Where Creatures Roam #4 [1971] – Vandoom, the Man Who Made a Creature

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A 13-page Kirby/Ayers reprint from TALES TO ASTONISH #17 [1961] leads off this issue. This one has a wax museum owner specializing in monsters deciding to create a massive new creature to renew interest in his museum. Personally I’d suggest moving out of a small village in Transylvania. Anyway, some great images of the creation of the creature, from the skeleton out. I love that panel of him working on the eye, giving a nice sense of scale to the whole creature.

WhereCreaturesRoam41971.jpg

Of course the villagers are suspicious, and rightly so as the creature comes to life in a billion-to-one lightning strike (although given how often that happens in these stories I think those odds are off). The creature is attacked by the villagers, but then an alien invasion from Mars lands in the village, planning to use it as their base. The creature attacks them and drives them off, saving the Earth, but dies in the process. The villagers realize they were wrong and help Vandoom create a new statue as a monument.

Kind of a by-the-numbers story after you’ve read enough of them, but as a stand-alone it’s a fun story with some great visuals.

The cover is sort of a reprint of the cover to TALES TO ASTONISH #17, heavily modified with a whole new face on the monster, the general form kept but with the fur effect smoothed out, and a few extra fleeing villagers.

Published 1971

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