The banner that’s emblazoned above the title logo on the cover of Warlock #9 — “Pulse-Pounding PREMIERE Issue” — can fairly be called misleading, if not outright dishonest. After all, “premiere” means “first” (in this context, anyway), and the issue of a periodical that numerically follows its eighth can hardly be its first, now can it? In fact, this isn’t even the premiere issue of the “Warlock” feature’s revival, which would of course have been Strange Tales #178, published back in November, 1974. But I suppose we can forgive Marvel Comics for wanting to trumpet the return of Adam Warlock in “his own senses-shattering mag” (to quote from the cover’s other blurb) with language a little less clunky that “Pulse-Pounding Fifth Issue of Relaunch” or even “Pulse-Pounding First Issue Under This Title Since 1973”. It was a special occasion, after all.
Behind that cover — which, incidentally, was produced by series auteur Jim Starlin with the assistance of inker Alan Weiss — Warlock #9 picked up right where the previous installment of Starlin’s ongoing epic, published two months earlier in Strange Tales #181, had left off…
Joining the not-so-large Warlock creative team with this issue was inker Steve Leiahola. Then twenty-three years of age, the San Franciscan artist had had some of his work published in fanzines and other small press venues, but “The Infinity Effect”* represented his first work for a major mainstream comics publisher. As he related in a 2014 interview for the “Comics Alternative” web site (archived here) his getting the job was to some extent a matter of being in the right place — the Bay Area — at the right time:
In the early ’70s, a lot of the guys that worked for Marvel moved to Oakland and Berkeley, and I started showing my work to some of them. People like Mike Friedrich, who was actually from here [San Francisco] originally, Alan Weiss, Frank Brunner, Jim Starlin; they were living in Oakland at that time. Alan Weiss wanted to hire some local inkers to help him on various projects, so I started showing samples to him, and Jim Starlin saw some of them. He wanted to be able to pencil and ink a whole issue of Warlock before sending it in to the office…
The usual method was to pencil a book, send it into the office, they would check it, send it off to the letterer, then it would be sent off to the inker. Starlin wanted to have the whole thing done out here so that he could send in a complete book. It saved a lot of time. Tom Orzechowski, ace letterer, was also living out here. At that point in time, my drawing wasn’t that good. My inking was better than my penciling. So, why not ink? And working with Starlin was great for me as an inker because it just happened that my favorite book at that time was Warlock, and Jim was doing extremely tight pencils. Al Milgrom used to joke that all you had to do was pour ink into the corner of the page and it would flow into the grooves of the pencil.
Leialoha would retain the gig through the fifteenth and final issue of Starlin’s Warlock, by which time he’d become the regular inker on another Marvel series, Howard the Duck, — which, not so coincidentally, was initially pencilled by Frank Brunner (who, as noted by Leialoha, was another member of the Bay Area comics-pro community). Leialoha would go on to a long and prolific career in the comics industry; mostly as an inker, but also sometimes pencilling, as with his memorable early-’80s stint on Spider-Woman.
The Magus’ invocation of “the powers of Order and Chaos” appears to be another instance of Starlin being influenced by the fantasy and science fiction of British author Michael Moorcock, in much of which the eternal opposition between Order (or Law) and Chaos plays a central role. That said, Starlin has tweaked Moorcock’s concept somewhat with his suggestion that the two conflicting cosmic forces might sometimes work together to achieve certain goals, as the Magus claims is happening here…
By way of offering Adam Warlock a more complete explanation of the current situation, the Magus briefly recaps key events of the storyline to date, up to the moment of the climax of the previous episode when, as he tells Adam, “in order to be free of the Matriarch’s mental despotism your mind escaped into madness…”
Looking back at the above sequence from the perspective of a half-century later, it’s painfully clear that my younger self missed a raally obvious visual clue to the identity of Gamora’s mysterious “Master”. I mean, it hadn’t been that long since I’d last seen that very same “facial outline against a star-field” imagery before, now had it? Granted, we’re only seeing an extreme close-up detail of that outline here, but still…!
The Magus goes on to explain how he immediately set about founding the Universal Church of Truth (“I mean, what good is a god without a church?“). Once that was accomplished, the new Church was firmly wedded to the existing State, and the Magus happily launched what would be the first of multiple “holy” wars: “Every couple of years, my Grand Inquisitors, who preached peace and love, would devastate a world which, in most cases, was practicing peace and love!”
Now, millennia after first emerging from his cocoon, the Magus rules over a thousand worlds. and is “God, right or wrong” to billions of souls. “As I’ll someday be to all living creatures throughout the stars!” he gloats…
The Magus is clearly and thoroughly in command at this point… as, indeed, he has been throughout this whole issue. He continues to toy with Adam Warlock, slipping in and out of the ever-morphing chamber as though either it or he had no material existence at all. An ever-frustrated Adam is unable to land a single blow on his foe…
And so, with one casual-seeming backhand, the Magus makes short work of what had appeared to be our hero’s one and only hope. At this juncture, a reader might reasonably wonder whether either The Most Dangerous Woman in the Galaxy™ or her unseen Master were actually anything to write home about…
“I now stand before you… a stealer of souls!” Adam proceeds to berate himself for his gem’s devouring of the souls of Autolycus (in Strange Tales #179) and Kra-Tor (in ST #180), saying that due to those acts, he’s “become a spiritual vampire! From savior to vampire, and soon to be mad monarch of a thousand worlds… that’s me!”
Having dispensed with the Matriarch, the Magus tells the general of his Black Knights to gather all his soldiers and then go liquidate everyone they find in “Room 7, Sub-level #2”. As the general hurries away to execute the order, the Magus muses that he doesn’t actually believe that the Black Knights are capable of killing Adam; but, given the unexpected appearance on the scene of “that green girl”, he feels it’ll be best if his past self is kept fully occupied until the arrival of the In-Betweener three hours hence, declaring: “I think fighting some 2500 religious fanatics will be just what the deity ordered!”
