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1974-08-01 00:05:30
Previous:
Hulk #180-182
Up:
Main

1974 / Box 8 / EiC: Roy Thomas

Next:
Giant-Size Man-Thing #1

Tales of the Zombie #3

Issue(s): Tales of the Zombie #3
Cover Date: Jan 74
Title: "When the gods crave flesh!"
Credits:
Steve Gerber - Writer
Pablo Marcos - Penciler
Pablo Marcos - Inker

Review/plot:
This Zombie story begins with a parallel between the Zombie, Simon Garth, who realizes that rain no longer has meaning for him...

...and his daughter Donna, for whom rain is, erm, very special indeed.

Uhhhh....?

Despite his lack of emotions, the Zombie finds that he still needs to eat, so he devours a snake that he dispassionately killed earlier when it attacked him.

As for our main plot, we meet a down-on-his-luck film maker named Bruce Mason. His wife Moira is a piece of work.

Holy crap!

The Masons have come to Haiti because Anton Cartier (the guy that is taking care of Donna Garth and holding on to the secret that her father has become a zombie) had promised to help Bruce make a film about voodoo. Cartier gets the Masons into a voodoo ceremony...

...but with the promise that they won't film the event, because of that yadda yadda about films stealing souls. But Moira isn't going to let superstitious natives hold back her husband's career, so she films the ceremony anyway, and gets turned into a dessicated husk for her trouble.

Bruce nearly agrees to sacrifice himself to bring back his henpecking wife, but for some reason Simon Garth is drawn to the sounds of the voodoo ceremony, and he attacks to prevent Bruce from sacrificing himself.

Donna sees and recognizes her now-zombie father during his rampage.

Simon then takes Moira to the shore and mercy-kills her.

In a set up for next issue's story, a derelict named Phillip finds the portion of the Amulet of Damballah that was dropped by the heroin addict in Tales of the Zombie #1.

In addition to the first part of a Chris Claremont text story (that i couldn't finish) and Don McGregor's review of the film Night of the Living Dead, there is a story called "Net Result", drawn by Tony DiPreta, which is surely a reprint but there's no information given in the issue and it also seems to have stumped the usual online sources (UHBMCC, GCD). Here's the awesome ending:

There's also "I won't stay dead!", a reprint from Journey Into Mystery #12, an original (non-Marvel universe) story called "Jilimbi's word" by Doug Moench and Enrique Badia Romero, and a story by Tony Isabella and Vicente Alcazar that is an interesting curiosity. The story, "Warrior's Burden" is about an "Eternal warrior" whose first name was Gilgamesh but has since had so many that he has sometimes forgotten them all.

That sounds a lot like the Eternal named Gilgamesh, aka the Forgotten One. This story is published two years earlier than Jack Kirby's Eternal series, let alone later revelations about Gilgamesh, but it's an interesting coincidence that i'm surprised hadn't been picked up on.

In this story he fights a dragon...

...to rescue a maiden that turns out to be a demon that lures warriors to their doom, and given the nature of this magazine, his eternal status is given a zombie-ish spin, but it's all vague enough that you could pretend that this is the Eternal.

The MCP does list this Gilgamesh as a character and has another appearance for him in Marvel Preview #12 (which i don't have).

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

  • The Zombie's decision to save Bruce Mason includes a flashback to the Zombie's origin from Tales of the Zombie #1.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Essential Tales of the Zombie vol. 1

Inbound References (1): show

  • Tales of the Zombie #9

Characters Appearing: Anton Cartier, Bruce Mason, Ciceron, Donna Garth, Katanya, Phillip Bliss, Zombie (Simon Garth)

Previous:
Hulk #180-182
Up:
Main

1974 / Box 8 / EiC: Roy Thomas

Next:
Giant-Size Man-Thing #1

Comments

Weird thing about that "Net Result" story- when I was a kid my mom get me a book of horror stories- there was a similar story about a kid that collected moths being pinned himself by the moths. Someone else asked about it here:
http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/39393/short-story-book-one-story-about-a-teenage-boy-moth-collector

Posted by: Michael | January 18, 2015 4:42 PM

"Net Result" appears to be a reprint of "The Man with the Net" from Adventures into Terror #16 - https://www.comics.org/issue/202475/ - both are 5 page stories by Tony DiPreta - Like Michael I also recall reading a similar story years ago as a kid, but in my case I can no longer recall any details. For instance I can't even remember if I read it in a comic or as a text story, I just remember the story itself.

Posted by: Holt | February 3, 2018 9:23 PM




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