Lost Marvels Vol 1: Tower Of Shadows Review

 

 

Writers: Jim Steranko, Johnny Craig, Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich, Neal Adams, Len Wein, Gary Friedrich, Allyn Brodsky, Marve Wolfman, Tom Sutton, Dennis O'Neil, Wally Wood, Gerry Conway, Steve Skeates
Artists: Jim Steranko, Johnny Craig, John Buscema, Don Heck, Dan Adkins, John Verpoorten, Neal Adams, Gene Colan, Joe Gaudioso, George Tuska, Dan Adkins, Tom Sutton, Barry Smith, Wally Wood, Syd Shores, Vince Colletta, John Verpoorten, Mike Esposito, Marie Severin,
Letterer: Artie Simek, Jean Izzo, Sam Rosen
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Price: $34.99
Release Date: April 29, 2025

In the late 1960s, Marvel faced competition from an unexpected direction. The horror comics buried by the Comics Code Authority had risen from the grave. DC Comics was testing the waters with House Of Mystery and House Of Secrets. Could Marvel revive readers' interest in the shocking and scandalous medium without provoking the public outrage that eventually buried EC Comics? Let's grab our crucifixes and garlic, leap into Lost Marvels Vol 1: Tower Of Shadows, and find out!

At The Stroke Of Midnight
Lou Fowler has inherited his uncle's mansion. His wife is anxious to lay her hands on his uncle's riches. But when Lou visits late at night, he and his wife find more than they bargained for. Jim Steranko's haunted house tale about greed ponders how far we will go for love. His numerous panels and highly detailed art reveal Lou's misery, Marie's avarice, and the gothic splendor of a mansion that evokes the Dark Shadows TV series.

From Beyond The Brink
With creditors on his back, Arthur Watson yearns to finish his biography of Hayden Hathaway. The weather-beaten reporter attends Madame Angelica's séance with the famous debunker. Hayden expresses the same hunger as Arthur to uncover the truth. After seeing his ancestors, Hayden searches for technological trickery. But Hayden and Arthur discover something far more interesting. Like Jim Steranko, Johnny Craig reminds us of the financial strain of one-income families. His traditional layouts and storm-tossed introduction suggest the drama to come.

A Time To Die
Arthur hates Sebastian Scrogg, who works on a formula for immortality. Sebastian makes Arthur his slave and despises the man for allowing him to belittle him. Stan Lee ponders abusive relationships while transforming a search for immortality into a race against time.

John Buscema and Don Heck fill Stan Lee's story with all the elements that suggest the name Tower Of Shadows. A winding staircase leads from the laboratory to a grand hall with a roaring fireplace. Portraits and paintings dwarf the men in the old manor house. Sebastian studies an aged tome before an ornate clock. The men carry candles from room to room, defying the darkness. Arthur's eyes simmer as he adjusts Sebastian's scientific equipment and helps his master into his coat. While storms rage across Sebastian's face, Arthur's expressions seem etched in stone. The resolution seems a fitting fate for a man seemingly immune to Sebastian's hurtful words.

Witch Hunt: Story
Winston Tate produces Weird Secrets, a soap opera that airs five days a week. He clutches newspapers, storms into his office, and sacks his writer for poor reviews and falling ratings. But then Winston reads the writer's notes about improving the show in Lost Marvels Vol 1: Tower Of Shadows. When Winston flies to Europe, his discovery seems to confirm the writer's assertion that witches hold more popular appeal than monsters. But every discovery comes at a price. While Roy Thomas exploits Winston's bloated ego for humor, Don Heck and Dan Atkins fuel Winston's search for a star with furious action, frightening characters, and people who don't cower before the mighty TV producer.

Automation's Gonna Get You
More than the ground hangs over Jake Wyatt. He punishes and fires conscientious, less productive miners. Yet he ignores safety precautions to protect people's jobs. Like Baroness Emma Orczy and Charlotte Brontë, Gary Friedrich pits the working class against job-threatening automation. His story warns us how easily we can become the thing we fear. John Buscema and John Verpoorten deliver a tense atmosphere, action, and a reminder of the dangerous conditions miners face.

One Hungers
The struggle for power and belonging extends back into prehistory in Neal Adams' story. After others chase a man into a cave, he stays there for ages, hungering for release. In the 1960s, Denny and Shiela, adorned with flowers, bellbottoms, and long hair, venture into a deserted house with a guitar. As this story echoes the Shadow House in Jim Steranko's tale, the lonely caveman becomes something else. Still, it waits for a return to the world. Neal Adams' diagonal layouts show silhouettes bounding across boulders and through a subterranean waterfall. Energy surges through Denny and Shiela's fright as they seek to avoid the entity in the haunted house.

