality drained out of it by the slow diminishing of its frames; what were once multi-page stories are now panels (or rarely a whole page) in an issue. It's disappointing, especially as the reason I am reading this is the presence of Abel, our stuttering, terrified host.

What are particularly charming are the recurrent "Cain & Abel" pages, single pages of three panels by Sergio show more Aragonés, each panel showing Abel and his murderous brother doing something different together. Sometimes these are simply Cain belittling or pranking Abel, but others give us something more-- Abel getting something good because he is good, Cain causing his own comeuppance, or at their best, a brief glimpse of the true affection the brothers share. In one, they stroll through a crowd of people horrified by a triple-bill of horror films they have just scene, the only ones smiling; I love the idea that they spend their time popping from the Dreaming over to Earth to see horror films. My favorite is one where they are playing what looks like "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots," only their two boxers are hugging, embarrassing them. It's all a warped but endearing depiction of brotherly love.

Individual stories still manage to do some good work, though. There's some child creepiness at work in "Goodbye, Nancy" (written by John Albano, art by Vic Catan, Frank Redondo, and Abe Ocampo), about a kid's odd new playmate.  "Small Invasion" (written by Sheldon Mayer, art by Alex Niño), about an alien who means to conquer the Earth but ends up working in a logging camp, is oddly charming, and has some amazingly grotesque art. "A Lonely Monstrosity" (written by John Albano, art by Nestor Redondo) is a cruel tale about a couple who scheme to deprive a grotesque-looking man of his own fortune. I really liked "Skin Deep" (written by Jack Oleck, art by Alfredo Alcala), about an ugly man who commits murder and disguises himself to marry an attractive woman under false pretenses, as well as "Act III Eternity" (written by George Kashdan, art by Jess Jodloman).

There are many more-- despite its lack of the frames I enjoy so much, this is probably one of the better Showcase Presents volumes of vintage DC horror. Much of that is due to the dual artistic talents of Alex Niño and (especially) Alfredo Alcala, whose luscious, grotesque, beautiful art enlivens even the most stale of narratives. Even their lettering is a cut above the rest!

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