Thursday, March 30, 2023

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 





In a 1997 episode of DIAGNOSIS MURDER, "Hard Boiled Murder," Joe Mannix gets to solve a case left unsolved on his old show, with the help of Doctor Mark Sloan. 

NULL-CROSSOVERS #11

 Another of those "only on the cover" crossovers between these now forgotten luminaries (left to right) WILLIE, GEORGIE, MITZI, and slightly better known PATSY WALKER.




JUMBO COMICS did a couple of these before SHEENA essentially took over the title. Going right to left, the people behind Santa are a comical schmo named Uncle Otto (by Will Eisner under a pseudonym), the oddly named cowboy hero "Wilton of the West," Bob Kane's "Peter Pupp," and three kids, I think from separate strips (but I'm not interested enough to check).





Wednesday, March 22, 2023

CROSSOVER MADNESS


 


Here's another item that I deem both a "monster mashup" and a "crossover," but with a little more emphasis on the crossing of different franchises. DARK SHADOWS/VAMPIRELLA is pretty dopey overall, but its writer does work in a lot of familiar icons. Vampirella and Barnabas Collins (who was appearing in a movie remake the same year this Dynamite comic was published) are the stars, but were-creatures Quentin Collins and Pantha comprise a "subordinate ensemble," while the villains are a reborn Lady Bathory (the historical one, not the comic book character) and Jack the Ripper, whom Bathory changes into another fully supernatural vamp. Oh, and Dracula shows up at the end. Eh.




CROSSOVER MADNESS

 Just finished a write-up here, on this very peculiar all-independent "crossover comic," SHI/ CYBLADE #1.



Monday, March 6, 2023

MONSTER MASHUPS #90

 The overblown VAN HELSING combines versions of Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster, Mister Hyde with a werewolf, all of whom count toward the "monster mashup," though only the first three make the film a crossover.






Saturday, March 4, 2023

MONSTER MASHUPS #89

 Though the story inside this issue mixes both phony and real monsters, many based on figures from the classic Scooby Doo cartoon, the cover provides three such figures whose more distant ancestry are a trio of Universal fright fiends.