Your humble blogger has a modest confession to make here, and it’s this: although my eighteen-year-old self was both surprised and thrilled by this issue’s last minute reveal back in July, ’75, I was also, on some level… just a teensy bit disappointed. You see, I’d loved the way that Jim Starlin had concluded the original Thanos saga back in Captain Marvel #33, and had thought that the climactic two-page sequence depicting the “death” of the Mad Titan was one of the greatest things I’d ever seen in comics. That had been such a perfect finale, in my opinion, that it seemed to me it could only be diminished by Starlin allowing Thanos to have survived it. Now, just why I thought that things should work differently for Thanos than it had for, say, Doctor Doom, or the Joker, or any of the other truly great comic-book villains whom fans had seen buy the farm over and over again, I have no idea — but that’s the way it was.
Fortunately, I got over myself pretty damn quickly, so that I was absolutely ready in two months to see what sort of cosmic fireworks the entry of Thanos into the Warlock-vs.-Magus dynamic would bring. Here’s hoping you’ll all be just as ready and willing to relive that excitement with me, come September.
And now, this:
Ten years and five days ago, your humble blogger published the first of five-hundred and nine (and counting) posts at https://50yearoldcomics.com…
Looking back a decade, I’m not entirely certain what motivated me to begin writing a blog about old comic books that I really had no clue anyone else would ever want to read. I do recall that the thought came to me, sometime around the middle of 2015, that the fiftieth anniversary of my first (remembered) comic book purchase must be coming up soon. Curious, I did some rudimentary Google searching and verified that not only was that in fact the case, but that I could even pinpoint. if not the very day I made that fateful purchase, then at least the date the comic was originally published. What was more, I could do the same for all my other early comics acquisitions as well; indeed, with a bit of work, I could build out a whole history of my comics-buying career, from August, 1965 on through to, well, the present, if I was so inclined.
And it occurred to me that it would be fun to go back and take a look at those fifty (now sixty) year old comics — the ones I bought in the first few months of what would quickly become a habit I’d maintain for the rest of my life — to see to what extent I could recapture the experience of reading them for the first time, as well to explore what I thought and felt about them half a century later. I also realized that, if I wanted to do that, then I just had the one shot at it; I either had to begin the project in the summer of 2015, or let the idea go completely. Figuring that I could quit at any time if I found I wasn’t having fun, or if the blog failed to find an audience, I shrugged, picked out a free WordPress theme that seemed suitable for the purpose, and went for it.
I’m not sure that I initially gave a lot of thought to how long I might keep up the blog if it did, in fact, turn out be a fun thing to do (which is of course what happened). But I figure I must have expected to make it at least to 2018, since the original version of the site’s header image includes a number of comics published in 1968…
…which, not so coincidentally, was the year I started regularly buying Marvel comics, in addition to DC’s books (and the occasional offering from Gold Key). I guess I was determined from the start to make it that far, at the very least.
But at some point in those first few years of doing the blog, it must have occurred to me that, eventually, the whole enterprise might become rather less fun. Would I just drop it cold, if that happened? Nah, that would be poor form. I eventually determined that I would keep the thing running for at least five years; not only was half a decade a good, respectable chunk of time, but 1970 had been a pivotal year for both the comics industry and for me personally, signifying on one hand the end of the Silver Age of Comics (at least as I defined it) and, on the other, my passage from childhood into my teenage years. It also happened to be the year that I almost (but never quite) stopped buying comic books regularly, which would be kind of a down note to wrap things up on, but a notable milestone, nonetheless.
Eventually, of course, 1970 — excuse me, 2020 — rolled around for real; and, taking stock, I found that I was still having plenty of fun writing the blog (which had by then indeed begun to find and build an actual audience, who’da thunk it?). And, what was more, how could I think of stopping when I had such all-time favorites as Jack Kirby’s “Fourth World” books and the Roy Thomas/Barry Windsor-Smith Conan the Barbarian coming up so very soon in the timeline? And so, I ultimately opted to power my way through those several months of very few (or even no) comics purchases; and onwards into the early Bronze Age we plunged.
From that point, I started to think of the blog’s future roughly in terms of two-year time-frames, committing myself to write about every comic I might choose to include in the latest version of the header banner (which, since 2020, has been changed out every 24 months or so). But I’ve also had it in the back of my mind these past five years that I might want to shut things down following the tenth anniversary, even if I and the audience were still having a good time. Why would I do that? Mainly because while 1975 might not have near the same sort of comic-book history significance as 1970, it was an even more important year in my personal history, that being the year I graduated high school, turned eighteen, and started college (in that order). My thinking has been, if a large part of the point of this blog has been about contrasting my initial, youthful responses to these fifty-year-old comics with the opinions I have about them in the present, then does it make sense to continue in the same vein, given that my growing maturity back in the mid-’70s should be making that contrast in perspectives progressively less dramatic? Is it really worth the effort to compare my attitudes as a young adult to those of me as an older one, or does my passage out of adolescence cross a line whereby the differences are no longer very interesting?
Whatever the answers to those questions might be, the fact is that the past five years are behind us now. We’ve actually arrived at that long-considered prospective cutoff point of the blog’s tenth anniversary. And you know what? I’m still having a great time working on the blog, and a decent number of you folks out there still seem to be enjoying reading it, as well. So why stop now? Yes, it’s true that in terms of critical acumen, there may not be quite as much daylight between my eighteen-year-old self and my sixty-eight-year old self as there was between eight-year-old me and fifty-eight year old me back when this blog began; that said, I’d like to think that I’ve grown enough as a human being in the past half-century that there are still differences in perspective between the past and present iterations of myself that are worth exploring. And even in those instances where my personal tastes and interests may not have changed all that much in five decades, the context in which these comics were produced has changed considerably; for that reason alone, I don’t think there’s going to be much danger of anyone reading a review I write in 2025, and mistaking it for one I might have penned in 1975.
