The surprise hit movie makes us revisit a 1987 Batman classic by Alan Moore and George Freeman… By PETER STONE Although 1987’s Batman Annual #11 was discussed a year ago here at 13th Dimension, I feel it deserves another look, now that the Clayface movie has hit the big screen. Despite the movie not having Batman in it, there is no reason to ignore this wonderful villain who has tormented the Dark Knight for many, many years. The comic book Clayface is actually a series of different people from throughout Batman’s history. In 1940, the first Clayface was a washed-up actor named Basil Karlo, created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane. In 1961, a new Clayface appeared named Matt Hagen, created by Finger and Sheldon Moldoff. He’s the one who had the shape-shifting abilities. Then, in 1978, Len Wein and Marshall Rogers introduced us to Preston Payne, whose melting body is contained in a hulking, sci-fi exoskeleton. He suffers terrible headaches, and only when he takes off his gloves to melt someone does the blinding pain subside. (Payne was a scientist who’d injected himself with the second Clayface’s blood to cure his hyperpituitarism. He was able to transform his looks, but that only lasted a short while, before his body degenerated into a gooey mass.) But Clayface III suffers from something far worse than his physical disease. He has a deep-seated mental illness that disrupts his view of the world, and he falls in love with a mannequin that he believes is real. He calls her Helena, but tragically for him, she’s destroyed in a fire. Alan Moore and artist George Freeman pick up the threads in “Mortal Clay” from Batman Annual #11: Clayface searches through Gotham for Helena, convinced that he will eventually find her. She’s alive, he is convinced of that. He will find her. And he does. In a department store, in the front display window, Clayface sees her dressed to the nines. Of course, he thinks, she’s a woman, so she’s gone to a department store where all the nice clothes are. That there are countless other mannequins who look just like the original escapes him. Clayface sets up a home within the department store. His insanity allows him to see what he wants and accept the world around him as a danger, but he...
The celebrated Mr. K finds that sometimes the real hits are on the B side… — UPDATED 11/5/26: Diggin’ in the vault time — when we go deep into the recesses of the shadowy subterranean 13th Dimension headquarters for great columns that deserve another look. Just for kicks! This one first ran in May 2021. Right on! — Dan — Columnist Paul Kupperberg takes up a big challenge with this one — and I’m sure you have your faves too. (Mine is Batman #250’s “The Batman Nobody Knows!” by Frank Robbins and Dick Giordano. So dig Paul’s list, then feel free to add your own favorites in the comments. Oh! And check out Paul’s latest project too: Son of the Unpublished Comic Book Scripts of Paul Kupperberg. (Click here to order!) — Dan — By PAUL KUPPERBERG Back-up stories in mainstream comics used to be a lot more common than they are today. There were entire titles that were nothing but back-up stories, mostly genre books like House of Mystery, Strange Adventures, and just about everything Charlton Comics published. Back-ups were called that because they backed up the title slot in short stories that generally ran five to eight, sometimes 10 pages. I always loved a good done-in-one back-up story. As a reader, they are the icing on the comic book cake, a sweet little bit of something extra topping an already delicious treat. As a writer, they’re an opportunity to do fun or interesting little one-off stories that focus on a single character or situation, capturing a moment or an event without any strings attached. They can also be a challenge to write; a six-pager runs about three dozen or so panels (assuming six panels per page), which doesn’t allow for wasted space or poorly paced storytelling. On the other hand, when creators get it right, that’s when the magic happens. These are a few of the stories that stuck in my memory from my decades of comic book reading. There are dozens, likely hundreds, more if I did a really deep dive into different anthology comics, but for this week’s selections I’m sticking with superhero and action/adventure stories featuring ongoing characters. The only exception to the back-up feature rule I’ve allowed is the Will Eisner Spirit story because even though it headlined the publication in which it...
A book that promises to reveal new details…
And it just sold at auction, too!
If only we kept everything we had…
