Suckers

 

I think Andrew Bennett (I…Vampire) was the first non-evil vampire that I’ve encountered in any form of fiction. I never really followed his exploits, but would see a story or two when I would purchase House of Mystery when it catches my fancy.

Gustav Decobra, on the other hand, stuck with me. Because his first (and only pre-Crisis) appearance in Detective Comics is one of the earliest comic books that I remember reading.

Warriors Three

Shogun Qualikomiks, much like every other comic book in the Philippines back in their heyday, was an anthology containing mostly Japanese martial arts action stories.

Japanese Bat (by Hal Santiago) and Judoka Warriors (by Vicatan) were two separate features that I decided to team-up for this cover. Japanese Bat was just basically Batman in Japan, and Judoka Warriors was about two secret agents, a Japanese and a Filipino, who join forces to track down stolen Imperial treasures that were smuggled into the Philippines.

The Dynamic Do-over

 

Out with the old, in with the… old? Powerman and Owlman, as far as I know, made one appearance each. Well, Powerman made two if you count the time his story was reprinted in the Bronze Age. Powerman was a robot built by Superman to fool Batman and Robin into not helping him out on a case because he thought it was too dangerous for them. Owlman, on the other hand, was Robin who was artificially accelerated into adulthood by fumes from a box that Superman found in outer space. So, yeah, it’s your typical Silver Age shenanigans from the World’s Finest team.

Santa’s Baby?

 

I really hope people get the joke in this post. 😁 Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, whichever you prefer!

Alison’s Blare

 

Would Dazzler have been more successful if the planned multimedia venture between Marvel and Casablanca Records had pushed through? I wonder who would have played Dazzler in real life? They would also have needed to sing her songs. What would the songs have sounded like?

Marvel would apply the same tactic again a decade later with Nightcat. But that failed miserably. So maybe Dazzler’s future wouldn’t have been too different, after all?

Hawk Two… Ah!

 

No other DC character has been screwed up more post-Crisis than Hawkman. I have never been interested in the character until I gave the 2002 series (by Geoff Johns and Rags Morales) a shot. Johns successfully cleaned up the mess, in my opinion.

On another note, I find the Zuggernaut to be quite funny. It’s clearly a blatant rip-off of a Xenomorph in appearance, plus the name is just Juggernaut with a Z, which makes no sense.

KatDog

 Pilipino Funny Komiks (or just simply Funny Komiks) was the staple for Filipino kids growing up in the late 1970s up until the 1990s or even until the early 2000s.

Superkat and Superdog were two of their most famous characters, although the Superkat serial ended before the Superdog one began, so they never really got the chance to crossover with one another. I remember Superkat would often fight various evil giant robots, since it came out at the time when Japanese Super Robot anime was very popular in the Philippines.

With Sword and Lance

 

It’s amusing in comics how wearing a blonde wig alters your appearance so much that people can’t tell it’s you when you remove it, like in the case of Black Canary who’s a natural brunette.

But I guess it’s the same conceit that lets Superman hide behind a pair of glasses, or Oliver Queen with his distinctive facial hair hide behind a tiny domino mask.

G Spotting

 

These two licensed properties overlapped at Marvel for a few months, but it was a missed opportunity not to have them cross over with each other. Maybe if Marvel had held onto the Godzilla license for a while longer, we would have gotten it. Or maybe not, if Toho or Mattel had any objections.

Men in Black

 I think most people like the yellow and black outfit for the Black Hood, but for me personally I like this design better. And I just realized while drawing this that his mask must have taken inspiration from Diabolik. On the other hand, I prefer the Fox with his yellow emblem on his chest. The all-black outfit that Red Circle used in the 1980s looked too plain.