Today in Comics History, January 29: Happy birthday, Steve Skeates!

Born on this day: Steve Skeates, writer for comic books (Adventure Comics, The Flash, House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Debbi's Dates, Plastic Man, Plop!, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves, Underdog, Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham, Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, and many other comics at Tower, Charlton, DC, Gold Key, Red Circle, Archie, and Warren Publishing), animation (Transformers, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Jem) and self-publisher ("Could I Have My Reality Check Please?").

Didja know (I didn't!) that he's the actual author of Marvel's Generic Comic Book, published under the pseudonym "A Writer." Speaking of pen names, Steve has also written under the aliases Chester P. Hazel and Warren Savin. I mention that because it'll become an Important Point™ a little later. Not too much later, but not right now! Geez, people, have some patience.


from "Behind the Scenes at the House of Mystery" in Limited Collectors' Edition #C-23 [The House of Mystery] (DC, Winter 1973), text by Joe Orlando
Here's another fun fact I discovered about Steve while researching him on Wikipedia ("We Don't Charge You for Our Encyclopedia But by Golly We'll Hound You to the Death for a $3.75 Donation"):

One of the series Skeates wrote at DC in the 1970s was Plastic Man, for which he created the villain Carrot Man, an evil game show host who hit contestants on their heads with a toaster. When that character appeared on the Plastic Man animated show, his creator received no royalties, but the showrunners "tried to make good" by changing Carrot Man's true identity to Stephen Skeates.

Oh wait. That's not fun at all! That's just another case of a writer being cheated out of royalities and given "exposure" instead! I'm going to report you to @forexposure_txt, DC! Sheesh.

Here's Steve apologizing for jumbled-up rules in a Doctor Strange game he wrote in Crazy Magazine. I imagine Pal Dr.PTOR, collector of all things Stephen Strange, has a copy, but do you think he has the correct rules?


from Crazy Magazine #91 (Marvel, October 1982)

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Edit on 3/22/2022: Hey, Dr.PTOR did have a copy, and all the rules, and he's bligged about it, scanned it, and offered it for download! So head over to the leading Doc Strange blog to get it by clicking here! Thanks, oh Munificent One!

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Say, speaking of board games...and trust me, this segue makes sense, unlike this segue...


...because no matter how confusing that Doctor Strange game was, it can't possibly be as bad as this Abbott and Costello board game from a comic book (trust me, I'm getting there)...


"Abbott & Costello Game Page" from Abbott & Costello (1968 series) #8 (Charlton, April 1969), script by Steve Skeates, pencils and inks by Tony Tallarico (?), letters by Ray Burzon
...which is in the same comic book as this story that features a character named Warren Savin (trust me, we're so almost there), which, if you remember all the way back to the top of this post, was a pseudonym for Steve Skeates! (Blows horns, whistles, lets off streamers to celebrate the fact that we finally got to the Interesting Point™ I'd promised you at the beginning)!




from Abbott & Costello #8
We leave Bud 'n' Lou debating the potential player line-up of an upcoming game of baseball and we leave Steve Skeates by wishing him a very happy birthday. Happy birthday, Steve!

A Month of... Board Games! Day 31: Play visually or die!

Back around Day 18 of this feature, oh, seventy-eight months ago, Smurfswacker of the great (and sadly late) comics blog Words and Pictures pointed out, and quite correctly, I must say:

I get the strangest impression that all these games are basically the same game: advance, lose turn, return to start, go back spaces, etc. I guess no one figured it was worth the effort to create an original, more complex game.

Ain't that the truth, and thanks for smurfing it out, Smurfswacker. I've mentioned several times that there's basically two templates for these simplified games: Candyland or Parcheesi/Sorry — you try to move your token(s) safely either back to your beginning or to a designated end. A few of them have had some slightly more complicated rules, but they're fundamentally a pasttime that's going to occupy you for maybe an hour or so, and not become a craze of a lifetime, like my crippling addiction to Hands Down.

