When we last left Adam Warlock at the end of Strange Tales #180, he’d just been driven into unconsciousness by his guilt over his Soul Gem’s stealing the soul of Kray-Tor — the judge who’d been presiding over our hero’s show trial prior to his breaking loose and fighting back. But, as we learned in the story’s closing panels, the woman behind Adam’s ordeal — the Matriarch of the Universal Church of Truth — had actually planned the whole thing as a way to safely subdue Warlock without hurting him, so that she could subject him to being brainwashed by her underlings in a facility she called “the Pit”.
Presumably, the Pit is where we should expect to find Adam Warlockas this issue begins. However, the book’s cover (produced by the series’ auteur, Jim Starlin, with the assistance of inker Alan Weiss) depicts a rather more open-space setting than the word “pit” would seem to imply… as does the story’s opening splash page (although this surreal landscape we find here is clearly a very different sort of “open space” from the cover’s stars ‘n’ planets backdrop):
Jim Starlin’s art had shown the influence of Steve Ditko’s bizarrely imaginative designs for alien dimensions (as seen mostly in his “Doctor Strange” strips) on numerous prior occasions, but he evidently felt the debt here was so great as to necessitate a by-name shout-out — or, at least, he felt inspired to offer such a tribute. What makes the dedication especially interesting is that much of the story that follows is a satirical indictment of the Marvel system of making comic-books that Ditko had walked away from about a decade earlier — especially as that system was exemplified in the person of Ditko’s primary creative collaborator at the company, Stan Lee.
Before moving on from this page, we should also note the presence in the credits of inker Al Milgrom — a friend and frequent collaborator of Starlin’s (as well as one of his creative successors on Captain Marvel), who makes his one and only contribution to his colleague’s original “Warlock” run with this issue.
As regular readers of this blog are aware, I generally skip recap pages like the one above, preferring to refer folks back to our previous posts for any needed refreshers on earlier issues. I’m making an exception in this instance, however, purely because Adam Warlock’s own account of what happened when he absorbed the soul of the Matriarch’s “monstrosity” (i.e., Judge Kray-Tor) contradicts what we saw happen at the end of Strange Tales #180. There, as we’ve already noted, Adam was overcome by guilt when he realized that Kray-Tor sincerely believed his own cause was just and right; here, on the other hand, Adam claims to have been forced “to escape into oblivion” for the sake of his own sanity, due to the “thoughts and feelings” of Kray-Tor (whom he interestingly never refers to here by name) being “so alien”. Nothing here about guilt at all.
It seems highly unlikely that Jim Starlin forgot what he’d written in the previous issue when it came time to script this one. The most likely explanations I can think of for the inconsistency are that 1) Starlin decided that the “guilt” angle didn’t really work (perhaps for reasons similar to those your humble blogger himself suggested in our ST #180 post), or 2) he’s very subtly showing us that Adam Warlock has now chosen to flat-out lie to himself, rather than acknowledge said guilt. If I had to choose, I’d probably go with the latter option… but, I must admit, not with any real confidence. Any other thoughts out there?
Starlin’s satirizing of Marvel Comics personnel begins with the introduction of “Lentean, Head Clown around here!” Lentean’s name is an almost-anagram of Stan Lee’s… “almost”, because it’s both lacking an “s” and has one “n” too many.
Incidentally, the first time this story was reprinted in the U.S., in Fantasy Masterpieces (1979 series) #11 (Oct., 1980) the word balloon in which Lentean offers Adam his name was excised completely…
…while for a later presentation, in Warlock (1992 reprint series) #2 (Jun., 1992), the missing word balloon was restored, sort of — or, to put it more accurately, it was replaced by a new one in which our Head Clown’s name has been re-lettered to read “Len Teans”. (Which at least gets an “s” in there, though it still has one too many “n”‘s.
(For the record, other reprint editions may have made other changes; your humble blogger can’t claim to have perused all of ’em.)
Of course, at this point some of you may be wondering, why would one assume this character is a takeoff on Stan Lee in the first place? Well, his cheery “ol’ faithful one” greeting is certainly one clue — but more definite confirmation awaits on the very next page…
Yeah, he may have antennae, and blue hair, but the “real” Lentean, or Len Teans — or, as it says on his name tag, “Lens” — is a dead ringer for the Smilin’ One.