The Moving Finger Writhes
His wife's unhappiness with her plight drives Harry Swann outside. When Harry notices a bookstore, he goes inside to prove that he can broaden his "Edjication." In Len Wein's story, Harry is a loyal worker who wants to relax at the end of the day. But like Lou Fowler in Jim Steranko's story "At The Stroke Of Midnight," the couple live in an era when wives mind the house and family, forcing the husband to be the sole breadwinner.

Gene Colan portrays Harry as a browbeaten husband with just a tuft of hair on his bald pate to remind him of his youth. Impassioned Ethel seems physically stronger. The apartment building towers above Harry as he descends the stairs. Signs hang over the sidewalk as he trudges along, hands in pockets. He gazes up at the buildings or down at the concrete. What he finds in the bookstore frightens him. His discovery drives future events much like an episode of The Twilight Zone.

Midnight in the Wax Museum:
Ryan Carter edits his high school newspaper. Anxious for news, he cannot believe his luck when an old house appears on an empty lot in the street. While Stan Lee channeled Frankenstein's desperate search for life after death and the monster's rage against his creator in A Time To Die, George Tuska populates Gary Friedrich's story with movie monsters like Dracula, Igor, and Frankenstein's monster. This story in Lost Marvels Vol 1: Tower Of Shadows employs the set pieces of horror to serve a science fiction plot with a humorous ending.  

Evil is a Baaaad Scene
Sue and Gary await the sorcerer Brother Alistar. But while Gary sits on the floor and strums his guitar, Sue worries over his occult practices. As Brother Alistar draws a pentagram on the floor, Gary thinks of Dark Shadows. Allyn Brodsky captures the 1960s New Age obsession with the occult. His tongue-in-cheek supernatural satire skewers hippy culture with Sue and Gary's dialogue. Don Heck portrays Brother Alister as a man driven to asceticism by his era's fascination with bright colors, loud prints, flowers, jewelry, and pop culture.

One Little Indian
Instead of feeling beholden to his friend for helping him get ahead, Mike Royal is determined to bankrupt Peter Lester. While the men dine in a restaurant, a gypsy sashays over to their table to tell their futures. Lola proclaims that Mike will die near an Indian. After dismissing her warning, Mike begins to obsess about Indians. Marv Wolfman ponders how the struggle for success can make one forget what's important. Gene Colan and Dan Adkins channel the 1960s popularity of Western movies and TV shows to show how one comment drives Mike to madness.

To Sneak Perchance To Scream
Friedor and his glorious leader visit a mansion from a story in Marvel's sister publication, Chamber Of Darkness #1. Dennis O'Neil's narration sympathizes with the house as the visitors use its grand staircases, cobwebbed chandeliers, and arched stone basement as a base for villainy. The duo's dialogue evokes Masterspy and Zarin from Gerry Anderson's 1960s supermarionation TV series Supercar. Tom Sutton reverses the characters' appearances, portraying the leader as a short man with big glasses and a hulking monster as an Igor-like helper. Once again, To Sneak Perchance To Scream uses the set pieces of horror to convey a humorous story. Yet it also suggests that echoes of the past remain to influence the present and haunt the living.

The Demon That Devoured Hollywood
Jason Roland will command a salary of one million dollars for his next movie. And after portraying monsters in a series of horror films, he plans to do his next movie without makeup. Roy Thomas employs a Faustian storyline with a Twilight Zone ending while utilizing the conceit that Hollywood actors create their monster makeup. Barry Windsor-Smith portrays Jason as a generous, confident host to costars and reporters in Lost Marvels Vol 1: Tower Of Shadows. Yet Jason doesn't look at an award he has won, smashes a plaster cast of one of his roles, and strikes the man behind his film success.

Flight Into Fear
In Wally Wood's story, girls avoid paralyzed Johnny. Remembering his abilities before his accident, Johnny climbs on a gargoyle statue. He wakes as the gargoyle flies over a castle attacked by a sorcerer. Knocked unconscious again after falling within the castle grounds, Johnny awakens to rise as a giant among the people. Not only can he walk. He can run and fight like a noble warrior. Wally Wood's story reminds us to protect others lest fear dictate our actions.

Time Out
Rick and Diana Mason drive through the rain to visit her uncle's séance. While Diana nags him about being late, she mourns the love they once shared. Despite her uncle's ultimatum, Rick stops at a mansion to escape the storm. Diana wonders why she's never seen this house before. Gerry Conway's story starts with a bang, as Syd Shores shows the couple driving through a storm late at night. The narrator's introduction increases the tension before the looming deadline, while the house evokes The Avengers TV show's fascination with the occult, and stories like "The House That Jack Built."

