'Bat Lash' is lighthearted reading of Wild West

Showcase Presents: Bat Lash (DC Comics, 2009)
Writers: Denny O'Neil, Sergio Argones, Len Wein, and Cary Bates
Artists: Nick Cardy, Dan Speigle, George Moliterni, and Mike Sekowski
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

"Bat Lash" is one of the many titles and characters in DC Comics' long publishing history that was deserving of greater success than it enjoyed. The series centered on the title character, a drifter who moved from town to town in the Wild West of the 1860s, trying to avoid trouble but always finding it... usually because of an attractive woman or because of his sense of right and wrong couldn't let him stand by while innocent people suffer.

From the collection of Alex Johnson

Collected in this budget-priced, black-and-white book are all of the initial Bat Lash tales from 1968 and 1969 (including his debut appearance in "DC Showcase" and every issue of his short-lived solo series), another try-out tale from the late 1970s, and a trio of back-up tales from "Jonah Hex." Skipped entirely are the stories where Bat Lash served as an ongoing supporting character in the excellent "Scalp Hunter" series from "Weird Western Tales" (which I hope means DC Comics will be collecting those as well, even if it's a slim hope because the Political Correctness Brigade would probably freak out over the title), so there's a little bit of a disconnect from the 1960s stories where he's a shiftless rogue to the ones from the 1980s where he's a professional gambler.

The tone of the "Bat Lash" series has been compared to some commentators to the TV series "Maverick," but a more accurate comparison would be to the second-tier Italian westerns of the late 1960s and early 1970s. If you enjoy the Terence Hill and Bud Spencer Western vehicles, I think this is a book that will be right up your alley.

Most of the stories in the book feature art by Nick Cardy. His is a style that never impressed me on his superhero work, but his covers and artwork on DC horror titles like "Witching Hour" immediately spring to mind when I consider comics art that is top-notch. With "Bat Lash," he is just as great, and these are comics I admired as a kid and that I admire even more as an adult. Whether Bat Lash is comically trying to escape death at the hands of a fling's angry husband, or tragically carrying a dying child across the desert, Cardy invokes exactly the right mood at the right time. His artwork is so effective that you can even just look at the pictures and get what is happening on the page, story, mood, and all. This is work that many modern comic book artists should be forced to study and internalize as most of them can't tell a story if their lives depended on it.

"Showcase Presents: Bat Lash" is slimmer than most of the DC Comics books in this format, and it can be digested in a single long afternoon. However, the price is right, and if you're a lover of Westerns or just good comic books, it's a book you want to pick up.

'Werewolf By Night' is one of Marvel's best

Essential Werewolf By Night, Vol 1 (Marvel Comics, 2005)
Writers: Gerry Conway, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Mike Friedrich, et.al.
Artists: Mike Ploog, Don Perlin, Tom Sutton, Gil Kane, et.al.
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

"Essential Werewolf By Night, Vol 1" presents 500 pages from a series that ranks among Marvel's finest output during the 1970s, and that presented some of the best chillers from the House of Idea's horror wave. It also happens to be one of the best bit of pulp-style werewolf fiction ever produced, be it in movies, books, or comics.

The star of the stories is Jack Russell, a typical, upper-middle class 18-year-old who doesn't like his apparently over-judgemental step-father, but otherwise gets along with this family, namely his mother and his sister Lissa. On his 18th birthday, Jack discovers a problem bigger than his step-father... a family curse manifests itself, and Jack turns into a werewolf. From then on, for at least three nights a month, under the full moon, Jack turns into a beast-man and stalks the hills and streets of Southern California.

"Werewolf By Night" is a series that has weathered the passage of time well. While we have some references to swingin' singles and the occasional hippy finds his way into the series, most of the stories draw upon traditional sources of horror stories (like the aforementioned werewolves, ancient curses, psychics, demons, mad scientists, and even legendary creatures like the Wendigo). Two of the very interesting aspects of the stories in the book is Jack's flirtation with the movie industry--it is set in Southern California, so how could he not find a job with a movie studio?--and the shadowy Committee, which is pops up every now and then to threaten Jack's family and his furry alter-ego. The series pulls off a great mix of horror, adventure, and pulp-fiction sensibility.

Another reason for the book's timelessness is that it is brimming with top-notch stories where the creators are at their finest. Mike Ploog does some of his best work ever during the first six tales in the book, and his art continues to be top-notch on every story he illustrates. Similarly, Tom Sutton and Gil Kane turn in excellent work on the stories they illustrate, with Sutton doing some of the very creepiest work of his illustrious career. (Only one or two of his "I, Vampire" stories a decade later would even come close to the terrifying atmosphere he brought to the "Terror Beneath the Earth" story.)

Similarly, the writers on the strip do some of their best work, with Len Wein and Gerry Conway bringing Jack and the supporting cast around him to fully realized, three-dimensional life. Even many of the villains that Jack fights are intriguing because they have depth to them. The series also manages to maintain a tight control of its direction and continuity, something that the contemporaneous book "Ghost Rider" failed to do. In fact, the only time the sense of internal consistency and believability of the series falters is during its cross-over with "Tomb of Dracula." (There are just a few too many coincidences in the story, and the background for Jack's curse doesn't seem to quite fit with what we've learned previously.) This misstep is minor, however, and it hardly detracts from the over all excellence of the work that everyone did on these comics. Heck, even the team-up between the Werewolf and Spider-Man is a great read, something which I wouldn't have thought likely!

"Essential Werewolf By Night, Vol.1" is a high watermark for comics in general. I recommend it highly for all comics fans. (Sadly, it appears to have gone out of print.)