In other words, I have no plans to pull the plug on this project any time soon. Here’s hoping that most of you reading this consider that to be good news.
In that spirit — and with the acknowledgement that not a one of us is guaranteed even one more day on this earth, let alone a decade — I invite you to briefly consider what we might be talking about in this space in and around this blog’s twentieth anniversary, in July, 2035, by taking a look at the “Newsstand” page for comics on sale in July, 1985 from the Mike’s Amazing World of Comics web site.
The death of Supergirl in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7? The first issue of Alan Moore’s Miracleman from Eclipse Comics? The second “Lifedeath” story by Chris Claremont and Barry Windsor-Smith from Uncanny X-Men #198?
I dunno about the rest of y’all, but I’m already looking forward to those discussions.
I’d like to close out this commemoration of the blog’s 10th anniversary with some heart-felt thank-yous. (If “Attack of the 50 Year Old Comic Books” was itself a book, this would be its “Acknowledgements” page.)
To begin with, I’d like to express my gratitude to the multitude of artists, writers, editors, and other comics industry professionals without whose efforts this blog would have no reason to exist… and without which my life as a whole would be much diminished.
Secondly, I’d like to acknowledge my massive debt to the many researchers — amateur and professional, credited and anonymous — whose work in documenting comic-book history has enriched this blog’s content considerably. Among the most important of the resources I use on a daily basis are the Grand Comics Database, as well as the aforementioned Mike’s Amazing World of Comics, founded by the late Mike Voiles; without the latter in particular, this blog would have been much harder to launch, and even harder to maintain. I’m also grateful to the contributors to the Marvel and DC Databases maintained at Fandom.com, as well as the folks behind the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe, who between them have saved me many hours’ worth of time in tracking character appearances and other in-story lore. For biographical details as well as excerpts from the memories of the creative pros who made the comics I’ve covered here over the years, I have drawn on too many individual texts and authors to mention in this space; that said, I feel I’d be remiss not to offer a special tip of my hat to the good people at TwoMorrows, whose magazines and books I’ve ransacked ruthlessly (though never without giving credit where it’s due, or so at least I hope). If you like the kind of extensive background information I try to work into these posts whenever possible, they have a lot more of that sort of thing for you to check out on your own.
Finally, and most importantly, I want to thank everyone out there reading this. I’m especially grateful to those of you who’ve taken the time to share your thoughts in the blog’s comments section over the years; on more than one occasion, I’ve seen someone on social media cite the discussions that occur in that space as being as much of a draw for them as the blog posts themselves, and I want y’all to know that I don’t take that for granted, at all. Kudos also to those who read these posts and comment in the other spaces where I regularly share them, including the monthly “fifty years ago” threads at the DC and Marvel Collected Editions Message Boards, as well as on my Facebook page and in multiple comics-interest groups on that same platform. All that said, if you’re the kind of person who reads every word of every post and comment without ever chiming in yourself, no worries. Your humble blogger tends to be the lurker type himself when it comes to other people’s sites, so I totally get you.
Once again, my thanks to all who’ve shared any part of this journey to date. Here’s to the future of our collective ruminations on these fifty-year-old funnybooks, however long it lasts, and wherever the road ahead may take us.
Cake baked by my daughter, Morgan Rose Stewart.
*This appears to have been the first time Jim Starlin used the word “infinity” as part of a story title, though it certainly wouldn’t be the last.
Congratulations on the blog reaching ten years! it’s always a treat to see a new post. 🙏🏼❗️Steven
Do we ever see the Matriarch after this? Sure, she’s dead, but that never stopped the rest of the cast.
It’s complicated. https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Matriarch_(UCT)_(Earth-616)
At the end of Warlock #11, after Warlock has prevented Magus from existing in the then current timeline, the Matriarch was alive and well and Adam & Pip happened to see her roaming around on Homeworld.
Congratulations on reaching this blogging milestone, Alan!! Your overviews of those comics or magazines you purchased 50 years earlier are always a lot of fun to read, whether or not I also happened to get them at the same time or later or those I never did read for myself. While our comics tastes weren’t exactly the same, there’s still a tremendous amount of overlap, including this very issue!
To my mind, even within just his first few issues as an artist on Captain Marvel, Starlin’s artistry and sense of design had improved by leaps and bounds, as had his writing skills, and with his run on Warlock, both in Strange Tales and now back in Warlock’s own title, Starlin more than ever shows himself as one of the masters of comics art. On that cover, btw, I can forgive that by then long-standard sort of hyperbole of the “pulse-pounding premiere!” Marvel had used similar if not exactly the same phrase on nearly every one of the 8 characters who got their own titles in 1968, including those who had starred in their own mags before, namely Captain America, Sub-Mariner and the Hulk, and regardless of whether they were now in a new number one issue, such as Namor, or continuing the numbering from the mag they just took over, as with Cap & Hulk. Something we can grin about in our later years as an imprecise use of the word “premiere” but not something most fans of the time would have given much thought to. Still, overall, a beautiful cover.
As to the story itself, it occurred to me while reading your review, that there’s not a whole lot of action but a whole lot of yakking, mainly by the Magus. But, y’know what? My 13-year-old self in 1975 didn’t care and neither does my current self. I still love this utterly weird story, wherein Warlock essentially confronts his at once past & future self who has become a god while being groomed to become that version of himself! I also loved the bits of humor sprinkled throughout this story, including Warlock’s wry summation of what he appears to be doomed to become, at the expense of his own “humanity”. Actually, that one scene is at once comic, sad and horrifying. Even more so to my adult self, having by now read of so many instances in which someone attained much political power but became inhumanely cruel creatures. Still, had to grin at Pip’s observation that “the universe’s great golden hope has done gone to pieces”. A masterstroke that Starlin created such a character to bring some comic levity to this mostly grim saga.