“Jan Hatroomi” = John Romita — who, as Marvel’s art director during this era, was often called upon to “fix” the work of other artists — especially faces — to better match the standards of someone at Marvel (probably Stan Lee, at least as far as the early to mid-1970s are concerned). A couple of highly relevant examples in the present context: Jim Starlin’s Captain Marvel faces on his covers for CM #29 and #31.
I’m not entirely sure what to make of the technician standing in the background of that last panel. I suppose he might be intended to represent the “real” Jan Hatroomi — but I’ve never seen a photo of John Romita smoking a pipe — or, for that matter, one where he’s sporting a mustache but no beard. So I kind of think this figure is supposed to be the Pit’s analogue of John Verpoorten, who was Marvel’s production manager at this time (and who was photographed in 1975 rocking both a ‘stache and a pipe).
Another minor detail worth noting here: Adam calls the Head Clown “Lens” (with an “s”), rather than “Lentean” or “Len”.
OK, several things to unpack on this page. The blond, bespectacled “renegade clown” being crucified (and pied) is, by all accounts, Roy Thomas, while the two clowns tormenting him (prior to Adam turning the tables) are Len Wein and Marv Wolfman — who jointly (if briefly) succeeded Thomas in the role of Marvel’s editor-in-chief, with Wein responsible for the color comics and Wolfman handling the black-and-white magazines. In the next to last panel above, we see the “real” Wein (in the background) and Wolfman (foreground) in the aftermath of Adam’s “attack”.
Decades later, Jim Starlin recalled for an interview published in Back Issue #48 (Apr., 2011):
…when I did the Warlock story [lampooning] the editors — the clowns issue [Strange Tales #181, Aug. 1975] — people I really slammed like Len and Marv didn’t say anything. They loved the story, but Roy was the only one who got hurt [by it], and Roy was the one I handled the most sympathetically.
For his own part, when asked about the incident for a “Warlock” retrospective published in the same magazine a couple of years earlier (see Back Issue #34 [May, 2009]), Thomas had said:
I don’t recall the story well, but I do know that what I objected to what not Jim’s treatment of me, but of the rest of Marvel’s staff. I appreciated his kind feelings toward me, and I share them back… but I didn’t like to see personal laundry of this type aired in a Marvel comic.
Of course, regardless of how much Wein and Wolfman may have “loved the story” (or how much Thomas didn’t), it’s still sort of amazing that it saw print at all. Based on comments made by Starlin in various venues over the years, he himself gamed the system to an extent by handing in the issue about as late as he possibly could without Marvel missing its printer’s deadline; even so, it’s hard to imagine Marvel publishing “1000 Clowns” just a few years earlier than this, or, even more so, a few years later.
I guess that “clowns” must be a universally recognized concept in the mainstream Marvel reality; the authorities running things in the sector of the cosmos ruled by the Universal Church of Truth seem to know all about ’em, at least.*
Meanwhile, on the Head Clown name-watch, the Matriarch refers to him as “Prof. Teans”. If we put that together with what it says on his name tag, his actual full name is Lens Teans. Which is an exact anagram for… Sstann Lee? Oh, well.
No, the metaphor’s not exactly subtle. And if we make the reasonable inference that Jim Starlin considers his own Marvel work to be the equivalent of “diamonds among the garbage”, it might seem more than a little self-serving, if not actually grandiose.
Interestingly, however, when commenting on this story for the Back Issue #34 article quoted from earlier, Starlin indicated that his ire over Marvel’s editorial practices stemmed more from how they affected some of his peers than from his personal experience:
It was just me wanting to say there’s more than just your standard fight story. I actually in retrospect didn’t get as much pressure as a lot of other folks were getting to conform to that thing. The Captain Marvel stories went and sold really well… the book was going from being canceled to selling really well, so they just sort of left me alone. But a lot of my other friends were saying they were being told, “You have to do this, you have to do that,” and most of the time I didn’t see that you needed a fight in every issue.
Meanwhile, back in what a caption assures us is “Reality!”, Pip and Gamora have gotten as close as they can to the lab where Adam is being held by skulking along corridors; as Pip announces, “it’s time to get violent!” Or, to put it another way: it’s time for a fight!