To be fair, I've posted most of the games for their artwork or design sense (and some to pure poke a li'l fun at 'em), but once in a while a truly innovative board game gets printed in the pages of a comic or annual or...or even Foom, the fan magazine for Marvel Maniacs during the funky seventies. And who better to provide us with a game that goes above and beyond than the writer and artist who took comics above and beyond during the '70s, the one, the only Jim Steranko! It's an all-out battle between the nogoodniks of HYDRA and the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.*, and it's gonna be exciting even than your average episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.**! Then again, so would a colonsocopy.

"Moving Target" in FOOM #1 (February 1973); by Jim Steranko
(Click picture to STERANKO!-size)
This is no ordinary start-and-the-beginning and move-your-token-to-the-end: there is literal backstabbing involved in this game! (Note: not literally.) Check out not only the most involving rules to a comic book game ever, but the best-written:


And in conclusion to the rules and to this series that took me a lot longer to research and write than I had expected, here's a final word from Steranko:


See? Jim's got the idea. Mix and match the rules for maximum enjoyment! If you're bored with a board game, mix a little unpredictability into by tossing out the rules — say, a version of Monopoly where one player builds hotels and the other is Godzilla, knockin' 'em down! Or combine two or more board games for maximum Amalgam Universe action: "It was Colonel Mustard with the Mousetrap in Kamchatka!"

To paraphrase the Great Mister S., and perhaps sum up my entire exploration of these comic book games, I'll just leave you with this thought:

Board Games Oughta Be Fun!

* Spy Hijinks Involving Electric Laser Destruction
** Someone High-up In Entertainment Loves Daisy

8,700.

A Month of... Board Games! Day 30: Play this boardgame, or we'll shoot Sarah Jane Smith

I told you we'd have a lot of Doctor Who games in store, and this kinda proves it: yet one more, this time (again) focused on not the Doctor but his nemesis, the BBC Daleks. It's back from an era where the Daleks were promoted separately from Doctor Who because they were were the co-intellectual property (with the Beeb) of creator Terry Nation (and designed by Raymond Cusick). There was, for quite some time, a completely separate licensing line for the Daleks apart from the good Doctor, which is how we eventually wound up with Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer. (The Delightful Mister D. has only recently been brought into DW canon by appearing within a computer screen in "Time Heist," an episode featuring the Twelfth Doctor and Clara. And he's resurfaced last year in Titan's authorized comics!)

Those separate licensing reasons is why Christmas 1976 was twice as nice for British kids, as they could get not merely the authorized Doctor Who Annual 1977 but also the seperately-published and equally-authorized Terry Nation's Dalek Annual 1977!


I've gotta admit, if I had saved up my p's and q's by asking for pennies for the Guy and i could only buy one 1977 annual because I had in hoof was twelve shillings ha'penny and tupfarthings, I think I'd opt for Daleks value rather than Doctor, at least based on the cover. The DocAnn is just another painted image of Tom Baker vaguely looking displeased at something off screen: I imagine he may be shouting "Noooooo!" at a rubber-suited alien. No real action there.

There's much more value for money based on the cover of Daleks Annual '77, which appears to portray our favorite heroic crime-fighting pepperpot roborgs knocking down twin Super Dave Osbornes and then spraying them with oil and vinegar. Either that or they're falling over a tiny, tiny waterfall. Don't go chasing those, guys! I'd pick Daleks because the 1977 Doctor Who Annual is infamously known in fandom as target="_blank">"the annoying one that doesn't fit with the others on the bookshelf because it's slightly taller and wider".

Also, this cool Daleks board game with one bajillion special rules and a Penalty-Advantage Scale. "Any number of players can join in." Wow, it is really suited for "8 to 80"!

"Escape from Skaro!: A Race to Freedom" in Terry Nation's Dalek Annual 1977 (BBC/World Distributors (Manchester) Ltd., 1976); creator unknown
(Click picture to New Paradigm-size)
In conclusion, don't forget in any upcoming election to vote Dalek! They never misrepresent themselves as something they're not in the least!

A Month of... Board Games! Day 29: Pardon me, groundhog, is this the Fun-Land Choo-Choo?

