Through DC's Time Warp: Doomsday Tales and Other Things

Working through DC's science fiction comics of the 1970s as I've been doing, I'm starting to come away with an impression of a publisher desperately trying to cash in on a wider cultural science fiction craze with no idea how. Over the past few months I've read IronWolf (lasted three issues), DC Super-Stars of Space (four issues), Star Hunters (eight issues), and Starfire (eight issues). Now I'm on to Time Warp, an anthology title... that lasted a whole five. DC sure kept trying to make these space comics work though, and in particular, editor Joe Orlando and associate editor Jack C. Harris did: they were behind Star Hunters, Starfire, and Time Warp.

Time Warp is different from some of these other efforts: instead of an ongoing science-fiction adventure, it was an anthology book. Each double-length issue included eight tales by an array of writers and artists. The book's cover line "Doomsday Tales and Other Things" gives you some idea of the focus; there were a lot of apocalyptic and postapocalyptic stories, especially in the first couple issues.

A tragedy I've grown used to in reading these Bronze Age sci-fi comics is the oblivious letter page in the final issue: the final letter page that doesn't know it's the final letter page. Jack C. Harris natters on about the next issue in #5, but there was no next issue, as Time Warp lasted only five issues (except for a one-issue 2013 revival). Reading it, it's not hard to see why. The lettercols speak of wanting to tap into the Star Trek/Star Wars-era zeitgeist... but in execution, these stories hearken back DC's horror comics of the early 1970s like House of Mystery and House of Secrets, which Orlando himself edited if I recall correctly.

It's basically sub-Twilight Zone stuff: lots of "twist" endings, and lots of stories where people are converted into horrific monsters. You've read much better science fiction, and in prose and on tv by 1979, the genre had evolved beyond this. Time Warp feels like it comes out of the pulps of the 1950s more than anything else, and hardly any of the stories here still stick with you.

What does work is the art-- much like in those early-decade horror comics. Give Steve Ditko a race of one-eyed alien monsters, and he will draw the hell out of them. Give Dick Giordano an underground society of sexy women, and he will draw the hell out of them. Give basically anyone spaceships and space monsters, and they will draw the hell out of them. There's some real inventive, impressive work here, starting with Michael Wm. Kaluta's sort-of-techno-fetish covers, and running all the way through the interiors. So probably a misguided experiment (I just kept wishing for real science fiction stories, not horror stories with sf trappings), but one that yielded some entertainment regardless.

Time Warp vol. 1 was originally published in five issues (Oct./Nov. 1979–June/July 1980). The stories were written by Denny O'Neil, Michael Fleisher, George Kashdan, Mike W. Barr, Jack C. Harris, Bob Rozakis, Paul Levitz, Wyatt Gwyon, J. M. DeMatteis, Bill Kelly, Arnold Drake, Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn, Bob Haney, Scott Edelman, David Allikas, Paul Kupperberg, Sheldon Mayer, Mimai Kin, and Elliot S. Maggin. They were pencilled by Rich Buckler, Steve Ditko, Dick Giordano, Tom Sutton, Jerry Grandenetti, Don Newton, Jim Aparo, Howard Chaykin, Gil Kane, Joe Orlando, Romeo Tanghal, Ed Barreto, Madz Castrillo, Fred Carillo, Mike Nasser, Joel Magpayo, Ernesto Patricio, Dick Ayres, Edgar Bercasio, Vic Catan, Charles Nicholas, Trevor Von Eeden, and Jerry Bingham, and they were inked by Dick Giordano, Steve Ditko, Tom Sutton, Jerry Grandenetti, Dan Adkins, Jim Aparo, Howard Chaykin, Gil Kane, Joe Orlando, John Celardo, Dave Simons, Madz Castrillo, Steve Mitchell, Fred Carillo, Mike Nasser, Joel Magpayo, Ernesto Patricio, Jimmy Janes, Edgar Bercasio, Vic Catan, Armondo Gil, Carl Potts, and John Celardo. Colors were provided by Gene D'Angelo, Adrienne Roy, Jerry Serpe, Tatjana Wood, and Bob Le Rose, and the issues were lettered by Ben Oda, Milton Snapinn, Todd Klein, Shelly Leferman, Esphidy Mahilum, and Albert De Guzman. The series was edited by Joe Orlando; his managing editor was Jack C. Harris.