Ah, my love of all things horror, comic books are among them, and while I enjoy the modern day ones, complete incredible graphic and rampant gore, the classics always hold a fondness for me, perhaps where I grew up the visits to a local comic book store held the adventures of discovering another world. Often the horror comics are the lost treasure, the passion of X-men or Superman never holding any interest for this horror freak. I slightly got away with reviewing the lost works last year, hence a fresh start in reviving the passion for them the year.

Obviously from the cover one knows all too well the story and from the publisher, Marvel Comics Group (1973), and adapted from the famous thriller H.G. Wells, tallying 32-pages in length. The story of this tale is told repeatedly throughout the history of horror in multiple forms, and while I have viewed almost every version and actually read the book the focus here, to stay point with the comic. This comic series did run for 15 issues, covering Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and an adaptation of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleep Hollow, as The Headless Horseman Rides Again, by the fifth issue entered to the realm of The Living Mummy, all these classic comics, definitely sought by collectors.

The panel clearly tells the story, all the colors of this classic stay powerful, although the slight yellowing of the pages (at least of my personal copy), however research does show this common for this February issue, remember its nearly 46-years-old. The drawing artwork, occasional extends past each individual panel’s borders and gutters, and a tad blurry in a few of the designs, although the cover artist Jim Steranko gives a compelling interest for one to purchase the comic, then again he has done over 50 covers in his lifetime. However, interest in the style of the speech bubble used for the Invisible Man, when he’s truly invisible, presented in a floating manner signified by a red looping outline, although the red fill-in pencil shades outside the lines, a tad sloppy.

A pure fun side note, the ads in the comics of yesteryear are always fun to glance at, from the toys to silly products, and a journey down memory lane the ad for NBC’s Terrific Ten Saturday morning cartoons, prior to the fancy animation, ah those memories and how the comics connected with the wondrous minds of the imagination found the youth. Alas back to the story of the Invisible Man no way to not ruin the story, all horror fans know it all too well. The caption narrative helps the story along nicely and on page 19, a very good production show of the fading cat, succumbing to the chemical of invisibility as well as the action sequences, the clarity of artwork in some panels improving by the end of the story.

In the end, it’s a solid story to invest both the time and money to obtain, and the minor imperfections, are not a hindrance to the story or the enjoyment of rereading it several times over.

Issue Tagline: You Simpering Swine! So You Wanted to Know My Secret, Did You? Well, Now You Know!!