Max Riffner

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Essential Dude with Head on Fire on Motorcycle

Last year I wrote about the Essential Monster of Frankenstein, a value-packed black & white collection of the Marvel Comics series in the 70s. It was cool, but it wasn’t my two Marvel Horror Cheese favorites, Ghost Rider or Werewolf by Night.

Tomorrow, I’ll be picking up the newly published Essential Werewolf by Night. However, I’ve already picked up the Essential Ghost Rider,which was released in September. I’m having a blast with these. You get somewhere around 500 pages for about 17 bucks.

Remember last year how I wrote about Marvel getting into horror? About how the horror lines were like bizarre horror flavored super-hero fare? It is all still there, now with more cheese:

Satan is never a good alternative.

When you are this stupid, Satan goes ahead and makes your face burn off nightly on top of condemning your soul to eternal damnation. This is the brilliance of Ghost Rider. I’ve been enjoying it regardless. I have quite a few of these issues in color, but I’ve come to be really impressed with several of the artists as seen only in black and white. I’m especially impressed with Frank Robbins’ art, which was extremely not in the Marvel Bullpen house style at all. Check out this great splash page:

Click on the image for the full splash page.

Even with the cheese in spots, there are some remarkably fun comics in these Essential horror volumes (like Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Plastic Fang fun). I can’t recommend them enough.

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