Warlock’s Soul Gem has no effect on the Madness Monster for the simple reason that the Monster has no individual soul of his own; rather, he embodies part of Adam’s own soul…
Well, the way Starlin and Milgrom have rendered Adam’s face in that next-to-last panel, he certainly looks “quite insane“. On the other hand, he sounds as rational as ever. I guess we’ll have to wait and see just how deep his self-claimed madness actually goes…
When I first read this comic back in May, 1975, I was genuinely surprised by the last-page reveal, as I’d been taken in by the Magus’ “Wizard of Oz” ruse every bit as much as Adam Warlock. It had seemed entirely plausible to me that, whatever process of metamorphosis Adam had gone through (or would go through, from his perspective) to become the Magus, it could have rendered him an entirely non-corporeal being. Hey, it’s comics, right? But now that the secret was out, my seventeen-year-old self was looking forward to seeing Adam confront his evil future self on what seemed to be more equal terms — or, at least, on the same level of physicality.
That confrontation — which might or might not make for a “standard fight story”, to borrow Jim Starlin’s phrase — would be coming my way in two months time, in keeping with the feature’s bimonthly publication schedule… though it wouldn’t be appearing in Strange Tales #182. Evidently, there were enough of us oddballs out there buying what Starlin was brewing to justify reviving Adam Warlock’s own solo title, the last issue of which had shipped in July, 1973. I hope you’ll join me in July, 1975 — er, make that 2025 — when we’ll be taking a look at the first new issue of Warlock to appear in two years.
*Starlin seems likely to have taken his story’s title from A Thousand Clowns — a 1962 play by Herb Gardner that was adapted into a 1965 film of the same name. Both the play and film center on an eccentric, unemployed comedy writer trying to raise his nephew in New York while being pressured to conform to societal norms. Ironically, however, while the play/film’s central character’s situation clearly parallels that of Adam Warlock in Starlin’s tale, the “thousand clowns” of the earlier work appear to symbolize the myriad of potential selves in every human being — a positive image, at least as Gardner employs it — rather than the negative (if absurd) champions of conformity represented by Starlin’s “1000 Clowns”.
I had no idea until years later that anything in this issue was a metacommentary on Marvel. It works fine anyway, as the clownscape could represent any oppressive system imposing conformity. And that’s a good thing — if it couldn’t be anything but a critique of early 1970s Marvel, it would hardly be of much interest now.
Interesting to see Pip as such a brawler. My memory is that he was more likely to stay on the sidelines where it was safe, but obviously not.
May be he was a brawler when he had no other choice; not a guy to START a bar fight, but someone no opposed to ending one (if only to get back to drinking) . . . .
Yes, that’s certainly plausible. But in my memory he’s more like Shaggy in Scooby-Doo, determined to avoid danger whenever possible. Not for the first time, my memory is not infallible.
It’s down to context; in this case Pip is hitting an unarmed man over the head with a club from behind both times while Gamora is taking all the risks and doing all the real work. Any time there’s any risk at all to Pip Pip’s bravado goes for a jog round the block!
That makes sense.
.I missed this issue (f: spotty distribution, that same month, I missed X-Men # 93) but saw the first issue of the revived Warlock in July.
By that time, I had read a couple of Elric stories and was slightly less impressed by this.
Starlin is a great creator . . . but I wonder if he is a happy (or maybe “adjusted”) man
One thing talking to Bronze Age fans has taught me, my small town was apparently a Mecca for comic-book distribution. I almost never missed anything, even when it was just spinner racks at the 7-11.
Two pieces of trivia about “A Thousand Clowns”:
It won Martin Balsam an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Jason Robards played a character named Murray with a distinctive way of answering the telephone:
“Hello, is this someone with good news or money? No? Goodbye!”
(Robards would go on to win back-to-back Best Supporting Actor Academy Awards in 1976-77, both times for playing a real person, Ben Bradlee in “All the President’s Men” and Dashiell Hammett in “Julia.”)
Before there was Chuckles the Clown, there was Chuckles the Chipmunk!
The two Chuckles had different creators . . . .
You’re absolutely right, but it is fun to remember that Chuckles the Chipmunk was the work of Murray Burns, while Chuckles the Clown was a colleague of Murray Slaughter.
I got this mag new off the racks and, as with pretty anything I read by Starlin in the ’70s, I loved it. Admittedly, the meta-commentary on Marvel went almost entirely over my head. It did occur to me that the clown being bombarded with pies looked a lot like images I’d seen of Roy Thomas, but I didn’t immediately recognize “Lentean” or “Lens Teans” as Stan Lee. There are at least a couple of other anagrams Starlin could have gone with – Nate Les, Neal Ten, Lean Tes, Alt Snee, etc. I suppose Lentean or variations thereof just appealed to him more.
I can appreciate the aspect of trying to enforce conformity even more as an adult than I could at age 12 fifty years ago, although even back then it resonated with me. Of course, by now I’ve had so many more experiences and read so much more history and news. Regarding Starlin’s comment about fight scenes, even by age 12 I could appreciate comics stories that dealt more with delving into character development and more normal interactions between various characters without the obligatory fight scenes. Curiously, I do have friends, who are, like me, decades past their adolescence, but who still get their jollies from fights, whether in sports or in movies or tv shows (none of those I personally know ever got into comics, aside from one who never got into superhero comics but loves the old undergrounds, particularly those by Robert Crumb and Harvey Pekar). Quiet, contemplative scenes bore them to tears. Fortunately, I also have friends who hate fight scenes and prefer calmer interactions. But, clearly, back in the ’70s, many of Marvel’s young male fans were much more into fights, fights, fights and more fights! Still, at least a few Marvel writers of the era were striving for more variety in the sorts of stories told.
I wasn’t familiar with the play or film A Thousand Clowns, but it sounds like something worth checking out. I belong to a film group that discusses a variety of films, relatively recent or even nearly a century old, as long as it is available to be viewed online by whatever means.
Overall, this was a highly entertaining issue that (IMO) remains relevant today, even if no one gets the meta-commentary on Marvel as it was in the 1970s. Also enjoyed your overview on the mag, Alan!
In “The Hawkman Companion,” William Messner-Loebs says after Image took off in the 1990s, DC’s brass concluded Kids These Days obviously wanted mindless action and lots of it (he strongly disagrees). WML’s editor took him to task for stopping for two pages in an action-packed issue to have Hawkman brooding and thinking — fans don’t want that, they’ll never buy another issue!
Unlike some of these comments, I realized at the time (buying this on release) that it was the Marvel hierarchy being lampooned (‘Jan Hatroomi’ screamed an anagram), but now I’m curious. I always thought that the ‘blond, bespectacled “renegade clown” being crucified (and pied)’ was Starlin himself. Now that I’ve read this (as always) excellent article, I’m curious where in the time-line this issue falls. What was going on with Roy Thomas at the time that he apparently felt he ‘couldn’t take’ anymore?
Anyway, just about my favourite issue of Starlin’s Warlock run.
Catch-up trivia: in the equally enjoyable Defenders #26 article, Alan, you wondered if the ‘techno-barons’ were an invention of Steve Gerber’s. Surely this was a reference to the period of Kang the Conqueror?
My understanding was that Roy Thomas stepped down as Marvel EIC more for personal than professional reasons.
(I also think Starlin at the time was more of a dark haired, balding guy.
Wouldn’t the Techno-Barons come before 3000 CE and Kang’s minions come later? (I’m asking?)
We covered Roy Thomas’ departure from the EIC job (which I agree is what Starlin was most likely referencing in the pie scene) on the blog some months back (see https://50yearoldcomics.com/2024/11/09/captain-america-182-february-1975/#editors ). Based on the available information, I’d call Thomas’ reasons for leaving more “professional” than “personal” — but I suppose it really depends on how you define those terms.
As to Kang and the Techno-Barons… I think that you’re right, John, in thinking that the latter come a little too early in Gerber’s timeline (21st through 26th centuries) to be an intentional reference to the former, since Kang is supposed to have originated in the 31st C. Though I guess one version or another of Kang *could* have popped up during the Techno-Barons’ period while traveling through time. Who’s to say? 😉 It’s an interesting idea, in any case.
Thank you both, John and Alan, for properly dating Kang’s era.
