A
comic book published by
Marvel Comics. It made its first appearance in 1972 and was created by writer
Gerry Conway and artist
Mike Ploog.
In the early 1970s, Marvel, fearing a downturn in its
superhero comics, decided to diversify into other comic book
genres. Thanks to a recent
modification in the
Comics Code Authority guidelines,
horror comics were acceptable again, so Marvel quickly churned out a variety of
comics about
monsters, including "
Ghost Rider," "
Tomb of Dracula," "
Monster of Frankenstein," and others, including one of the few comics to ever focus solely on a
lycanthrope: "Werewolf by Night."
The comic's
hero was a young man suffering from an old
family curse that caused him to turn into a
werewolf whenever the moon was full. The werewolf's name was
Jack Russell. Yes, Marvel chose to name their
savage, snarling, rampaging
man-beast after
a small, adorable, yappy breed of dog. As if it wasn't bad enough having to introduce himself to the Avengers as "Werewolf by Night."
("Forsooth?" says Thor, "What else dost they call thee? Pretentious Twit by Day?")Anyway, Jack got to
transform and
howl and
snarl and chase cars in every issue of his comic book, though sometimes he'd be able to
control his transformations and even keep his human
intelligence. The comic lasted until 1977, which is pretty good for a fairly
minor horror comic. He's made occasional guest appearances since then, though there was another short-lived "Werewolf by Night" series in 1998.
Research from http://www.toonopedia.com/werewolf.htm