Brother Voodoo | Magazines and Monsters!

Super-Blog Team-Up: Doctor Voodoo Avenger of the Supernatural!

Posted on May 12, 2021 by billyd75

SBTU is back and better than ever! “The Doctor is in!,” is a great concept, as the amount of doctors in comics/pop culture is plentiful. Of course, those who know me would expect me to roll with my Twitter namesake, Doc Strange, but, not so fast! A little swerve was in order, and the first thing that popped into my brain was this awesome mini series (I think it was initially supposed to be an ongoing) by Rick Remender (writer) and artist Jefte Palo! The awesome painted covers were by Marko Djurdjevic!

Paging Doctor Voodoo, Doctor Strange, Doctor Doom. Oh yes, all three of these doctors are a huge part of this story. And let us not forget doctor Hellstrom…well, OK, Daimon Hellstrom, isn’t actually a doctor, but he’s super cool and in this story as well!

To quickly catch up, Doctor Strange made a boo boo, and relinquished the powers of the sorcerer supreme. The Eye of Agamotto sought out a new champion, and Brother Voodoo was chosen! The series doesn’t waste any time getting frenetic, as Doctor Voodoo immediately taxes his powers and abilities too much (after being warned not to by Dr. Strange), and winds up getting a beat down by Dr. Doom. As if that wasn’t bad enough, his staff is broken so he gets stuck in an alternate dimension for a time as well. Enter Daimon Hellstrom. We all know he can be a wild card, but Doctor Voodoo trusts him, but immediately regrets it. You see, Hellstrom is under the influence of Nightmare, and while in this other dimension, Nightmare is wreaking havoc on Earth!

This five issue series (I believe it was supposed to be an ongoing but was cancelled) is a lot of fun, and it really brought Brother Voodoo out of the shadows and into a big spotlight. For an old school horror/Bronze Age fan like me, it was long overdue. During the series, we were also given a neat issue, as Marvel released a one-shot “The Origin of Jericho Drumm!” In this book, we get a framing sequence by none other than Rascally Roy Thomas, with art by Alex Massacci, colors by Chris Sotomayor, and letters by Dave Lanphear. The issue then gave us Strange Tales 169 and 170 (Brother Voodoo’s first appearance), plus a story from the excellent black and white horror magazine, Tales of the Zombie (6)!

Check out the other awesome participants in this round of Super Blog Team Up!

Between The Pages Blog – The World’s Most Popular Football Holder & Psychiatrist – Lucy van Pelt

Daves Comics Blog – Dr. Fate!

SuperHero Satellite- The 1970s Incredible Hulk Television Series: The Lonely and Tragic Life Of Doctor David Banner

Comics Comics Comics – Dr. Who!

Pop Culture Retrorama- Dr. Terrence the Ghost Breaker

Asterisk51- Doctor Bong: For Whom the Bell Tolls

Radulich Broadcasting Network – Dr. Doolittle

Radulich Broadcasting Network – Metal hammer of Doom

Strange Tales 171, 1973 “March of the Dead!”

Posted on June 15, 2020 by billyd75

After recently acquiring a few of these issues, I felt compelled to write a blog post about them. Brother Voodoo, zombies, and my all time favorite artist isn’t a tough sell though. This is one of my favorite characters in the Marvel Universe, and I honestly can’t think of a bad story he was involved in. A voodoo based character is right up my alley, and his frequent guest appearances with the likes of Dr. Strange are cool as well.

This story picks right up with the action, as Brother Voodoo is creeping around a cemetery and gets attacked by a horde of zombies! He kicks the crap out of a few of them, but they’re too high in number to fight off. Jericho then summons the spirit of his dead brother, Daniel, to possess one of them to help. It doesn’t work, as he can’t possess the dead apparently. By the time he gets back to Jericho, they’re both too weak to stop the oncoming blitz. As the zombies are overwhelming him, he looks up to see Baron Samedi, Lord of the Dead! (a dead zombie guy). And if that wasn’t enough, we get guest stars in the form of A.I.M.!

This title is very much an unsung classic from the Bronze Age. The creators behind it are some of the best from this era, and should be lauded for their efforts. Writer Len Wein does a great job of telling this horror story. Everyone that knows his name can attest to the quality you get from him every time he put pen to paper. The art team is just as stellar, as Gene Colan (pencils) and Frank Giacoia (inks) really set the horror tone. Excellent colors by Glynis Wein and letters by Gaspar Saladino! Oh, and let us not forget the awesome cover by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia!

Werewolf by Night #40, 1976 “Souls in Darkness”

Posted on August 18, 2014 by billyd75

Wow, if you can find another decade that had as many off-beat (but crazy cool) characters created in it, please, let me know. In this issue, we see the return of Doctor Glitternight. This wild character is from the minds of Doug Moench and Don Perlin, and their run had some really zany moments that most people can’t even dream of trying to write, let alone make any sense of, but they did it wonderfully!

In this issue, Moench (writing) and Perlin (pencils & inks?), show us how to get down in Haiti with Brother Voodoo! The team (Brother Voodoo, Werewolf by Night, and Topaz) are trying to save the life of Raymond Coker. In doing so, Topaz gets turned into a demon, and tries to kill everybody! You get werewolves, zombies, demons, a sorcerer, and Brother Voodoo to cap it all off! It seems (by the credits) that Perlin inked himself in this issue, and sometimes when artists that normally do a lot of pencils ink themselves, it doesn’t turn out for the best for some reason. But in this case, it looks pretty solid. Actually, the first splash page kind of reminds me Gene Colan (check it out and see if I’m wrong!). Credits also include – Ed Hannigan & Tom Palmer (cover), Debra James (letters), Janice Cohen (colors), and Marvelous Marv Wolfman (editing).