Action Comics Weekly #640 (Hero Hotline)
Writer/Colors - Bob Rozakis
Pencils - Stephen DeStefano
Inks - Kurt Schaffenberger
Letters - Agustin Mas
Editor - Brian Augustyn
It feels like just yesterday that we introduced the Hero Hotline into the rotation... and here we are, ready to bid 'em adieu! Guess that's just the name of the game when it comes to the four-part "Showcase Presents" features... no sooner do we get comfortable with 'em, they're yanked away.
Oh well, let's do it!
--
We open with the "Master Inventor" Roderick C. Broderick arriving at Hero Hotline Headquarters (HHHQ? Triple-HQ?). With him, he's got his dog, Astro... inside an impenetrable transparent box. Ya see, he just invented this plastic that is impervious to destruction... only, when testing it (by putting his pup into a box made out of the stuff), he forgot to pop any airholes into the thing. So, ya know... time is of the essence. Flex heads over to get a better look... and does his darnedest to bust the pup out... without any success. Thankfully, Diamondette is nearby to use her diamond-hard hands to slice through the adhesive holding the crate together, and setting the dog free. Astro then b-lines it to Roddy... and starts chewing on his lab coat.
We shift scenes over to the subway, where Hotshot and Stretch have confronted that one anti-smoking dude stalking the area with a squirt gun full'a gasoline. Since he won't listen to reason (imagine that), Hotshot pulls a distraction, and Stretch nyoinks the pistol away. Kinda underwhelming as a cliffhanger pay-off, but whattayagonnado?
We head back to HHHQ, where Ms. Melanie Boulder... the Siren of Satan, herself... arrives to express her gratitude for her new hero. Flex prepares himself for a hug... but, naturally, she stomps right past him and plants one on Private-Eyes. She also winds up joining the team, sorta.
Now, Boulder's got some problems... and I'm not talking about back pain... though, she probably deals with a bit of that as well. Ya see, since she was stuck in the frigid meat locker, it seems she's lost her voice. Can't put on a country concert without a voice, can ya? Well, lucky for her... Voice-Over has the ability to throw his voice, and mimic anybody! Ms. Melanie's agent is overjoyed... the show will go on!
This comic, however, will not. We wrap up with the Hero Hotline operators informing us that the story is over... but, not to fret because there's going to be a six-issue miniseries featuring the team before ya know it!
--
Gotta say... after last week's heavier-than-expected chapter, I was a bit let down by this. That was poignant, tragic... really strong stuff. Here? It's back to the funny ha-ha's, which isn't necessarily bad... but, just doesn't quite measure up to the expectations set last time.
What's more, there's really just not a whole lot more to say about it! It ties a neat and tidy bow on the arc, which is a good thing... but, doesn't really incentivize coming back for the promised miniseries. I suppose if you liked this, and want more of the same... you're good to go! If you wanted something more... well, no promises.
I don't want it to sound like I didn't enjoy this... because I did. There's a definite charm to this story, and these characters... however, after last week's exceptionally strong outing, it's hard for me not to be a bit disappointed.
Tomorrow: The... penultimate Supermanning!
Action Comics Weekly #639 (Hero Hotline)
Writer/Colors - Bob Rozakis
Pencils - Stephen DeStefano
Inks - Kurt Schaffenberger
Letters - Agustin Mas
Editor - Brian Augustyn
Y'all know what word I haven't used in a couple weeks now? Penultimate! As in, this is the penultimate chapter of Hero Hotline! Hard to believe things are moving this fast... and yet, here we are!
Let's do this... for the second-to-last time!
--
We pick up at the meat plant, where Flex and Private Eyes have come up empty on their search for Ms. Boulder. They call into SOOZ, who doesn't really have any suggestions for them. Private Eyes then realizes that the fella guarding that meat freezer door just happens to have a signed 8x10 of Ms. Boulder sticking out of his back pocket... but, how can that be if he hadn't seen her? Well, clearly the dude is lying. Sure 'nuff, Eyes peeks through the wall and sees the buxom country star shivering away. When they confront the old fogey, he... get this... brandishes a meat cleaver, and actually manages to do some slicin' and dicin' on Private Eyes' arm!
Flex kayos the creep and rips the freezer door off its hinges to save the "Siren of Satan". The old man is arrested, and everything's hunky dory.
