Eerie #67 (August, 1975)

At the time I originally purchased the subject of today’s blog post, way back in June, 1975, it had been over two years since I’d bought an issue of any of Warren Publishing’s black-and-white comics magazines (with one exception, which I’ll get to in a moment).  Half a century later, I’m not entirely sure how or why I’d grown so cold so quickly to Warren’s fare, given that I had been reading both Vampirella and Eerie quasi-regularly for some time prior to that (for whatever reason, I never bought more than a single issue of Creepy, at least not in this particular era).  I do recall that I’d lost interest in Vampirella after its ongoing Dracula plotline got spun off into its own series in Eerie, and that I was subsequently disappointed when that series petered out inconclusively after a mere three episodes.  Perhaps that was all it took to turn me off, especially since by mid-1973, I had other options for reading “mature” comic-book stories about Dracula — as well as other horror-oriented subjects — thanks to Marvel Comics’ new black-and-white line.  As for the fourth comics title that Warren would add to its line in early 1974 —The Spirit  — my younger self wasn’t sure what to make of it at all (though I do remember flipping through an early issue or two and being bemused by the discovery that one of my favorite contemporary comics artists, Mike Ploog, seemed to have copped a good bit of his style from this Will Eisner fellow.)
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Marvel Premiere #14 (March, 1974)

In December, 1973, the lead feature spot in Marvel Premiere was about to become vacant, as Doctor Strange’s 20-month, 12-issue tenancy as the publication’s headliner neared its end.  For the Master of the Mystic Arts — and his fans — it was a happy occasion, as he was about to return to starring in his very own title for the first time since 1969.

Though, of course, before the good Doctor could move into his new digs, he’d have to survive the third and final chapter of the storyline the series’ creative team of Steve Englehart (co-plotter/scripter) and Frank Brunner (co-plotter/artist) had initiated back in Marvel Premiere #12 — a storyline that presently found Strange and his arch-enemy, Baron Mordo, journeying backwards through time to the dawn of Creation, trailing a sorcerer from the far distant future named Sise-Neg (though, for reasons now unknown, the copy affixed to Brunner’s cover for issue #14 called him Cagliostro — the 18th-century mage Sise-Neg had impersonated in the previous issue).  Read More

Demon #16 (January, 1974)

DC Comics appears to have had high hopes for The Demon when the title was first launched, back in June, 1972.  After just one issue — well before any reliable sales figures could have become available — the publisher increased the book’s frequency from bi-monthly to monthly with Demon #2, which was released in August.  That month happened to be the very same one that DC dropped the ax on artist/writer/editor Jack Kirby’s core “Fourth World” titles, Forever People and New Gods, each with their eleventh issues– two series in which the veteran creator had almost certainly invested more of his passion, imagination, and energy than he ever would The Demon, or, for that matter, any other comic he’d work on for DC in the 1970s.  Yet neither title had ever received the show of faith on DC publisher Carmine Infantino’s part that monthly status would have indicated, nor had (or would) the lone surviving Fourth World title, Mister Miracle — which continued coming out every two months (albeit gutted of virtually everything that had made it a Fourth World book in the first place), while both The Demon and its fellow “new” Kirby creation, Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, sprinted along at their monthly pace. Read More

Conan the Barbarian #10 (October, 1971)

One week ago, in our post about Amazing Spider-Man #101, we shared the two lead items from the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page that ran in that issue (as well as in other Marvel comics shipping in July, 1971), which explained how, due to editor Stan Lee taking a couple of weeks off his comics-scripting duties to work on a screenplay, other writers would be temporarily stepping in to handle his titles.

But Stan’s sabbatical wasn’t the only big news out of Marvel that month, as was indicated by the very next Bulletin:  Read More

World’s Finest Comics #162 (November, 1966)

People who’ve known me for a while are likely to know that as much as I love comic books, they’re not the only thing I geek out over.  Another of my abiding passions, going back more than forty years, is the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, in all its cultural manifestations — classic literature, modern prose fiction, art, films, music, and — of course — comics.  Over the last few decades I’ve been fortunate enough to have had several opportunities to combine my interests in Arthuriana and comics in ways I can share with others — beginning with an article in the late, lamented fanzine Amazing Heroes in 1984, continuing with contributions to academic (!) works such as The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, and more-or-less culminating in my web site, “Camelot in Four Colors:  A Survey of the Arthurian Legend in Comics” — est. 2000, and looking every day of its age (still, you should check it out, OK?).

I got the Arthurian bug in a big way around 1973 or thereabouts.  It was sparked by a number of factors, among the most significant being T. H. White’s novel The Once and Future King (as well as its stage and movie musical adaptation, Camelot), Mary Stewart’s Merlin novels, and C. S. Lewis’ contemporary science fantasy That Hideous Strength.  Those were all manifestations of the Arthurian legend that I encountered as an adolescent in the early Seventies — but, of course, like many if not most other English-speaking people of the modern world, I was first exposed to King Arthur and his mythos during the earlier period of my childhood.  And what was probably one of the first truly significant exposures came along in September, 1966, in the form of World’s Finest #162 — in which the ranks of the Round Table knights were joined by none other than my two favorite heroes, Superman and Batman.     Read More