Son of Satan #8 (February, 1977)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Cover to Marvel Spotlight #12 (Oct., 1973). Art by Herb Trimpe and ?.

Fifty-three years and four months ago, when the “Son of Satan” feature debuted in Marvel Spotlight #12 (Oct., 1973), it was one among many series then riding the “horror hero” wave at Marvel Comics.  Just in the one month that Daimon Hellstrom’s fiery chariot first flew into view on the nation’s spinner racks, Marvel also shipped copies of Ghost Rider (from which “Son of Satan” was a spinoff), Frankenstein, Strange Tales (featuring “Brother Voodoo”), Fear (featuring “Man-Thing”), Tomb of Dracula, and Werewolf by Night… and that’s not even including the publisher’s black-and-white horror anthology magazines, Monsters Unleashed (featuring still more “Man-Thing”), and Vampire Tales (where “Morbius, the Living Vampire” was fanging it up).

Cover to Son of Satan #1 (Dec., 1975). Art by Gil Kane and Mike Esposito.

Two years later, the landscape had changed considerably, with Ghost Rider, Dracula, and the Werewolf being the last Marvel monsters standing, save for the star of today’s blog post.  But even as Fear (which by this point was starring Morbius) went shambling off into the outer darkness, the Son of Satan was getting a promotion.  After logging thirteen issues of Marvel Spotlight (a run mostly, though not entirely, written by Steve Gerber), Daimon Hellstrom appeared to have bucked the prevailing sales trends — and so, in September, 1975, found himself the star of his very own bimonthly title.

But, alas, the luck of the scion of the Lord of Hell was about to run out.  Following a seven-issue stint written by John Warner and illustrated by such talents as Jim Mooney, Sonny Trinidad, P. Craig Russell, and Ed Hannigan, the title was cancelled… though the editorial note on Son of Satan #7’s letters page that delivered this sad news also indicated that though the series‘ fate was sealed, this issue might not be the very last one we’d see:  Read More

Tomb of Dracula #53 (February, 1977)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

We’ve discussed in previous posts how writer Marv Wolfman liked to play the long game in Tomb of Dracula — and that was nowhere more evident than in his handling of the subplot involving Deacon Frost, the mysterious white-haired vampire first seen all the way back in ToD #13 (Oct., 1973): a mere forty issues prior to the climactic wrap-up of the storyline in the comic we’ll be looking at today.  Read More

Howard the Duck #8 (January, 1977)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Your humble blogger would like to begin our look back at this rather special issue of Howard the Duck with a note of great admiration for its cover, which is probably my favorite in the whole run of the title.  Just lovely, iconic work from the title’s regular art team of Gene Colan and Steve Leialoha… plus Marvel Comics art director John Romita, who pencilled the central image of Howard, according to a 2023 Facebook post by Leialoha.  And thanks mostly to the faux newspaper headlines — doubtlessly the contribution of writer Steve Gerber — it’s a damn funny cover as well.  Read More

All-Star Comics #64 (Jan.-Feb., 1977)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

We’ll begin our discussion of today’s fifty year old comic book by spending a few moments basking in the glory of its cover, one of your humble blogger’s favorites of this era.  Pencilled and inked by the legendary Wally Wood (and colored by his ex-wife Tatjana, according to the Grand Comics Database) it marks Wood’s transition from having “merely” provided finishes over other artists’ layouts in earlier installments of this series to taking full responsibility for the artwork.  It also represents a welcome return by the veteran artist to a particular sort of subject matter — i.e., knights, castles, and other trappings of Medieval European history (and legend) — for which he’d always shown a great affinity and facility.  Read More

Omega the Unknown #6 (January, 1977)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