We next shift scenes to the liquor store hold-up, where Voice-Over and Microwave Mom are trying to deduce whether or not this robber is the same guy who murdered M.M.'s husband, Martin one year earlier. As the baddie rants and raves, and threatens to do harm to his trio of hostages, V.O. uses his powers to throw his voice. Pretending to be God, he has a heart-to-heart with the robber.
The bad guy ain't buyin' it... and so, the heroes up the ante. Microwave Mom super-heats some of the bottles inside the store in order to give the guy a "sign". As the bottles pop their tops, the robber begins emptying his gun... into the bottles, of course. You really don't think anybody's actually going to get shot here, do you?
This dude's really losing his crackers here... and Voice-Over sees his opportunity. As the "Voice of God" he encourages the robber to confess his sins...
It's here that we learn that this guy was in fact responsible for the death of Microwave Mom's husband, Martin. And then... well, with his soul freed of sin, the robber proceeds to put his gun up to head, and...
Wow. He really did it, dinnae? V.O. tries to blame it on the fact that the dude was on drugs... but, it's pretty clear he knows what's really up. The Captain of Police rushes back into the scene... and all we see is the robber's hand... clutching a crucifix. With all of their super-powers, the Hero Hotline couldn't defuse this situation without casualty.
We wrap up with Hotshot and Stretch on their way back from saving yet another cat in a tree. A woman rushes toward them and asks for help. Ya see, there's a dude in the subway threatening to shoot another guy if he doesn't stop smoking. Stretch gets a closer look, and tells her not to worry... it's only a squirt gun. She confirms this, but reveals that this squirt gun... is filled with gasoline!
--
Well...
That was a fair amount heavier than I was expecting it to be. I'm really not sure how to even follow it. I guess we can just break down each beat.
First, we get some hackin' and slashin' at the meat plant. I gotta say, I wasn't expecting to see blood on that cleaver! That should have been a sign that this entire chapter was going to be a bit more intense than the others. I really dug the use of Private Eyes' powers here... he is able to take a look into his wound, and deduce whether or not it was something he needed to concern himself with. Naturally, you're going to want to stop the bleeding... but, he was able to tell that this wouldn't leave him with any permanent damage, which I thought was pretty cool.
At the end of the chapter, we get an anti-smoking advocate threatening to spritz gasoline on someone who refuses to stop smoking. Again... pretty heavy stuff... far more extreme than I would have expected to see here. We'll have to wait until next week to see how that works itself out... but, definitely worth noting.
Now... we gotta talk about the middle portion. Some really solid stuff here... and a little bit to unpack. We know that Microwave Mom's husband, Martin was murdered during a hold-up at a liquor store... and so, anytime there's a liquor store hold-up, M.M.'s ears are perked. Turns out, this time... the would-be robber was in fact Martin's murderer!
Voice-Over gets to use his powers of throwing his voice in order to get into the bad guy's head as the "Voice of God". The robber has an... almost literal... "come to Jesus" moment, when he becomes convinced that God is actually speaking to him. He reveals his greatest sin... killing Martin. Acknowledging his crime... clearing his conscience, he feels his only recourse is... ending it all!
Now, this is an act that doesn't only affect the robber... this is kinduva "stain on the soul" of Voice-Over and Microwave Mom too. If V.O. didn't push... didn't make this guy confess, it's likely that he wouldn't have killed himself. Ya see, it was that one step too far... the robber was already convinced that God was speaking to him... Voice-Over could have had him do pretty much anything at that point... including and especially, dropping his gun. Instead, he pressed for information.
There would have been plenty of time to interrogate this guy... or even pull the "Voice of God" gimmick on him at a later (and less armed) time. We can see that V.O. really feels this one... in that he tries blaming the dude's actions on the drugs he was taking. While the drugs might've dulled his senses a bit, I'm pretty sure we all know what really caused him to pull the trigger.
Microwave Mom seems a bit less affected... which, is to be expected. Sure, she had a hand in getting V.O. "into" the robber's head... but, for her... this was personal. There's likely some vindication in this dude blowing his brains out. When the Police Captain asks if there was anything they could have done to stop this, she outright says "no". It's an amazing amount of depth for these brand-new characters, who we've only spent a handful of pages getting to know. Really good stuff here.
Overall... I'd say if you're going to read one chapter of Hero Hotline... this probably ought to be the one you check out.
Tomorrow: A new arc for Superman?!
