Tentacle Tuesday: The Menace of the Mechanical Octopus

« The tentacles of my followers shall seek you out and destroy your swiftly! »

If you like joyous nonsense, this post is for you! As if humanity wasn’t besieged enough by actual cephalopods, evil-but-brilliant minds insist on creating machines with tentacles to horrify and maim. Pain to some, amusement for us!

First, some definite eye candy. The following story is not only convincingly illustrated, but also makes some sense on a scientific basis. The Menace of the Mechanical Octopus was scripted by Ed Herron, and pencilled and inked by Jack Kirby. It was published in Word’s Finest Comics no. 97 (October 1958).

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Now we move on to that goofy-yet-fun series, DC’s House of Mystery. I will readily admit that I’m not always a fan. At worst, some of the stories published within its pages have plots so random that amusement becomes irritated incredulity. But keep an open mind, and there are also very creative (sometimes “were these people on drugs?” creative) plots to be enjoyed and great art to be relished.

The cover story, The Pirate Brain, was illustrated by Lee Elias:

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Our next stop concerns Robby Reed, the original owner of the Dial H for Hero gizmo, and his epic (of course) battle with… well, a whole bunch of villains. House of Mystery no. 156 (January 1966) is where he made his début, transforming into the Cometeer, Giantboy and the Mole. So many adventures, all in one (half) issue! This story was scripted by Dan Wood and illustrated by Jim Mooney:

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From Giantboy we move on to Colossal Boy, more precisely to Colossal Boy’s One-Man War, scripted by Jerry Siegel, pencilled by Curt Swan, and inked by Sheldon Moldoff. It was published in Adventure Comics no. 341 (February 1966).

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Skipping ten years ahead, we end up in Marvel territory –

Amazing_Adventures_31-Killraven — **Amazing Adventures no. 31** (July 1975). The cover is by **Philip** **Craig Russell** with modifications by **John Romita**; the letters are by **Gaspar Saladino**.

The cover story, The Day the Monuments Shattered, is scripted by Don McGregor and illustrated by P. Craig Russell:

Amazing_Adventures_31-TheDaytheMonumentsShattered-CraigRussell — Not Russell’s best work, I think we can safely say.

As a final note, here are some indubitably mechanical, yet not-quite-tentacles – a worthy addition to this post, as far as I’m concerned.

Challengers11A — **Challengers of the Unknown no. 11** (Dec 1959 – Jan 1960). Cover by **Bob Brown**, with colours and grey tones by **Jack Adler**. I love the perturbed flying dinosaur, whose hooves suggest that he has some cow ancestors.

FantasticFour-Unstable_Molecules2 — **Startling Stories: Fantastic Four – Unstable Molecules no. 2** (April 2003). The cover is by Craig Thompson.

FantasticFour-Unstable_Molecules2-2 — ***Disappearing Acts*** is scripted by **James Sturm** and illustrated by Guy Davis with assistance from James Sturm. The Vapor Girl insertions (imaginary alien escapades) are by **Robert Sikoryak**.

If you liked this post, don’t forget to visit Tentacle Tuesday: Mechanical Tentacles, too!

≈ ds

Who's Out There?

Panning the murky old print stream for the odd glimmering nugget