Weird War Tales was one of the Bronze Age's strangest titles. It blended the DC mystery mag with the DC war comic and gave us a stiff tea that sometimes was a bit too much to drink. Not so the story "Thou Shalt Not Kill" from the eighth issue which features the Jewish legend of the Golem. As you can see, the Golem is powerful and mighty, even more mighty than the logo it looms above. Great Neal Adams cover.
In the article which comes with this story his other cover, the one rejected ultimately for his X-Men run featuring the Living Monolith is mentioned and Adams even suggested if they'd let him do that it might've save the comic. Really? Still it's a doozy.
Now the story itself is drawn by Steve Harper one of the myriad students in the Neal Adams umbrella and his work has heavy doses of Adams inks pulling it together in places. The writer is not known and Adams takes no credit in his discussion of the story. We have German soldiers going about their work of killing Jews and they come afoul of the statue of the Golem which of course they consider a myth until it rises up and crushes them. One soldier is left alive to tell the tale. It's not the strongest story by any means in the collection, but it does have a whopper of a cover.
The Golum series at Marvel might've lasted longer if the character portrayal had been as visually striking as this, but they were just cranking stuff out back then and it was weak and generic. The Golum series as described in the Adventures of Cavalier and Clay hints at how powerful the concept can be; a sort of "What if Eisner had drawn the Heap?"
ReplyDeleteI rather liked the way Tony DeZuniga drew the Golem, but as you said it was catch-as-catch-can at Marvel in those days with talent and concepts flipping every other month. Skull the Slayer is the champ in that area, as it seemed every issue brought a new vision and concept for the character.
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