The Martian Monster and Other Stories by Jack KamenMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Martian Monster contains around 20 EC science fiction stories from Weird Science and Weird Fantasy (and two romance tales) illustrated by Jack Kamen.
The stories within are written by Affable Al Feldstein and Gregarious Gardner Fox. In addition to the Martian Monster of the title, there are robots, lost cities, time travel, and science gone wrong, in addition to the usual EC staples of cheating husbands, cheating wives, and cheating business partners. The reversal of fortune, bite you in the ass ending is still in full effect. While they aren't horror tales, I still wouldn't want to be a character in any of them.
As with Daddy Lost His Head, Jack Kamen's art reminds me most of Jazzy John Romita, probably because both of them did a lot of romance comics. It's way ahead of the curve and would have fit right in with the Silver Age Marvel bullpen. His domestic scenes are great and while I don't think his horror is the greatest, Kamen was right at home with science fiction.
Kamen's use of perspective in The Martian Monster is excellent. The laboratory scenes are a great example of this with lots of foreground shots of lab equipment and worm's eye views of beakers and flasks. His use of shadow does a great job setting the mood.
The time travel stories were my favorites, naturally, but I have to say the two romance tales at the end had a lot more going for them than I thought they would.
I said "Daddy Lost His Head is the best collection of comic stories by the father of the inventor of the Segway I've ever read" not too long ago. I have to give The Martian Monster a slight edge over it. 4.25 out of 5 time travel mishaps.
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