I can’t precisely recall my feelings upon seeing Thanos dramatic entry onto the story, but I think they echoed your own, as he’d gotten such a terrific “death scene” in Captain Marvel #33. On the other hand, par for the course with great villains in comics, and Thanos had certainly worked his way onto that pantheon in that earlier cosmic epic. And quite the cliffhanger, leaving us to wonder how his involvement would play out in this drama and what other schemes was he working on.
Meanwhile, I’ll be hanging on for the ride and new chapters in your looking back at these past gems as long as you’re willing and able to keep doing it up, Alan! Wishing you many more wonderful years of blogging!
Congratulations and thank you! I get so much enjoyment from your posts and I look forward to many more in the future (as long as you keep having fun)!
Strong cover by Starlin & Weiss. I also like the splash page logo – in an Art Nouveau font – by Tom Orzechowski. Starlin interior pages show no lack of intensity, though a few faces are a bit too cartoonish for my tastes. I also feel his occasional use of symmetrical panel designs on pages is stronger when not employed as frequently as in this issue. Less is more, and more effective.
Geez, just perusing Mike’s Amazing World Newstand site for July 1985, I only got a relative handful of the mags listed – from Marvel, only Thor, X-Men, Black Dragon, Dr. Strange, Vision & Scarlet Witch and West Coast Avengers; otherwise, The Comics Journal, Swamp Thing, Deadman, Miracle Man, and Cerebus. I’d really cut back from what I was getting just a couple of years earlier.
Well, you can’t quit now, Alan. We only a month or so away from the anniversary of our first meeting on the campus of Mississippi College! Ah, those halcyon days of yore! That era of collegiate brotherhood and frivolity! Actually, I remember very little of it (I’m old, you know?), but it will be fun to read future posts and imagine that we sat around the dorm room back in the day discussing the same issues of the same favorite comics. Onward!
As to Warlock & Co, it’s no secret that this is my favorite Marvel book from this era and I love everything about it. I wonder if Starlin was in any way inspired by Jimmy Stewart (no relation) in “It’s a Wonderful Life?” I doubt I realized it back in ’75 because I’m not even sure I’d seen the movie by then, but now, I can’t help but notice that both George Bailey and Adam Warlock get a chance to see the impact they’ve made on the world they live in, though obviously, with wildly different results. Unlike Englehart and Gerber and others who were writing by the seat of the pants from month to month, Starlin had his story worked out well in advance and knew exactly how the pieces had to fall to get the results he wanted.
As for the art, welcome aboard, Mr. Leiahola! I loved his work on Howard the Duck. I would imagine that being able to see his pages inked in SF, would not only allow Starlin the opportunity to skip that pesky step of proof-reading from the Bullpen, but perhaps would also give him some extra days to do his work and still get everything turned in on time. I’m may be wrong about that, but I don’t think so.
Anyway, great book! Great post, Alan! Happy Tenth Anniversary, and should the gods allow it, I’ll happily be here for ten more. Thanks!
I’ve been enjoying your blog here for at least 5 or 6 years. When I discovered your site, I think Kirby’s Fourth World was just beginning. The classic Green Lantern/Green Arrow run by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams was well underway, and Jim Starlin was still unknown to all of us. I appreciate the depth of your research on the backgrounds behind these four-color tales and their creators. Hoping you continue well into the 1980s! Happy 10th Anniversary!
You had me genuinely worried for a minute there that you really were thinking about shutting up shop, and I’m relieved and very happy that you’ll continue for the foreseeable. I only discovered this site a year or three ago but I’ve been back and read every single post, and look forward to many more. The reviews are detailed, witty and insightful, and the regular commentators here are, more often than not, also entertaining, civilized and often informative (even when we have different tastes and opinions). Thank you guys!
For this issue, I’d agree with the general opinion that this series was one of the best and I even loved the comic-book level of exaggeration – don’t the ‘2,500 religious fanatics’ listed here become 25, 000 by the next issue? Multiplied ten times over…
HAPPY 10th ANNIVERSARY!!
Thanks, Alan, for another very enjoyable look at my favourite series from this period. Thanks to the vagaries of distribution in the UK at that time, combined with a strict one per-week limit imposed by my parents on my comics purchases, I was only able to buy the first (Strange Tales 178) and last (Warlock 15) issues of the run as they came out, and had to spend two or three years tracking down all those in between – no easy task before the first specialist comic shop opened in my area. It was a great experience to finally sit down and read the entire run from start to finish.
And thank goodness you’re still enjoying writing these blogs enough to keep going after ten years! You keep writing ‘em and I’ll keep reading ‘em! Happy Tenth Anniversary, and here’s to many more!
Congratulations on 10 Years of your magnificent blog! And what a great issue to showcase on that anniversary!
This issue is part of The Avengers Vs Thanos trade collection.
Excellent post on one of my favorite comics. Starlin’s Warlock run is exceptional, a real high water mark for 1970s comics (and beyond, in my opinion). I met Jim once at a movie theater (we were about watch Only Lovers Left Alive) and got to tell him how important his Warlock was for me. He seemed genuinely touched.
And, as one of those regular readers who doesn’t comment much, just want to say I love the blog and am happy to hear you’re keeping it rolling well into the future! Congrats and cheers to ten years!
I have enjoyed this blog so much, and am glad to hear that you are going to keep it going. Have you ever considered compiling some of your highlights, or all of what you’ve written, into a book? Because what you’ve written is easily on a level that deserves to be recorded for posterity.
