Doorway To Madame Xanadu The Second Two

Transitioning from light to dark, moving from last year to this, you approach a turn, a doorway.

Do you take the adventure and go in, or continue on with your normal life?

Do you wave from the dream, or live in the nightmare?

Here are two more of Madame Xanadu's appearances in Doorway to Nightmare!

Blood Red Tear

The first step today is to Doorway To Nightmare #3 (May-June, 1978) by Bill Kunkel, Roger McKenzie, Ric Estrada and Romeo Tanghal, following the footsteps of lost soul, Margot Hammer.

Margot Hammer was a girl from Des Moines, Iowa, who came to make it in the Big Apple, but was being ground down by it instead.  As her saving ran out, she found a job as an assistant for Victor Christianson, a man who worked in the import-export business.  Victor was well to do, but only met with Margot during the night hours, as she handled his business during the day.  

Over time, and late night meals where only she ate, Margot began to fall for Victor, but she couldn't shake the feeling there was something off about the man who only appeared at night with the blood red eyes.  

Madame Xanadu asked Margot to send him to her Greenwich Village shop, and she did.  Victor met with Xanadu, and they seemed to have crossed paths in the past.  Not deterred by Xanadu's tarot readings, Victor brought Margot to a party of his friends, where she was truly the life of the party (though the party was filled with loud music and blood red wine...and so many others, not really attached to life, including the beautiful redheaded Fleur).  Fleur seemed jealous and spiteful, and took Margot away...to tell her what was really going on here, which seemed to put Margot in shock. 

Undeterred, Margot still professed her love for Victor, who also felt something for Margot, but did not want to inflict the suffering of his existence onto Margot....living only a half life like he and his kind did.  Wanting only to save Margot, Victor awaited for the sunrise, and faded away to dust as the sun hit his body, as what happens to those who are vampires (who have lost all sensation of life over the centuries in the dark), with a new red filled jar for Madame Xanadu.

In the text page for the issue, more of the limitations of the length of the lives of vampires are discussed in an interview with a vampire....

Six Claws Of The Dragon

The story of Doorway To Nightmare #4 (July-August, 1978) by Catherine Barrett Andrews, Stuart Hopen and Johnny Craig with the brutal murder of Professor James Lei Hau, a horrible theft, and an investigation by New York police Lieutenant Nick Abrahms. 

Lt. Abrahms was investigating the theft of a pair of mummies (a princess and her bodyguard) from the Metropolitan Museum, when he found himself walking through Madame Xanadu's door.  There were also five lamps of six stolen of Princess Sheiko Morea, and Madame Xanadu happened to have a lamp in her possession.  

She also gave Nick the story of the Princess, and her six fingered hand, which held a jade jewel as she was mummified, and that someone had tried to take it years ago by cutting off the hand...yet the jade and hand had returned (though the wrist was now bloodied).  Nick got a call of the murder of the Professor, and a possible link to the theft. 

Going to Chinatown, Nick was warned away by Lady Anne Karis, who seemed to have influence over Nick's mind, at least until he was distracted by the beauty of the Professor's daughter, Sue Lei Hau.  Nick went back to the station, and found the lamp missing, and went back to Xanadu's shop.  There, he saw her in a confrontation with Lady Karis, whose mind tricks didn't work against Xanadu (though Karis also wanted the lamp).  

Getting no answers and leaving with the lamp, Nick went to Sue for answers, to find a birthmark around her wrist.  Returning home, Nick was attacked by the mummified bodyguard, trying to get the lamp.  Madame Xanadu stopped the mummy, and left, with Nick going back to the shop (and still getting no answers).  Meeting with Sue, she proclaimed anger about her tomb being violated, but then went back to normal.  Leaving Sue, it is revealed she is possessed by Princess Morea, who, with the help of Lady Karis, was gathering the lamps to permanently transfer the Princess' spirit into Sue's body.  

Nick arrives to help, finding Lady Karis there, and that she was dead, as the mummified Morea had killed her for cutting off her hand years ago, and made the lady the princess' undead slave for her attempted theft, and, as the professor's assistant, bound the princess' spirit to the unborn Sue, who has now reached the age when the Princess originally died.  Sue's love for Nick broke the Princess' hold on her body....and Xanadu arrived to extinguish the lamps, ending the transference spell, giving Nick and Sue a chance on happiness, and a new inhabitant for a jar in Xanadu's shop.      

This issue's text page covered how Karis and the Professor had their original plans to take the mummies and the jade, and how Lady Karis ended up dead and in service to the Princess.

Be prepared for more journeys with Madame Xanadu, as we had in the past, whether through a doorway or something more unexpected when the spirit moves me....

Doorway To Madame Xanadu The First Two

Walking down the street, you see that place, the one they talk about in whispers.  

You're not sure you should go in, with all it's occult trappings.  

It seems odd, but also inviting...dare you step through the doorway to nightmare and meet....Madame Xanadu?

Readers were faced with that choice in 1978, and here are her first two tales!

Cindy Barns

Cindy Barns was the first person to step through Madame Xanadu's doorway in Doorway To Nightmare #1 (January-February, 1978) by David Michelinie and Val Mayerik (with a stunning cover by Mike Kaluta) to find Madame Xanadu, ready to give her a tarot reading after she polished her jars.  

Cindy was an actress who came to New York to make it big, and even got a part in a play...to lose it arguing with the director about lines.  But, she impressed Brad Jacobs, writer of the play and one of the hottest playwrights on Broadway, who took Cindy in to get more writing advice.  

The two became close, having shared interests, but things went to the devil when Erika got involved (who happened to show up then at Xanadu's shop, to make an odd threat, but would not enter).  Erika was Brad's set decorator, and she didn't approve of Cindy.  Brad's health was starting to deteriorate, and he would wander off with Erika at times.  Curious, Cindy followed them once, and saw them performing some odd ritual.  

Madame Xanadu informed her some great evil was involved, and would have to do research before acting, so Cindy should wait to act.  Cindy was in love with Brad, and couldn't wait to act, so she went to see him, where he ended his relationship with Cindy.  Distraught, Cindy went home to her apartment, where Madame Xanadu saved her from a demon (or was it a trick of the light?).  The duo went to the location where Erika and Brad did their ritual....to find them there again.   

It is revealed that Erika was using sorcery to drain Brad's soul to save her from cancer, but Erika was Erikhatmen, daughter of Tutankhamen, and that she had been using sorcery to keep her cancer at bay since 4500 BC!  Madame Xanadu said she couldn't interfere, yet Cindy could, and did, breaking the pyramid device Erika used to drain Brad, ending Erika's unnaturally extended life, but starting a blaze which seemed to consume Madame Xanadu as well.  Passing by Xanadu's shop a few days later, Cindy and Brad were surprised to see Madame Xanadu there, polishing a new jar in her shop (which if you looked at closely, contained a lock of red hair, the same as Erika's!). 

The letter's page, Tarot Readings, promised this title would be something a little different, and would cover ancient mystic history, as well as inviting readers to write in about the issue, or any odd supernatural occurrences in their lives.

Douglas Holt And Melissa Mann

The next two to enter through Madame Xanadu's Greenwich Village doorway were Douglas Holt and Melissa Mann in Doorway To Nightmare #2 (March-April, 1978) by Gerry Conway and Vicente Alcazar (with cover by Mike Kaluta).   

Douglas was an artist, and Melissa a physicist, and Madame Xanadu was ready to give the lady a reading (even if Melissa didn't believe).  Madame Xanadu asked her to slow down her work, which upset Melissa, who didn't want to stop Project Doorway, and left in a huff, figuring this a scam that Douglas put the tarot reader up to.  

Douglas explained to Madame Xanadu that Melissa was working on a project with Professor Hampton Hill at New York University, but that she was also falling in love with the professor (or what she thought was love, as she, like the professor, were both coldly devoted to science).  Madame Xanadu suggested he should still watch the pair, and come to her if he needs help.  Melissa and Hill continued work on Project Doorway, and succeeded in opening a dimensional rift, unleashing a small horde of demons, which froze the pair to inaction, but Douglas was there to smash the machine, with the demons fading away.  

But, Melissa suddenly had newfound emotion, and wanted to go out and eat and dance (and more) with Douglas, which he enjoyed.  The second night, the pair went to a party, but Melissa left with another man, and showed up to the lab in the same clothes the next day, and embraced and attacked Hall, then Douglas, with Hill having her committed at Bellevue Psychiatric Ward.  Douglas told all this to Xanadu at her shop, who gave him a book on exorcism, and told Douglas to prepare.  

Douglas and Xanadu went to Bellevue, where Hill was waiting with Dr. Grant, who was saying he had little success treating Melissa, so they let Douglas and Xanadu set up.  It seems Project Doorway did release a demon, who took up residence in Melissa, and Xanadu and Douglas had to cast it out, which they did, but while the battle freed Melissa, the experience was too much for Hill, who became a new resident of Bellevue (without supernatural assistance).  As the happy couple left, Madame Xanadu did as well, with a new full jar for her collection.

Tarot Readings had no letters yet, but did feature a history of the Tarot by Bill Kunkel.

Madame Xanadu had three more issues of Doorway To Nightmare in the 1970s, then moved into a few issues of Unexpected for a bit, then her own title for one special issue in the early 1980s, as well as meeting Superman (and joining the larger DC Universe), a group of tales that it is a mystery as to why they haven't been collected in a tradepaperback.