According to Omega the Unknown‘s co-creator Mary Skrenes, she and her collaborator, Steve Gerber, were originally given the go-ahead for the series from Marvel Comics publisher Stan Lee with the stipulation that they bring in already well-established Marvel characters as villains (or guest stars) on a regular basis.  That policy seemed to hold through issues #2 and #3, which saw the enigmatic title character going up against the Hulk and Electro, respectively.  But it seems to have fallen by the wayside as early as issue #4, which (as heralded by the Howard Chaykin-Frank Giacoia cover shown at left) introduced the menace of… El Gato.  And as we’re about to see as we make our trek not just through OtU #4, but through #5 and #6 as well, “Stan the Man” may well have had the right instincts in this case.  Read More

Doctor Strange Annual #1 (1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Back in June, I closed out my post about Doctor Strange #18 — the last issue of the series written by Steve Englehart — with the observation that while there would be great Dr. Strange comics following that author’s departure, they’d mostly achieve that status more on the basis of their artwork than of their writing.  I also noted that the first such book, Doctor Strange Annual #1, would be coming up for discussion as early as October.

But now that this story’s moment has actually come, I feel the need to qualify my previous assertion, at least a little bit.  That’s because as magnificent as the pictures produced for it by artist P. Craig Russell undeniably are, their impact is virtually impossible to separate from what Russell also brought to the project as its conceptual originator and primary plotter; in other words, as a writer.  Ultimately, this comic is a remarkable work of the literary as well as the artistic imagination.  Read More

Marvel Treasury Edition #12 (1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

As of October, 1976, Marvel Comics had primarily used their tabloid-sized “Treasury” format (which had premiered in the summer of 1974) as a vehicle for reprint material.  Exceptions to date had included MGM’s Marvelous Wizard of Oz (1975), Marvel Treasury of Oz Featuring The Marvelous Land of Oz (1975), and Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man (1976), the first and last of which were co-productions with DC Comics; more recently, the past summer had seen the release of two new 10″ x 13.5” extravaganzas written as well as drawn by Jack Kirby: Marvel Treasury Special Featuring Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles and 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Read More

Tomb of Dracula #52 (January, 1977)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

It’s been two months since we last took a look at Tomb of Dracula — and since issues #51 and #52 both feature significant developments in the ongoing “Church of Dracula” saga that writer Marv Wolfman, penciller Gene Colan, and inker Tom Palmer were chronicling half a century ago, we’re going to be spending just about as much time today talking about the former as we are the latter, regardless what the big post title up there might lead one to believe.  If you’re a regular (or even a semi-regular) reader of this blog, you already know how this goes… so, let’s get to it.

As indicated by the Colan-Palmer cover for #51, a major plot thread that’s been running in the background of this series for a while now — namely, the quest of Blade and Hannibal King to track down their mutual arch-enemy, the vampire called Deacon Frost — is about to return to the foreground.  First, though, our storytellers will have to resolve another situation that feels like it’s been in stasis for three issues running (maybe because, by and large, it has)…  Read More

Howard the Duck #7 (December, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

The fifty-year-old comic book we’re discussing today is something of a strange duck (sorry), in that while the bulk of it is devoted to the beginning of a new storyline concerning the titular character’s campaign for President of the United States, the first five of its seventeen pages — as well as the Gene Colan-Tom Palmer cover shown above — are given over to the wrap-up of a story mostly told, but not quite finished, in the previous issue.  So we’re going to need to take a look at Howard the Duck #6 before we look at #7.  And since the last issue we covered before this was #4, back in April… and since #5 sets up #6 pretty directly… we’re going to need to at least quickly summarize the events of the former issue’s “I Want Mo-o-oney!” before we even do that.  All clear?  Great!  So let’s begin.  Read More

X-Men #102 (December, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

With this post, we’ll be resuming our coverage of writer Chris Claremont and artist Dave Cockrum’s half-century old “Cassidy Keep” storyline in X-Men right where we left off in July — so, if you didn’t read our post about issue #101 at that time (or just need to refresh your memory), you might want to check it out before proceeding.  Also along the lines of housekeeping notes, we’ll be discussing the story’s conclusion in #103 in this post as well, so please plan accordingly.  Read More