10 years of Terrificon, and finally a comicbook!

For the past 10 years, Mitch Hallock has been helming Terrificon—a super-sized comicbook convention—at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, on the eastern border of Connecticut. One of the things that makes the show so successful is that Mitch is first and foremost a comicbook aficionado, and his show is most assuredly comicbook-centric, concentrating on guests who have worked in or adjacent to the field of comics. He is especially adept in booking comicbook stars from the ‘80s & ‘90s. This was especially true this year when the show released its first show-related comicbook Captain Terrificon Presents: The Scarry Squad.

The comic, written by Paul Kupperberg, with art by Pat & Tim Kennedy, inks by Barbara Kaalberg, and lettering and color by the late Mortt Todd (who passed away about a month after the show). The 24-page comic has a three-page back-up strip (Harley the Terrifidog in A Study in Mylar) by Paul with pencils by Rich Maurizio, inks and colors by Ken Weaton, and colors by Robert Snyser. Interestingly enough, this comic was aided and abetted by a supporting eight-page comic strip that appeared in the convention’s program book. This supporting comic, written by Mitch, and illustrated by George Deep, tells the origin story of Captain Terrificon.

To start with Paul’s story (which was originally intended to appear in the sadly short-lived Charlton Arrow line of comics, itself a pro/fan reboot of the late great line of Charlton Comics.) The Scarry Squad is a group of four young cosplayers who keep losing the costume contest to a different group of entitled and slightly bullyish cosplayers who keep winning. After their latest loss, the squad is majorly disheartened, especially after being teased about their continuing string of losses.

After the con, the squad not only grouses about their most recent loss—which they attribute to their lack of funds to produce winning costumes—but are further disheartened over a humiliating video of them that was uploaded by the leader of their rivals. What lifts their spirits is when their leader, Ziggy Scarry, discovers the costume of a very cool character in an old Ditko story. The discover of the Winnie the Witch character leads them to discover others, including Countess Von Bludd, Baron Wearwulf, and Mr. Bones. His sister Winnie, who is also their costumer declares that she can make the new set of costumes.

Afterwards, she and Connie Sangra go off to locate materials for the costumes, While wandering through town they discover this odd curio shop, the Arcania Boutique run by a mysterious Professor Coffin. It is in this shop that they find all of the materials that they need to construct the new set of costumes. Just as they are checking out Winnie locates Ajax, an odd golem-like plushy to which she takes a shine and keeps as well. As they walk away from the shop with their purchases, the shop itself reverts to an abandoned out-of-business location. Fully supplied with their purchases, Winnie sets about crafting a new set of costumes that the Squad then wear to the next Terrificon. When they arrive at the show, they are greeted by none other than Mitch himself, who marvels over their amazing costumes. So impressed with them that Mitch invites them into Ballroom D which houses Professor Strangelo’s House of Horror, however, just as they approach the ballroom, a hooded and robed cosplayer bursts out of the ballroom carrying the Professor’s Amulet of Cthulhu, not only is the amulet priceless, but it is claimed to be an object of great evil.

As the Squad takes off after the hooded figure, their rivals, Reid Foster’s group—not to be outdone—also take up pursuit. As both Reid and Ziggy close in on the thief, Ajax (who has mystically come to life) manages to trip the thief up causing the demonic force that possessed him to transfer to Reid. The tale winds up with the police escorting the confused thief away, Ziggy and his squad being congratulated on stopping the would-be thief, and Reid and his crew also walking off with Reid now in possession of the mystical amulet.

In the back-up tale, all of the dealers at a comic show discover that their 8.5 and higher graded comics all mysteriously reduced to dust. As Harley the Terrificdog wanders through the show, it seems that every dealer has befallen the same fate. As Mitch arrives on the scene, he discovers only one dealer, Darryl Nearmint, has any bagged/boarded/slabbed 8.5 or higher comics for sale, and he is selling them like hotcakes. However, Harley discovers that Nearmint has used a teleportation device and a mouse to swipe all of the missing comics and replace them with dust so that he would be the only dealer at the show with any high-graded comics. Needless to say, this tale also ends with the culprit being escorted out by police as Harley is being praised.

