In the early Seventies DC Comics self-published a bi-monthly "fan magazine" called The Amazing World of DC Comics. It featured histories and interviews, similar to The Comics Journal or Wizard but with a distinct DC "house" slant. Issues were dedicated to the Justice League, Shazam, Wonder Woman, and perhaps most famously, the Legion of Super-Heroes.
TAWoDCC #12, dated August 1976, was a follow-up to the Legion-centric issue, this time about all of DC's "future" and science fiction series. As part of the theme, an eleven paged sci-fi horror story by Mike Grell was published. In the interview with Grell in that same issue (which we re-published here) Mike says that the story was the second work assignment ever given him by DC (the first was an Aquaman back-up that appeared in Adventure Comics #435) and that this story was originally intended for Weird War Tales (a series that DC published from 1971 to 1983). No reason was given for why it was not published in that book at that time. Oddly enough, it was eventually published in that book two years later (!) in Weird War Tales #67 (Sept 1978).
I recently found my copy of The Amazing World of DC Comics #12 and re-read this story. I thought other Mike Grell fans would get a kick out of it, so here it is in all its 1974 black and white goodness. Enjoy!
This story haunted me as a child; particularly the transformation scenes. I first saw it in Weird War Tales No. 67. Many thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete