Savage Sword of Conan #14 (September, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

You’d likely never guess it from the wholly acceptable, but not especially memorable Earl Norem cover to the comic book that’s our topic for today — but, half a century ago, Savage Sword of Conan #14 represented something of the end of an era… even if no one knew it at the time.  That’s because its pages contained the very last collaboration between writer Roy Thomas and artist Neal Adams — two creators whose previous joint efforts, though relatively few in number, comprised some of the high water marks of the late Silver and early Bronze Ages of comics.  Read More

Metal Men #48 (Oct.-Nov., 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Cover to Metal Men #46 (Jun.-Jul., 1976). Art by Dick Giordano.

Cover to Metal Men #47 (Aug.-Sep.). Art by Walt Simonson.

Six months ago, we took a look at Metal Men #45 — which, back in January, 1976, was the first all-new issue of the title to have been published since 1969.  Featuring the long overdue reunion of the robot superheroes with their creator, Dr. Will Magnus, that comic had been written by Steve Gerber and illustrated by Walt Simonson.  But Gerber’s effort was a one-off; with the following bi-monthly issue, #46, editor Gerry Conway took over scripting duties as well.  This creative lineup remained in place only through #47, as by the time #48 finished making its way through production, Gerry Conway was no longer at DC Comics.  As we’ve discussed in several previous posts, Conway had been lured back to his former employer, Marvel Comics, to become editor-in-chief; production schedules being what they were, however, his name continued to appear in DC’s books even as his situation at Marvel evolved from being EIC to becoming the writer/editor of a smaller slate of titles.  Read More

Justice League of America #135 (October, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Half a century ago, July, 1976 brought the return of one of my younger self’s favorite comic book traditions of those bygone days– the annual team-up event between the Justice League of America and their forerunners from the Golden Age of Comics, the Justice Society of America.  This particular iteration was the fourteenth such team-up to appear since DC Comics had kicked the whole thing off back in 1963, not to mention the eleventh for your humble blogger, who’d first come aboard in 1966.  And though you couldn’t tell it from Ernie Chan’s cover, Justice League of America #135 had an additional numerical distinction as well, as it presented the first chapter of what would eventually emerge as only the second JLA/JSA event up to that point to occupy three full issues, two having been the norm ever since JLA #21 and #22 had inaugurated the tradition way back when.  Read More

All-Star Comics #62 (Sept.-Oct., 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Cover to All-Star Comics #58 (Jan.-Feb., 1976). Art by Mike Grell.

Cover to All-Star Comics #59 (Mar.-Apr., 1976). Art by Ernie Chan.

Last October, we took a look at All-Star Comics #58 — the first issue of DC Comics’ revival of the title which had played host to the original superhero team, the Justice Society of America, back in the Golden Age of Comics — as well as its immediate follow-up, issue #59.  Together, these two premiere installments presented a single story that established writer/editor Gerry Conway’s vision for updating the JSA for success in the comic book marketplace of the mid-1970s — a vision that involved taking the aging, veteran heroes who’d traditionally made up the ranks of the Justice Society (a large roster represented here by a core group of Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Dr. Mid-Nite, Dr. Fate, and Wildcat) and teaming them up with a trio of younger champions of the right: Robin, the Star-Spangled Kid, and a brand-new character called Power Girl — under a new, not-quite-official umbrella name, the “Super Squad”.  Read More

Captain Marvel #46 (September, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Over the past couple of months we’ve been looking at the concluding issues of writer Steve Englehart’s runs on several different Marvel comics titles — and that “farewell tour” continues today, with our coverage of the end of Englehart’s tenure on Captain Marvel.  This one’s a bit different from our earlier forays into the writer’s final Avengers and Doctor Strange stories, however, as the ostensible main topic of this post, Captain Marvel #46, doesn’t carry a formal credit for Englehart at all.  That said, this issue most definitely concludes the multi-part storyline he and his co-plotter, artist Al Milgrom, had been developing since issue #41, and I see no good reason to doubt the author’s claim (made on his website as well as in his 2011 introduction to Marvel Masterworks — Captain Marvel, Vol. 4) that he and Milgrom had worked out the plot for this final chapter before his abrupt departure from the book (as well as from Marvel Comics overall) — especially since, to the best of my knowledge, neither Milgrom nor Chris Claremont (CM #46’s scripter of record) have ever disputed that assertion.  Read More

Marvel Treasury Special Featuring Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles #1 (1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

If you weren’t around in 1976 (or were, but were too young then to remember much now), it might be hard to appreciate just how big a deal the United States Bicentennial was — not just in the key anniversary month of July, but also for a goodly number of months leading up to it.  But please, take an old geezer’s word for it; it really was everywhere in American popular culture for what seemed like quite a long while — and the nation’s comics publishers definitely did their share of celebratory flag-waving.  Read More

Conan the Barbarian #66 (September, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

A week ago, we took a look at Marvel Feature #6, the first installment of what will eventually turn out to be a five-part crossover between that title and Conan the Barbarian.  Today, we’ll be dealing with the second chapter of this event — although, in fact, Conan #66 can just as easily (and perhaps more accurately) be described as the second prologue to the crossover “proper”, which won’t really get going until the next month’s Conan #67.  That’s because this comic, like Marvel Feature #6, is entirely concerned with getting the storyline’s three principal characters — i.e., Conan, his lover and partner-in-piracy Bêlit, and Marvel Feature headliner Red Sonja — all on the same page.  And I mean literally the same page, in more ways than one; since, as regular readers will recall, MF #6 ended with a full-page splash panel depicting Red Sonja facing down Conan and Bêlit over a priceless magical artifact: a single page from the Iron-Bound Book of Skelos.  Our story’s first prologue told us how Sonja got herself into that situation; now it’s time for us to check out the second, the better to learn what path Conan and Bêlit have followed to arrive at the very same place as Big Red.  Read More

Doctor Strange #18 (September, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

With this post, we come to the regrettably untimely end of writer Steve Englehart’s run on Doctor Strange.  But before we get into DS #18’s “The Dream Is Dead!”, we’ll first need to take a look at the previous issue, which presented the first installment of what was originally planned to be an ambitious, multi-part story arc organized around the American Bicentennial; and since the ultimately truncated storyline’s conclusion (such as it was) occurred in the following, Englehart-less #19, we’re going to be covering that one here today as well.  All of that’s to let you know that, well, we may be here for a while.  Read More

Marvel Feature #6 (September, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Cover to Savage Sword of Conan #1 (Aug., 1974). Art by Boris Valejo.

It’s been a while since we discussed Red Sonja on this blog — since the 50th anniversary of the publication of Savage Sword of Conan #1, to be precise, and that was back in June, 2024, a full two years ago — so before we jump into the main topic of today’s post, it’ll behoove us to spend just a little bit of time tracking what the She-Devil with a Sword had been up to between her appearance(s) in that black-and-white comic magazine and her sixth solo outing as a headliner in the second volume of the color “showcase” comic title Marvel Feature.  Beyond that, a brief recap of the heroine’s earlier history may also be useful, both as a primer for anyone out there not already thoroughly familiar with Big Red, and as a refresher for those who are.  (Though if you do already know all this background material backwards and forwards and choose to skip the next couple of paragraphs, that’s fine.  After all, how will the rest of us ever know?)  Read More

Invaders #8 (September, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

As longtime readers of this blog well know — actually, as anyone who just started reading it three posts back has likely already sussed out — your humble blogger was very partial to superhero team books back in the day.  In the particular period we’re currently dealing with (i.e., in and around 1976), either Marvel or DC Comics could drop a new team title (or revive an old one) and it was all but a sure thing that I’d sample at least one issue.  There were a couple of exceptions, both on the DC side (the new Freedom Fighters and the revived Teen Titans, for the record); but, generally speaking, you could throw a bunch of costumed characters together, slap a group name on them, and my younger self would feel compelled to take a look — even in cases where the team seemed to have no real reason to exist (yeah, I’m looking at you, Champions).  Read More