A Tribute to the of
Halloween is just around the corner, so it seems fitting to pay a visit to the House of Mystery. I've selected issue #205 from August of 1972. Cover art is courtesy of Jack Sparling and long-time editor Joe Orlando is on the job with an assist from E. Nelson Bridwell. The chosen story is called, "Over the High Side!", written by Lore Shoberg with Alan Weiss on pencils and Ralph
Reese providing inking.
Cain, our host, introduces us to one rough and tumble hombre who goes by "Dave the Buck" among his fellow biking
enthusiasts and the nickname refers to the notion that he tends to behave more
like a renegade stag in his dealings with women and rivals.
"The Buck" is quick to enforce respect toward anyone particularly showing any interest in his current woman. She asks if he meant he'd tackle anyone for her and he reassures her that he'd take on the devil himself. To further prove his adoration he and his biker babe mount up to take in a wake for a friend who went over the high side, riding his bike right over a cliff on Demon's Road. Before they can make their destination, however, Dave and his woman encounter another biker with a horned helmet, who
flies up on them, kicks the side of the Buck's steel steed and takes off,
leaving an enraged Dave with a shaken but unharmed rider and a dumped bike.
The Buck is persuaded by his lady to go on to the wake and once there they celebrate the death of their comrade, putting away the brew and busting a few heads when Dave spots a familiar horned
helmet in the parking lot. The biker
rides up and literally throws down the gauntlet. Dave and his companion leap onto the
motorcycle and give chase, but once he follows his quarry around a bend, the
other biker vanishes, only to reappear behind him. More determined than ever to put this
stranger in his place, Dave puts his motorcycle through some death-defying
acrobatics, leaping fences and canyons and being matched on each feat. Finally, the helmeted biker catches up
to the speeding Dave and when "The Buck" sees the face of his adversary it
causes him to panic and to crash through the highway railing and over the steep
embankment into the water. In the next
panel, Dave's girlfriend is on the back of the other bike, the horned helmet on
her head. "Oh wow! This guy must really dig me!" The other
biker still has horns and some
pointy ears as features and Cain closes out the story suggesting that mortals
brag at the wrong time and the wrong people sometimes overhear them. This was kind of a fun little 7-pager
and I got a kick out of one panel where we see the back of Dave's vest adorned
with "Alan's Angels". A little tip of
the hat to our penciler, I imagine.
Some of you may recall several month
ago when I reviewed House of Secrets #100 and posed the question if anyone knew
anything about the writer of the story, Lore Shoberg. Well,
thanks to Darci of the Yahoo SA_GA group and
particularly Sharon Karibian, who did the detective work, I was able to locate
Lore and persuade him to give me an interview. Then an interesting series of events
led me to pitch it to Michael Eury for his splendid Back Issue magazine and he
thought it would fit in well with the Halloween issue. Unfortunately, last year's Halloween issue
was already in the can, so this one has been a while in coming to fruition, but
you can read it in issue #52, which hits the distribution channels on the 26th. For a mere $2.95 the digital edition is available where the hard copy is not and of course its chock full of stuff
besides my humble effort.
The preview can be found HERE.
Ordering information is at the end and if you like what you see, by all means, order yourself a copy and let me know
what you think.
Sorry for the teaser, but with any luck you'll find it worth your while.
Thanks for spending time with us here at the Silver Lantern and a Happy Halloween to one and all! As a quick reminder, I can always be
reached at: professor_the@hotmail.com
Long live the Silver Age! This feature was created on 05/01/00 and is maintained by B.D.S.
2000-2011 by B.D.S.
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