Thanks. John. I’ve thought about trying to make a book out of this stuff from time to time, but the copyright clearances that would need to be involved are pretty daunting. Still, you never know… if the right offer came my way… 😉
I assume that Marvel and DC and other publishers would not allow the panel scans to be printed in a physical book? Or at least not for free? I get that, but I have been silently reading the blog for many years (I just now discovered that there are comments, oops) and I think what you have done is as good as any criticism I’ve read, and deserves to be memorialized in a book or books. I’d certainly buy them.
There is “fair use” for comics panels in a book, with copyright info below the images, but in a limited capacity. More protracted use would certainly require clearance from the original publishers.
I am not a copyright lawyer (although I took a copyright law class in 1985 which is likely completely useless today even if I could remember it), but I wonder if the doctrine of fair use applies to comic book panels in a comic book. Each panel is really a piece of art in itself (and splash pages especially can be extremely memorable) so reproducing just that image without compensation could easily violate the rationale for copyright law protection. For instance, if fair use in comic books was only considered for the entire book and not the individual images, than anyone could take a memorable Starlin splash page, put it on a t-shirt and sell it without giving any credit or remuneration to the creator or the company that owned the creation.
Fair use doesn’t apply in the T-shirt situation, which is blatantly using Starlin’s work as a money grab. Using Starlin images in a book studying comics history would be legit … up to a point. Printing too much of a copyright work would cross that point. “Too much” is a shifting target but I think the amount Alan uses in these posts would be pushing it (I am not a lawyer either though). Particularly as Marvel is now Disney which is very litigious about copyright and very grudging about granting permission. I asked for permission to use some images from one of their films in a film reference book of mine; the response was “well, give us every instance where you reference a Disney film and what you say about them and then we’ll decide.” So not worth the effort.
I am a retired lawyer and have written a book that cites copyrighted material under the doctrine of fair use, and your hypothetical of putting a Jim Starlin panel on a t-shirt would not fall under the doctrine of fair use. Fair use allows a scholar to cite copyrighted material for the purposes of, among other uses, “criticism, comment … or scholarship,” and Alan’s blog and his essays about comics clearly fall under this umbrella, whereas sticking an image of Warlock on a t-shirt would not. Nor is there any special exemption for comic panels as a “work of art” that would prevent them from being cited or referenced under the doctrine of fair use in the same way that, say, a passage from a novel could be cited under the doctrine. As another poster has noted, however, how much copyrighted material may be cited under the doctrine of fair use is a grey area, and my best guess is, that if Alan were to publish some of his essays in book form, he might have to cut back from inserting multiple pages of comic art into his essays to just citing key panels or sequences. Finally, one of the factors to be considered for whether or not citing a source is fair use is “the effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.” Speaking for myself only, I would say that DC and Marvel and other publishers ought to be glad that Alan is writing these essays, because I have personally sought out certain 50-year-old comics solely because Alan has written about them. If I buy a back issue of Thor because Alan wrote about it, that doesn’t really benefit Marvel financially, but, if I buy a Warlock or Captain Marvel omnibus because Alan’s essays have rekindled my childhood interest in Jim Starlin’s work, that does help Marvel’s bottom line. So if were Marvel or DC, I’d be glad to see Alan publish some or all of his essays in book form, because they draw attention to their catalog of copyrighted work. I’d presume this blog is successful enough to have caught the attention of someone at Marvel or DC, and the fact that Alan has not received a cease-and-desist letter already (I presume he hasn’t) would indicate that they’re OK with it, for the reasons I stated above. I would further note that Marvel is publishing or allowing to published its own line of scholarly books about the company’s catalog, that looks to be very much in line with what Alan is doing. The line is called “The Marvel of Age of Comics,” and there is a volume called “The Mighty Avengers Face the 1970s” that, according to its solicitation, “explores how the Mighty Avengers became icons during a time of immense change and upheaval.” Some of Alan’s essays about the Avengers would fit right in with this collection, I suspect.
Alan, I only discovered your blog a few months ago but I’m just really enjoying it–as I was reading your postscript I was worried you were going to be signing off! Glad to see you’ll keep going.
July 85 is right between the first and second issues of Marvel’s “Sword of Solomon Kane” miniseries. I don’t know if it’s held in that high of regard nowadays but I loved it then, and still do. (Issue #4 which hit the newsstands in December had some great early Mike Mignola pencils).
I always thought it was a shame Al Weiss didn’t become a big deal in comics.
Some of his early stuff was a bit weak, his first Pelucidar in Korek and Daredevil #83. But his inks on Warlock were amazing. His brief stint ay DC in 1977 made me see characters like CPT Marvel and Supergirl in a different light.
Weiss at his best in the ’70s had flamboyant brushwork that, at times, approached Wrightson (they were friends), but he was a bit too inconsistent in his figure drawing and line weights (according to light source/shadow areas). By the 2000s his work became a lot more consistent, but bland as well. I would not have recognized it as his art if he hadn’t been credited. The promising youngster became a journeyman instead of a superstar.
There were a number in that generation whom I could cite whose peers became respected comics auteurs, but they were “also-rans.” Similar to Jeff Jones was Steve Harper. He had some beautiful drawings in fanzines, and did a few stories for DC in the early to mid 1970s, sometimes solo and sometimes in collaboration with Wrightson, Jones, Kaluta, and even Neal Adams. He left comics and moved to Taos, New Mexico to paint abstract landscapes for a living, and still does.
Ed Davis is another. His name is so generic that that may have been a problem in itself. He also worked, often in collaboration, with this same group of artists. I know even less of him, or what he went off to do.
This is not unique, though. Even in the 1950s there was Frazetta, Wood, Williamson, etc., and their pal Sid Check. His work was on a par with Joe Orlando (at his best) and often compared well with Frank or Woody. But he ended up leaving comics and having a regular day job with the US Post office, then doing a bit of drawing for Amazing Science Fiction in the ’70s in his retirement years. A government job has its perks, and a pension is something most freelance comics creators in the US do not have, sadly.
