Today in Comics History, October 31, Halloween: There are no exceptions, especially on Halloween, Phantom Stranger

from "The Longest Night" in DC's Terrors Through Time #1 one-shot (DC, December 2022), script by Paul Levitz, pencils and inks by Raúl Fernández, colors by Santiago Arcas, letters by Josh Reed

Today in Comics History, April 3, 1964: And that's why Mama Bull told me to never hitchhike...

...because you might have been dead for a year when you do it! (And then you'd miss your birthday!)



from "Out of This World" in The Phantom Stranger (1969 series) #4 (DC/National, November 1969), script by Robert Kanigher, pencils and inks by Werner Roth and Neal Adams, inks by Murphy Anderson and Bill Draut, letters by Milt Snapinn (?) (or Ben Oda?)
This post was suggested by faithful reader and frequent commenter Blam, who's provided a lot of date references in comics that I'll spotlight throughout 2023 in this series. Blam also knows a lot about DC letterers and I wonder if he can clear up the "?" credit on this one!

Thanks, Blam!

Today in Comics History, March 16: Only show on Hell TV seems to be Storage Wars

from "Demons" in Action Comics Weekly #639 (DC, February 21, 1989), script by Alan Grant, pencils by Mark Pacella, inks by Bill Wray, colors by Tatjana Wood, letters by John Costanza

Today in Comics History, January 5, 1945: Happy birthday, Mary Shaw! Hope you survive the...oh.

from "Out of This World" in The Phantom Stranger (1969 series) #4 (DC/National, November 1969), script by Robert Kanigher, pencils and inks by Werner Roth and Neal Adams, inks by Murphy Anderson and Bill Draut, letters by Milt Snapinn (?) (or Ben Oda?)
Still, tune in on April 3 to find out what happened then!

This post was suggested by faithful reader and frequent commenter Blam, who's provided a lot of date references in comics that I'll spotlight throughout 2023 in this series. Thanks, Blam!

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 22

Panels from Detective Comics (2011 series) #27 (March 2014); script by Mike W. Barr; pencils, inks, and colors by Guillem March; letters by Carlos M. Mangual

Star Wars Cosplay Theater Week, Episode V: The Phantom Stranger Menace

Panels from The Phantom Stranger (2012 series) #2 (January 2013), script by Dan Didio, pencils by Brent Anderson, "embellishments" by Philip Tan, colors by Ulises Arreola, letters by Travis Lanham

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 346: Don't talk to strangers

House ad for Showcase #80 [The Phantom Stranger] (February 1969); printed in Batman #209 (February 1969)
Ad designed and lettered by Gaspar Saladino
Neal Adams cover? You know what that means...here's a bigger, full-cover version!:


Cover of Showcase #80, pencils and inks by Neal Adams, Phantom Stranger logo by Gaspar Saladino

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 313: That's 144 pages for 75¢, if you weren't keeping track

Three house ads printed in Batman #238 (January 1972)
for (top to bottom) The Phantom Stranger #17 (January-February 1972);
[Son of] Tomahawk #138 (January-February 1972);
Our Fighting Forces #135 [The Losers] (January-February 1972)

Comic cover art: The Phantom Stranger #17: pencils and inks by Neal Adams
Tomahawk #138 and Our Fighting Forces #135: pencils and inks by Joe Kubert
Ads designed and lettered by Gaspar Saladino

One Night in Rutland: 1977, Part 2

But Rutland Vermont had not seen the end of the Phantom Stranger, finely toned and defined as it was. A few months after his last appearance, the Ghost Who Walks and Who Is Also a Stranger in These Here Parts returned to Rutland to have another spooky Satanic adventure, but this time he's got some help from the bombastic mortally-challenged circus acrobat Deadman! I always felt that Deadman should have his own team-up series, and this could have been the pilot for it. Every issue Deadman would occupy the body of a different DC hero to solve a mystery or stop some fiendish other-wordly plot. Wouldn't you buy that? Especially the issue where he teams up with Wonder Woman and the story would be named after that famous Beatles quote: "Turn Me On, Deadman!"

Splash page of DC Super-Stars #18 (Winter 1978), script by Martin Pasko and Gerry Conway, pencils by Romeo Tanghal, inks by Dick Giordano, colors by Tatjana Wood, letters by Milt Snapinn
Geez, it looks like they statted that "DC Super-Stars" in at the last minute, didn't they? Maybe this was supposed to be Deadman Team-Up. And take note of the scripter and penciller for this titanic tale...there will be a test revelation later.

There Is No Hope at Haley's Circus

Yesterday I took you on a guided excursion...please do not stray outside the tour!—of Gotham City's Crime Alley: you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. (On this planet.) And I took you through some of the history, legend, and comic book stories of Crime Alley, explaining its importance and significance to our bat-garbed crimefighter. But tonight we're going to walk on a slightly more...bizarre path, looking at a few, quite different (and very possibly non-canonical) adventures in Crime Alley, and we'll end up with the explanation of why not just Bruce Wayne, but also Dick Grayson, the first Robin, can never forget what night Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered. Y'all ready? Please do not dawdle at the back there!

