Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Random Comic Book Splash Page: Creepy #32




"Rock God" is one of the all-time greatest comic book stories that has rarely or never been reprinted. Apparently, writer Harlan Ellison owns it, and has only allowed it to be reprinted in his 1996 Dark Horse anthology DREAM CORRIDOR QUARTERLY. This 1970 classic has a story behind it that's almost as interesting as the story itself.

As the story goes, Ellison had penned a prose story called "Rock God." Somehow, Frank Frazetta had either gotten ahold of the story from Ellison or was maybe just given a verbal synopsis, but he painted a CREEPY cover to illustrate it. Ellison then prevailed upon CREEPY publisher Jim Warren to hire Neal Adams to adapt "Rock God" in comics form. Despite what Adams' prologue says (read below), I'm pretty sure Ellison's story came before the Frazetta painting

The result appeared in CREEPY #32. It's a little obtuse, but mostly fascinating and certainly head and shoulders above the typical superhero fare in the DC and Marvel color comics of the era. Comic book historians will probably recognize Adams' use of Jim Warren's features to illustrate the corporate baddie in the story.

To point out how special "Rock God" was, Adams contributed a special one-page prologue to partially explain the story's origin.

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