Jack Kirby said to his fellow creators, “Comics will break your heart.” Al Williamson said, “Comics will chew you up and spit you out.” Wood said, “If I had it all to do over again I’d chop both hands off.”
I hope Starlin had a great payday with Thanos appearing in the Avengers movies. I believe he was well compensated. That is heartening news.
In every era, there are going to be artists who have the potential and don’t fulfill, whether because of interior or exterior reasons.
Your mention of Steve Harper reminds me that James Bama, best known to me for his Doc Savage covers, would eventually turn into a serious Western artist.
Bama was *so* successful that he had commissions for his western art booked TEN YEARS in advance back in the 1980s.
Cool. I had no idea, though given how much I like his paperback work, I’m not surprised.
Sid Check did s nice job on a back up for GI Combat #168 when Archie Goodwin was editing it. Talented Artist.
when I hear about the phenomenon you are talking about,, the first name that comes to mind is always Roy G, Krenkel, who was part of that group, had a big influence on Frazetta . . . and never really got anywhere.
Ironically, Roy was instrumental in launching Frazetta’s career as a book cover artist in the early 1960s. He had Frank help him on a few paintings, which opened the door for Frank to get his own assignments with Lancer and Ace. Roy also provided the compositional roughs for a number of seminal Frazetta cover paintings for Creepy and Eerie in the mid 1960s.
Roy’s career with book publishers continued into the 1970s. He inherited his mother’s house at that time in Queens or Long Island where acolytes Kaluta and Jeff Jones would visit him. There is a beautiful drawing in the 1972-74 Tarzan lettercol for Kubert’s DC series which Roy pencilled and Jones inked.
But by the late ’70s Roy’s behavioral became increasingly eccentric. He took to wearing a drab, brown monk’s habit (like Gustav Klimt) and subsisted on a diet of coffee cake. He boarded up the front door (so visitors had to come around the back), as the front lawn had grown so tall as to make entrance impossible. He had the TV on all day while he sketched and painted, and eventually his professional assignments dried up.
By the early 1980s Roy Krenkel was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Al Williamson had him stay in one of his homes in his last days (Al used to buy old houses, rehab them, then flip them). Ellie Frazetta told me she had led Roy to Christ in the sinner’s prayer on his deathbed.
You can see a fine collection of his work, both published and personal, in Swordsmen & Saurians, printed in the 1980s, I believe.
“I hope Starlin had a great payday with Thanos appearing in the Avengers movies. I believe he was well compensated. That is heartening news.”
A few years ago, I met Jim Starlin at a comic convention in Baltimore, and I asked him if he was well compensated for the Infinity War movies and he cracked, “Yes, I have a truck come by every week to dump the cash on my driveway.” Judging by that comment, I’m not sure that your belief is correct, although I certainly hope so.
Hi John, check out Alan Weiss’ art in Sub-Mariner #54 from 1972. One of the artistic highlights of the bronze age (imho).
That was a good story and an excellent cover. I also liked his CPT America & The Falcon story (#164) . . . other than COL Fury’s “pirate get-up.” and his cover for # 180.
Hearing that you intend to continue this wonderful blog gave me a genuine feeling of delight. Alan, you are very much appreciated. Thank You!
Huh. I never thought Thanos died at the end of the attack on Earth with the Cosmic Cube. I had just assumed cut off from its power he ended up elsewhere by accident or design.
And I hadn’t remembered how good an inker Leiahola was, especially on Starlin’s pencils. I don’t think he ever passed competent even though I did enjoy his Spider-Woman run. That could have been more about deep love for the character and most of Claremont’s writing (the Viper bit was ludicrous even though I think it was a cheap shot to undo it in Captain America out of nowhere). Leiahola’s art was never a favorite but at least he didn’t drive me off a book. It took Image founders, a couple at least, to do that!
And let me be very unoriginal and also tell you how much I have enjoyed your blog. It’s a highlight of any day I get the email a new post has arrived!
Congratulations on 10 years of this blog! I am just a few years behind you, so your blog helps me to experience the 50-year milestones of these comics along with you. Like you, I had read many of these when they were first published.
Jim Starlin’s Warlock run still strikes me as both story and art that have never been matched. I am so happy that Mr. Starlin still puts out Dreadstar graphic novels. They are infrequent, but a real treat when each is released.
Although they had been popular in the movies, to me the MCU versions of Thanos and Gamora (and especially Warlock!) so much paled compared to the original comic book versions!
Happy blogging anniversary! As a long-time lurker and a comics historian who has a mere 20 years of reading comics under my belt, I’m grateful that you plan to continue the blog (as long as it’s fun for you, of course!). I find your historical and cultural context for these issues fascinating and am sure I will continue to do so, even if that context isn’t from a child’s perspective anymore.
Often your write ups are better than the mags themselves when they’ve chanced upon a less memorable issue but I’ve learn a lot from your research eg the personalities and the politics of the industry at the time and after , that my then 11/12 year old self would have had little inkling (no pun intended ) of.
As for the inking on this particular issue, look at the background detail that would have needed to be preserved in the “ME!” panel with Warlock and those trademark densely packed starry skies.
Not sure what Vince Colletta would have made of that (did he ever ink Starlin?) other than finishing before lunch and scrub all that finnicky stuff.
Happy 10th anniversary, my friend!
Like everyone else, glad the blog will keep going. I’m one year behind you (graduated in ’76) so this is very entertaining stuff. As are the comments.
As to the issue, amazing as Starlin consistently was back then. Like Fred, the fact this was mostly exposition didn’t bother me at all. It works, and that’s what matters.