Action Comics Weekly #638 (Hero Hotline)
Writer/Colors - Bob Rozakis
Pencils - Stephen DeStefano
Inks - Kurt Schaffenberger
Letters - Agustin Mas
Editor - Brian Augustyn
So, who remembers all the members of Hero Hotline from last week? I mean, it's only like a dozen folks you've never seen before... or since! It's not that hard to remember 'em all, right?!
Okayokay, here's a quick-n-dirty for ya:
The big muscle-y guy is Mr. Muscle.
The dude with the eye-gimmick is Private Eyes.
The guy who can stretch is, uh, Stretch.
The girl with the diamond on her head is Diamondette.
The kid with the fire powers is Hot Shot.
The lady who looks like a mom is Microwave Mom.
The weirdo who can throw his voice is Voice-Over.
... and SOOZI-Q as The Beaver.
Easy peasy!
--
Picking up right where we left off, Diamondette is being held up by the geek with the razor... who proves to be nothing more than a minor irritant. Ya see, Diamondette works for Hero Hotline, and so it might stand to reason that she's got herself some super-powers. She hi-yah's the razor... rendering the geek unarmed. He immediately gives himself up. We can see that newbie, Hotshot is quite taken with Ms. Diana Theotocopoulos. Must be the Mr. Sinister-esque diamond on her forehead...
After the daring capture of the geek, SOOZ reminds Stretch that he's still got a cat to rescue from a tree. I tell ya what, these Heroes are always on-call. He nabs the newbie, and they head out for the save. Meanwhile, Mister Muscle and Private Eyes are still on the Melanie Boulder case. Turns out, she vanished while touring some meat freezers... ya see, she was about to start her "Meat is For Me" promotion. A woman after my own heart!
While Microwavabelle is watching some microwave recipes on Cooking Avec Craig, a call comes in regarding a robbery at a liquor store downtown. She and Voice-Over get the gig... and we learn that Microwave Mom's husband, Martin had been killed in just the area they're setting out to investigate!
Somewhere outside, Stretch and Hotshot find Nancy and Sluggo's cat. Hotshot (who gets his code-name here) decides that he'll give rescuing it a go.
He does this by... ya know, shooting the cat in the butt with his flames. Just like ya do. You'd figure it might be easier... and less dangerous... for the super stretchy guy to, super-stretch and nab the bugger... but, that's not how we do things here.
We wrap up back at the meat freezers, where Brother Bicep and Private Eyes are asking around about Ms. Boulder. They come across an old coot who refers to the lady as a "Siren of Satan"... before saying he hasn't seen her. The heroes leave... and we come to find that the old man was (gasp) lying! Melanie Boulder is on ice!
--
There's something to be said for "hand holding". Ya hear it a lot these days... much of our consumable entertainment gets grief for holding our hands too much. Look at video games, for example. So many "current year" games are written off as being 50% tutorial and 50% actual game. We never needed a pop-up to tell us to "Press A" for Mario to jump... or tilt your analog stick left to make him... ya know, move to the left.
I feel like this hand holding has, for the most part, made us dumber. It's like we now expect to have our hands held sort of as a guiding force for whatever we do. So, what's dumb bloggin' boy to do when he comes across something like Hero Hotline? Well, besides thinking way too hard for "deep" and thought-provoking analogies, he might just find himself struggling to find the best way to present everything that happens... in a way that allows a reader to appreciate the story, while managing to identify and follow the myriad of the characters.
To be perfectly honest, this feature might've been the one I was most looking forward to... and my most dreaded. I wanted to share this because, well, it's a lot of fun... and it's really, really weird. At the same time, it's a tough one to keep track of... it's kind of the comics discussing/reviewing equivalent of "herding cats".
Have I blathered on long enough without saying anything? Okay.
As a chapter, it's unsurprisingly, a lot of fun. I am really digging the weird veteran/rookie relationship between Stretch and Hotshot. I also appreciate Hotshot having the hots(hot) for Diamondette. Feels like they're, in a small way, "world building" here. We're planting seeds for future stories and potential relationships... and, to me, that's always a good thing.
We learn a little bit about Microwave Mom's past here. Her husband was murdered... which is something I didn't even remember. Her tag-team partner for this latest outing (Voice-Over) remains my favorite member of the team.
The Melanie Boulder sub-plot... is probably the one that will leave the biggest mark on the team (in the form of a new member), but... it's kind of the dullest thing going at the moment.