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 159: Who wrote the copy for this ad...Dr. Thirteen?

House ad for Sensation Mystery #111 (September-October 1952)
and The Phantom Stranger (1952 series) #1 (August-September 1952),
printed in House of Mystery #6 (September 1952)
Comic cover art: Sensation Mystery #111: pencils by Carmine Infantino, inks by Sy Barry
The Phantom Stranger #1: pencils by Murphy Anderson, girl figure pencilled by Frank Giacoia, inks by Sy Barry

Ad designed and lettered by Ira Schnapp

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 356

Pages from Justice League Unlimited #28 (February 2007), script by Mike McAvennie, pencils by Sanford Greene, inks by Nathan Massengill, colors by Heroic Age, letters by John J. Hill

One Night in Rutland: 1972, Part 2

Meanwhile, elsewhere on Halloween, 1972...namely 22,300 miles above the Earth...the Phantom Stranger gives the night's weather forecast! (Mostly spooky with patches of evil and periodic gusts of hell.)


from Justice League of America v.1 #103 (December 1972), script by Len Wein, pencils by Dick Dillin, inks by Dick Giordano, letters from Ben Oda
Apparently all the wickedness and wretchedness is due to Felix Faust, or at least, his mother naming him "Felix." Superman vows to stop the DC Universe's version of Baron Mordo by cornering him in Rutland, Vermont! Which, according to the lettering on the map, is a town larger than Syracuse and Rochester put together!


Remember this fantastic four? Why, it's Steve Engelhart, Gerry Conway, and Len and Glynis Wein on their way to Rutland in Engelhart's magnificent crap-mobile. You can place this scene before that in Amazing Adventures #16—they haven't yet picked up Hank McCoy and Vera Cantor! You may also notice that between the events of this book and AA #16, Steve Engelhart's shirt shrank dramatically! And hey, Gerry Conway: still haven't forgiven you for killin' off Gwen Stacy. Just wanted to let you know that.


The quartet arrives in Rutland to meet parade premier Tom Fagan (collect all his appearances!). Enter also the JLA, including The World's Greatest Freakin' Detective, and yet nobody seems to even notice when Hank McCoy and Vera get out of the car from AA #16 (not pictured in this issue). Batman can be forgiven...he's too overcome by Tom's invitation to "live here forever." He asked you, Batman! He finally asked you!


Later in the parade itself, Batman accepts the adulation of the crowd as is his comics-given right. Bow down before Batman!


Crossover alert! A thinly disguised "Commando America," apparently written with the same motivations he was written with in Civil War, orders a Faust-hypnotized Adam Strange and Supergirl...huh, Supergirl? That's no Kara, that's our friend and excellent colorist Glynis Wein, who had disappeared right from underneath her friends' noses earlier in this ish and in Amazing Adventures #16. Now we know where she went! What we don't know, however, is how the possessed Halloween-goers can talk and act so much while The Freakin' Fastest Man Alive just stands there and stares at them. With great speed comes mildly poor reaction time, looks like.


Crossover alert #2! Batman versus a Faust-befuddled partygoer in his Spidey-jammies! Note that Batman reflects that he "has all the powers of the real thing!" That means that A) Batman reads Marvel Comics and B) He considers Spider-Man to be real. He's a fanboy! Bruce Wayne is a fanboy!


Crossover alert #3! Green Lantern is, as usual, knocked out like a chump (sorry, Sally) by a semi-yellow object that is actually colored grey. Batman puts the ersatz Thunder God in his place, though. Good thing the real Thor is nowhere near Rutland, Vermont on this Halloween night. (Or...is he?)


Glynis returns to the land of consciousness, the Justice League battles the Butter Brigade (yellow villains? Better put Hal in the rear), and for the second time this night, someone steals Steve Engelhart's Mustang! even tho' that doesn't really look like a Mustang there. This time it's Felix Faust escaping by the "most inconspicuous means possible"...jumping out of a building into the loudest car in the county. Another excellent escape plan right up there with the stupidest exits on record. He may be a magician, but Houdini, Felix Faust is not.


So it's no surprise that Faust is quickly caught by the boys in blue while the Phantom Stranger watches on. It's too bad that it wasn't the Spectre in this story, who would have designed a hellish and ironically painful torture for the "master" criminal...something along the likes of being turned into a spark plug and then being places in a car continuously driven by Jackie Stewart. Well, something like that. Beats being turned into candles and melted down or into a tree and then sliced up with the Spectre's chainsaw.


The connecting sequences with Engelhart and Company thus prove: this was the first DC/Marvel crossover event ever. the only way it could be more awesome is if Thor was in it. What's that? He was? Well, whaddaya know. There's a Part 3 comin' up!

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 8

Panels from Justice League Adventures #31 (July 2004), script by Josh Siegal, pencils by Chris Jones, inks by Dan Davis, colors by Heroic Age, letters by Rob Leigh