Fantagraphics, once again, steps up to create an archive of forgotten work with Lost Marvels No. 1: Tower of Shadows. Collecting the nine issues of Marvel’s 1969 series, this volume offers a look at early, post-Comics Code Authority horror comics, long out of print, by some of classic comics’ most celebrated names.
Fantagraphics/Marvel
The Comics Code had all but done away with the gruesome affect of horror in American comic books, effectively bankrupting EC Comics, whose books (including Tales from the Crypt) relied heavily on schlock and monsters. By the end of the 1960s, however, as the Authority’s restrictions began to loosen, Marvel Comics famously attempted to break through with science and sci-fi workarounds like Morbius, the Living Vampire and the space-rock transformed Man-Wolf.
Fantagraphics/Marvel
Tower of Shadows was a much more direct return to the horror of comics past: an anthology book like the classic EC books, the series even began with a ghoulish and cartoonish Crypt Keeper-like narrator, a gravedigger named (fittingly) Digger (who later became an Earth-616 character). While Digger didn’t stick around – mid-series stories are introduced by their creators – the variety of stories stick firmly to the ‘gotcha’ style of storytelling made famous by their EC forebears: contrived setups lead to ironic twists again and again.
What makes Tower of Shadows special isn’t its stylistic similarities to the classics, however, so much as its impossibly stacked creative roster. A veritable who’s-who of groundbreaking classic Marvel talent crafts the shorts presented here, from famed Tomb of Dracula team Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan to early-career Barry Windsor-Smith. This volume might be considered to be most interested in preserving these rarified outings by the talent than it is in the content of the stories themselves.
Fantagraphics/Marvel
The stories aren’t great, from a snobby narrative perspective, but then horror anthology comics rarely are: a look at Dark Horse’s prodigious EC Archive volumes provide a wealth of so-so stories crafted by masterful craftsmen. We celebrate those books for their place in the foundational firmament of the medium; they were pulp stories, intended for disposiblity, but they were too beautiful to dispose of.
These stories have a distinct Marvel Bullpen style – “Stan Lee presents a sinister cinema verite by. . .” opens one credit’s chain – and it’s exciting to consider that these comics arrived near the beginning of the Marvel era, not quite a decade after the arrival of Fantastic Four. Marvel’s second wave of creators – the young, hip Roy Thomas and company – present stories here alongside longtime industry greats like John Buscema and Don Heck. These are comics by a young new powerhouse of an imprint, nearly freshly minted.
Further, this was a Marvel constrained by distribution restrictions: they were only allowed so many titles each month. Tower of Shadows had to compete, then, with bigger, more recognizable superhero fare (which fans were eating up). It isn’t a surprise that it only lasted nine issues, regardless of the star lineup of talent. Neither Spider-Man nor the Thing appeared in the pages of Tower of Shadows; Marvel’s growing mythology gained nothing from Lee and Buscema’s mad science tale “A Time to Die” or Thomas and Windsor-Smith’s “The Demon that Devoured Hollywood!”.
Fantagraphics/Marvel
As the series went on it began to resemble Marvel’s older anthologies like Tales to Astonish: giant monster fare like “Titano! The Monster That Time Forgot!!” grace the cover of issue #7; the same story could rest alongside “Orrgo The Unconquerable!” from Strange Tales #90. Though the stories inside that issue feel fresh and unique – a swords and sorcery tale is a highlight – the book nonetheless has the appearance of losing its core identity.
On the whole, The Lost Marvels: Tower of Shadows is a worthy addition to Fantagraphics’ growing library of archival collections, a peek into a forgotten era. It’s an exciting beginning to a series with at least two more installments planned, surely to be as faithful to the originals as this one. By avoiding the modern contrivance of recoloring or cleaning up the pages, the volume feels more distinctly of its time, more genuine an artifact. It’s beautiful, even if the stories inside don’t always sing.
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