I still wonder if either (a) Gerber misdated it unintentionally, or (b) deliberately, as he wanted the story he was writing to be the ‘last word’ on Earth’s future-history, and didn’t want Kang overlapping or waiting in the wings? It would dilute the impact of any story he wrote if you knew Kang was just around the corner. ‘Techno-Baron’ just sounded like a very apt description of him.
And we should have had this conversation two weeks ago, which shows what can happen if you mess with the time-lines.
I wonder if Pip’s observation “Hey! That guy almost dropped a brick when he saw you!” slipped through due to Starlin turning the issue in at the last minute, or if editor Len Wein didn’t get the obvious meaning of it, or if he did get it and just thought it would be amusing to give it a pass. Whatever the case, I don’t recall references to bodily functions, involuntary or not, as being very common in mainstream comics in 1975.
Also, it might be obscure enough and euphemistic enough not to be seen as vulgar by the CCA
Didn’t he front up to the bar and order a merde stinger, heavy on the merde, some issues back?
Years ago, when I was teaching school, we had a really stern policy about students not wearing t-shirts that advertised alcohol. Kid shows up one day wearing a Stolichnaya t-shirt and I mentioned it to an administrator in passing (not that I was a narc, or anything), and he said the shirt was OK b/c none of the students would understand what it was referring to. Probably the same thing here. If the CCA didn’t think a 12-year-old would understand a dirty or suggestive joke (or speak French), they let it pass.
That’s only offensive, if you have a background in French (or Spanish) . . . .
. . . or know enough Napoleonic history to know what Cambronne really said when invited to surrender the Guard at Waterloo . . . .
Wire/John… Another one Starlin sneaked past editorial & the CCA, Pip’s observation in this issue: “This is the most fun had since brown eyeing!”
And further to observations/speculations above about Starlin’s general state of mind. Well he was in the military, had issues with being raised a Catholic (self evident in his work) and took LSD (as per Sean Howe’s book). So overall probably not a happy bunny…
I loved this whole run. Definitely one of my favorite Marvel storylines of all time. I don’t know if I recognized the meta-commentary in ’75 or not. Chances are, I realized those characters were supposed to refer to somebody, but didn’t recognize who–I was still a couple of years from my “inside baseball” days of comic fandom, but it didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the story, by any stretch. Starlin was just on fire at this point in his career, and I would have followed him anywhere.
By the way, I own the over-sized Gallery edition of Warlock and in my version, the character is still named “Lentean.” Thanks, Alan.
I’m surprised there were not more reactions to this story . . . .
For once I am actually all caught up and current on this blog and I have something fresh to share.
Even back in 1975 I got the Stan Lee reference immediately and recognized Roy Thomas from his placement in other comic books over the previous seven years (e.g., the Rutland parade issues). However, I wasn’t good with anagrams then (or now), so I never thought then about the names or recognized John Romita, John Verpoorten or Cain and Abel (I mean Len Wein and Marv Wolfman).
However, reading the screen captures in Alan’s blog post before the discussion on how the anagram for Stan did not fit, one thing immediately hit me about the name. Lentean: then Editor in Chief Len Wein. Back in 1975, I never would have thought this because, up until a couple of years before his death, I thought that his last name was pronounced “Wine”, but now I wonder if there was some skittishness around naming Stan in some quarters so “Lentean” was used to draw attention to Len Wein. My theory sounds far-fetched I know given all of the other direct references to Stan to say nothing of his picture as the character (in 1975, I got the parody right away from Stan’s phrases) but it would far fetchedly explain why the anagrams don’t work. This time, I actually thought for one second that maybe the guy was supposed to be Len Wein, but only for one second as I moved on to the next panels. 😀
I didn’t like the parody on principle. Like Roy Thomas, I thought that it was just mean. I felt that way back in 1975 too, even though I didn’t understand much about it then (thanks to Sean Howe’s book, I do now). Jack Kirby’s “Funky Flashman and Houseroy” parody went completely over my head in the early 1970s because I was too young to get it (nor did I have any reason to think at the time that there was a backstory of animosity to be told).