Well, we're at the halfway point for this feature... no sooner will we learn all these folks' names, than they'll be nyoinked out of our pages! Oh well, whattayagonnado? I hope you're all enjoying this one!
Tomorrow: The Fellowship... freed!
Action Comics Weekly #637 (Hero Hotline)
Writer/Colors - Bob Rozakis
Pencils - Stephen DeStefano
Inks - Kurt Schaffenberger
Letters - Agustin Mas
Editor - Brian Augustyn
It's Hero Hotline time! Otherwise known as the second-to-last Action Comics Weekly feature that I'll be sharing with you. There's only one "newbie" left... and that's Human Target (he'll be making a single appearance, in about four or five weeks.
This is also our third and final "SHOWCASE Presents" feature... even though it's not branded as such anywhere in the issue. Editor, Mike Gold referred to this as being a Showcase in an old letters page... and that's good enough for me.
This is also... one of the Action Comics Daily "cover brandings" I was most excited to show y'all. I mean, the rainbow letters are just a whole lot of fun!
Now, I wanna warn you... we're going to be dropped into the "deep end" here. There isn't much in the way of "proper" introductions in this story... it's more just a bunch of wacky hijinks from a bunch of wacky characters. We'll do our best!
For a little bit of context, you might take a peek at the first four parts of the Hero Hotline miniseries that I reviewed here ages ago. That series comes after this arc... but, it's basically all the same characters. Maybe one of these days I'll actually cover the last two issues from that run here! Can't remember for the life of me how I lost track of it!
--
We open with the fella we're going to eventually know as Hotshot reporting to work for his first day at the Hero Hotline. Being a spritely young eighteen year-old, his mother insists on coming along to check out the place. Like any teen-ager would be, he is pretty mortified. They see the folks we're eventually going to know as Mister Muscle... Flex... Mister Mighty... Brother Bicep (uh, this dude likes to change it up) and Stretch. The former has his hands quite full... and the latter is, well... an a-hole. They eventually run into the robot, who we will eventually know as SOOZIE-Q (or, 500-2Q, if you prefer). She isn't much help either... she just refers them to the TV Set in charge before checking in on Mr. Muscle/Flex/et-cetera.
As Miste-err, the big guy... interrogates the baddie he just brought it, he appears to get a little bit of lip. Turns out it's just the Hero Hotline member, Voice-Over... who has the ability to throw his voice. Ventriloquism powers seem pretty useful in the field, don't they? Suddenly, a job comes over the TV... turns out the famed country and western singer Melanie Boulder has gone missing. Melanie Boulder, it's worth noting, apparently has... large... uh, boulders. The fella get all excited about this gig, and even wrangle the fella we will eventually know as Private Eyes in on it.
Somewhere across the room, SOOZ is welcoming Hotshot to the team... he goes on to demonstrate his powers to control fire and what-not, which gets him a "talking to" from his mother. In response, Stretch... uh, stretches himself into a shovel, and scoops her out of the panel.
Hotshot gives Stretch a thank you pat-on-the-back... which is not appreciated in the slightest. In fact, Stretch absolutely loses his crap... and starts screaming at the newbie for... whatever reason. Ya see, Stretch is an old-timer... and doesn't seem to cotton to these kids walking in off the street to join "this business".
Next, we meet Microwavabelle or Microwave Mom... who, actually introduces herself by her code-name! How 'bout that! She demonstrates her powers by reheating Stretch's cuppa coffee.
Just then, another job comes in... a special one for Stretch. Now, if you have the ability to stretch, Plastic Man, Elongated Man or Mister Fantastic style... what better gig would there be for you than... rescuing cats from trees? Stretch... isn't amused. In fact, he absolutely loses his crap... again.
Elsewhere in the room, that Baddie that Flex brought in has managed to free himself from the interrogation chair... and is holding up the entire Hero Hotline with... uh, like a straight razor? Okay. Before he can escape, however... the girl we'll eventually know as Diamondette enters to announce that she's been accepted to Medical School! She doesn't get long to celebrate, however... because this baddie promises to give her a "close shave" if the gang doesn't cooperate!
