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

• Somewhere along the way in this multi-parter, I mentioned that there were two Insect Man stories in That's Entertainment's "inventory" which I didn't write. The first appeared in Insect Man #103. It was written, penciled, inked, and lettered by Chris Coleman. The story played off of the plot point where Greg Nile had lost his arm. Insect Man encountered a one-armed Vietnam vet.

A guy on the far right of the above panel lowers the window shade, giving us one of

the greatest sound effects ever, thanks to Chris Coleman. "Pull." Pull! Gotta love it.

Of course, by this time, I had come up with a much simpler version of that convoluted epic I'd originally envisioned for my follow-up to the "Fractured SKULL" storyline. And I must add that the development of this new story was greatly aided by Ken Carson. He and I would end up being co-plotters for the entirety of what became known as "The Funnel Effect."

And although the main stories in Insect Man #103 and #104 weren't scripted by me, Ken and I managed to insert a couple of "Funnel Effect" teasers at the end of each issue. Here's the first:

That upcoming "If God hangs up, do you get your dime back?" title was
only a joke, by the way. It was just a line that I liked, and decided to use.

Insect Man #104 contained a stand-alone story by W.W. Bird, a story in which Insect Man receives a letter from a woman named Aliethia. I read the name "Aliethia" and said to myself, That's got to be a made-up name! (But then  again, aren't they all?) So, I looked it up, just a couple of weeks ago. It is a real name! My apologies to Bill Bird.

W.W. Bird penciled the cover to IM #104. It was inked by Ken Carson.

Except for the framing sequence, Bill's story took place in the 1970s. Insect Man meets a woman named Aliethia, who is being stalked by a mercenary named Silver Fox (No relation to Yours Truly!).
 

By the way, I have absolutely no idea why W.W. Bird wrote SKULL as "S.K.U.L.L."

Bill decided to stick in the above subtle indication that Insect Man and Aliethia had slept together, but it was the following scene, where Silver Fox shows up, that presented a problem. Rex was originally naked while fighting Silver Fox. Even though Bill had drawn the scene more-or-less discreetly, it seemed silly and unnecessary. Paul had Bill retouch the artwork to add a uniform.

Insect Man was wounded by Silver Fox and ended up on the floor, at the mercy of the villain. Luckily for Rex, however, the Silver Fox who was after Aliethia was actually a pretender to the throne, so to speak. Aliethia was the original, "real" Silver Fox.

And once again, Ken and I contributed a teaser for the upcoming "Funnel Effect."

I  took "Jack Keller" from the name of an old comic book artist, and then expanded it to "Jacob Kellerman."

Did you notice this stained glass window, fellow babies?

Yep, it's Insect Man's good ole alien buddy, Hur-Bi.

Hm. A phone book listing for Michael Mason, not  Rex Mason? Well, y'see, it was planned by Ken Carson and myself to establish that "Rex" was only a nickname. Why change the name after over twenty years? Well, ever since DC Comics' The Brave and the Bold #57 (Dec 1964-Jan 1965), there had been a superhero called Metamorpho, the Element Man. And Metamorpho's real name was Rex Mason. 

Metamorpho had his own series for a while in the 1960s, and had made several guest appearances here and there over the years, but he was never incredibly popular. However, in mid-1983, DC introduced a new team title called Batman and the Outsiders, and as it happened, Metamorpho was prominently featured in that group.

By the time 1985-1986 rolled around, Paul Howley had been talking about the idea of publishing a "real" Insect Man comic book, so Ken and I thought we should steer away from using "Rex Mason."

I even had a really cool story in the back of my mind as to why, after a lifetime of being called "Rex," the newly-rechristened Mike Mason stopped using his childhood nickname. But this was yet another story which never even got scripted.

You see, unfortunately, Ken and I did not run our little decision to change IM's name past Paul Howley himself, who 1. owned the character and 2. published the book!

Oops.

Now, I can honestly say that, as an editor, Paul was incredibly easy to work with. (And I'd say that even if he wasn't going to read this. Which he is.) With Paul in charge, every one of us who submitted stuff for Insect Man or Insect Man's Weird Tales could do anything we wanted to do...

...except when we couldn't, like in the naked fight scene example above.

Paul said he wanted Insect Man to keep the name of Rex, as Paul was a fan in his childhood of a Boston-area TV cowboy named Rex Trailer. I was too, for that matter.

So, how did Ken and I handle that...?

To Be Continued.

Thanks for your time. Heh.

Insect Man, Insect Man's Weird Tales, and all related characters and titles are copyright © Paul B. Howley.