The Ghost-Beast
As Beowulf and his Vandals prepare to attack the gleaming towers of Vanaria, one of their scouts goes mad. Beowulf wears a hooded cape, boots, and a loincloth as he frees a maid in a dress tied to a tree. Like Perseus confronting Medusa, Beowulf shields his eyes to avoid madness as he fights the Ghost-Beast. Wally Wood's second story in Lost Marvels Vol 1: Tower Of Shadows contemplates the lust for power. After riding beneath the raised iron gates of the stone castle, Beowulf stands before a king and princess attired in finery. Yet a statue of a crouching creature evokes the Ghost-Beast he fought and promises more battles to come.

Contact
In Tom Sutton's humorous two-page story, Howard uses a radio guidance beam to welcome aliens to Earth. Howard's house on a cliff above a raging sea evokes the Collins mansion in the 1960s TV series Dark Shadows. The conclusion recalls Terry Gilliam's animated sketches on Monty Python's Flying Circus, which debuted the same year as Tower Of Shadows.

The Scream From Beyond
Matthew Millaneous loves capturing the sounds of death with his tape recorder in Lost Marvels Vol 1: Tower Of Shadows. He hopes to make money from his hobby. As he replays his orchestrated disasters, an annoying sound detracts from the purity of his recordings. Gene Colan portrays Matthew as an Igor-like figure in Steve Skeates' story. Matthew lurks in the shadows with buck-toothed glee amid rapid action and spectacular explosions.

The Scream Of Things
After years in the United States, Professor Emery returns to England. Fascinated by stories about Wollaston Hedge, he travels to the village to investigate the two-hundred-year-old curse. Lem Harris, the bartender at the Boar and Hart House, warns him of the dangers of investigating curses. But young Ginny Sutton, anxious to escape the village, agrees to aid the professor's investigations in Lost Marvels Vol 1: Tower Of Shadows.

While Allyn Brodsky's lyrical intro welcomes you to this timeless village, Barry Windsor-Smith shows a face trapped in the windows of a manor house. When Professor Emery and Ginny Sutton visit the grounds, topiaries reveal more giant faces. A framed oval portrait overlays Wollaston House, while a historical reenactment portrays the savage actions of a man intent on acquiring supernatural power. The result is a story steeped in history like Dark Shadows or the Hammer horror films.

Of Swords And Sorcery
Wally Wood's third story in Lost Marvels Vol 1: Tower Of Shadows features a human barbarian, an elf, and a dwarf cursed by a wizard. It also features a dispossessed princess and a villain with a transformative stare. Wally Wood combines these traditional set pieces to craft another heroic adventure that evokes classic stop-motion fantasies like The Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad.

Sanctuary
Wally Wood's fourth story in Lost Marvels Vol 1: Tower Of Shadows introduces a warrior-king. After conquering Cybernia, an ancient Druid king's spirit haunts him. Nor can Hamand shake a prophecy of death and disaster. Obsessed with protecting himself against threats to his rule, the conqueror becomes a captive to fear in his grand castle.

Wally Wood clothes Hamand in chainmail from head to toe. After conferring with a court magician dressed in a pointed hat and robe, Hamand strides into a subterranean tomb. The ancient vaulted halls and the throne room, guarded by skeletons and skulls, make Hamand's new castle look featureless by comparison.

Coloring, Lettering, and Bonus Material
These stories, produced at the end of the Silver Age, showcase the glories and limits of the four-color process. The uppercase lettering emboldens for intonation, swells for emotion, and rarely shrinks. The sound effects enhance the terror of the stories. Photographs of the creators accompany an introduction that explains the era and the thinking behind the series. Lost Marvels Vol 1: Tower Of Shadows closes with an extensive summary of the creators' lives and careers.
 
Final Thoughts
While Lost Marvels Vol 1: Tower Of Shadows conveys the challenges facing horror comics in 1969 and 1970, it also reveals the creators' fascination with fantasy. When no one seemed pleased with Digger and Headstone P Gravely, the creators popped into the art to introduce and conclude each story, before abandoning the device of a Rod Serling or Creep-like narrator.

Despite Stan Lee's hunger for horror, the creators struggled to deliver three original stories each month. While adapting two H.P. Lovecraft stories, Marvel supplemented later issues with old Atlas Comics reprints. The original tales in this volume help readers understand why Tower Of Shadows transformed into Creatures on the Loose for its tenth issue. While restrictions hampered horror creators' visions, the fantasy field, nurtured by Robert E Howard, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Ray Harryhausen, imposed no limitations on comic writers and artists' imaginations. Thanks to Fantagraphics for providing a copy for review.

Rating: 9.8/10