Crusty Bunkers

Savage Sword of Conan #2 (October, 1974)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

In 1974, star comics artist Neal Adams had largely turned away from pencilling comic book stories.  But he did keep his hand in in the field in various ways, such as by turning out painted covers for Marvel Comics’ black-and-white magazine line on a fairly regular basis.  The second issue of Marvel’s new Savage Sword of Conan title is graced by one such; like most of the covers produced for the b&w line, by whichever artist, it doesn’t have a whole lot to do with the magazine’s specific contents.  But I’m sure I didn’t complain when I first picked this book up half a century ago, and I doubt many other readers did, either.

Turning past that cover to the issue’s double-page frontispiece/table of contents, we’re greeted by the first published professional work of a young artist who was as unknown in August, 1974 as Adams was famous:

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Doctor Strange #4 (October, 1974)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

As we previously noted in our post about Doctor Strange #2 back in May, in June, 1974, Marvel Comics provided fans of the Master of the Mystic Arts’ normally bimonthly series with the release of an extra issue.  But Doctor Strange #3 didn’t feature the third chapter of the continuing story begun by scripter/co-plotter Steve Englehart and penciller/co-plotter Frank Brunner back in the premiere issue of their hero’s newly revived solo title; rather, behind a new cover by Brunner (and also wrapped within a new 1 1/2-page framing sequence by Englehart, Brunner, and inker Alan Weiss), the comic offered an edited presentation of an old story that had originally run in Strange Tales #126 (Nov., 1964) and #127 (Dec., 1964).  That tale by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko was indisputably a stone classic, and as a latecomer who’d only arrived at the Doc Strange party in 1969, my younger self was happy to have it; still, even I was impatient to see the continuation of the Sorcerer Supreme’s current quest to escape the Orb of Agamotto, and rescue his beloved Clea from the sinister but self-righteous Silver Dagger, by the time Doctor Strange #4 finally showed up in the spinner rack.  Read More

Marvel Premiere #13 (January, 1974)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Back in August, we took a look at Marvel Premiere #12, featuring the initial chapter of a multi-part “Doctor Strange” adventure by the creative team of co-plotter/scripter Steve Englehart (joined for that single issue by co-scripter Mike Friedrich) and co-plotter/artist Frank Brunner.  Having begun their run on the feature half a year earlier by taking two issues to wrap up the extended “Shum-Gorath” storyline they’d inherited from their predecessors — and then following that up in Marvel Premiere #11 with a three-page framing sequence for a couple of classic Strange tales by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko — this was the first opportunity for Englehart and Brunner to show what kind of story they could come up with all on their own.

Our topic today is the second chapter of that same story, which begins right where the first installment left off, as the newly-anointed Sorcerer Supreme of Earth pursues his old foe (and former rival for his new role), Baron Mordo, through the time stream…  Read More

Marvel Premiere #12 (November, 1973)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

In the summer of 1973, Marvel Comics decided to bring out an extra issue or two of a couple of their titles that normally came out only every two months.  I’m sure the thinking was that by doing so, they could capitalize on the fact of their mostly youthful audience having more time (and maybe more money) to spend on comic books while out of school, and you can’t really blame them.  But while the increase in frequency made all the sense in the world for a book like Defenders — which was then in the middle of a multi-issue, back-and-forth crossover with the always-monthly Avengers — it made somewhat less sense for the “Doctor Strange” solo vehicle, Marvel Premiere… if only because the publisher evidently got the idea for the “extra” issue too late to prepare a new story for it.

That would seem to be the simplest explanation for how, in the month of July, we got Marvel Premiere #11 — which, beneath a new cover by Frank Brunner, reprinted a couple of eight-page classics by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko that had originally appeared way back in Strange Tales #115 (Dec., 1963) and #117 (Feb., 1964), with the only new interior content being a three-page framing sequence by Brunner and writer Steve Englehart.  Hey, d’you think maybe Marvel was just trying to pry every dime they could out of faithful fans like your humble blogger?  Read More

Marvel Premiere #10 (September, 1973)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Two months ago we covered Marvel Premiere #9, the inaugural issue of writer Steve Englehart and artist Frank Brunner’s celebrated run on Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts.  This time, we’ll be taking a look at that creative team’s second outing, one which may be considered almost as significant as the first, for at least three reasons.

The first is that this issue concluded the extended saga that had kicked off over a year earlier in Marvel Premiere #3, which had featured the first new full-length solo adventure of Dr. Strange since the cancellation of his title back in 1969.  The second is that after a couple of efforts from undeniably talented inkers whose styles nevertheless weren’t entirely harmonious with his own, Frank Brunner finally found the perfect embellisher(s) for his pencils on the series here, in the amorphous assortment of artists identified on MP #10’s opening splash page as “the Singing Sons of the Crusty Bunkers”:  Read More

Dracula Lives #3 (October, 1973)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Arriving on stands in June, 1973, the third issue of Marvel Comics’ new “Marvel Monster Group” of black-and-white titles got off to a strong start with a spectacular cover by Neal Adams.  Over a year prior, the star artist had begun backing away from a long stint as the most prolific cover artist for Marvel’s primary rival, DC Comics — a tour of duty extending back past the turn of the decade, and one which at its productive peak had seen him turning out ten or more covers a month.  Of course, Adams had kept his hand in the cover game (at Marvel as well as its chief competitor) even after curtailing his commitment to DC; but the painting that graced Dracula Lives #3 represented a new phase for the artist, one which would see him produce a number of covers in that medium for Marvel (though not in any sort of quantity approaching that of his earlier output at DC), primarily for black-and-white titles that weren’t even out yet as of this issue’s release (e.g., The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu) — titles which, when they did eventually make it to the magazine racks, would end the present horror-centric hegemony of the Marvel Monster Group.  Read More

Sword of Sorcery #1 (February, 1973)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Back in July of this year, we took a look at Wonder Woman #202 — an issue which, in addition to being the penultimate issue of that title’s four-year “Diana Prince” run (which had found the Amazing Amazon battling bad guys sans her traditional powers or costume), featured the comic-book debut of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, two heroes of sword-and-sorcery fiction who’d been appearing in the stories of Fritz Leiber since 1939.  In the comic’s story, Diana and Catwoman journeyed to the the world of Nehwon (spell it backwards), where they tussled briefly with the two blade-wielding adventurers before teaming up against their common foes.

Immediately following the story’s conclusion, a half-page ad promised us readers of 1972 that this was by no means the last we’d see of Fafhrd and the Mouser:  Read More