And of course we just don't know about poor James-Michael. He might actually be an outsider.

1. There's no more actual arcs of Gerber Defenders left -- my friend Ed foolishly called Headmen/Nebulon when it all started, and I'm sticking with that...although if anyone would like to share with him in a Photoshop way, I'm sure he wouldn't say no.

2. So happy with you right now.

3. An outstanding piece of the Gerber puzzle is the Iron Man Annual with Man-Thing and the Molecule Man -- that hasn't been touched, and is permitted. I wanted Jim Roeg to do it, but then he had a baby. You want some gender-politics stuff, it's in there.

4. Anything primarily Man-Thing or Howard connected could be done, but better be good -- because I see Howard and Man-Thing, and their storytelling environs and associated characters, more as Virgils than as Dantes...maybe sometimes Beatrixes...if you know what I mean. Now that would be a fascinating essay, on how Howard and Man-Thing and Jennifer Kale occasionally intrude, to guide things along. I am so open to that.

5. If anyone wants to do something on "Val Goes To Jail", that would be wonderful -- and they could certainly mix it up with Dave Kraft's "Val Goes To College", if they wanted to.

6. Foolkiller counts as a Man-Thing associated character, I'm afraid.

7. By all means, anyone revisit anything already written, if you've got something to say! Race in the Defenders -- let's have it!

8. Shanna, Subby, Cap -- all wide open. And if I'm not mistaken Mark probably knows a couple more that I don't.

9. I'll never run out of enthusiasm for this project. Remind me to ask you if I can do a guest-post on my Gerber Revelation.

10. As always, I need to throw in the datum that I think my fellow essayists agree with me on the matter of YOU HAVE TO READ THAT JIM ROEG MTIO ONE!!! Really, Bloggers, it's good stuff. Find it in the link labelled "Two Earth-Clotted Hands", it's pretty amazing. Go, GO! Read it. You'll thank me, and Mark. It's a winner.

Back me up on that Mark, Brian...that one's some pretty amazing blogging, don't you think? I think Jim goes crazy on that one, it's absolutely my favourite. If memory serves, Sean, RAB, and Thomas agree.

Cheers! Drinking now.

Couple more points:

(A)I added a little more about the project in the first paragraph.

And there's a lot of stuff that hasn't been touched:

Howard and the Man-Thing are off limits, but if anyone wants to write about:

Race in the early issues of the Defenders,

Shanna the She-Devil

Sub-Mariner

Gerber's handful of issues of Captain America

Or, geez, Foolkller (my favorite single Steve G. work)

Those haven't been touched at all! (And there's plenty more to cover in Omega, the Son of Satan, Defenders, and Two-In-One.)

BI really DO like the idea of the character , and completely - My problems were completely with the execution. I really should read the Ellis take on the characters. And I liked the last three storylines, even the EXORCIST one, quite a bit.

C I dunno. It FEELS like Gerber's personal philosophy was a huge part of the book. And I do see the "marganalized man' thang Plok mentions, which is a strong theme in Howard the Duck, Omega... And, especially Man-Thing.

I think the reason Steve's beliefs are so hard to sum up is that HE never really came to hard-and-fast conclusions. I always felt he was sharing what he had learned, but he was aware that there was A LOT of stuff he didn't know. Like, all his writing was phrased like "Here I am at the moment... But what I think now might not be what I think tomorrow."

Also, that kind of sounds like him, doesn't it?

First of all, Jm, best wishes to you and the entire crew at WBAI-FM, which, for the benefit of non-New Yorkers, is the listener supported free-form radio station in Fun City. It's good to know you guys in the other media are doing what you're doing.

We've reproduced above the Satanist card Jim sent along for all you skeptics out there in Marvel-land who still refuse to believe that such people exist. (sorry, no scanner. MA) They do. And from all indications, they're proliferating. Some are true believers in Satanism as a religion; and some, naturally, have been driven to Satanic churches and cults out of sheer curiosity.

As nutty as it probably sounds to most of our readership, we'd like to extend an invitation to any of you who are reading this page and who happen to be Satanists to drop us a line and let us here about your group, it's rites (as much as you can tell without violating the pledges of secrecy which some groups require their members to take), and so on. But no proselytising please - and no attempts at fakery, either. Though Steve Gerber (who's now writing this mag) has never attended a Satanic ritual, he's done more than enough reading about the subject to spot a fraud by about Sentence Number Two.

And now, about the "pentagram": you're quite right, Mr. Freund, in that the symbol on Damien's chest in SPOTLIGHT # 12-14 was indeed a witches' symbol. The inverted star which appears on the Church of Satan card and now on Mister Hellstrom is the Symbol of Bahomet, the Pan-like goat-headed representative of Satan. In fact, as can be seen on the car (though it's impossible to detail it on Daimon's bod), the goat's head is part of the symbol, contained within the outline of the star.

According to Anton Szandor LaVey, in THE SATANIC BIBLE, "The Hebraic figures around the outer circle of the symbol which stem from the magical teachings of the Kabala, spell out "Leviathan," the serpent of the watery abyss, and identified with Satan."

