Issue(s): Tales of the Zombie #1, Menace #5 (Simon Garth story only)
Cover Date: Aug 73 / Jul 53
Title: "The altar of the damned!" / "Zombie!" / "Night of the walking dead!"
Credits:
Steve Gerber & Roy Thomas / Stan Lee / Steve Gerber - Writer
John Buscema / Bill Everett - Penciler
Tom Palmer / Bill Everett / Syd Shores - Inker

Review/plot:
The publication origin of Simon Garth, the Zombie, is i guess not very different than monsters and other characters that first appeared in Marvel's Monster Age comics, like Xemnu the Titan or the Headmen. According to the text piece in Tales of the Zombie #1, when Marvel was looking to expand its line of black & white horror magazines, Roy Thomas came across an old story in 1953's Menace #5 by Bill Everett (and Stan Lee, and while he's credited in the issue, he's not mentioned in the text piece as being involved in the story) featuring a zombie. And instead of just including it as a reprint in the new "Tales of the Zombie" magazine that Stan Lee had ordered (Zombies being big at the time because of the 1968 Night of the Living Dead film), Thomas decided to build the series around the zombie character in Everett's story, with the idea being that an ongoing story would hook readers better than a pure anthology book. But what's a little different than the likes of Xemnu is that a story (by Steve Gerber and John Buscema) was build up around the Everett reprint (with Tom Palmer inking the pre-Everett half and Syd Shores inking the latter half). And since the framing story takes place in the modern day, the reprint is also brought into the present. So that's why you'll find it sitting here in the 1970s instead of in the Monster Age.

I'll cover the story in chronological order, beginning with the Gerber/Buscema/Palmer part and then covering the Everett story from Menace #5 and then the Gerber/Buscema/Shores part. Also in this issue are some unrelated stories, some reprints, some not, but none of which have any impact on continuity. To keep the focus on Simon Garth, i'll be skipping those, but (unusually) they are included in my Essentials reprint, and for the record they are:

"Iron Head" - reprinted from Journey Into Mystery #1.
"The Thing from the bog!" - a new story by Marv Wolfman & Kit Pearson
"Mastermind" - reprinted from Chamber of Darkness #7

Ok, i can't help myself. Here's a few horribly racist panels from the "Iron Head" story.

Our Simon Garth story begins with a flash-forward. Simon, not yet a zombie, is held prisoner at a voodoo ritual. In addition to being allowed to use the word "zombie" instead of "zuvembie", a "benefit" of the black & white magazine line is that things can get a little more naked.

Simon is suddenly released by the voodoo queen leading the ceremony, and he flees into the swamp. We then flash back to earlier in the day (but to be clear, not to the Everett reprint). I should mention that this is all happening in the New Orleans area. We'll get to Haiti next issue.

It turns out that Simon Garth is a bit of an ass...

...and his gardener "Gyps" doesn't like it.

After Simon leaves, his daughter Donna talks to him, and during that conversation a John the Conqueroo, which is basically a voodoo form of viagra, falls out of Gyps' pocket. That's got to be pretty embarrassing.

Later, while Simon Garth proves himself to be an ass as work as well as at home...

...Donna goes for a dip in the pool. Naked, of course.

Did Donna see Gyps' John the Conqueroo and think to herself, "Hey, i guess Gyps is into sex. Maybe i'll go swimming naked to see if he'd be into sex with me."? That's certainly what Gyps thinks.

At that point Simon comes home to politely explain that he doesn't want Gyps touching his daughter even if she is walking around naked.

So later, Gyps ambushes Simon and takes him out to some voodooists who are looking for a human sacrifice. But (and this is about where we came in) it turns out that the leader of the voodoo people is Layla, Simon's secretary who appeared in the two brief panels above. Who knew that she was also a Voodooienne?

So Simon is freed, but it didn't allow him to do more than flashback to the early scenes for us. Because Gyps catches up with him and murders him. And then he remembers that in addition to human sacrifice, Voodooiennes are also into creating zombies. So he demands that Layla raise Simon from the dead as a zombie. And so she does, under duress. Interestingly, Simon's decomposition happens immediately. Normally you think zombies look rotted because they've been dead for a long time, but here it happens right away. His hair even grows out.

The long hair is actually due to the Boris Vallejo cover. They asked Vallejo to draw a cover for Bill Everett's story and he did but came back with a character with long hair in a very typical Boris Vallejo pose. Marvel pushed back on him, but Vallejo refused to relent and eventually Marvel came around to the idea of the zombie having long hair.

Also note that amulet, which allows Gyps to control the zombie. It's going to be a significant part of the character.

Ok, NOW we get to the story from Menace #5.

The Zombie is under the control of Gyps.

Gyps sends him out to get some money, and the zombie accidentally stumbles into a Mardi Gras celebration.

The Zombie fails to bring back any money, so Gyps whips him, which is thoroughly unsatisfying since the Zombie doesn't react at all.