I didn’t feel Thanos was necessarily destroyed at the end of his original story arc (which I’d only followed flipping through books in the store). I did think the end of Warlock’s arc in Marvel Two-in-One was a fitting end for both Adam and Thanos and I’ve never been happy it wasn’t (particularly as the Infinity Events were dreadful and Thanos way overused).
Regarding the phrasing on the cover, Keith Giffen’s “Son of Ambush Bug” squeezes every possible hype phrase onto the cover of the first issue: https://www.mikesamazingworld.com/main/features/comic.php?comicid=24542
Congratulations on reaching this milestone, here’s to the next ten years!
I will add my congratulations, my thanks, and my hopes that you continue for a long time still.
Alan, congratulations on your anniversary, and thanks for another excellent review. The Magus storyline in Strange Tales 178-181 and Warlock 9-11 is certainly one of the best storylines ever done and I am enjoying reliving it with your reviews. I had a similar reaction to the return of Thanos. I was surprised because I really thought he was dead (but of course that’s what we were “told” in CM 33 and that’s really not reliable). I am reminded of what Len Wein once said in an interview, that if you don’t see the body that character (villain or hero) is not really dead (and sometimes even if you see the body..). It is comics after all.
I did not remember that this was the first time we see the inking of Steve Leialoha. I always thought he was an excellent and outstanding complement for Starlin’s pencils. I was fine with his work on his own (such as Spider-Woman) but most enjoyed his inking on Starlin, Gene Colan and Sal Buscema
Was the return of Warlock in his own magazine announced anywhere? It appears that it was not announced at the end of Strange Tales 181. I was curious because it appears that the summer of 1975 was a time of major expansion at Marvel, and the cancellation of numerous horror titles seemed to clear the way for new titles. In May 1975, Invaders, X-Men and Super-Villain Team-Up appeared as new regular sized titles, as well as new title Skull the Slayer. It also appears an editorial decision was made to give Iron Fist and Son of Satan their own titles as well as Warlock. in addition, July and August would have the debuts of The Inhumans, The Champions, Marvel Presents, Marvel Feature and Marvel Chillers. One of the oddest editorial decisions was to keep Strange Tales as an ongoing series with Doctor Strange reprints and new covers. Why do I say odd? For 2 reasons: 1) Doctor Strange was at this time a bimonthly series (although it would go monthly in January 1976); and 2) the stories being reprinted had already been reprinted in one of Marvel’s reprint magazines (Marvel’s Greatest Comics/Marvel Collector’s Item Classics and Marvel Tales). Marvel was usually careful about not reprinting stories a second time. That would change in the 80s when they started reprinting the same Spider-Man stories again. But it seemed very unusual to me at the time and I never picked up Strange Tales again since I had already read the stories being reprinted. This version of Strange Tales only lasted another year until it was cancelled.
I just wanted to mention that I really enjoyed this series of stories and what is demonstrated here is Jim Starlin’s completely confidence in everything he does here. The story works very well and the entrance of Thanos on the last page is suitably dramatic and exciting. Of course, I do wonder what other matters of importance Thanos is referring to…I don’t believe we ever found out since really the most important thing for Thanos is to thwart the Magus’s plans.
Glad to learn you will be continuing this column, Alan. I have enjoyed it very much since discovering it several years ago. We are around the same age and of course have similar but different tastes. I discovered DC books first but came around to Marvel eventually and went through a lengthy period in the 70s when I did not buy any DC books (1974-1980), so have found your discussions of DC books in that period very interesting as well as that of the Atlas books which I missed entirely (I don’t recall if I even saw them at the time). I look forward to more interesting columns. Thanks so much!
Congratulations on your 509th Anniversary Issue!
I’m kidding. Happy 10th! I’m not a fan of the term, “lurker.” (I realize this is a common term). I like reading your blog. I’m not a peeping tom; you want us to see it! I comment when I have something to say about the comic in question that is respectful to those that remember it fondly.
I was worried your epilogue spelled the end of the blog, but happily it goes on!
I’ll continue to be a “lurker;” just a regular person who looks forward to your next post!
Also, to two of the commenters, Steve Leialoha’s father was Hawaiian. Remember his surname as, Lei and Aloha, Hawaiian terms we’re familiar with and you know how to say it and spell it.
Whew! I was reading along, thinking, “He’s going to announce it’s over, he’s going to announce it’s over.” So when you said you’re still enjoying the ride enough not only to continue writing but to speculate about 2035—well, let’s just say it was the internet highlight of my day. Congratulations! Nice cake, too!
I can’t help but wonder if suggesting we think of July 1985 comics is a hint of things to come. Probably not. But if there is an attack of the 40 year old comic books in the offing, it would be great to read your thoughts on Miracle Man #1 (if you bought it at the time, of course).
I’d stopped buying comics in the late 70s and started again in the early 80s with John Byrne’s FF and Walt Simonson’s Thor. I was stuck in Marveldom for a few years. I saw Miracle Man #10 on the rack for months. No issue 11. What the hell is going on? I bought the back issues (except for #9, which was hard to find) and was blown away! And still had to wait for issue #11. It didn’t disappoint. So much to cover in the mid 80s. Moore, Miller, Chaykin (American Flagg #26 in ’85, but I’d only bought the collected tbp at that time), McCloud’s Zot, and the amazing Hernandez brothers’ Love and Rockets. This stuff is too juicy to wait 10 years for.
Isn’t it?
I didn’t start reading comic books regularly until 1989, but I did pick up a few books in July 1985: Alpha Flight #27, Doctor Who #13, Power Pack #15, Rom #71, X-Men #198. And I later on got quite a few other books from July 1985 as back issues.
