All-Star Squadron #142, homage to Dr Strange issue #177

Latest "Continuation Project" commission - All-Star Squadron #142, drawn by occasional Roy Thomas-collaborator Tom Morgan, doing his first cover for me, and based as always on the cover of a comic written, plotted or scripted by Roy Thomas, in this case the Gene Colan cover to Dr Strange #177.

Title: "Ghost Stories!"

Story: In the latest "Altered Egos" spotlight issue, Jonathan (Tarantula) Law sits down with his fellow All-Star, Doctor Occult, to take notes for his post-war book. Doctor Occult briefly details his origin and then discusses one of his cases, from 1940, in which he was called to investigate a reported haunting at the mansion of a rich society couple.

Somewhat sceptical, and suspecting a hoax aimed at extorting money from the couple, Occult is surprised when he discovers that his mystic symbol is reacting to the presence of actual magic. Things get worse when, in the dead of night, corpses from a nearby cemetery rise from their graves and start to attack the house!

Doctor Occult is able to use his magic disc to temporarily stop the zombies from invading the mansion, but he knows that his powes aren't great enough to defeat them, so encourages his clients to flee - only to discover that they are in fact the cause of the resurrections, as they are secretly sorcerors, working on behalf of the Axis powers, who have revived the corpses as a potential army --- and are using him to test out the abilities of the zombies. If the zombies can defeat the legendary "ghost detective", then they'll be an unstoppable addition to the Nazi ranks!

Just as all seems lost, however, Doctor Occult gains an unlikely ally, with the appearance of the Spectre, shortly after the death of Jim Corrigan and his restoration as the Ghostly Guardian! Although still in the early stages of understanding his powers, the Spectre joins forces with Doctor Occult to defeat the zombies, banishing them from this plane - and then terrifying the sorcerors into surrendering to the authorities.

His work done, the Spectre vanishes - but little did Doctor Occult realise that, in only a couple of years time, the two would become comrades and allies in the All-Star Squadron!

When I saw some recent full-cover commissions from Tom, I knew that he'd be a great addition to the artist roster for this project, not least because he worked with Roy on some issues of Avengers West Coast and (IIRC) a Xena mini-series - and he indicated a number of artists who he thought he'd like to adapt, including Gene Colan, which meshed perfectly with my plans to use this iconic Colan cover as the basis for a commission. I think Tom delivered superbly - hope you agree!