It's not a holiday season of board game givin' excitement unless you invite Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer! And his shifty sidekick pal, Grover Groundhog, the star of Comics Oughta Be Fun's annual Groundhog Day!


"Take a Railroad Trip to Fun-Land!" from Limited Collectors' Edition #C-42 (February-March 1976), script and pencils by Sheldon Mayer, inks by Tenny Henson

A Month of... Board Games! Day 28: Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get Who I Want

As you'll have noticed, there's a number of Doctor Who games I've featured in this series, mostly because I have a buncha old British Doctor Who annuals! Here's another one that I include not simply because it has a weird-ass flower-alien at the center centre of it...

"A Race Against Time!" in Doctor Who Annual 1978 (BBC, 1977); artist uncredited
(Click picture to Giant Robot-size)
...but mainly because it's got a picture of The Emo Doctor.


The Emo Doctor later declared that no one understood him, then he slammed shut the door of his black-painted room that is bigger on the inside and started playing his entire library of Smiths songs.

A Month of... Board Games! Day 27: Brand New '64 Dodge the Dalek

Hey, remember that old Dalek Game?


No, no, not that one...this one, the extremely retro simple-to-learn, impossible-to-master Daleks Computer Game! And I think it would look...a little something like this:


"The New Daleks" by Bob Arning (1985), based on "Daleks" by Johan Strandberg (1984), based on "Robots" by Ken Arnold (late 1970s)

You can play a Flash-based version of the Daleks Game here.

Or, play this version from the very first Doctor Who-related annual! You don't even need a computer! Well, except to read this post and print the game board.

"Dodge the Dalek" from The Dalek Book (1964); creator unknown (possibly David Whitaker)
(Click picture to Davrosize)

A Month of... Board Games! Day 26: Oh shoot! Isn't Sonja cute, cute, cute!

"Li'l Sonja's Quest of Doom" from Li'l Sonja #1 one-shot (January 2014); script by Roger Langridge, art by Andrew Elder
(Click picture to Crom-size)

A Month of... Board Games! Day 25: Pretty fly for a white guy

British comics weeklies have frequently been editor-in-chiefed by an increasingly bizarre and out-of-this-world assortment of strange and unusual beings who have certain benefits (over, say, Paul Levitz or Carmine Infantino), not only by their distinctive personalities but by their being complete fiction (like, say, Stan Lee or Jim Shooter). We saw that Agent 21 runs the vast TV Century 21 empire, just as today Daniel Craig is the true mastermind behind Marie Claire and British Vogue. Or consider Tharg, the long-suffering (as in, he'll make you suffer for a long time) editor or 2000 AD, which recently celebrated its 2000th issue by allowing Tharg to eat both a celebration cake made of polystyrene cups and Halo Jones.


Panel from "Vector 13: Case 10: Case Closed?" in 2000 AD Prog 1302 (4 March 1997), script by David Bishop, pencils and inks by Simon Davis
Like the chiller hosts of DC books of yore like House of Secrets, Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion, and Alfred Pennyworth's Stories of Ruined Roasts, the Legion of Fictional Brit Comics Editors frequently starred in their own stories or series. Max the Computer, a super-advanced artificial intelligence that runs Maxwell Tower and used its hidden floor to enact Spectre-like retribution upon scum, nogoodniks, and just-all-out British-style bastards. Created by "Ian Holland" (the powerhouse scripting team of Alan Grant and John Wagner) and artist by José Ortiz, Max's "The Thirteenth Floor" series premiered in the wonderfully-named British comics weekly Scream! and later moved to the long-running Eagle series when the two comics merged.


Panels from "The Thirteenth Floor" in Eagle #128 (Magazines Ltd., 1 September 1984), script by Ian Holland (Alan Grant/John Wagner), pencils and inks by José Ortiz
Here's a board game from an Eagle Annual introduced by Max that features not only a justifiable hideous retribution but also a slightly more intricate and strategy-based turn system than the usual Candyland/Parcheesi clones I've been showing you throughout this series. Can you escape...The Spider & Fly Game?!? (A: No. No, you cannot.)