So Gyps sends the Zombie after ""a woman I want - but she won't have me". The zombie makes it to the woman...

...but when he sees her, something snaps in him and he turns around.

He returns to Gyps and murders him.

Because it turns out that the woman was his daughter (Donna, as named in the framing story).

Interesting exercise, the way Gerber (and Thomas) were able to write in a prologue to the Everett story. The part that comes after begins with Donna identifying the body of Gyps in the morgue. Police lieutenant Sam Jagger shows Donna the half of the medallion that Gyps was holding, and when Donna touches it she feels an inexplicable connection to her missing father. Jagger lets her keep the medallion, against police protocol.

With Donna's touch, Simon Garth rises from his grave and begins to make his way to her. On the way he's attacked by a pair of dogs, and we begin to see the similarity between the Zombie and another character associated with Steve Gerber, the Man-Thing. Both are pretty much mindless and immune to pain. So Garth pretty much ignores the dogs hanging off of him until they actively get in his way.

Meanwhile, Donna is mugged by a heroin addict and her medallion is taken. So the Zombie winds up going to the mugger instead of Donna, and kills him.

And that's it for this issue. The Zombie is certainly an innovative and menacing character...

...and there are subtle differences between him and Man-Thing that we'll look at in future issues.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - first Zombie (Simon Garth)

Chronological Placement Considerations: The scene of Simon Garth walking through Mardi Gras, from Menace #5, will also be shown in a promotional cameo in an otherwise unrelated story in Dracula Lives #2. The MCP has that Dracula Lives story circa Tomb of Dracula #22, but it actually has to take place earlier than that since Dracula Lives #4 ties in with Werewolf By Night #16-19 while Tomb of Dracula #17-18 ties in with Werewolf By Night #15.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Essential Tales of the Zombie vol. 1

Garth's a jerk but he was well within his rights to beat up Gyps. Gyps had no qualms about watching Donna naked and she clearly didn't like him touching her when she had nothing on but a towel. Plus, the fact that he later DOES try to kidnap her makes me think he probably would have raped her then and there if Garth hadn't intervened.

Its been awhile since i read my tales of the zombie essential. Is there anything that connects to the MU? I remember it being pretty separate. Also interesting that they changed Donna from a dark, curly brunette in the 53 story to a willowy blonde in the 74 redo. I guess just changing fashions.

i figured they made Simon a jerk so we'd not feel so sorry when her got sheared (a pretty grisley death).

You may remember that the Essentials trade included the story from Dracula Lives #2 with Dracula meeting Marie Laveau. The story, which was published the same month as this issue, showed Simon Garth in the crowd at Mardi Gras, in what i assume was meant to be an overlap with the scene from Menace #5. The Dracula story is otherwise unrelated to the Zombie (and i'll cover it when i get to my Dracula Essentials) but his inclusion there showed that he lives in the same world with Dracula.

That said, at this point i don't think Dracula was really shown to be part of the MU yet. His cameo in Dec 73's Avengers #118 is i think his first mainstream MU appearance.

Donna in the Menace story had to be redrawn to conform with the rest of the book, in the same way the Zombie had to be given long hair.

The Zombie was confirmed to be in the MU in the first OHOTMU Book of the Dead.

Weirdly enough, the Zombie story in the late 1982 Bizarre Adventures horror issue was not included in the Essential. The Dracula story there wasn't reprinted in the Essentials either; I'm guessing someone at Marvel just plain forgot the book existed.

Sure, I just was wondering why they didnt base Donna off the dark, curly haired girl in the original and draw her that way. That's what i meant about fashions. The 70s artists prefered to draw a blonde obviously, so changed the original.

although the story never addressed why Donna would be living alone in a hut in the middle of a swamp after her father's death.

The first time I ever heard about "Johnny the Conqueroo" was Ol' Johnny being identified by Muddy Waters as his "second cousin" in the awe-inspiring retooled version of his classic song "Mannish Boy" from Waters' superb 1977 "comeback" album "Hard Again". This is the version heard in commercials and films like "Better Off Dead" and "GoodFellas". The Conqueroo also made an appearance in another classic Muddy tune, "Hoochie Coochie Man". Apparantly, JTC came in pretty handy for a man seeking to go "kickin' in another mule's stall".:-)

Recently I acquired a copy of the Essential Tales of the Zombie TPB. I was pleased to see that the featurettes were preserved, namely the articles on zombie and voodoo-related films with photos and sometimes interviews. This was something I recalled from reading DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU, of course along with the b&w artwork and material not meant for someone the age I was when I first read it. The film articles here include LIVE AND LET DIE, the voodoo-tinged Bond caper featuring Roger Moore's first turn as 007, Hammer's PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES featuring studio stalwart Christopher Lee, the classic early indie WHITE ZOMBIE with Bela Lugosi, and even the zombie/blaxploitation hybrid SUGAR HILL, starring horror vet Robert Quarry and Marki Bey (picture a second-division Pam Grier) in the title role.