‘Lost Marvels No. 1: Tower of Shadows’ (review)

Written and Illustrated by Neal Adams, Jim Steranko,
Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Gene Colan,
Wally Wood, Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, John Romita,
Johnny Craig, Marie Severin, Gerry Conway,
Bernie Wrightson and Various
Originally Published by Marvel Comics
Collection Published by Fantagraphics Books

I was 10 years old when the first issue of Marvel’s Tower of Shadows came out in 1969. I wasn’t yet into horror comics but I bought it because of the Jim Steranko art.

That Steranko story scared me half to death, though. I had nightmares! Almost immediately, I traded that comic to my pal Terry for something more familiar (but now long forgotten). I read the story again, reprinted in Les Daniels’ book, Comix! a few years later, albeit small and in black and white. Less intimidating.

Some 44 years later, in 2013, I was pawing through the dollar box at my LCS when I spotted a fairly good condition copy of that ToS # 1 and I decided to buy it again. What the heck, y’know?

I was in my 50s by that point and I had actually met and spoken with Steranko a few times! No way it could creep me out now! So I get it home, I take it out of its bag and open it up and what’s the first thing I see?

MY INITIALS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FIRST PAGE!!!!!

Back in ’69, I wrote my initials in a circle on all my comic books! This was MY very own, original, scary, copy!!!! I hadn’t seen Terry in ages and the book had a price sticker on the front as well as a penciled price on the back. It had clearly been through several sales over the years but it had finally found its way back to me, its original owner!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAA……….!!!!!

It follows that I didn’t exactly keep on buying Tower of Shadows back in the day after my experience with that first issue. I did pick some up in some of those once ubiquitous (and dubiously legal at best) three-packs for a quarter that every mom-and-pop grocery seemed to have in those days, but I never bought another issue off the rack.

Turns out I just had to be patient as nearly all of the then-new stories created for the title have now been reprinted in a splendid new Marvel/Fantagraphics collection cleverly called…Tower of Shadows (The first volume of their new Lost Marvels series)

The book opens with a nicely informative 11-page essay by Dr. Michael Dean and ends with seven pages of well-written biographies on all the creators involved. I was hoping there would be one for Dr. Dean as I’m not familiar with him or his writing but, no.

Still, the real meat of the book is next!

There are a couple of missing stories due, we are told, to possible legal issues with the H.P. Lovecraft estate, but all the rest are here. We begin, as before, with John Romita’s first issue cover, taking us right into “At the Stroke of Midnight.” Now recognized as one of Jim Steranko’s masterpieces, with its unique layouts and angles, screens, crazy colors, and color holds, the story itself still holds up and some of its images are still creepy as all get out! Later made into a short film, even, it’s funny to see a letter on one of the reprinted letters pages belittling it as some of the artist’s lesser work.

Since the whole concept of this title was to semi-revive the long-dead EC Comics format in color as the Comics Code began to loosen its tighter restrictions, it was appropriate that EC great Johnny Craig be given the second story. Credits aside, there’s very little Craig on view here, with nearly the entire story—certainly all the faces—heavily redrawn by John Romita. Later in the book, there’s a story drawn and inked by Golden Age veteran Syd Shores that better captures the kind of rain-soaked noir feel that Craig’s EC masterpieces had.

Pre-Conan (and pre-Windsor) Barry Smith appears here several times. Having started out emulating Jack Kirby, it’s clear here that he’s glommed onto Steranko and is now doing his best to achieve the same kinds of effects. Sadly, in one instance, Smith is inked by the sketchy Vince Colletta. Unlike many, there are times I actually like Colletta’s inks but over Barry? Let’s just kindly say it was NOT a good fit.

Gene Colan and John Buscema appear several times as well, and while this was one of my favorite periods for their work, they are not always served well here by inking, either. Realistically, I guess it couldn’t be Tom Palmer all the time.

Marvel mainstays George Tuska, Don Heck, and Tom Sutton also show up to varying degrees of success. The writers of the book go from the obvious Stan and Roy, to then-newcomers like Steve Skeates, Gerry Conway, Len Wein, and Marv Wolfman.

One person who gets to write and draw his own stories is another EC great, Wallace Wood.

Wood had left Marvel in a huff over credits about five years earlier after a highly-touted short run on Daredevil. His return here was predicated on his independence and it leads to some of his best-ever fantasy stories in my opinion. In fact, all four of these delightful, beautifully drawn tales of princesses, magic, monsters, elves, and gargoyles have been reprinted several times on their own over the years in Wood-centric collections.

The artist’s masterful use of the fantasy settings and storylines seems almost out of place amidst the darker mystery and horror of the rest of the book and yet, to my mind, along with Steranko, of course, they’re worth the price of admission to the Tower of Shadows.

Hopefully, this time there’ll be no nightmares.

Booksteve recommends.