Which brings us to Mitch’s story in the program guide. Here we learn of the origin of Captain Terrificon. Kyle Kirby, a lifelong comicbook fan is cosplaying as the good captain and is headed for the Mohegan Sun to go to the Con, when he is confronted by his arch enemy, Benny the Cranky comic store owner, A.K.A. Novelty Man. Who zaps Kyle with some sort of Cosmic ray gun, throwing them both through a portal into a different dimension. This act transforms each of them into the person they are cosplaying and sets them into an epic brawl. As the two bash each other out, they wind up at the Con. The fight (and the story) ends with Novelty Man in possession of the Cosmic Comic, and Captain Terrificon changed once again.

All three comic stories are fun, engaging, and we wish that Terrificon and other major comic conventions would create comicbook tie-ins to their respective shows. Not that it actually relevant or even important, while the back-up story and the program comic were specifically created for this show, the Scarry Squad story (as already pointed out) was originally intended for a different publication. The Scarry Squad story became involved with the “magic” of a change in a couple of dialogue word balloons, as well as the addition of in-comic references to Terrificon inserted into the story. All-in-all the three stories were fun and made for a very cool piece of convention swag, especially for those of us who really love comics. Hopefully we’ll see another Terrificon comicbook next year.

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For those comic collectors and fans who are unaware of the history, Charlton was a Connecticut-based comicbook company with a publishing history that not only ran from 1944 to 1985, but through which an impressive array of legendary writers and artists got their start. Though never as popular as DC, Marvel, or even Archie, Charlton had a long run and produced a line of successful publications like. While they didn’t produce the superhero icons that other publishers did, they released a variety of titles that have become beloved by millions. When Charlton closed shop, they sold off most of their properties, (including a group of which that wound up transformed into the Watchmen), with many others left to languish in limbo. However, if anything, appreciation of those old comics and the characters that populated them, has grown over the years. 

An itsy-bitsy Spider Tale

As anyone who has been reading this blog for any period of time already knows, not only am I a huge comicbook fan, but I’m specifically a major Spider-Man fan. As it turns out, my love of Spider-Man, has morphed into an appreciation of all things spider, so yeah, over the years I found myself following most (if not all) of the spider-related characters in the Marvel Universe; Joining on-line spider-related online groups, wearing spider-themed T-shirts, and of course spider toys.

As can be expected, I’ve also been drawn to other spider characters as well these include Dell Comics Spider Queen. Given that Dell is no longer in business and their Golden Age characters are all in the Public Domain, and that I now write for InDELLible Comics (where we use Dell and other PD characters in new stories) I’m in the process of crafting a story with Spider Queen as the main character.

Needless to say, a short while ago, I came across the female spider character, Arachna from X53 Studios LLC, and backed a three-volume set of her adventures. When the comics arrived, I was very excited and set about to read all three issues.  Unfortunately, my anticipation of reading the series simply did not measure up to my actual reading of the series.

I don’t want to say that it was a bad series, what I am going to say is that I’ve come to the conclusion that I was simply not the target audience of the series. Perhaps, I might have been a couple of four decades ago, but as I age, I find that I am interested in different things. My issue is that the character, Arachna is a young, buxom female whose rogue’s gallery tends to be other young buxom women. When they fight, their clothes (as can be expected with these types of indie comics) tend to get ripped off (as often as not fully exposing them).

As I said, when I was in my 20s this type of storytelling would perhaps have been more interesting to me, but as I close in on 70, I find it superficially banal. I get it that sex sells, but honestly, I would prefer an actual story. The problem here is that throughout the three-issue series, Arachna keeps making not just bad decisions but the same bad decisions over and over, getting herself beat up, captured, bound, and stripped (Fredric Wertham must be as giddy as a schoolgirl in whatever funnybook hell in which he currently resides).

Again, I’m not saying this is a bad Indie comic, I’m saying that it really doesn’t seem to be living up to its true potential Although, it is entirely possible that I simply because I grew up of Stan, Jack, Steve, and JRSr, I simply expect better from my preferred entertainment.

Your mileage may differ.