"The Spider & Fly Game" from Eagle Annual 1987 (IPC Magazines Ltd., 1986); creators unknown
(Click picture to world-wide-web-size)


Being turned into a fly and eaten by a bloodthirsty spider...well, that is absolutely more chilling that any old dumb Penance Stare.

A Month of... Board Games! Day 24: Agent 21 Across

Welcome to the exciting world of Secret Agent 21, the Spy of the Future, whose day job was editor-in-chief of the comic TV Century 21! Now who says Grant Morrison invented meta comic books??!


Editorial column from TV Century 21 #1 (23 January, 1965)
Also, he has a game!

"U.S.S. versus S.O.F.R.A.M." from TV Century 21 Annual 1968
(Century 21 Publishing Ltd. and City Magazines Ltd., 1967); creators unknown
(Click picture to SHIELD*-size)

Because I know you're wondering: U.S.S. stands for Universal Secret Service. And S.O.F.R.A.M. stands for the Solar Organisation For Revenge and Murder! Man, the British are not as good with spy acronyms as Nick Fury, Napoleon Solo, or Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

In addition to Agent 21, the TV Century 21 series also featured comics starring Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds, Stingray, and Fireball XL5...plus Get Smart, My Favo(u)rite Martian, and The Munsters! Wha-huh?!?




As for Century 21, it eventually evolved from a British comics weekly into a real estate firm and a mid-range fashion department store. Wow, they really did adapt to the changing markets of the 2000s!


*Surprisingly Hypnotic In Extra-Large Dimensions

A Month of... Board Games! Day 23: I'd tip my hat to you, but I haven't got a hat!

Hey, I wonder if there's any rush to play today's Doctor Who game?


Not unless your name is Saul.

"Travels of the Tardis" from Doctor Who Annual 1968 (World Distributors, Manchester, September 1967); creators unknown
(Click picture to bigger-on-the-insize)
This is the third Doctor Who Annual but the first to feature the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton. Now, I don't know which artist(s) drew the annual's comics and spot illustrations, but whoever it was, they really liked the Doctor's hat:






A lot of people curse the BBC for erasing their master tapes of so many of the Second Doctor's serials, that they've been lost to time. But really, you oughta thank the Beeb: they were just savin' you from lookin' at that big-ass hat.

A Month of... Board Games! Day 22: It's coming up / It's coming up / It's coming up / It's coming up / It's coming up / It's coming up

Dan Dare! Pilot of the Future! uture uture uture uture Hero and champion to all British kiddies the United Kingdom world over! But despite some decent attempts (by Grant Morrison and Garth Ennis) at publishing him in America (by, of all disparate comics companies, Fantagraphics and Virgin), Mister D. has never become the cult hero here in these here United States the way he is in England. We tend to prefer our own homegrown iconic, ultrapopular space heroes like Harry Broderick, Shane Vansen, Dan Holland, William "Hawk" Hawkins, Dylan Hunt, Joel Robinson and William Anthony Rogers. Maybe it's just that Dan Dare didn't have his own annoying robot sidekick voiced by Mel Blanc! I'd get on that problem right now, Fleetway. Or perhaps the BBC could jumpstart interest in "Biggles in Space" by commissioning a television or movie series, probably starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Dan, James Corden as his batman Digby, Greg Davies as Colonel Wilf Banger, Alex Kingston as Professor Peabody, Jon Langford as the Mekon, and some CGI as the good ship Anatasia. I do believe I've just started writing some Dan Dare BBC fan fiction. And of course, the signature tune could be that Elton John classic track "Dan Dare (Pilot Of The Future)!"


Or, y'know, we could just all get to know Dan Dare a little better simply by sitting down around a table of the future and playing his game.

"Dan Dare: Journey to Venus" from Eagle Annual 1986 (IPC Magazines Ltd., 1986); creators unknown
(Click picture to dare-to-compare-size)

Here's the too-complicated-for-their-own-good instructions for getting to the apparently twin planets of Venus and Venus II:


Dare!
(Ah-ahhhh!)
Pilot of the futureverse!
Dare!
(Ah-ahhhh!)
He'll save every one of us!