--
Well... um... this would be what we in the biz call a "synopsizer's worst nightmare". A whole slew of crazy characters, off-the-wall action... and, ya know... zero in the way of context. Don't get me wrong, it's a lot of fun... but, the whole time I'm reading it, I'm worrying how I'm ever going to be able to actually describe it. Thankfully we have already discussed the Hero Hotline at this blog, otherwise... oi, I couldn't imagine how tough this would have been to get through. On a purely "synopsizing" level, that is... the story itself is a lot of fun.
I'm going to include some of the information included in lieu of a letters page at the end of Hero Hotline #1 (1989). It shares a bit more about the characters, and might make this a bit easier to digest. Click'em to make'em bigger.
So, where do we even begin? Maybe with just how odd it is to see a story like this in the pages of Action Comics? I mean, if you ask me, this is the sort of thing we should have been getting the entire time during the Action Comics Weekly experiment. There should've always been an "oddball" offering... a story/feature/arc that wasn't afraid not to play it straight. Something silly. It's crazy to consider that it's taken us this long to get a purely comedic/satiric story in these pages!
The characters we meet are wacky, but... even in these short and frantic eight-pages, we can already tell that they have that nebulous quality of "heart"... and I'm really looking forward to "meeting" these characters all over again with you. If I'm remembering right, they will be more-or-less fleshed out over the course of this arc, and we'll have plenty more to say about them as we proceed.
Tomorrow: Darkseid!
Elvira's House of Mystery Special #1 (1987)
"Elvira's Christmas Carol"
"Oh, What Fun to Laugh and Sing a Slaying Song Tonight!"
"O, Christmas Tree..."
"Twas the Night before X-Mas..."
Writers - Joey Cavalieri, Michael Fleisher, Barbara Randall
Artists - Frank Springer, Jack Sparling, Stephen DeStefano
Inker - Craig Boldman
Letterers - Albert De Guzman, Agustin Mas, Bob Lappan
Colorists - Shelley Eiber, Helen Vesik
Editor - Ed Hannigan
Cover Price: $1.25
As I sit here typing the house smells especially Christmasy. Not only am I burning that Balsam candle, I've also got a hyooge pot of meatballs cooking. I always associate Italian food with the holidays... there's a bit of a tradition in my home. Every Christmas Eve I throw a pretty big dinner party-type'a-thing. The Italian tradition is called the "Night of the Seven Fishes".
Well, being as though I'm not too big a fan of seafood... and I'm not even Italian (regardless of what Arizona-folk seem to think about anyone who speaks with a New York accent), several years back I'd taken it upon myself to start the "Night of the Seven Dishes"... in which I prepare seven main (Italian) courses, and invite both sides of the family and friends over to partake. I'm sure as anyone who enjoys cooking knows... the holidays may as well be our Superbowl! For the Christmas Eve feast there's an incredible mix of anticipation, stress, and excitement that cannot be replicated by any other meal for me... not even by Thanksgiving!
So, in keeping with our Christmas on Infinite Earths... in July motif... this morning I dragged myself out of bed even earlier than usual... and got to turning three pounds of chop meat into several dozen meatballs... and turning a bunch of tomatoes into sauce. When I commit to a theme... I don't mess around.
--
Our first tale stars the titular Mistress of the Dark. Elvira is beat, and just looking for a good nights sleep. As she turns on the radio to lull her into dreamland, she is enraged to find that all of the stations are playing cheerful Christmas music.
She vows if she hears just one more Christmas carol, she'll scream... well, cue our old friends Cain and Abel as they've come a'wassailling and hoping to spread holiday cheer. Elvira gives 'em the what for and tells them to hit the bricks.
Our lady lead collapses on her bed in the midst of a bah-humbug tantrum, only to find herself summoned by an odd apparition claiming to be... now say it with me, the Ghost of Christmas Past. In order to find out why Elvira hates Christmas so much the Ghost takes her back to her own childhood... and to her one-room schoolhouse alma mater.
We watch as li'l Elvira gets scolded for using all the green construction paper to make... strand of holly? What's so bad about that? Looking a bit closer, maybe it's paper bats? Ehh, who knows?
Anyhoo, Elvirita gets booted from the school, and so decides to... burn the building to the ground. Elvira don't mess around.
The Ghost of Christmas Past dumps the Mistress back in her bed, and vanishes... moments later, we got another visitor... the Ghost of Christmas Present. In order to make Elvira "come correct" about her disdain for the Holiday, he takes her to Manhattan... where she sees an absolute mob of consumerism Hell. The Ghost concedes that, yeah... the consumer elements of Christmas kinda sucks.
