Longbox Graveyard Tournament of Terror!
Hello, and welcome back to Longbox Graveyard … with a special thank you to returning readers who stuck with me throughout my recent year-plus hiatus. My time away from blogging and social media has allowed me to recharge my geek batteries enough to commit to … a month of (mostly) new content here at Longbox Graveyard.
And what better way for this superhero comics blog to return than in celebration of my favorite season — Halloween!
That’s right, October is Halloween Month, and Longbox Graveyard will be celebrating with three rotating features, every weekday in the month ahead:
FROM THE VAULT: “Reprints” of classic Longbox Graveyard horror comics reviews (which will be new to most of you — I know, because I can see my blog traffic!)
MARVEL VALUE STAMPS: A forensic look inside the comic book equivalent of the Necronomicon — my half-filled out album of Marvel Value Stamps!
And finally, the subject of today’s post and the official kick-off of Monster Month — THE LONGBOX GRAVEYARD TOURNAMENT OF TERROR!
Tournaments have always been a fun feature here at Longbox Graveyard. In the past, we’ve run “March Madness” tournaments to determine comics’ greatest sidekicks, pets, super-villains, and super-teams. Now, we are going to match off the greatest Monsters in comics history, in an elimination tournament that will run all month, with the final titan of terror announced on the eve of Halloween!
First, I need you to vote to help determine our Field of 16 for when the tournament begins next Monday. To be considered for the tournament, a comics monster needs to have been the HEADLINER of his/her/it’s series, even if only for a single issue, or as part of an anthology issue. Basically, if that monster had a cover with their name on it, they’re eligible.
(Note that this knocked out some classic “host” characters like the Cryptkeeper and Cain & Abel … but if you really want them, see your options in the voting instructions below. And yeah, I know, I broke my own rules by including Fin Fang Foom … but he’s a foundational Jack Kirby monster, and he wears blue trunks, so I couldn’t pass him up!)
Now … fully recognizing that I have a serious bias toward DC and especially Marvel Bronze Age comics, here’s an overview of the initial field of contenders:
thanks to Billy King for wrangling the above graphic!
See that question mark at the end? That’s your call to nominate some poor monster that I overlooked. Just vote for “Another Monster” in the pole below, and let me know your choice in the comments. If we get a real consensus for someone I didn’t catch, then I’ll get them into the tournament as a reader’s choice.
But make sure you really want to vote for that monster. You only get to pick TEN monsters from the list below … so you’re going to have to make some hard calls. Vote early, vote often, and tell your friends, then meet me back here on Monday October 7th for the announcement of the Field of 16, and the first round of tournament voting!
(You might need to click link if you’re viewing on mobile!)
All right, get voting (and get commenting!). Then join me back here tomorrow when we open the vault for a classic review of a monster that I expect to do quite well in our tournament …
(It’s good to be back!)
TOMORROW: Tomb It May Concern!
Posted on October 1, 2019, in Halloween Month and tagged Halloween, Monsters. Bookmark the permalink. 24 Comments.
I’ll need a Fantastic Four entry to participate, thx.
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Fin Fang Foom is a worthy surrogate. He has a Kirby pedigree and he stole Ben’s shorts.
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Chicken!
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We only get to vote for 10? Wow, that was tough!
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Unless it’s a hard choice, it really isn’t a choice at all!
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I kinda wasted my “custom vote” — because I felt like we need to acknowledge the greatest idea of 1976: “Marvel Premiere” #28 – the one and only (?) appearance of the “Legion of Monsters”!!!!
How can you beat this!? A literal monster-team up comprised of Morbius, Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night, and Ghost Rider! All fighting a mystic dude who made a mountain appear in Paul’s old neighborhood on Sunset Boulevard.
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The Legion of Monsters are ripe for a comeback. Watch Marvel do a Disney+ series for them and make a billion bucks.
I think all the original members of the Legion are represented in the poll as individual headliners, so we will see how the legacy of the Legion fares if/when its members line up in the Field of 16.
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Welcome back!
For my Another Monster vote, I’d like to see Solomon Grundy. I’ve always had him for a groovy scary monster, full of potential to cause some real shivers…
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I like Grundy plenty, but does he meet the tournament requirement of having headlined his own book?
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(Like your blog, by the way)
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I hesitated before putting him forward. Then I fund this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Solomon-Grundy-TP-Scott-Kolins/dp/1401225861/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=solomon+grundy&qid=1569975916&s=books&sr=1-3
It collects SOLOMON GRUNDY #1-7 (2009).
I know, it’s just a mini-series, and its only ten years old, but has Grundy headlining it. ANd I reaaaaly love Grundy.
But you’ll be the judge.
Cheers,
Sherman
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He qualifies! I’ll add him to the growing “play-in pool.”
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Thanks! That’s great. And thank you for liking my blog (I’d like to get back to it sometime soon…)
Cheers,
Sherman
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Your blog is good work — it’s genuinely smart, rather than my faux-smart approach. You should definitely get back to it, and I encourage my readers to find their way there by clicking on your name. Excelsior!
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Does Woodgod count as a monster?
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Hmm … don’t know much about him. Care to make a case for him?
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Dunno if I could do him justice: he’s the product of combining animal and human DNA. Misunderstood by people and treated like a monster. Hated humans. Ended up splicing together his own army of hybrids. You know, tale as old as time. 😉 I just mainly remember him popping up in Marvel Team-Up here and there.
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Plus he’s a Bill Mantlo character, right? That should earn a look all by itself. I’ll put him in the pool to replace a weak 16th finisher in the poll … anyone else out there want to second Woodgod’s nomination.
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Glad you’re back at it! As for another monster, I’ll go a bit out on a limb and submit Hot Stuff, the Little Devil. Harvey comics’ resident anarchist.
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Never even heard of this one … a contemporary of Caspar?
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What about Hellboy? Abe Sapien?
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Hellboy is a great suggestion and a gross oversight on my part.
New rules. Hellboy is in the field of 16, and I’ll select another character at random from the rest being suggested here to also join the tournament. That means we are voting now on the remaining 14 spots!
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My 10 from the list are:
1). Swamp Thing 2).Man-Thing 3). Satana 4). Frankenstein 5). Werewolf by Night
6). Ghost Rider 7). Morbius 8). Man-Wolf 9). Brother Voodoo and 10). Son of Satan.
Should be fun to see how it all goes down.
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Man-Wolf and Brother Voodoo need some love but the rest of your guys look like they’ll get in.
Not a single vote for It! The Living Colossus at this hour. Poor dumb brute.
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