Insect Asides, Part Seven ~~ A "Comical Wednesday" Post

For Insect Man's 100th anniversary issue, I wanted to do several things to shake up Rex Mason's world. I wanted a definitive close to the whole SKULL saga, which meant we'd get to see all the "bad guys" crushed in various ways. Oboy! Of course, I also had some plans for the "good guys," Insect Man's supporting cast.

The standard issue of Insect Man's Weird Tales was eight pages. I figured a "giant-size" issue #100 -- maybe twenty-four pages -- would be pretty spectacular. However, as I mentioned last time, by the time artwork started coming in from the various artists committed to draw individual chapters, many of them going above and beyond my expectations, it was clear that we were never going to fit everything in one issue.

As it had "always" been planned, IMWT #100 featured a gorgeous cover by professional artist and inker Will Blyberg. And as "promised" in issue #99's page eight advertisement, the 100th issue -- well, actually, issues #100 and #101 -- contained pencils and/or inks by everyone who'd ever drawn Insect Man!

The story began as Insect Man alumnus Chris Coleman showed Insect Man, Mr. Secret, and dozens of Counter-SKULL agents storm the gates of the SKULL stronghold, located on -- where else? -- SKULL Island, located somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. (They were let in by some double agents which Counter-SKULL had placed within the SKULL ranks during the last few months. As it turned out, there were a lot of those double agents!)

Phase Two of the attack was when airplanes overhead -- Well, where else would they be? -- began dropping Counter-SKULL parachutists onto the roof of the SKULL complex. By this time an alarm had gone off, and SKULL's nominal leader, the Mummy, had several sections of the huge building sealed off and filled with a non-lethal gas. SKULL and Counter-SKULL agents alike were knocked unconscious, including Insect Man, Mr. Secret, and Counter-SKULL head honcho Brian Harvey!.

And when Insect Man awoke from the effects of the gas, he awoke slowly, and was somewhat delirious at first. He, Mr. Secret, and Brian Harvey were tied up for interrogation by the Mummy and the real power behind SKULL, a strangely-garbed alien known only as The Bat. And it was here that IM's creator, Paul Howley, drew my scripted two-page tribute of sorts to the original 1960s and 1970s Insect Man stories.

By the way, Chapter Two's title, "Images of Heaven... That Took Me to Hell" was a line I borrowed (and changed a bit) from Peter Godwin's song "Images of Heaven." The actual line was "Just images of Heaven that take me to Hell." Not sure if any of the Insect-Maniacs (as I lovingly called the IM fans) caught it.

Paul Howley is still a better artist than I am!

I liked the "blackmailing little kid" reference. (Well, I should. I wrote it!) Kid Secret's origin, as written by Paul Howley, always reminded me of how Bucky Barnes got to be Captain America's partner.

Of course, Kid Secret's origin was probably even more like the version below, which Marvel published in a brilliant self-parody comic series called "Not Brand Echh!"

Anyhoo... Chapter Two was finished by W.W. Bird, who had drawn the Mummy's origin story in IMWT #98. Briefly, Insect Man, Mr. Secret, and Brian were able to break free, and the Mummy and the Bat escaped through a sliding panel in the wall.

Now came Chapter Three. Ohhhh, boy...

I'd drawn and lettered the "Next Issue" ad in #99 before I'd seen the actual pencils for "The Kola Konspiracy" (which I had inked as "D.W. Cranston," remember?). Unfortunately, that meant that somehow, the so-called artists from #99 would have to make some contribution to the two-part "Fractured SKULL" storyline.

And we did, in the form of what comic book people call "layouts." Layouts basically decide how the actual penciled page is -- duh -- laid out, as far as how many panels there are, who stands (or jumps... or flies...) where, how they act (or interact if there is more than one character in a panel), what scenery to show, and so forth. This meant that there was no actual artwork by either of #99's artist to worry about! That also meant that the ever-reliable Ken Carson got to pencil, ink, and letter the entire chapter. And he pretty much stuck to my layouts, naturally adding little touches of his own.

I have to provide some background info here. The bald guy with the sword is the Baron, introduced in Chris Coleman's three-part Insect Man story after Larry Young brought IM back in IMWT #88. I decided to brutally wipe him out -- the Baron, not Chris Coleman! -- and used a costumed mercenary named Scythe, co-created and owned by Holly Basiner and Frank Hunt, and introduced in the Basiner-drawn issue #94!

Ken Carson and I both liked the character, and used her more than once, with the kind permission of Holly and Frank. Don't forget, the artists and writers of the Insect Man stories were all customers of Paul Howley's store That's Entertainment, so we all came to know each other eventually. In fact, all of the IM creators (except Larry Young, I believe) attended Rex "Insect Man" Mason's 40th birthday party at my home on April 18th, 1985!

Ken and I consulted with Holly and Frank about Scythe, her background, and why such a cool character worked for scumbags like SKULL! (Her family was being threatened, as it turned out.) They told us quite a bit more about her civilian identity, her personal history, and her motivations, some of which I alluded to in the following implicitly-bloody sequence.

Next, in a chapter penciled and inked by Dan Courtney (except for the last page, inked by Chris Coleman), I decided to kill off the Mummy! When first introduced in the 1960s by Paul Howley, the Mummy was revealed to be a classmate of Greg "Kid Secret" Nile's named Alan Strest. I further elaborated on that in IMWT #98. Anyway, Greg (now Mister Secret, thank you very much) only found out the Mummy's true ID when rifling files in the Mummy's second-floor office.

Unfortunately, the Mummy showed up, a battle ensued, and the Mummy fired a ray-gun at Mr. Secret, which set poor Greg's right sleeve ablaze. Despite the intense pain, Greg proceeded to beat the crap out of the Mummy, which in turn set the Mummy's ancient wrappings on fire.

At this point I had to interrupt the "Fractured SKULL" story, which would be continued with #101. It was then that Chris Coleman provided the following advertisement, revealing how I had finally decided to deal with all non-Insect Man submissions from then on!

(By the way, I mentioned in Part Three that the white area Ken Carson placed on IM's jacket emblem turned the body of the unspecified insect into an "I.M." And I wrote that I was "pretty sure that nobody else ever drew it that way, probably because nobody else ever noticed what Ken had done." Well, I was wrong. The drawing above shows that Chris Coleman was very observant!)

Tune in next Wednesday for yet another chapter in the interminable story of the myriad thoughts behind my writing (or co-writing) of the Insect Man saga.

Thanks for your time.

Insect Man, Insect Man's Weird Tales, and all related characters and titles are copyright © Paul B. Howley.
Scythe is copyright © Holly Basiner and Frank Hunt.