Later, Elvira gets her final visit... the Ghost of Christmas Future. He stands before her silently, before transporting her into a post-apocalyptic potential future. It is here that Elvira decides... ya know what, there's worse things out there than Christmas.
A short time later, she wakes up in her bed with a new appreciation for Christmas. She rushes to the window, and throws it open. She shouts to a young boy... and offers him a few bucks to go fetch the giant bloodsucking bat that lives on the outskirts of town... and deliver it to Cain and Abel. The spirit of the season truly lives on in Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.
The next story opens with a crum-bum purse snatcher flees from a police officer. There's a brief firefight, which the baddie gets the better of. He continues down an alley and runs into a wasted Salvation Army Santa. He pistol whips jolly ol' Saint Drunk... and steals his outfit to help elude the police.
In his new gear, our man cockily walks past the pursuing officers, and climbs up a nearby fire escape... and into an open apartment window. Here he meets a young blind girl... who believes him to be the actual real-deal Santa Claus. She asks if he'd gotten her letter... and if he's there to give her her sight back.
The scumbag plays along with the poor tot, and loots her house of all its shiny trinkets. He fashions a sack out of a blanket, and tells the young girl his sight-restoring magicstuffs were on the roof in his sleigh, and makes a run up the fire escape.
At that very moment, the real Santa Claus lands in the fireplace. He tells the young girl that he's there to restore her sight... and he does! They embrace, and he climbs back up the chimney.
He hops back in his sleigh, and makes a passing mention at his own sight failing him of late. As they take off, we see that when he landed on the roof... he also landed... on the thief!
Our third tale features a yuppie couple who cannot find a satisfactory Christmas tree. The fake ones are "too fake"... the real ones are "too dead"... the only solution for them is driving onto a wilderness preserve and chopping down a tree of their own.
They find the perfect tree, and after a few swipes of the chainsaw... take home their bounty.
We jump to Christmas Eve, where the yuppies are entertaining their yuppie friends. They share some shallow conversation, and act as though they really couldn't care less about one another... this whole party is just for show.
Following their party, the yuppies retire to their bedroom. That night, their perfect Christmas tree comes to life... and absolutely fills the house... likely resulting in two dead yuppies.
The next morning, we find that the tree has leveled the home and now stands some six-stories tall. It gets chopped down, and delivered to the White House where several carolers (including Fred Flintstone) stand around it belting out some Christmas classics.
Our (whew) final story, is something of a poem. The long and short of it is... this is a Cold War era book... One of the World Superpowers mistook Santa Claus and his reindeer for a nuke... and thus, World War III happened... followed by a planetary autopsy from visiting aliens. There are no credits on this story, but it feels a touch Giffen-y... can't say for sure though.
We end our visit in the House of Mystery with our Hostess with the Most-est offering us roasted chestnuts...
--
Well... kind of a mixed bag, eh? Horror is a genre that's difficult to "get right", if you ask me. Most often, I feel as though horror creators fall into the Twilight Zone model where the story ultimately winds up being a twisted morality play. Like, how many episodes of the Twilight Zone ended with "man" being the truest evil of all? I mean, there's only so many times you can see an evil "alien" ship... only to find it's tagged with an American flag.
All three stories (barring the opening A Christmas Carol riff) were of that variety. I am something of a horror-comics neophyte, so I cannot say with any measure of certainty or credibility that this is the standard for books of this genre... though, I hope it's not. This being a Christmas special, I can forgive the creators leaning on the narrative tool depicting the difference between right and wrong.
Overall, I think I enjoyed it... warts and all. The Elvira bits were the most fun, just for that wonderful 1980's tone they brought with them. This run on House of Mystery only lasted about a dozen issues (this Special included), and is most notable for having an issue ship without the Comics Code Authority seal of approval... due to "implied nudity". Really now?
I wonder if this volume makes Elvira an official character in the DC Universe? We see her briefly interact with previous "hosts" of DC's horror books Cain and Abel... and as far as I know, they're canon.
This one's worth seeking out for novelty value alone... you probably won't get a whole lot out of the stories. If you're down for even more Elvira fun, you can check out a Rad Ads piece I did with Reggie a few months back. We discussed a mail-away advert for an Elvira t-shirt... one with which you can "turn on" your friends... or yourself! Yikes.
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Letters Page:
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