Frank Giacoia

Captain Marvel #46 (September, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Over the past couple of months we’ve been looking at the concluding issues of writer Steve Englehart’s runs on several different Marvel comics titles — and that “farewell tour” continues today, with our coverage of the end of Englehart’s tenure on Captain Marvel.  This one’s a bit different from our earlier forays into the writer’s final Avengers and Doctor Strange stories, however, as the ostensible main topic of this post, Captain Marvel #46, doesn’t carry a formal credit for Englehart at all.  That said, this issue most definitely concludes the multi-part storyline he and his co-plotter, artist Al Milgrom, had been developing since issue #41, and I see no good reason to doubt the author’s claim (made on his website as well as in his 2011 introduction to Marvel Masterworks — Captain Marvel, Vol. 4) that he and Milgrom had worked out the plot for this final chapter before his abrupt departure from the book (as well as from Marvel Comics overall) — especially since, to the best of my knowledge, neither Milgrom nor Chris Claremont (CM #46’s scripter of record) have ever disputed that assertion.  Read More

Marvel Treasury Special Featuring Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles #1 (1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

If you weren’t around in 1976 (or were, but were too young then to remember much now), it might be hard to appreciate just how big a deal the United States Bicentennial was — not just in the key anniversary month of July, but also for a goodly number of months leading up to it.  But please, take an old geezer’s word for it; it really was everywhere in American popular culture for what seemed like quite a long while — and the nation’s comics publishers definitely did their share of celebratory flag-waving.  Read More

Invaders #8 (September, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

As longtime readers of this blog well know — actually, as anyone who just started reading it three posts back has likely already sussed out — your humble blogger was very partial to superhero team books back in the day.  In the particular period we’re currently dealing with (i.e., in and around 1976), either Marvel or DC Comics could drop a new team title (or revive an old one) and it was all but a sure thing that I’d sample at least one issue.  There were a couple of exceptions, both on the DC side (the new Freedom Fighters and the revived Teen Titans, for the record); but, generally speaking, you could throw a bunch of costumed characters together, slap a group name on them, and my younger self would feel compelled to take a look — even in cases where the team seemed to have no real reason to exist (yeah, I’m looking at you, Champions).  Read More

Thor #250 (August, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Welcome to the second installment in our series of four posts commemorating May, 1976 as “Marvel Milestone Month“.  Last time, we looked at Captain America’s “Special Bicentennial Issue”, aka Captain America #200; this go-round, it’s “The Spectacular 250th Issue!” of the four-color home of everyone’s favorite Norse God of Thunder.  (Technically, it’s only the 125th issue of this publication released under the title Thor; for its first 125 issues, the book was officially known as Journey into Mystery, and what’s more, the Son of Odin didn’t even show up until #83.  But I bet you already knew all that, didn’t you?)  Read More

Captain America #200 (August, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Welcome, all, to the first of four blog posts in which we’ll be commemorating May, 1976 as “Marvel Milestone Month” — a month in which, in a manner both unprecedented and (to the best of my knowledge), never repeated, four major Marvel Comics titles all celebrated a significant numerical milestone (“significant” being defined for our purposes as “a multiple of 50”) within a couple of weeks of each other.  Read More

Ghost Rider #19 (August, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

At the end of last Saturday’s Tomb of Dracula #47 post, I promised you that the next installment of this blog would feature “the strange, sad story of Ghost Rider #19.”  But, as anyone out there who already knows some version of this tale is well aware, its origins go back well before the May, 1976 publication of the comic whose Gil Kane-Frank Giacoia cover appears at the top of this post.  To begin with, this specific issue presents the conclusion of a multi-part storyline that had kicked off in Ghost Rider #17; but beyond that, the ongoing plot lines that find their (more or less) ultimate resolution in this arc extend back at least to Ghost Rider #8 (Oct., 1974)… and, arguably, all the way back to the feature’s debut in Marvel Spotlight #5 (Aug., 1972).  And seeing as how we haven’t discussed any issues of this series since July, 2023, when we hit the high points of Ghost Rider #1 and #2 in the context of covering the debut of spinoff character Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan, in Marvel Spotlight #12 (Oct., 1973), we’re going to have to do some catching up to properly set the stage.  So let’s get to it, shall we?  Read More

Avengers #149 (July, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

The issue of Marvel Comics’ Avengers that we’re discussing today is the first ever of the title to have had not only its interiors, but also its cover, pencilled by artist George Pérez (though we should note for the record that John Romita is alleged to have done some touch-ups on the piece, and that the inks were provided by Frank Giacoia).  That seems quite appropriate, given that Avengers #149 also brings to a close the storyline that kicked off with Pérez’s first outing on the title, in issue #141; besides that, it’s a really attractive piece of work (especially if you’re as big a fan of the Mighty Thor as is your humble blogger)… and, of course, the first of many fine George Pérez Avengers cover to follow.  Read More

Omega the Unknown #3 (July, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Back in December, we took a look at the first issue of Omega the Unknown — Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes’ 1975-77 Marvel Comics series that was just as much about a seemingly “normal” 12-year-old boy named James-Michael Starling as it was about the strange visitor from another planet that gave the book its title (if not more so).

This time out, we’ll be looking at the next two installments of the bimonthly title, beginning with issue #2 — which, as you can tell from the Rich Buckler-Al Milgrom cover shown at left, featured a special guest appearance by one of Marvel’s biggest stars, the Incredible Hulk — before proceeding to #3 — which, as you can tell from the Gil Kane-Frank Giacoia cover shown above, featured Omega’s run-in with one of Marvel’s longest-active supervillains, the Spider-Man adversary known as Electro.  Read More

Eternals #1 (July, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

By April, 1976, the return of artist/writer Jack Kirby to Marvel Comics could no longer be considered news.  His first new cover for the publisher (an Avengers illustration fronting Marvel Treasury Edition #7) had appeared the previous July, and his first new full comic book, Captain America #193, three months after that.  Still, we hadn’t seen any brand-new series concepts from Kirby yet — and, given that he had been the House of Ideas’ preeminent idea man for roughly the first decade of “the Marvel Age of Comics” (i.e., 1961-70), longtime Marvelites were eager to see what would next emerge from the protean imagination of “King” Kirby — as, of course, were virtually all the creator’s many fans, regardless of their preference for one comics publisher or another.  Read More

Avengers #148 (June, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Last month we took a look at Avengers #147, the cover of which we noted found its penciller, Rich Buckler, operating in “full Kirby mode”.  By contrast, the cover of today’s fifty-year-old comic happens to have been pencilled by Jack Kirby himself… and may I just say, ain’t nothin’ like the real King, baby.  (For the record, Mike Esposito inked this piece.)  Read More