Doc Stearn: Mr. Monster - Eclipse Comics

 

I've begun the monumental task of cataloging our comics (almost as massive as out record collection) and started with a box that included, among lots of other fun stuff, my copies of the Mr. Monster series. 

In the 80', Eclipse Comics was publishing some of the most interesting'n'creative comics of the times - not quite underground but way too wacky, gory and sexy to be mainstream, with truly original - for the genre - concepts and characters. 

Mr. Monster originally appeared in two comics in the 40's that Michael T. Gilbert stumbled upon and he managed to get the copyright for the character and basically kept the costume and revamped everything else about him to manifest a camp. hero who fought horrors with plenty of humor and an insane amount of references to EC Comics, Will Eisner, B-Movies, sight gags galore and whatever else ran rampant in Gilbert's twisted mind. A fun recurring theme was the splash page's brief origin story for Doc Stearn, which changed dramatically (and ingeniously) with every issue. With the help of his curvaceous assistant, Kelly, Mr. Monster destroyed wild creatures in every issue and, at times, he hosted reprints of old-school horror strips from the likes of Basil Wolverton and plenty of others.

Fantastic artwork that explodes off the panels and runs amok, in the best of ways, through the pages and spills over the mere two dimensions that tries to contain it in traditional Will Eisner fashion. Even the lettering is artistic and creative and a work of art in and of itself.

I don't know if these stories are available in any manner these days, but they are well worth searching out, especially for vintage comic fans!