What's more, Jim and everyone else, the symbol ain't a tattoo-- it's a birthmark, actually a part of Daimon's flesh. It cannot be removed, washed off, bleached, or otherwise blotted out, or we suspect Daimon would have got rid of it long ago.

Finally, you're absolutely right about the enmity that exists between witchcraft and Satanism, and you can expect to see that element cropping up from time to time as our series progresses. We just haven't figured out yet whether a coven of witches would be Daimon's allies or enemies. Again, reader opinion is invited.

Jim Freund - Your letter is, likewise, in Marvel Spotlight # 15. Since you're here, (Which is really cool, BTW) here's the whole thing in it's entirety. Gerber doesn't reply (I believe his ONLY personalized reply was one I reprinted) but it's a good example of the back-and-forth between reader and editor in the SOS letters page.

Dear Frantic Friends,

SON OF SATAN is certainly most intriguing! I am not what you call an avid comics fan, yet there are those that I find to be well-plotted enough or artistic enough or whatever to keep me buying from month to month. (Horrors! Here I am, a science fiction fanatic, looking for literature, ie Pohl, Van Voght, Sturgeon, Del Ray, Effinger, Brown, etc... while putting down that "comic book mentality." In fact, I am doing an sf book review and interview show here at WBAI-FM. I've been able to have the aforementioned Pohl, Del Ray, Piglet, as well as Asimov, Chip Delaney, and others on the program.) I'm searching for WORLD'S UNKNOWN, DR. STRANGE (which is the one comic I've followed all my life), DEFENDERS, and some others here and there.

Anyway, for the reason I wrote. Your artist shows Son of Satan with a pentagram tattooed on his chest. Fine and good. You have, however, made one grevious error: IT'S A WITCHES' PENTAGRAM!! Don't cop out and tell me he was using witches' magic; the issue itself shows quite specifically that he is not. And, in reality, there is no such thing as black or white magic; it's all grey.

I enclose a card given to me at the Infinity Convention by a member of the Church of Satan. Believe it or not, he is quite serious. Note that there are two circles and Hebrew lettering in the Satanist version o the pentagram. The significance of the lettering escapes me.

By and by, Witchcraft and Satanism just do not get along. The Craft holds no worship for Satan or God. Each coven has it's own god and goddess, usually taken from Greek or Welsh or some other such mythos.

Take care.

Jim Freund

.... Piglet?

(Also, that poor fellow's got at least two swords up his bum. That's gotta be uncomfortable.)

Any idea when my "strident" post appeared? (I thought I was more "niggling"...)

--J

Does anyone have the response the ed. had to my missive?

At any rate, I'm ginna have to re-read this stuff.

Regards,
Jim

Let's not confuse "a weak character" with that of a character who wasn't the usual true-blue Superhero of the time. Daimon was a occultist, a religious figure and by all other accounts, a good man. He was also the son of the Devil who obviously witnessed incredible tortures and evil in his earlier life. Through it all, he was less angst ridden than deliberate. He understood he was on Earth to lessed the evil orchestrated by the father. He was not the Anti-Christ he was bred to become, but more of an Anti-Anti-Christ. He had the powers and birthright, but his soul was originally good (although later interpretations would certainly suggest otherwise). Even his short-lived superhero identity had meaning. Citizens of Marvel-Earth were used to costumed adventurers dressed like the Devil. What better way to hide the fact that you're the real son of the Devil than to create a superhero identity with a gaudy costume and a name like "Son of Satan". Brilliant!

Anyway, you characterized my letter to Marvel as "strident". Ot was meant in good humor and received that way. To the point that they wrote an entire subsequent issue reversing the pentagram to change it from a Wiccan one to a Satanic one. Aside from the fact that some of my best friends are Wiccans (and they, of course, don't believe in Satan, much less the Son of Satan,) it was the same kind of comment one might make Superman's insignia was inverted. Now *that* would be cause to be strident!

I hadn't recalled that Gerber was involved with SoS. I'll have to dig into the basement and find those nooks --make sure they're in good shape and give them a re-read. Gerber was clearly my favorite writer of that era. Not necessarily the best -- just my favorite.

Thanks for reviving some good memories.

Non-stridently,
Jim

I could go on and on about these comics, which I enjoyed tremendously as a teenager in the 70's. I first discovered the character via those two Exorcist-inspired issues you disparaged; sure, they were just quickies designed to capitalize on the then-popular film, but they were pretty good non-stop action stories, and as you said, the Colan art was pretty good. It got better, and weirder, after those issues, and I was happy to be along for the ride...if anyone could get me to buy Sal Buscema-illustrated comics, it was Gerber.

For what it's worth, Warren Ellis redefined and did the definitive version of the character in his eight-issue stint on the book titled Hellstorm- Prince of Lies, along with the successive "sequel", Druid.

Oh, and the Gerber run took place pretty much entirely in St. Louis, Hellstorm fights on top of the Gateway Arch at one point, not New York as you mentioned. I know it's a tiny detail but we're comic fans and that demands that we be pedantic.