I do find it ironic that Starlin would choose this point in time to criticize Marvel conformity and demand for fight scenes when so many of the new breed of storytellers (scribes and artists) were breaking the rules seemingly with impunity. I mean, just a few months earlier we had Steve Engelhart finish the Mantis arc with a couple of full issues of “Avengers” that were basically just exposition. Steve Gerber is another example. I can see Starlin being justly furious at Romita for retouching the faces though. I mean, in a sense that’s even more outrageous than D.C. changing the Superman faces drawn by Jack Kirby because Captain Marvel was not a flagship character and Starlin’s drawing style was more basically mainstream with faces than Kirby (in my opinion anyway).
“…I wonder if there was some skittishness around naming Stan in some quarters so “Lentean” was used to draw attention to Len Wein.”
Hmm, I think you may be on to something there, Stuart!
My take was that Warlock was Stellar Jim and the Magus……Stan! As for pressure from editorial…Stan wanted lots of action; he just didn’t like quiet comics. I recall ( having recently re-read) your review of Red Nails ( in Savage Tales#2, one of the classics of the silver age), which covered Roy’s comments from this Barbarian Life book, relating that Stan disliked the opening few pages, giving Roy grief that they were too quiet. Much as I am a big Kirby and Ditko fan, and dislike Stan’s continual re-writing and fixing of other’s work, Stan most of the time had his finger on the commercial pulse, ensuring that Marvel comics were lively and dynamic compared to other publishers, which were dull in comparison.
Another great review Alan, and another of my favourite comics from way back when.
Coincidentally, right now I’m reading Roy Thomas’ 2017 book “The Marvel Age of Comics 1961-1978” and today I read the following (Thomas always refers to himself in the third person in the book and specifically said that he would do so):
“Thomas, for his part, had become disenchanted with the editor-in-chief job. In August of ’74, he and publisher Lee agreed that he would instead become the first ‘writer/editor’ under contract to Marvel, handling three popular Conan titles, plus a few new ones: “What If”. . . “The Invaders”. . .and “Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction” and “Kull and the Barbarians”, both black and white magazines.” p. 390.
Now, I can certainly see why Thomas did not want to weigh down a book which basically is pages and pages of artwork from the period along with some basic history, with the negative story of the Lee and Infantino conspiracy lunch which supposedly led to Thomas’ resignation. However, maybe Thomas’ contract to be “writer/editor” is what steamed Starlin, who clearly wanted such control.
Also, please forgive me for straying off topic, but this is the only forum I frequent that can appreciate this. I was very saddened to hear today that writer Peter David has died. I stopped reading comics in 1979, before David started at Marvel, but starting in 2014 I picked up reading Marvel from that point on “Marvel Unlimited” and have been catching up ever since. While I occasionally did not like David’s ideas (e.g., having the Hulk become the muscle at a Las Vegas casino calling himself Joe Fixit), I loved almost all of the others, and I hated it when the outstanding but depressing Marvel Universe Onslaught series forced David to curtail the clever humor in his Hulk stories. David also took on the Heroes Reborn series task, which I just finished.
While I hated the Joe Fixit storyline, my all-time favorite Peter David joke was when he had Wolverine play a prank on the Hulk by breaking into his casino hotel suite and replacing all of the Hulk’s expensive suits with a closet full of torn purple pants (like the ones that would always appear when Banner changed into the Hulk in years gone by).
Alan, I hope that we all live long enough for you to blog about and for us to read about David’s Hulk series. Peter David died at the relatively young age of 68 after suffering years of health issues.
Stuart, I, too, am saddened by Peter David’s death, having enjoyed his work in multiple media for decades. Just for the record, though (and to keep you from anticipating anything different in a decade’s time), I wasn’t a regular reader of his 12-year Hulk run, though I did pick up an issue or two here and there. My favorite comic-book work of his overall was undoubtedly DC’s Young Justice — unfortunately, the 50th anniversary of that series’ debut won’t be until 2048, so… 🙁
Showing how mileage varies, I never felt the urge to pick up Hulk regularly until Joe Fixit became a thing.
I think his finger was off the pulse by the mid-1970s. Didn’t think Conan would be a hit. Didn’t think it was worth securing rights for some upcoming movie called Star Wars. And very cautious about shaking things up now that Marvel had gone from scrappy upstart to big dog.