Attack of the 40 Year Old Comic Books? Sure thing, Bill… just as soon as they perfect human cloning. Or invent the 48-hour day. 😀
Hm… I guess I’ll have to eat less burgers and get more exercise. I want to be around for your perspective on comics in the great eighties. Although, they might perfect human cloning before then, so, fingers crossed.
Hi Alan! I really wish I could find my copy of the Warlock by Jim Starlin trade paperback, so I could read along with your reviews. I really have too much stuff for someone living in a one bedroom apartment with his girlfriend, and I need to get rid of a few things so I can properly organize what I want to keep.
Anyway, congratulations on reaching the ten year mark on this amazing blog. I’m very glad to hear that you will be continuing your blogging for the foreseeable future. Attack of the 50 Year Old Comic Books is such a great blog, and it’s one of the highlights of my week to read your new posts. So, please keep up the great, informative, entertaining work.
Alan, Thank you for bringing us the blog and congratulations on ten years so far. Count me among those looking forward to as many more years of the blog as you are willing to bring us. It’s been fun seeing how your tastes evolved.
I’d just like to thank you, Alan and mention one thing. Yes you say that it’s a joy to put out the blog and that it’s fun but I really want to commend you on the very hard work it is to put this out week after week year after year. I know there must be times you just don’t feel up to it and yet you solder through. Writing is difficult, I know, I’ve tried it. So thanks for your continuing efforts and know that is is very appreciated!
As far as this issue is concerned, what can anyone say? It’s Starlin at the height of his game and it’s magnificent, like Ted Williams the year he hit .400. One point I’d like to make though is concerning the use of Chaos and Order. Michael Moorcock may well have used it. But the concept itself, as an overview of life and humanity predates him by centuries. For instance, here in the west we consider Left and Right the great political dividing line. But generally, Chinese culture puts much more emphasis on Order and Chaos as the real divide in societal formation.
I can think of only 3 times in that era where I couldn’t wait for the next issue of a title to come out. One was Manhunter (even though it was just a backup), Captain Marvel, and Warlock.
Now for the important stuff. Thank you so much for all your hard work. Time goes too fast, especially at my age, and so many of my favorite sites have slowly gone away. Any future updates will always be appreciated, and we can always go back to the beginning. Thank you so much.
Happy Tin Anniversary, Alan! Add me to the list of folks who are grateful for this blog and you efforts to keep it going.
Not much I can add, although I COMPLETELY sympathize with your mixed feelings about the return of Thanos. Like you, having a character who so completely loves death (and Death) actually die at the end of CAPTAIN MARVEL #33 was so perfect that I felt a bit disappointed to see Thanos return at the end of this issue. Part of my fears were that Starlin might turn into a one-trick-pony who could tell great stories about one character but not have it translate to other characters. I think I’ve been proven wrong over the years.
By the way, speaking of Thanos’ first death- apparently Steve Englehart included a line or two in his script for CAPTAIN MARVEL #34 that “explained” that, but Starlin insisted it be taken out. If you look at page 2 of that issue, there’s a panel with a space where a caption or balloon would fit perfectly. NO idea what it actually said.
And a sign how times change. Jumping from STRANGE TALES back to WARLOCK’s own book and retaining the numbering on each would NEVER happen today, when new creative teams almost invariably result in a new Number One. But like the man said, those were different times – like riding in a Stutz Bearcat, Jim…
Cheers, and here’s to ALL of us being around in 10 years to celebrate your Porcelain Anniversary!
There are more new No. 1s in comics these days then there were new No. 2s in “The Prisoner” TV series.
Be seeing you…
Sorry for being late to the party, but I just wanted to add you thanks and appreciation to all the others above for the great work that you do. I remember first seeing one of your posts on Facebook in May 2021 (for Lois Lane 111) and finding that it chimed exactly with my memory and thoughts on that issue. Like others, I then went back and read all your posts from the beginning and was struck by how many of the comics that you wrote about that I also had bought. I didn’t know anybody else back 50 years ago who shared my passion for these comics and had no one to discuss them with, so reading the comments of your regular contributors has been very rewarding.
Sadly, Warlock was not one of the titles that I picked up when I decided to add the Marvel superhero comics to my collecting list, in addition to my beloved DC titles – more fool me!
Thanks again Alan, your posts are one of the highlights of the week (especially when we get a bonus Wednesday one, as we have this week).
Alan, may you always have fun writing this blog. Here’s to many more blogs about a once undervalued art form, artistic heights and joyous remembrances. Well done to you and hope you enjoyed the cake!
Re Leialoha….really nice artist. Fresh, cheery attractive style. Wished he did more. His two issues of Coyote were amazing. Loved his inking on Starlin, Colan and….when he had the opportunity, on Kirby ( I recall his inking of an Ikaris figure on a convention pamphlet, and most strikingly and joyously, on the cover of Devil Dinosaur#7 just before Kirby left Marvel for the last time).
Congratulations Alan on ten wonderful years! I joined the caravan in January 1968, when I began celebrating my 50th anniversary of reading comics and fortuitously found this blog when I was looking up Spider Man #59, which coincidentally was the first Spider Man you bought. This is when I knew I found a kindred spirit (although I quickly learned that your love and knowledge of comics far, far surpasses mine).
As for the story, although the artwork is as magnificent as always, I’m afraid I don’t share the same feeling about the story as many of you do. No offense to the story itself or Jim Starlin, but as a general rule I almost always hate, Hate, HATE time paradox stories. I pretty much sloughed off this one 50 years ago and, while I recognize its significant merits within the genre, I still hate time paradox stories so I don’t care for it now. For some reason, I am a huge fan of Steve Engelhart’s Mantis story, which when I read it the first time I somehow let it slip by that it’s a huge time paradox story and still do. Why, I honestly can’t tell you. I’ve hated almost all of the Kang stories since then that I have read.
Whoops, I meant that I joined the caravan in January 2018. Time really flies. . .