Month: May 2024

Master of Kung Fu #19 (August, 1974)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Back in January, we took a look at Master of Kung Fu #17, a comic which presented the third installment of Marvel Comics’ first ongoing martial arts feature (albeit only the first one under that title, as the two previous episodes had seen print as Special Marvel Edition #15 and #16).  That third installment was also the last to involve artist Jim Starlin, who had been instrumental in conceiving and developing the feature with writer Steve Englehart (although the idea of making the strip’s hero, Shang-Chi, the son of the famous fictional villain Fu Manchu came from Marvel’s editor-in-chief, Roy Thomas).  Read More

Man-Thing #8 (August, 1974)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Mike Ploog’s splendidly over-the-top cover for Man-Thing #8 probably calls back harder to the lurid, gory glories of early-1950s pre-Code horror comics than anything else ever published by Marvel in the 1970s (including their Code-free black-and-white magazine line).  Of course, back in May, 1974, my sixteen-year-old self probably didn’t fully comprehend that that was what the artist was up to here; still, that didn’t mean that I couldn’t appreciate the cover on its own merits.  A muck-covered monstrosity breaking free from his lab-table restraints, while nearby a hideous ghoul threatened a beautiful, buxom young woman?  What wasn’t to love?  Read More

The Shadow #6 (Aug.-Sep., 1974)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Last November, we took a look at the third issue of DC Comics’ The Shadow — the first issue by the team of writer/editor Denny O’Neil and artist Michael W. Kaluta to carry a credit for another creative talent.  In this case, it was Kaluta’s friend and fellow artist, Bernie Wrightson, who stepped in to help out his pal when the former artist ran behind on his bi-monthly deadline.

Kaluta ended up having some uncredited help on issue #4, as well — this time from Howard Chaykin and Stephen Hickman as well as Wrightson — although this seems to have been a case of the other artists just wanting to pitch in for the fun of it, rather than a matter of necessity.  Kaluta drew the cover solo, however, just as he had the previous three; like them, it was enhanced by the special washtone process utilized by colorist Jack Adler.  (For the record, this issue also featured an additional writing credit for the first time, as Len Wein co-scripted the story with O’Neil.)

Then, in March, 1974, The Shadow #5 brought the largest creative shakeup yet, as Kaluta was entirely absent from the issue; instead, both the cover and story were illustrated by an artist with a diametrically different style, i.e., Frank Robbins.  Read More

Doctor Strange #2 (August, 1974)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Behind a very nice (if somewhat misleading — we’ll get to why a bit later) cover pencilled, inked, and colored by Frank Brunner, the second issue of the newly revived Doctor Strange title picks up where the first one left off.  In other words, Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme is still dead.

Oh, all right.  Nearly dead.  Having been stabbed in the back with a silver dagger wielded by a brand-new villain named, um, Silver Dagger, our mortally wounded hero has postponed his otherwise inevitable demise by entering the Orb of Agamotto.  Unable to return the way he came, he’s presently on a journey to the center of the Orb, in hopes of finding an exit from its mystical confines before his body and soul succumb to its native unreality; of course, even if he succeeds, he’s still got the whole “mortally wounded” thing to deal with.  Yes, it’s quite the sticky wicket.  Read More

Astonishing Tales #25 (August, 1974)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Marvel Comics’ first official mention of the feature that would eventually become known as “Deathlok the Demolisher” seems to have been a brief blurb in the fourth issue of the company’s self-produced fanzine FOOM (cover-dated “Winter, 1973”, but bearing a date of “Winter, 1974” in its indicia; Mike’s Amazing World of Comics offers an “approximate on-sale date” of January 1, 1974).  After hyping a 2-part adaptation of the movie The Golden Voyage of Sinbad that would be coming up soon in Worlds Unknown, FOOM‘s anonymous news columnist went on to add:  Read More

Captain America #176 (August, 1974)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

In his 2016 introduction to Marvel Masterworks — Captain America, Vol. 9, Steve Englehart refers to the cover John Romita produced for the subject of today’s post as “iconic”.  That’s become a rather overused word in today’s culture, I grant you; all the same, I find it hard to disagree with him.  For this grizzled old fan, it’s virtually impossible to think about this particular era of Captain America comics without the image shown above leaping immediately to mind — and that’s close enough to iconic for the word to fit, at least in my book.  Read More